We continued our travels this morning, heading west toward the California border, just 20 miles away. As we crossed the Colorado River and passed from Arizona into California, we were greeted by the infamous California Agricultural Inspection Station.
All vehicles must pass through this inspection station, as the officers stand guard looking for foreign agriculture pests that could sneak into the state and decimate State’s key economic engine. It brought memories of when we moved from Delaware to California back in 1984. At that time, Mary Margaret and I and our three very young kids, passed through this same station driving our maxivan. At that time, they stopped us and did an inspection looking for the nefarious east coast pine bark beetle. They even ending up sending an inspector to our new home in Sacramento a week later to finish the inspection. They were very serious about preventing bad bugs sneaking into the state.
Today…not so much. Here we were with our big, long LeuC, pulling our little Fiat and our South Dakota license plate staring the inspector right in her face and she just smiled and waved us through! Go figure!
We spent the rest of the morning driving down the freeways approaching and then passing through San Bernardino, Riverside, Anaheim, Santa Anna, Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo and finally, San Juan Capistrano. For the last two hours the traffic was pretty impressive with drivers zipping in and out of their lanes at high speeds and then braking hard as parking lots of cars formed at key pinch points. It was a hoot driving LeuC through this mess and maze of freeways.
We arrived at the Ortega Flats Campground which is nestled in the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness that runs up and into the Santa Ana Mountains; with Saddleback Ridge and its twin mountains: Santiago Peak (the highest peak in the range and the highest point in the county at 5,689 feet) and Modjeska Peak (which is the second highest in this range of mountains at 5,496 feet).
The campground is lovely with lots of California Oak trees and Cottonwoods yielding lots of privacy.
Here Is A Photo Of LeuC Snuggled Amongst The Trees.
The sun was out and it was another beautiful day so we had our exterior shade canopy pulled out to keep LeuC cool.
Tomorrow, we will be spending the day with our good friend Robin and the rest of the week will be spent having appointments filled with our dentist for our annual checkups, financial advisor and CPA. Between these meetings, we will be seeing old friends that we miss so much! Whoo Hoo! A fun week ahead to look forward to!
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 
Welcome back to California!!
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