Livin' at the Ritz

    Oh Southern California how I love your climate. Waking up to palm trees and blue skies is something I greatly appreciate. We've had rain once since being here, otherwise it's been a sunny 70ish degrees and very enjoyable. I hate to admit this next part but I feel I have too. I'm from Michigan and cold weather is normal. Today it got what I thought was cold out, so I put on a thick sweater and jacket. Soon after, I proceeded to put a winter cap on. I then looked at the thermometer and it was a bone chilling 60 degrees outside. I would have guessed it was in the high 40's or at least that's what it felt like. Seems I've turned into one of the youngest snow birds and am a wuss when it comes to "chilly weather". 
    We reluctantly left the Dream Center and headed south towards San Diego. It was set up for us to be working with a place called Olivewood Gardens and Education Center. As usual, I didn't too know much about the place prior to our arrival. We had given ourselves two days to go the four hours we needed to cover due to many distracting things and places along the way. One place the bus stopped was Venice Beach. It reminded me of the old show Bay Watch, except sadly there was no buff and tan David Hasselhoff running up and down the beach. The pretty lifeguards had been replaced by dirty homeless folks trying to make a buck. It was an overcast day so it wasn't incredibly busy. I wandered around alone for a bit just taking in the crazy beach lifestyle and people. I think on a hot summers day my view on Venice Beach would be a lot different. I found it to be dirty and once I saw it, I was ready to leave. We spent that night in Laguna Beach on the side of the road and Tuesday morning hit the road to for our new home in Chula Vista. The local KOA RV Campground donated us a site to stay at as long as we were volunteering at Olivewood. We pulled into the campground and were blown away by how nice it was. The three of us are used to Walmarts and roadsides so to have showers, laundry, pool, jacuzzi, and an outlet to plug into is very exciting. I associate where we are parked to staying at the Ritz for us. Most everyone here is friendly and the pace of life is nice and slow, just the way I like it.
    Ally picks us up for work everyday and brings us to the gardens. Martha is the gardener of 20 years and does not put up with our shenanigans. She sees right through our smiles and witty remarks and puts us to work; utilizing our strong backs and semi-young age. The first day of work, our task was to dig three trenches 2ftx2ftx15ft and make a triangle. The soil was hard a very compact. I suppose the thought of physical labor made me sick and during the digging process, I threw up twice. All the digging and hard work aside, Olivewood Gardens is an incredible organization. There are two separate gardens, a lower and upper. The lower garden is producing more for resale and donating while the upper is for education purposes. School groups come through and learn all about gardening and what you can do with the veggies once harvested. When you live in a highly populated area, gardening can be forgot about because the ease of the supermarket is right next door. It's begin to forget where the food your eating actually comes from and that's where Olivewood comes in. Even in my time there, I've learned a great deal about composting and growing veggies. We planned on pulling out and heading east from here but because we love what we're doing, we are going to stay till Wednesday, we think. It's just the Lost Bus style to never give a concrete answer to anything. When we do actually make a decision to leave we will be trucking towards Tucson, Arizona.