Question About Checking On Warning Areas

[BFG]

Thanks to the workshops I have learned about how to treat MOAs, restricted areas, and warning areas. But I have a question about something that happened on a flight today out of KSNA. I was flying VFR without flight following, and was headed over to Catalina with intentions to make a tight loop of the island and then head back to KSNA. I stayed on the SoCal departure frequency just to monitor the radar coverage. About half way out something needed my attention here at the house, and because I think it's uncool to just disconnect on controllers mid-flight I was about to push the PTT switch to tell the controller that I had an issue and was going to terminate.

But just before I did, he called me and asked, "Are you heading out to Catalina?" I replied that I was just about to call him, and that I was, but that I had to terminate and was going to let him know etc. etc. at which point I logged off. Because that space isn't controlled and I was not with advisories, I presume he was asking to either ask me if I planned to go near W-291 or W-292, or was going to tell me W-291 was hot (which I learned was the case by checking the Pilot Web NOTAMs after the flight).

My plan was to stay clear of W-291 and W-202 the entire way, but to call the controller to ask about their status so I would know and so the controller wouldn't worry about my intentions. So my question is, how far away from a MOA / Restricted / Warning area should one check? I don't want the controller sitting there thinking, "I hope this guy doesn't get plowed by an F-18," but at the same time I was still probably 10-12 miles from Catalina and figured I'd ask about the warning areas when I got a bit closer.

Just wondering what the real-world protocol would be. Thanks.