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In the midst of my unemployment, I was feeling the need for a vacation.  I know, I’ve been on “vacation” for the last seven months but I needed to get away, get out of town and take my mind of off the stress of finding a job and keeping my jewelry business going.  As usual my dive club, Dolphin Divers of Sacramento was planning a camping trip to the coast.  So I packed up the RV and headed to the beautiful north coast of California to Albion River Campground. 

I have only been to this campground one time before, a few years ago for Thanksgiving.  To read more about this campground, visit my review of it HERE. 

Typically, I like to leave for three day weekend camping trips on Thursday giving me a nice long weekend, but this time I didn’t have anyone going with me and no one else from the group was arriving until Friday so rather than spend an extra $30 a night, I waited until Friday.  Usually the extra $30 isn’t a big deal to have the day/night to myself to explore and relax but being without employment, I needed to conserve where I could. 

So, I woke up Friday morning, loaded up the dog and as I was getting ready to leave, thought I should do some basic checks around the RV for safety.  It’s been in the garage since February so it needed to tbe done.  I saw one tire was low and when checking the oil and transmission fluids, they both looked low.  So I called me friendly neighborhood service station and asked them if I could swing by and have them check things out.  They said absolutely and off we went.  I pulled right in and they went to work.  Checked my fluids which were all A-OK and filled my tires with air.  They wished me well and I was on my way.  They take good care of me over at AutoLab.  THANKS GUYS! 

It took approximately 5 hrs to get to Albion.  I thought for sure I had gone the wrong direction since I didn’t recall much of any of the surroundings as I drove on Hwy 128 from Hwy 101 towards Hwy 1.  Plus it was super windy for 56 miles!  I thought Albion was closer than Ft. Bragg, but apparently it’s not.  Just a different direction.  Albion 2008 was the first camping trip I took alone after Tate and I separated.  It was the first time I had taken the RV and while I didn’t specifically remember the 56 miles of windy roads, I DID remember the 14 degree downgrade and 180 degree switchback turn on the road from the highway down to the campground.  I was a little nervous about it still 3 yrs later but alas, it was a breeze.  “Just take it slow and wide” is what I kept saying to myself. 

Once camp was set up, WiFi was established and loved ones were notified that I had arrived safe, and dinner was made, I rushed out to the beach to see the sunset.  It was so beautiful I took a bunch of photos. The rest of the evening was spent around the campfire waiting for the rest of the group to arrive in the dark.

Saturday morning I woke to find everyone had arrived and just as I was getting ready to go for my morning run, it started to rain.  I hoped it was just temproary but when it didnt let up after a few hours, I gave up and showered.  Then of course it stopped raining.  But that left more time for socializing and eating!!  We ate appetizers later in the afternoon which left little room for dinner. 

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early and Corinne and I headed out for a run.  We ran up the road to Schooner’s Cove which is just up the Albion River from our campground.  It was so beautiful up there.  It was tucked up away from the wind with the river just beside the campground.  After a nice 30 minute run, we cleaned up and had breakfast.  The sun was out and were were all in shorts and short sleeves.  Holger and I took a ride in his little boat up the river to take pictures.  We saw seals basking in the sun, birds, and a couple of mama ducks and her polka dotted babies.  They were SOO CUTE!!!  But mostly, the trip was for viewing the beuatiful river and the surrounding trees.  While we were good company for each other, Holger & I both decided that this kind of trip was better shared with our significant others in the future.  Once we got back the wind had picked up and everyone huddled behind the big rigs to get out of the wind.  We then prepared for our potluck dinner but first, we were thankful to those who did some ab diving in the rain on Saturday because we shared in fried abalone and ab fritters as an appetizer and then ab chowder for dinner.  MMMM MMMMM!!!  After we had stuffed ourselves beyond belief, we hung out around the campfire.  Here are the rest of my Memorial Day photos:

The weekend following Memorial Day was another race weekend.  I had signed up for another 5k sponsored by Kaiser.  It was the Women’s Fitness Festival and the race was only for women.  After the Komen race back in May, I needed some additional motivation to keep running so I started to look for another 5k race.   I found this one and asked around to see if anyone else was doing it.  I found that Kim and a few of her friends (which I had the pleasure of meeting on several previous occasions) were planning to do it so I hooked up with them for extra support the morning of the race.   It was raining when I woke up and raining when we arrived at the State Capitol but fortunately, it didn’t last long.  We all started off together and as expected, I fell behind.  My pace is much slower still than most other people.  But that’s ok.  Roxie and I ran toghether through the streets of downtown and midtown Sacramento.  At one point, I wished it was still raining as I had already shed my jacket and I was still hot!  Other than that, I felt pretty good.  I had music in my ear, and occasionally I heard applause from the Nike+ App I had running on my iPhone and Facebook.  This app posts on my Facebook that I am running and when people comment or Like the post, I hear applause and cheering in my ear.  This is really encouraging along the way.  Once again, as I rounded the corner to see the finish line and could hear the announcer encouraging us to pick up the pace and sprint to the finish line.  FINISH STRONG is what was going through my mind so whatever fatigue I was feeling at that moment disappeared and I had a burst of energy to get me through the finish line.  My final time (according to the Nike+ app) was 48:30, almost 4 minutes faster than the Komen race.  I’m not sure how I did it because I wasn’t really trying to go faster.  It was just the natural progression of my pace.   YAY ME!!

This week, I was planning to begin a training program to prepare me for a 10k race (6.2 miles) and did the first two workouts.  Now that summer has finally appeared, I’ve decided that a 60-70, minute run is too much for me and Roxie when its more than 70 degrees outside.  Plus all the upcoming races are in the middle of summer and even an 8:00 am race can be 70+ degrees if not 80.  So I’ll wait until September to start actively training.  However, I will continue to run 3 days a week for at least 30 -40 minutes.  It’s good for me and good for Roxie. 

Well,  that’s all for now.  Have a great summer everyone!