Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

California

Holidays, COVID and Life on the Road

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Last Updated: July 31, 2026

Holidays for us have always been about visiting and celebrating with family and friends. Life on the road made that complicated — most of our immediate family live in cold winter climates that aren’t practical for a motorhome visit — and during COVID, seeing anyone wasn’t a good idea regardless. We have a property in San Diego that had been rented for years and was in serious need of some TLC, so we settled into social isolation there through December 2020, working through a long list of repairs and medical appointments while trying to make something warm and festive out of a very strange holiday season.

Sandy Huntley placing the angel topper on the Christmas tree while Jake the dog watches, San Diego, California
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Repairs to the Motorhome, House, & Ourselves

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Last Updated: July 17, 2026

Repairs have a way of accumulating when you live on the road. Emergencies get dealt with immediately — a blown tire, a generator failure, a slideout that won’t retract — but everything else gets quietly added to a list that only grows longer with each mile. By the time we returned to our San Diego home base in summer 2020, that list had become formidable: house plumbing, flooring, landscaping, an aging fountain, RV repairs still waiting from our time in Nappanee and Tucson, and a growing stack of overdue medical appointments for both of us. Three months of work, doctor visits, and Home Depot runs later, we were finally caught up. Mostly.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve beach viewed from the sandstone cliffs above as the marine layer clears, San Diego, California
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Life on the Road in Transition from Full to Part Time

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Last Updated: July 17, 2026

Life on the road has been one of the most remarkable chapters of our lives. Over the past four years, we traveled across much of the United States and parts of Canada in our Newmar Dutch Star motorhome, immersing ourselves in each region in a way that no hotel stay or vacation schedule could replicate. We explored remote national parks, tiny historic towns, sweeping coastlines, and everything in between — unhurried, on our own terms, with Jake riding shotgun for every mile. Now, in the summer of 2020, we find ourselves at a turning point: transitioning from full-time life on the road to spending a few months each year back in San Diego, while keeping the adventures very much alive.

Newmar Dutch Star motorhome parked at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve RV campground, Santee, San Diego County, California
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Escondido, California, North County San Diego

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Last Updated: July 17, 2026

Escondido is about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego and one of San Diego County’s oldest cities. Located roughly 15 miles inland from the Pacific coast, it enjoys a warmer, sunnier climate than coastal neighborhoods — far less of the May-gray and June-gloom marine layer that blankets the shoreline for much of late spring and early summer. Its rugged hillsides and Mediterranean climate support thriving avocado and citrus groves, and the area has long been a haven for those seeking more space and sunshine than the coast allows. During our RV travels in the summer of 2020, we spent time here getting repairs done on our Newmar motorhome and reconnecting with family — and in the process, rediscovered just how much this inland gem has to offer.

Vivid red hibiscus flower blooming in the warm summer sunshine at Escondido RV Resort, North County San Diego, California
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DeAnza Springs Resort, Jacumba California

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Last Updated: July 13, 2026

DeAnza Springs Resort is in eastern San Diego County. At an elevation of 2,600 feet it’s considered high desert with warm days and cool nights. DeAnza is on 500 acres adjacent to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, offering endless miles of remote hiking trails. It was a perfect getaway from the COVID-19 madness after leaving Ajo and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Hiking trail through granite boulder formations at DeAnza Springs Resort, Jacumba, California — a 500-acre high desert property at 2,600 feet elevation
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Northern California Redwood Coast: Humboldt, Avenue of the Giants, Fern Canyon & Crescent City

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Last Updated: June 18, 2026

The Coast Redwoods are the tallest living trees and among the oldest living things on Earth. The tallest known Coast Redwood stands 379.1 feet — about 37 stories high. Both Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) belong to the cypress family, and the giant sequoias, which we saw at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, are the biggest trees in the world by overall volume.

Looking straight up through the canopy of a Coast Redwood grove toward the sky, Humboldt, California
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