#390 Lake Jennings, Lakeside California

We found Lake Jennings online in mid-December back when we were still in Sedona. We made reservations from February 10th till the end of March. This was the plan before the day I found the RV site in Fallbrook and switched gears. When I was looking at the Lake Jennings Park map online, I was pleased with how spread out the sites were and it seemed as if it would be very woodsy between each one. I looked on maps satellite mode so I could decide which site would be the best choice. It all worked out fine. When we got there you still do see other people's RVs but researching it the way we did at least got the best possible scenario.

We left Fallbrook and about January 8th or 10th. Ginger was nice enough to let us stay for a good week or more and then to fill the gap we were at Lake Skinner for two weeks. Now as we level up the RV we settled into Lake Jennings on February 10th. Looking back I'm very proud of one thing that I had done. When we got the good news about Fallbrook and how we're I found heaven on earth. Remember we thought we were going to be sitting on 10 acres all by ourselves out in a vineyard. A part of me said, you know I should just cancel that reservation in San Diego. I decided to keep it as the backup plan because you never. What a smart guy I was that day because it was our saving grace. We knew nothing about the area but upon entering we began to realize that Lake Jennings was a good bit away from San Diego, maybe 30 to 40 minutes east. That's good in many ways because it was away from some of the typical big city traffic. It was nestled in a small town called Lakeside which was just below the campground.

Lake Jennings was on top of a very big hill and then down below several hundred feet would be the main road that would take you into Lakeside. The town had 20,000 people and there were quite a few little towns like El Cajon nearby. Alpine which was a little more Indian reservation area than anything else, their words but there are lots of big sprawling ranches up that way. One thing that I found out right quick is that San Diego is not always 75 degrees year-round. I was talking to a host that said that may be true on the oceanfront but even half an hour away here at the lake you’ll see 110 degrees in July. I was pretty shocked to hear this but the winters are mild I'd say 45 or 50 degrees would be the lowest you'd see. It also would warm up nicely every day. On our day we looked for a restaurant in the small town below and most everything was still shut down for covid. There was a family-owned pizza place that was pretty cool and we went by there. They had sliding glass doors open and there were some of those big propane heater things outdoors and we had wanted to sit out there but honestly, it was a little bit too chilly for that. We sat inside which was not a little better because they had the doors open for maximum ventilation so it's kind of the 45-degree air was wafting through there. They had the heat on but it was chilly with the front door wide open. God love em they were just trying to comply and be open.

We ordered a pizza and had a nice time there and it was just nice to be sitting down at a meal in a restaurant because covid had not released its grip just yet. We ended up making this place kind of a regular for us. I remember one time we went in there two times later they were having one heck of a busy night. We ordered our pizza and sat there and sat there and I swear I thought we were going to starve to death. I'm not sure how long but I believe it was a 40-minute wait for a pizza to cook. By now we were a little frustrated and we just said hey you know why don’t you just make that to go. We've been here for like 45 minutes and we're not that happy anymore so we wanted to just go home with our pizza. They said okay but felt bad and gave us a piece of apple pie as an apology.

One Day we rode up to Carlsbad to see the flower fields

We kept up our workout routine of walking and we kind of picked up a regular hike that does a lap around the campground. It was such a sprawling lap that it gave us our two miles. Some sections were a little strange because the path would get narrow maybe two feet wide and then a fairly significant cliff.

There were little bramble bushes there that would keep people from falling down the cliff but it was pretty creepy.

There was another hike which was a little further over that kind of spooked us. We saw a sign that said mountain lions are in this area keep your children close. Reading that made us feel a little weird.

On another day we hiked a trail that followed what was called the flume and it was really interesting. There was a flume that moved water 37 miles from a reservoir way up the way named Lake Cuyamaca. It was a wooden trough that measured 4 feet wide x 2 feet tall and transported water to San Diego. I will insert a Wikipedia blip here.

http://lakesidehistory.org/flume/

The hike we did was climbing up a rather steep hill with switchbacks where the flume used to be. In the years to come, they would enclose use water pipes to get away from the open trough method. Even though it was for water transportation when it first opened people would ride in what looked like a log ride so that was pretty cool.

Our hikes educated us about the area. One day we went up a steep mountain road to do a nice little county park hike. It was perfectly interesting but hard. A lot of times I get into these things with India and we both wonder what have you done. This was a loop that was harder than it looked but if you figure that out at the halfway point there ain't much you can do about it except finish up.

We got to a fork where it looked a little better in distance was but the terrain was much tougher. We stayed with the longer route but it was easier on the body. We finally got back and sure enough, it was already dusk which means we did okay but the ranger was standing there at the gate. She had a look like hey man you know would y'all please leave so I could go home. We felt bad about keeping them over time. I think that our hikes have a wonderful way of showing us everything that you would want to know about the area.

Our regular hike started just below our campsite. We would do the lap around the lake and about a third of the way and take a hard left and we would go straight up a steep hill which is over near the flume. There were all kinds of adventures I took India on. Over by the flume, I saw a really nice house up on the hill and it seemed to be solar-powered.

We really enjoyed our time at Lake Jennings. There was a yucca plant in full bloom at the rear of our RV during our stay.

It had sent out its bloom and it was so strange that it had become so heavy it curled over and was almost laying on the ground. We saw bees and even a hummingbird coming up to get the nectar.

I wish there were no negative experiences but unfortunately, there were. I had heard coyotes here and there and that's always uncomfortable because if Bert’s not on his toes he could be on the menu. If he had any brains at all he would stay right by the RV but he likes going across the road and down the canyon to where they would be easy pickings for the wild things. I've told him how many times how stupid that is but cats don’t listen. I would hear them out there doing their coyote calls and howling at the moon and all that stuff and one night we were walking and I just saw one way out there on the edge of the property just kind of yelping and hollering. It was probably just saying if anybody wants to challenge me I'll be right over here but I eat cats too so if you can tell your cat to come over this way that would be great. I heard them many times and I would just hope that Bert was okay. One day just at sunrise Bert came flying in his cat door at 90 miles an hour and he flew down into the dungeon. We wouldn't see him again till noon. As he came bolting in I opened the door to the RV and looked and right there at the corner of the steps was a coyote ready and dying to eat Bert so he probably came within five feet of being eaten. We decided that since he is an idiot we would make him stay in all night after that. He kind of hunkered down for a while and didn't want to go out for a few days anyway. When he got brave again we said well you can go out a little bit during the day of course but since you're just dying to get killed we're not going to let you go out overnight for a while. The coyotes were the scary part of Lake Jennings, not for us but Bert.

We went into town quite a bit and we found multiple hikes that one was near a really beautiful pond down in Lakeside and we enjoyed that quite a bit.

We were watching TV one morning and they said if anyone was qualified they are doing vaccinations at Balboa Park. I didn't know where it was or what it was but I said let's check it out. I later realized Balboa Park is the San Diego Zoo area. I looked online to register for such things and India was 65 so she qualified. I didn't qualify as I'm 59 but I wanted to get the shot and I wondered if I could make some kind of argument that with my asthma and I kind of look out for India could they just let me get one too. The only way to trick the computer program was to say I was 65, so yes that was a lie. We both made appointments for that day around noon. We showed up and everything was fine with India and I got there and just told them the truth and I said I'm not 65. I've got a heck of a thing with asthma and I wondered if that medical condition might help. He said well I can ask my captain, he was a fire department guy, he said pretty much I can't make any exceptions. Here's what I would suggest. At 3 pm were preparing to close. If we have any open vials we've really either have to use them or throw them away. If you'll just show up around three and get in line you'll find that you can probably get a shot today. I thought that was wonderful advice so we did lunch and did this in that and I came back we got in line. India was nice enough to stay in line with me and when she got her shot I kind of hung with her and made sure everything was fine. I had my walking sticks with me because I wanted to look as pitiful as possible and cough as much as possible. When we got we waited there in the hot sun for about 45 minutes until 3:45 and it was no fun. I decided just to go to the front of the line because nobody was in line when I got there. People were gathering but they were behind a rope, but I just didn't care. I just formed a line as if I had an appointment. The witching hour came and the fire captain came out and said okay everybody here will probably get a vaccination but it has to be just first come first serve. We have to kind of triage you all so is there anybody here who has a medical condition. I said that's me. They said first is there anybody out there that’s a school teacher and we had probably 30 or 40 people that went ahead. There were about 200 of us in the hopeful line. When the teachers passed by we all clapped hands and cheered them on. A bunch of people kept coming over as they must have received a text or something. I think they were coming from medical offices as they had priority. Next, we were in the front of the line and they said okay everybody else come on in and we got Randall's shot. Probably 150 people behind me got a shot but it was a good day for everyone. India and I got our first shot and I shared it with family and friends by text. There was some negativity from one of the folks because it appeared I had pushed old ladies out of the line and threw her walker away so I could get a vaccine. Can’t have everything. Two weeks later we went back and got the second shot and we were thrilled. Next thing you know it was getting a little bit closer to mid-March whenever they don't do snowbirds anymore at the lake. You can reserve a site for 14 days after that but then you got to leave. We stayed till the end of March and that would end our stay at Lake Jennings.

We liked it quite a bit except for the coyotes and we went ahead and reserved for three months starting December 15th to March 15th for 2022. I don't think there's too much else to say except we really enjoyed being there and it was nice to experience San Diego. One thing I might mention right before we made the reservation we went on a tour of any potential RV parks specifically county parks in the area. We toured about 4 parks and some of them had many nice attributes. One of them was up a windy mountain road and so far from everything that it just seemed like you could go into the small town nearby and maybe find some hardware or a restaurant or a couple of groceries but anything more like a Home Depot would be about almost an hour away. For that reason we kind of thought maybe not that place. Another place had sites that were just so small they were more for 30 footers. After some pretty significant touring it just seemed like nothing could beat Lake Jennings. With that, it was time to head out and we had decided that it might be neat to go east for a bit then go up the Colorado River. Just kind of follow it along and learn all about it. One of the guys that Sedona said they enjoyed being at Bullhead City. I thought let's do that so we did and that would be next on our explorations. That would be all for Lakeside and we headed east.

www.lakejennings.org

10108 Bass Road, Lakeside, CA 92040

Reservations: Phone: (619) 390-1623