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June 23, 2014

Mission San Juan Capistrano

OK, what can you say about Mission San Juan Capistrano?

Well, it's being restored beautifully and the entrance made me think more of a hotel than a historical sight.  Well my guide book did say they were "public ready" so I guess I should have expected it.

I didn't get to take the tour, just to tired to do all the walking and I needed to start working on the next leg of my trip, four to five days walking across Orange County to get to San Gabriel.

Now my OC friends will not exactly love this, but I have never really been a fan of the OC.  I find it over-planned and over-developed and large chucks of it could be picked up and dropped into another area and no one would even notice.

So it looks like I'm going to be going through Mission Viejo, Irvine, Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, Brea, Whittier, Monterey Park and into San Gabriel.  Can we say FUN FUN FUN?!?

One route suggestion had me walking PCH to Huntington Beach and then walking Beach Blvd all the way up.  OK, I was saying about boring?  I've nearly fallen asleep driving on Beach Blvd so a few days walking it just does not ring my bell.  Ha ha ha, Robert makes an El Camino Real joke.

This is the beginning of the leg that I am most not wanting to do.  I go WAY inland and not a lot of non-city to deal with, so I see a lot of strip malls, residences and the usual urban sprawl for at least a couple of weeks, approximately 143 miles, a bit over double what I have done so far (not counting the bus across Camp Pendleton).

I am hoping my feet get their act together and let me increase my mileage, I have been averaging about 12 mile a day and I would like to get that up to 20-25. When your feet say, "ENOUGH" you either stop or seriously pay for it later.

I was reading something online that may help, had to do with taking the boots off and letting my feet breath and dry more often, I have been avoiding that since it takes me SO long to get them back on and the best times for me to do such things, Starbucks breaks, etc, they really frown on my running around barefoot.  Oh well...

Had a potential problem, when I stopped in Oceanside for a day off at the RV Park, when I took the tent down on Sunday, one of my poles had a bubble right smack dab in the middle of the segment.  Of course it then broke when I set the tent up last night, fortunately there was a Big 5 on the way. Unfortunately, the direct route has a "No Pedestrians" section so I had to work a detour, no to bad.

So, I get to the Big 5 Sporting Goods - Capistrano Beach and I ask the helpful associate if we can solve my tent issue.  Since I bought it at the Culver City store and I don't have the receipt he cannot replace the tent.  I don't want to replace the tent, but maybe one of the pole sets.

The best he can think of is to sell me a replacement pole segment which looks to long and we are not sure it will fit.  He grabs a box of my tent from the shelf, strangely open on both ends, and takes it and the spare to the Store Manager, Nick. Nick is not sure if the replacements will work, but when we tell him what happened with the original set, he tips the box and out slides the poles from this open tent, he hands them to me and says have a safe trip!  Nick is my new Customer Service God!

So, I'm waiting for my emergency battery to finish charging, but I'm kind of wanting to get out of here.  I want to get a couple of miles in and I am burning daylight.  It should be nearly complete and I can always finish at the next Starbucks I run across and it charges my phone at least four or five cycles before draining itself (thanks Mr. G!).

Anyhow, enough rambling, I need to finish this up and post it so I can be ready to get out of here when they close in a half-hour.  Later!

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