Friday 13th October - day 24.
San Diego - surfing at Tourmaline Beach. Sunset at Torrey Pines Beach.

Up at 6.30 to check out of our camp site, ready to surf at Tourmaline Beach (just round the corner from Chris’s flat) by 7.
We arrived at what seemed an early hour, to find the car park full and some kern surfers already packing up to leave.
The beach was sandy with loads of space and enough surf to please everyone. Chris had produced three surf boards and two wetsuits, so we were well equipped and Chris manfully surfed in just shorts and rash vest.
Despite his modesty about surf skills, Chris was up and surfing his first wave within minutes. We floundered about, paddled, splashed on and off boards having a great time without any particular style or success although both us did stand up briefly at some point! The rest of surfers were a cheerful and friendly bunch who didn’t seem to mind our wobbling and falling off at all as they cruised smoothly past!
At 8.30 it was time for breakfast, so we drove back to La Jolla Boulevard where we bought at a great little place - Seaside Cafe - near Chris’s flat. Delicious smoothies, fruit toast (peanut butter with sliced strawberry and banana) and avocado and tomato toast. Chris’s special smoothie - the ‘Simona’ made with extra almond butter was clearly Chris’s regular order as it was being prepared almost as we walked through the door!
We took it all back the RV at the beach and enjoyed with hot showers and coffee before Chris raced off to work.
After that I sneaked a short power nap in the sunshine whilst Bill ‘hung out’ with the other aging surf dudes!
At 10.30 we were back in for more surfing, this time in bright sunshine and enjoyed a couple of hours of battling out through the surf, paddling like mad to get launched onto a wave, and then facing the consequences of whatever cane next - occasionally a dignified cruise to the beach, but more often a roly-poly, washing machine experience of surf, board and seaweed with an awful lot of seawater up our noses and down our throats...
We kept at it without any obvious signs of progress except a lot of fun, until it was time to meet Chris for lunch.
We showered and had tea before driving north to Nancy Ridge Drive, where the WIIVV office and manufacturing centre is. It’s a high, desert-like area, with rattle snakes in the gardens outside.
It’s fascinating to look round the factory. We had not appreciated how each item is hand made to order - only the actual orthotic is 3D printed - all the rest is build around that, by hand.
Than it was lunch time.
We decide to stick with what San Diego is famous for, and head for the Ballast Point Brewery. This was quite amazing - a large square building on a nearby industrial estate has a jam-packed car park, huge front doors and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the brewery and two enormous copper vats.
We ordered a selection of beers including a sour beer, an IPA and an IBA flavoured with orange and vanilla. Thus enthused - we ordered a lunch of antipasto, fish tacos, bacon burger, and duck wraps.
After that, Chris headed off to a beach party on Pacific Beach. We flit round the whole foods supermarket before heading north to Torrey Pines State Park. This is a beautiful park with a sandy beach that is beautiful - ideal for a late afternoon swim and great place to just sit and watch the sea, the sun and the sunset.
There was just one problem, to enter the park costed $15,and it closed at sunset - just one hour.
Glumly we drove on. There were s few parking spaces just outside the park above the beach, but they were all full, with a queue of cars lined up waiting behind them. We drove to the next small town, turned and drove back, wondering what to do, when suddenly one of the parked cars pulled out of its space and drove away. The queue of waiting cars had moved further down the road and so we were able to drive in. nose-first and park, looking out over the beach, with lovely views of the white sand beach, sea, surf and sunset.
I immediately scrambled down the sandy bank and into the sea to drink in the views and enjoy more surf!
Meanwhile, Bill brewed some tea and sat in his deck chair to read and watch the sea. A perfect way to spend the rest of the afternoon! The sunset was glorious and much photographed before eventually sinking into the sea, necessitating warm jackets for those of us crazy enough to still be sitting outside.
Bill prepared chicken Caesar Salad which we ate indoors, listening to the surf.
At 11 we met Chris back at his flat and set off for Las Vegas. We had decided to drive part of the way tonight to break the journey, and to avoid some of the heavy traffic around LA.
We drove for about three hours, and decided to break our journey at Deep Creek, near Victorville. Chris had been to the hot springs there recently, and it founded a great place to stopover.
We set our sat nav for Bowen Ranch and bumped our way down 6 miles of gravel track to the ranch, where a sign indicated that it had closed at 10pm. We stood by the van in the desert on the dusty track to consider what we should do. The sky was very dark and dotted with millions of very bright white stars - no light pollution here!
After the tortuous route getting here, we had no intention of turning back and so we turned the RV around, drive a short way and pulled over to the side of the track, turned off the lights and went to sleep, planning an early start tomorrow.