Our trip to Cali is proving to be a successful one so far!  Knowing our time living in Oceanside was coming to an end, we spent a fun night out with the sea lions and visiting a couple of breweries in town.

After three weeks of camping in Guajome County Park, we took our last walk around the lake, visited with the waterfowl, packed up, and left for a new adventure.

We have been waiting to hear back about our potential host position and have jumped through quite a few hoops in order to make it work (background checks, TB testing, etc.)  Today, we drove up to the city of Ramona with the idea that we could camp at Dos Picos County Park until we heard back about the job.

We parked the Jeep and RV and set off on a short hike with the dogs.  The park office was closed so we brought our checkbook with, intending to pay for our site after our hike.

A half an hour into our hike we got the phone call.  We were getting the host position in the city of Ramona!  AND we could move in TONIGHT!  After signing some paperwork, we set off to set up our new home.

I was able to snap a few pictures before it got too dark and will definitely post some more once we get settled in and set up our lives.  We are now volunteers for the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation; we even have cute uniforms!

In exchange for maintaining the park, we get to stay for free (water, sewer, and electric included!).  Plus, we have a cute little fenced in area where the dogs can run off-leash.  Not to mention that I’ll be planting a small garden here (perks of a year-round growing season).

To celebrate, we went out for some wonderful Mexican food at La Cocina and drinks at the Turkey Inn.  I seriously have not found cheaper food or drinks since we left River Falls, WI.  The city of Ramona is adorable and reminds me of River Falls with its small town feel and nearby horse ranches (but with the huge perk of a variety of wineries nearby—can’t wait to check those out).  We met a few of the locals and the regular bartender, quickly on our way to getting in with our new community.  I will hopefully be volunteering at the wildlife sanctuary and wolf center, both in the area (expanding my wildlife work and knowledge!).

We are very optimistic and excited about this next chapter in our journey.  Being able to have the free time to experience life and get involved in things that inspire us is an amazing opportunity and we are incredibly thankful that things seem to be working out in our favor.