After our first night in the RV we woke up to a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the weather was hot and we were in the perfect location. A stones throw away from Bolsa Chica Beach, California. We had our breakfast and decided that as it was so close to the start point for the run we would stay another night and spend the day relaxing on the beach catching some rays and chilling out.

It was a good idea to have a stress free day so that Jackson could prepare himself mentally for the journey he was about to embark on, well it was a good idea until we found out that there was no room left at the campground and we would have to find somewhere else to stay. We were told of a few other RV parks around so we decided to go for a cruise and see if we could find something close by.

Before we left though we all went to the beach for a swim as we didn’t know wether we would get another chance for 4 months. By all of us I mean everyone but Natasha who refused to enter the water on the grounds that she would be eaten by a shark or some other nasty creature of the deep. We left her to sunbathe while the rest of us enjoyed a nice cool plunge in the Pacific Ocean. We got out, dried off, packed up and headed off on a mission to find some accommodation for the evening. The first place we tried only had one site left and it was a hefty $90 for the night which doesn’t sound that bad for 5 people but considering we only payed $35 the previous night we were convinced we could get it cheaper elsewhere.

We drove further south to another prospective campground in Newport. We arrived in the extravagant town that is Newport passing exotic car dealerships and yacht companies and hopes began to fade about finding somewhere cheap for the night even more so when we saw the aforementioned campground, it looked more like a 5 star holiday resort! We pulled up outside reception and Jackson went in to see what the score was. We assumed that Jackson would come back saying that it was ridiculously expensive and that we should probably head back to the last campground and snap up the last site before anyone else does. To our surprise though he came back out with a grin on his face, somehow he had managed to talk them around from $100 a night to $90 for 2 nights, brilliant! We found our spot, parked up the bus and set about doing nothing at all for the rest of the day. The campground was brilliant with a pool and spa, shops and rec rooms, laundry and shower facilities and friendly guests.

That night we had our first cooked meal on the bus which was terribly exciting and then got an early night for the next day, the big day, day 1 of Jackson’s run across America.