A Sunday Drive Through the Country

You know how back in the day, they used to take drives through the country as a fun pastime? Well, that's basically what our land search was today.  Except it wasn't all that fun and it passed far more time than desired.

We decided that since we'd messed up looking at 16341 Highland Valley road, and there was another plot available alongside it, we really ought to take a look.  Adam let us know last night that there was a gate code, but he'd have to be with us to let us into the property and could we do it today or sometime this week?  I emailed back asking if he could meet us at 1100 today.

This morning he wrote back around 0930 saying actually he wasn't able to make it but would try to see if another agent could meet us.  With Chris needing to go to work this afternoon and no other real direction, we decided to go see the other property Adam had sent us early in the week on Sunset Valley Rd which we'd thought would be too far away.

The listing from the link he'd sent was set up to give us directions on a map.  So I plugged in our home address and off we went.  I did notice that it was taking us to a different road, but I just assumed the property was on the corner of this road and Sunset Valley.

Nope.  Not the case.  We got to Ramona View Dr and... there was definitely not 9.someodd acres available there.  No real estate signs.  Just a lot of homes close to the road.  And not a long road.  We turned around.

I suggested we look up Sunshine Valley road and just go there and look for signs.  2 miles and 11 minutes away was what Google Maps said.  We set off wondering how 2 miles could take 11 minutes.  Turns out that a good half of that is a 15mph zone (that's ~20kph) and the truck in front of us was definitely law abiding.  This was very annoying, particularly for Chris.

We turned onto Rancho Santa Teresa Dr and we knew we were in an affluent area.  The land was cleared except for trees that had been definitively trimmed, judiciously placed stones, and white picket fences that were just too well done to be your average country white picket fence.  I don't have a good picture of this.  The best I could do was this meh one from the car window.

It's not that we have a problem with rich people.  No, strike that.  We do.  We totally do.  I realize I'm being classist here.  Sorry about that.  I grew up in the country.  (And it's def weird to now be looking for country land sort of like I grew up on.)  There was white picket fence down the road at the Dodge farm near the big rock that we imaginatively called "Big Rock."  Damn.  Google Satellite doesn't have any pictures of it and it doesn't exist anymore.  The things you never thought you'd want a picture of!

Anyway, I used to go down there on my bike and walk back and forth on the fence like it was a balance beam, which would sway precariously back and forth in the wind.  It's because I was lonely and bored as fuck and there wasn't anything else I wanted to do.  I truly wasn't a very good country child.  But that fence had seen weather and time and had a job to do.  I don't know that these fences had much of a job other than demarcating someone's land. 

The slow white truck matched each turn we needed to make, just seconds ahead of us and with no turning signals.  This set Chris a-grumbling.  

Eventually they went off to the left when the road split in three directions.  We got a bit turned around as it turned out that the property was on Sunset Valley Trail, not road.  We ended up stopped right in the middle of the intersection, because we had no idea which way to go.  It sounds bad, but there was so no one out there except the slow white truck and us.  We consulted different maps and the plot lines app and figured out where this land was.  We went down where the white truck had gone, but that was the wrong way, so we turned around again and went back.  

The dog was very unhappy.  Especially when the car stalled.  Seems like maybe he thought we would have to back over some rocks again.  Eventually we determined that the correct way was off the paved road and onto the dirt road.  Actually, as navigator, I determined it from watching our progress on the plot lines app.  Chris wasn't sure and took the phone from me to consult and eventually agreed with me.  I did not mention that this was slightly galling.  From there we turned back onto a paved road that went so steeply downhill I nearly tossed my cookies looking at it.

At the bottom of that hill the road started going the wrong direction.  We followed it through some other parcel and frustratingly it dead ended in someone's driveway.  Sorry folks... just turning around...again.  We don't like intruding on other folks' space, probably because we have such a strong sense of our own space, but it really bothers Chris.  Must be the German upbringing.

The dirt road which shows on the plot lines app, wasn't actually present.  What was there was a highly manicured field of dirt.  Not only would the car not mount such a built up berm, but it would have been extra shitty to drive over someone's field.  

I said to Chris, "This land is too far away from everything for us anyway, right?  Let's not bother finding a way to look at it."  And so we left.

Chris had seen a real estate sign as we were leaving Ramona View Dr and wanted to check it out.  We only made one wrong turn on the way back to Ramona center.  Grumbling, Chris pulled off 78 quickly and turned us around.  Our water bottle went rolling around the floor as it had been all day and I grunted.  It wasn't his fault; you can't slow down significantly on the highway.  None the less, I offered him the Larabar we'd brought for him in case he got hungry (read: and grumpy).

On the way, we went past some super pretty trees.

We also saw a sign for European Portable Toilets (?).  Chris said "Well, they've already transported them pretty far."  And we saw this sign:

Um, yeah, camel dairy

It's totally ethnocentric to get grossed out by the idea of camel milk and not from cow or goat milk.  That said, I was today years old before I heard about dairy from a camel.  It's not like I don't get that all mammals make milk and it's edible.  I just never thought about it.  So... thank you Ramona for making me a more well rounded person.

Me: "I wonder if I could eat cheese made from camel milk.  It would have a hump in the center."

Chris: "No, it would have two humps!"

Me: "Alice the camel has 10 humps.  Alice the camel has 10 humps..."

Alice The Camel - Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs  

We accidentally went past the real estate sign and had to turn back for a fourth time today.  And then it turned out the sign was for a home, not land, so we turned around again. Chris rebuffed my re-offer of food, and we hadn't heard from Adam, so we just went off to see about those Highland Valley Rd properties.

This time, we knew to look for the cross street Eagle Crest Dr.  We found it easily. I kept my eyes on the road numbers as we went around the very curvy curves.  Sure, the gate was right across the super steep drive, but there was a small turn off where you could punch the numbers in for the gate where we stopped the car.  Odd really, because you'd have to pull in there, punch in the numbers, then back out to pull ahead to go through the gate.  

Anyway, it turns out that the fence isn't all that effective anyway.  We literally just walked around it.

Ineffective fence.  It does end right there.

We walked up the street along the left side of the larger parcel and found a way onto the land.

It looks like a long way in, but it's really about 200'

After that we had to part the prickly bushes of nature's barbed wire to try to find a place where we could see if there was anything flat and big enough to build on.  The good news about this parcel is that it's 21 acres.  The bad news is that it's $200K, no pads, no well, no driveway other than what's just above here.  I'm truly not that impressed atm with land for that amount of money that doesn't have something else that makes my life easier.  I do understand that it's a lot of land, but meh.  I could still see neighbors and the idea of clearing this, with the time and expense... just no.

The second parcel was 9.something acres for $150K.  But we couldn't figure out how to get to it.  Bushwhack our way over the 21 acres?  No.  Drive?  Not unless there was a second way in, and the next drive off to the left was the orchard property that masqueraded as this property.  So, heavily, we headed home.  But we gave the dog some water before heading off and Chris finally ate the Larabar.  (Whew!)

The GPS took us up Highland Valley Road instead of back along the way we'd come.  It's kind of nice it did because this would be the way we'd have to go for groceries and such were we to live there.  It decidedly rivaled "Lose-My-Lunch Lane" in Jamul for title of most likely to make me want to forcefully eject partially digested foodstuffs from my cranky, middle age tummy.  So... maybe not buying land there then.

As we were just about getting on Rt 15 near Escondido, Adam texted to let us know that the listing agent could meet us at the property and were we near?  I let him know we were just coming from there and couldn't go back as Chris needed to get to work.  We asked him if he could find out if there is any access to that smaller property where you can drive up, but otherwise, there's no point in us looking.  

Oh well.  Hopefully more land will open up soon in Jamul.