#387 Arrived in Fallbrook, My Landlord is Qanon crazy, loves the insurrection, I guess we gotta go

Our three months at Red Rocks seem to have passed slowly in many ways because we really enjoyed being there but before you know it it was kind of over and we weren't sure what was next. Somebody had said many times that San Diego seems to have the perfect climate year-round. Later I found it not true beyond the super nice area of the ocean. Inland even half an hour it gets to be 100 to 110° in the summer. I began to think if there were an opportunity maybe we would just go to San Diego for a season. I looked and looked and never could quite find anything. Out of the blue somebody, I saw an ad on Craigslist in a place called Fallbrook. It looked great in every way and so we talked about it and looked perfect at the time so we put down a deposit and began to think about how fast can we get there.

I looked on the satellite imagery and it appeared that it was a very large land area and I had convinced myself that the owner would be at the large big house up on the hill and we would be down there hundreds of feet away on the other side of some trees with nothing but grapes and vineyards to be our companions. When we arrived we realized that we would be 30 ft from his entry door and that he was completely crazy so that's of course that’s the story that follows. Once we had the reservation we started thinking about how quickly we can get there. The rent would start January 1st and we were released on January 1st from Red Rocks so we figured the sooner we could get there the less of our rent would be wasted.

We contacted our new landlord and told him we were getting within 15-20 minutes away and he said he would be there so we went ahead and headed up towards his home. The right turn off the main road was fairly sharp and I didn't know what to expect so we took it easy. It was reasonable to get to where we were going at the top of the hill and he was there and we all introduce ourselves. I pulled into a staging area where we could talk about such things as he pointed up to where the site was. We walked up to the top of the hill he showed us where the RV would be parked. At this point, I thought we were to be parked beside the winery office and I assumed he lived in a nice house up on the gated Hill above. Regardless we would all learn way too much soon enough.

We took a look at everything and we were to back up the hill so I positioned us and started backing the RV up a steep hill. The rear of the RV wanted to dig into the soil so all we really could do is find ways to use lumber to get the wheels up higher off the ground. We can get past this rather weird angle but nothing happens quickly. It took probably 15 or 20 minutes to get this underway and he had a guy that was helping who was his man Friday. We finally got the rig to where it was in pretty good shape and we backed up the hill. Just before I started my accent I looked at the temperature of the transmission and it was about 180 degrees and normal is 140. I lost a transmission twice on the other blue truck so I was going to just sit there until it cools back off and that's what we did. When cool I backed up and got settled in. I connected the water and electricity and we took it easy for a while.

He bought us some lunch and we thought we were liking the RV heaven because it was really quite pretty. He said later on that evening he asked us to come over for a minute and sign a lease so we did and went ahead and paid the first month which was I think 700 plus electricity which is 850. We’d already given him a $700 deposit so it was all settled. When we left the RV to go over we realized that this wasn’t the winery office but his personal residence was 20 feet away. It seemed a little awkward to be so close to him. We tried to tune it out because they're quiet but it's still not what I had hoped for when I signed up. Another weird thing was we heard coyotes at night just feet from the rig and we knew that they would eat Bert so that made us a little nervous.

A horrible thing happened on January 6th. I was watching TV and found out that the Trump supporters had stormed the capital and we're trying to overthrow the government and wanted to hang Mike Pence and time to change the outcome of the election. They were trying to prevent congress from recording what the voters had come up with. I had not known one way or another anything about this guy but he said he was a home builder and he had lots of crosses lit up at night and all kinds of Jesus symbols everywhere. When I first drove into his property I saw a few trump signs and banners so I figured those were his tenants. One day we were talking and he had just said something about all those liberals and all and all that. I said something about that, we're pretty liberal. Something came up about covid and he said you're not going to take that vaccine and be in line like a little robot marching to whatever the government says to do? I said yeah so I could tell immediately that we were on opposite ends of the world politically. After seeing what happened on January 6th I saw him drive home from work and I said hey have you heard the news today. He said what do you mean. I said the trump people have overrun the government by storming the capital and it's just terrible. He said well as far as I'm concerned I wish they would kill them all. I looked at him like really dude and he was in favor of the insurrection and he had hoped that maybe the trump people could kill all of congress.

So that was a bad day. I had started re-thinking the whole thing and whenever I said something to my relatives my sister said I don't know if I could rent from a guy like that and I began to wonder if I needed to walk. I figured it would become a big stink and I wasn't so sure I'd even get my money back. A different sister said saving money isn’t worth risking your life living in a crazy person's yard. Within a day we started realizing were going to have to leave so we started looking desperately for a place to go. We found a place on Boondockers welcome. I asked the host if I could come by and get a feel for the site and she said that would be fine. We rode by and it was amazing. Boondockers welcome is typically 1 to 3 night stays. I told her I might need it for 12 days and she said that would be fine. I told her I would be happy to offer something financial or barter some labor and she said we’ll figure it all out but don’t worry. I was planning to just drive away the next day while my landlord was at work. We were close to leaving and I saw the guy out in the yard. I decided just to talk to him. He started saying you know they're going to try to take over and it's going to be a civil war all right. You better get your money out of the bank and you better store up some food and water because it's going to be horrible. In fact, I think there's some helicopters coming now. They're going to start shooting planes out of the sky. Aircraft will be falling like flies on the capitol steps. I really begin to feel kind of scared of this guy and I was gonna sneak off but he was standing right there.

If I told him that I'm going to have to leave because you're insane I wasn't sure how that would go. I played to his strangeness and I told him that since the world is most likely about the end I feel like I should get back to North Carolina to be with my children. He said well I understand, no problem. I said well I was kind of hoping I could get my some of my money back. He said well, you know I believe that you did something to my electrical panel and it's going to cost me a fortune to get it fixed. I said well all I can tell you is you say you're a Christian you do what you think's right but I’m not desperate for the money. I just think that you should do what you think's right. I was so pissed I just wanted to just bite his head off and spit it out. I kept on gathering up and getting ready and he walks out and hands me a check for 700. Of course sadly after being here for three whole days I lost 850 in rent but getting the deposit was better than nothing. He said you better cash this quick because banking across the country will end in a day or so. I said I will and ado.

Now I look back with just a sick feeling about the whole thing. Now we've decided the next time we rent from someone long-term we're gonna ask some sort of fishing questions. Something like how about that Trump insurrection and if they're pro insurrection we're not gonna rent from them.

It would be unfair not to say anything nice about Fallbrook. I hope everybody else is not like this guy.

One afternoon we went on a hike called Monserrate Mountain Trail Loop.

We usually try to filter for easy but this one was moderate. It looked reasonable but had a steep incline using switchbacks to a summit. The path was rocky the whole way so not so easy on the feet. I was also a little warm. As we were about to a leveling-off area near a summit some younger lady looked at us with pity I guess. She said you guys are doing so good, keep it up. It seemed like she was saying for really old people I’m glad you’re still able to be active. We just thanked her but it felt pretty weird how people perceive us. By the time we descended to the truck we were pretty worn out but it’s a good kind of tired.

We also found the most wonderful Mexican food that had no atmosphere but was so good. It was called Pedro's Tacos and was to go only walk up or drive through. The food was so amazing ad we ate there several times.

Now we say bye and good riddance to Fallbrook.

Marcel Falcon

1305 Calle Tecolotlan

Fallbrook Ca. 92028

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