March 8 to March 14, 2003

Saturday March 8:

This is Internet day, and starts at 4AM.  The morning is cool, but tolerable; we dress warm and save electricity.  The website test loads and runs OK.  Now all we gotta do is FINISH it for the week!  Most of the day is website work, but it is interrupted briefly by Claire returning from a shopping tour to report the generator exhaust pipe was hanging down under the RV. I had seen evidence it was not a tight connection before, as a black stain was visible around the clamp.  As I got the tools to fix it, the security guard drove up, and we discussed the state of life at length; excessive length perhaps, but he IS our security guard, after all.  :-)  The generator fix itself  took only a few minutes, as the Power Blaster penetrant quickly loosened the clamp nuts enough to allow proper tightening.  A couple parking along side remarked that my position on the ground looking up at the belly of the RV looked familiar; they were there buying tools to change a flat on THEIR RV.  :-)   We move in early afternoon to the shopping center across the street.  Claire finds a T-shirt shop, but the styles are....unappealing?  Perhaps we should say foreign to our tastes; we are in California, and they must appeal to SOMEONE.  :-)  I finish the website, and start to upload; repeated server disconnects slow the process, and cell tower disconnects result in lockout of the server until it times the connection out (30 minutes?).  I finally give up and decide to try later.  We return to our Walmart lot for the evening.  Dinner is burritos with left over beans and fresh cut veggies.  It is tasty!  I try again to upload, and make some progress before the process stalls again.  Oh well, try again tomorrow in the early AM which always seems to work best!  We retire with similar preparations for repelling boarders as last night, with similar results; NO disturbances at all!!  There is the distant sound of music from some entertainment business, but nothing to keep us awake.

Sunday March 9:

I am able to finish the upload of the website with frequent reconnects;  it is a pain, but it works.  The cell tower does stay connected for long times though, and it reconnects immediately when it drops, unlike last night when it refused the connect request.  The local cell must be quite overloaded, or it's defective.  We plan to move to Lompoc today, 90 miles up the coast.  We start out before noon and find patches of fog hiding our view of the ocean and even drifting over highway 101.

 They never obscure our view of a safe stopping distance, but I guess that at night it would be much more dangerous.  We pass through Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Goleta,  admiring the terrific scenery.  We enter a much more rural area, with cows grazing on attractive lush green pastures on the hillsides.

 It reminds me somewhat of the Shenandoah valley.  We stop for lunch at a rest stop/travel info center in Gaviota; the info consists of two posters on a bulletin board.  :-)  The scenery is BEAUTIFUL however.

Purry gets to graze on the nice lawn.  Later we come to regret our allowing that! :-(   We proceed a few miles to Rt 1 and turn for Lompoc and Vandenberg Air Force Base.  The drive continues through lovely rural pastures; I am AMAZED that the houses are crowded onto postage stamp lots in cities, yet here there are many miles of open pasture land.  I think we will enjoy this uncrowded middle coast of California!!  :-)  We drive into Lompoc; it looks like small town middle America!  The streets are clean, wide enough for us, and a motorcyclist hollers "Welcome to California and Lompoc" at us as we stop for an intersection.  This town is FRIENDLY!!  :-))  True to form, there are no prohibiting signs in the Walmart lot, and a couple RV's already occupy it.  I ask inside, and am told we are welcome to stay overnight.  Also quite true to form for small town America are the loud mufflers roaring from time to time in the distance.  :-)  Dinner is spaghetti with warmed over marinara sauce, as delicious as before.  We finish the Internet business and retire.  This night is very quiet and peaceful.

Monday March 10:

It's 48 degrees under the RV and MUCH cooler feeling in the RV this AM; well, we are 100 miles further north, but it may be more humid too.  It just FEELS cool!  We shopped at Walmart before leaving, buying only bread, and not too happy with that.  The Walmarts here in CA are not supers, and do not have much selection in edibles.  The drive up the coast is pretty even though we skip the loop of Rt 1 that goes closer to the coast through Guadaloupe; Rt 101 is much shorter.  We stop in San Luis Obismo for lunch, just happening into a Walmart lot. The signs prohibiting overnight parking are about the sternest yet.  :-) There is an Albertson's supermarket here too, so we shop after lunch.  I now regret buying the bread earlier, but do not need any more.  On the way back to the RV I ask at Walmart whether we can stay the night; the manager replies "No, the nearby residents have a hard time with that".  We had only wanted to know in case the San Simeon state beach was full and we were forced to choose to come back or go on further for the night.  We are back in wet weather, and the bugs are building on the windshield; tonight we must clean it or all the photos we take from the road will be "buggy".  :-)  Even WITH the bugs some scenery is worth looking at.

We soon arrived at San Simeon and found PLENTY of spaces open at $11/night for seniors over 62.  The campsite is a short walk from the beach, yet shielded from spray by dunes and bushes.  After walking Purry, we walk ourselves.  The beach scenes are GORGEOUS!

I do put a plastic bag over all but the lens of the camera to protect from salt spray; the wind is brisk and cool off the ocean.  We see some small water birds wading in the creek; they appear to be the endangered Western Snowy Plover.  

A lady beach combing gives me one of the pieces of translucent white agate she has found, and shows me a contrasting opaque white quartz stone that is not semi-precious.  I thank her, and look along the surf line as we walk down the beach; predictably, I find no more.  :-)  We walk back; perhaps we walked too far down, but the walk back is hard.  The sand gives a bit under foot, taking extra energy, and the breeze chills. This Monterey Cypress tree permanently shaped by the strong sea breezes frames fields of flowers on the old farm next to the park.  

I get back to the RV five minutes behind Claire to find her walking Purry, who was waiting insistently for her.  I'm VERY glad for the windless shelter inside the RV.  We dine on left over red cabbage, as delicious as it was the first time.  We run the generator a lot, as we cannot run it in the AM before our planned departure for Hearst Castle.  Claire debates watching TV, chooses bed; for me there was never a decision.....  :-)

Tuesday March 11:

It's 50 degrees under the RV at 6AM.  The generator can't be run here until 10AM, so I'll use the 65% battery to compute, dress warm,  and  forget the furnace.  As I fill out the log a loud noise makes me think something hit or blew up in the RV; I go to look, find nothing unusual. Perhaps it was a sonic boom or explosion on a nearby military reservation.  The windshield is dripping wet with dew; windshield cleaning time!  I do open the refrigerator compartment to be sure nothing popped in there; everything looks normal.  I recall the news article on TV last night that Hearst Castle has just restored tours deleted for lack of funds.  We agree (reluctantly) that we should get there early to be sure we get in.  We leave here early, around 7:45, and make the 5 mile drive; fog is still present on the highway and heavy off shore.  We turn on headlights.  The seacoast is mostly obscured by fog, but the castle is visible perched on the hill as we approach.  

We park and immediately enter the visitors center.  We have our choice of tours all day; NOTHING is booked full.  :-)  We choose to go at 10AM, leaving time to eat and watch the Hearst Castle movie before the tour.  The movie is in the IMAX format, and we have our pick of seats.  We choose seats in the middle of the theater, and centered vertically on the screen as well.  This is the first IMAX film I have watched without the distortion that produces unpleasant sensations when the camera moves fast.  I believe this format can only produce correct sensations when viewed from the center of the screen....  The film is very well done, produced by National Geographic.  I think it is desirable to view the film before the tour.  The basic "Experience Tour" of the castle includes the film in it's $18 price.  The one hour 40 minute castle tour itself starts with a 5 mile bus ride up the hill, with a bus full defining a tour size.  Our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining; the most profound thing I took away from his presentation was that this castle was all about POWER;  Hearst was the media mogul of his day, owning 25% of the nation's newspapers at his peak.  Here the "Chief" held "court", inviting those he thought interesting, flying them into the private airstrip with his private DC3 aircraft, entertaining them lavishly, but also being entertained BY THEM from time to time.  The story is told that he would give guests costumes, and one hour to come up with a stage play for everybody's entertainment.  He had a movie theater built for his guests entertainment.  The outdoor swimming pool is said to be his guests favorite, but mine is the INDOOR pool, with it's colorful tiles, including gold inlay, on which we actually were allowed to walk.

 This pool with it's careful lighting and mirror quiet water created a delightfully serene mood.  I imagine it would be noisy with a crowd of people present though; the echo from the tile walls was quite noticeable when the guide bade us farewell.  Other tours are available focusing on other parts of the castle, but I think we've seen enough here to get the flavor....time to move on up the coast.  On the way out, Claire asked about the elephant seals she had heard have moved onto the beach in large numbers from offshore islands.  We received directions and drove the 4 miles to the beach.  We were amazed; the seals were scattered almost motionless on the beach, looking almost like dead fish left by the falling tide!  

Occasionally one would flick sand onto its back with it's flipper.

Sand is the seals' sunscreen.  :-)   These guys are BIG, especially the bulls who have distinctive elongated snouts..

A volunteer from Friends of the Elephant Seal said they could move 25 mph in short bursts.  One had bitten a man who got too close. We observe something familiar, yet different; this must be Poison Oak.  

I've always wondered what it looked like!  The "Oak" name must come from the oak shaped leaves that are grouped in the familiar "three" of poison ivy, and the young leaves even have the same reddish tinge of poison ivy, and the same berry clusters.  We have no trouble following the age old advice "Leaves three, leave it be"!!!  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so I did not hold the camera as close as I otherwise might have for the picture; call me chicken.  :-)  We stopped at a few other pulloffs on the way back to San Simeon campground for another night.  The animals were hinting strongly at handouts, but we ignored just as strongly.  :-)  This  ground squirrel with the spotted back is incredibly tame.

Further along we stop at the visitors info center in town.  They have the first detailed San Francisco info we've found; now to plan our approach to the city.  This city seems to have no Walmarts, no close campgrounds, and toll bridges galore.  We cannot seem to find the advice we would like to have on places we could leave the RV for a day or two to see the city by public transportation.  Perhaps the Flying J associate station in South San Francisco can help, but there is no phone number and no listing of their facilities.  Oh well, time to print out the trip directions to Carmel and points north, we'll fill in the city details later.  It's PAST time for bed, our eyelids are drooping, but we must put the San Francisco map data into the GPS;  it will not do to go without detailed maps of Carmel and Monterey tomorrow.  It is 10:30 by the time we rest tonight, but we are ready to go tomorrow after showers, dump and water fill.

Wednesday March 12:

It is cool feeling this AM, but is 50 under the RV; there are many electricity demands this morning, so we dress warmly and save the furnace for the showers.  It is soon 7AM, time to wake Claire and start the hot water heater and furnace.  We finish our chores and depart after a wait for fresh water.  The fresh water faucet had a spring shutoff, and apparently the guy ahead of us did not know how to keep it running, as he took VERY long.  Only when we got to the fill station did we realize what his problem might have been....  With the faucet held fully open, or balanced on the peak of the spring closure cam, there was very good flow.  We finally got out of the campground at 9:30, and stopped at the elephant seal beach to make coffee (here there were no prohibitions against running generators); I ate breakfast while Claire visited once more with her beach pets.  :-)   

We then proceeded north on highway 1. Fog blew in as the road rapidly got steeper and more winding.  We drove almost 10 miles before we saw much, but then the scene that emerged  out of the fog was BREATHTAKING!

Steep rocky cliffs fell from the road's edge to the sea dimly foaming white on the shore 500 feet below. WHEW, we gotta drive carefully here!  This has a reputation as California's most dangerous highway, and here is one reason!  There were still occasional patches of fog that drifted across our path as we drove,

These became less frequent by midday, and soon it was for the most part clear and beautiful.   

It took MUCH longer for this drive than we expected, but perhaps the frequent stops at overlooks had a lot to do with it.  We did have to slow to 15mph on many curves as the two lane road is narrow and winding, with overhanging rocks and cliff walls to our right and unseen traffic to our left around the curve. Fortunately there was not MUCH traffic; we pulled off frequently to let vehicles trapped behind us pass!   I feel we made the correct decision to do this trip going north; it would have been quite frightening to do it travelling south, hanging out over the dropoff on the curves, many with no guard rails.

The passenger could have taken better pictures going south perhaps.....  :-)  We finally arrived in the Carmel area 90 miles from our start and noticed the traffic pick up, the road got wider, lower, and the fog moved back in.  We intended to walk around Carmel, but the Visitor's Info person convinced us it would be anti-climatic after our drive.  He said the parking place we had thought we could use on the edge of town was unsuitable for the RV.  He said we could leave it in this lot and take a bus, or bike, and probably no enforcement of the mall's "customer only parking" rule would occur. It is never enforced, but of course he could not give us PERMISSION.  :-) The mall was crowded, and we had to search hard for two spaces open that would take us; at that we were brushing against an ornamental tree.  It seemed that what we would see was only shops, as the fog was back and increasing.  We were also tired, with 30 miles to go before any possibility of rest.  We decided we had seen Carmel,  and pushed on to Walmart in Salinas for the night.  We expect no problems here, as the man camped next to us in San Simeon said he had stayed here two weeks ago.  As we approach, there are a number of RVs and trucks in the lot, but there is a "no overnight parking" sign at the entrance.  I go in to ask permission, and am surprised by an abrupt refusal; the city of Salinas does not allow overnight parking at Walmart.  We consider our options, and since we intend to buy fuel in Salinas anyway, to avoid reputed even HIGHER prices in San Francisco, decide to eat here and then after rush hour, drive to Flying J, about 3 miles away for fuel. Perhaps we can overnight there.  Dinner is chicken soup enhanced with pot pie noodles; as usual it is delicious.  After dishes, we make the drive to Flying J; this is plainly much different than other Flying J stations. It is listed as an associate station, and carries another station name more prominently than Flying J.   I decide to chat with them before filling.  They will not allow us to park overnight; that is for trucks only.  They do honor the Flying J RV discount card.  There is a Pilot truck stop across the street at the same price, and we decide to ask there.  After a long discussion with the counter lady, she decides I must speak to the manager; she then quietly whispers to me that if he says no, I could park along a street across the light near Flying J, with all the other trucks and perhaps other RVs.  I thank her profusely.  :-)  The manager quickly gives permission and suggests a spot under the Pilot sign as being most out of the way.  We fuel, and over 50 gallons and $100 later we pull into a brightly lighted spot next to a truck tractor for the night.  We run our generator for morning coffee.  The truck starts his engine.  :-(  The generator goes off in 10 minutes; the truck engine continues.  I quickly fall asleep as Claire decides to watch TV.  

Thursday March 13:

It is 54 degrees under the RV, and not at all uncomfortable inside at 6:15 AM.  The truck engine is still running 12 hours later.  It does mask the traffic noise, and I had no trouble sleeping with it, but I'm sure glad I'm not paying for the fuel....  Claire awakes to pill and feed Purry; she said it stopped promptly at 10PM and started again sometime early this morning; she thinks the driver watches TV.  Perhaps that explains the truck engines running; they probably do not have an auxiliary battery, and sure would have trouble cranking those big diesels if they ran the starting battery down much.  Anyway, we spent a safe night for the price of the 1 cent a gallon Flying J RV discount we did not get; no complaints at all about the neighbors...  :-)  Today we must decide how to see San Francisco;  this is going to cost us in some way, we just must decide how we want to pay; bridge tolls, gas and parking fees, or an expensive campground in town.  Today is laundry day.  We will return to Walmart and ask about a good one.  We called and the San Francisco Candlestick Park Campground wants $49/night, will let us come in at 8AM, check out is 11AM.  They have a downtown shuttle, $10/person RT, to one point downtown.  No reservations are needed until Easter.  The weather forecast is for rain tomorrow and Saturday;  we debate whether we should just start home now.  We finally decide to forget laundry and drive through San Francisco today, and look for a place to wait out the storm north of the city.  Cousins Randy & Chuck are coming to wine country next week with friends.  It would be fun to meet up with them, and hopefully see the City after the rain blows through on Tuesday.  We can see the city by driving through before the rain today, and even stop at Muir Woods for the giant redwoods, before finding a Walmart lot to overnight 30 to 50 miles north of the city.  The drive north on Rt 101 through the heart of silicon valley is interesting; there are lots of agricultural areas, and the winter dormant, leaf free cherry trees are starting to bloom.

They are kind of "strange" looking in fields brilliant green with "summer" colored grass and flowers. We stop for lunch in Santa Clara, and find the parking lots are laid out just TOO TIGHT for the Seabreeze.  They also have the familiar California "Parking for Customers Only" signs.  We touch curbs on left front and right rear simultaneously going in, and there is no choice but to "curb climb" over them.  The RV is certainly up to that task, but we do not like to leave the black marks on the curb, or risk breaking the curbs with our weight.  After lunch we quickly grab the opportunity to use newly open parking spaces for turning room, then back out the traffic lane with a ground guide.  We're OUTTA here!  This shopping center is just TOO crowded!!  We continue north past familiar silicon valley towns;  Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View....  The hills of South San Francisco soon come into view.

Soon the waters of the bay come into view, then we pass Candlestick Park, now renamed 3Com park.

 It's on the left edge of this picture.  The freeway soon ends on city streets.

We follow Rt 101 signs past the city's earthquake resistant modestly sized high rise buildings toward the Golden Gate bridge.  Rt 101 here is passable for us with care;  it IS a bit narrow in spots.  

I drive just on the right side of the left lane marker; let the cars to our left find the extra room in THEIR lane if they need it!  As we approach the Golden Gate, rain starts.

we had hoped it would hold off until evening as predicted, but here it is, and it is WINDY.  Bicycles on the bridge walkway are being blown over, and their owners are scrambling in windblown clothing to stand them upright.  

We decide Muir Woods in the rain is not the thing we want to do today, and it has taken a lot out of us driving in the city.  We have at least 30 miles to go for a place to stop too.  We continue for a few more miles, then pull off looking or a place to park to plot the detailed location of the Walmart we seek.  The parking lot of a mall appears, but we are VERY careful what spot we pick so we can get in and out easily.  :-)  Street Atlas shows the Walmart we want, but its driving directions are confusing;  I decide to write down the latitude and longitude of the store as well as the address.  As we approach the town, a California welcome station sign appears.  The street names are foreign to our driving directions, but the GPS latitude longitude indicates this exit should be the one for the store too.    We check out the welcome center, with its small "tourist special" vineyard.

This one is just budding out, and even comes complete with grass mowing geese.  :-)  We receive suggestions for touring San Francisco by public transportation from here; it is cheap, but the PROBLEM is a two hour bus ride each way!  The helpful gentleman does suggest touring Armstrong Redwood forest nearby instead of Muir Woods; he says the Muir Woods roads are not suitable for our big vehicle.  We leave, and head for the latitude longitude of the Walmart store; the GPS takes us into a shopping center and towards a yet invisible Walmart; we round the corner of a building and THERE is Walmart, a big store with plenty of open spaces.  We have not yet seen ANY of the roads or exits named by street atlas .....  This is a rapidly growing area, so perhaps that explains it, but it makes this a hard place to find without local knowledge!  Perhaps being hard to find works in our favor; we are parked near an ever present "No overnight parking" sign, but the Walmart manager indicates that although she cannot give us "permission", lots of RVs do use the lot overnight, and we would not be hassled.  The forecast is for rain and winds over 40mph overnight; we have parked away from trees and light poles.  :-)  Another RV pulls in, then a couple of trucks.  It looks like we've found a home to wait out the storm!   Dinner is pan fried steak, Brussels sprouts and rice.  We watch news and weather on TV, then I turn in.  Claire watches a bit more TV before bed.

Friday March 14:

It is VERY warm feeling this AM; 56 degrees under the RV, and warm enough that I feel no need for heat at 6:15 when I awake.  We were not hassled last night, and it was NOT because police  do not know we are here.  Sometime in the night a siren started up VERY close by, and went screaming off into the distance.  Evidently night patrolmen also find this a convenient place to stop and "hang out" for a while.... :-)  We decide to see Armstrong Redwoods State Preserve, about 30 miles away.  The drive turns out to be a winding twisty hilly road, but very scenic.  We are pulling over into driveways frequently to allow cars to pass.  The park is free to hike, and we find that our initial judgement is correct; a rainy day is not much different from any other under the canopy of this temperate rain forest.  

The moss and lichen grows on many tree trunks 360 degrees around.  The trees (and the photographer) struggle to define vertical in the steep heavily shaded terrain. We elect the moderately strenuous 2.4 mile hike with 400 ft elevation change.  The redwoods are magnificent!  

Here is one with almost enough room to set up housekeeping in the base hollowed by fire and rot.  THEN you look UP!

The photo does not do real justice to the WOW factor.....but it's as good as we can do!   I cannot help thinking about that tall spire of heavy wood being held up by the hollow remaining piece of the base; I think I'll terminate my lease and vacate as soon as this picture is safely in the camera.    These guys just do NOT fit in my camera at all....  :-)

In fact, they hardly even fit in my eyesight.  These trees do sometimes fall over in wind.

 they have shallow roots with no tap root, like pine trees.  Some also break off above ground level.  This one has either regrown its trunk, or a new tree started growing in the broken trunk after the top broke off.

 I'm not climbing up to find out!  :-)   The trail signs here are pretty sparse, and when I check the GPS it is not receiving a signal under the wet canopy in the rugged terrain.  We do not THINK we have missed a turn, but.....finally we find a trail going down.  That MUST be the one we want!  Although there are no latitude longitude lines on our park map, the elevation contour lines for the trail we want on our map match the GPS elevation here; we take the trail!  The lower we get, the larger the trees!  These California redwood trees are the worlds tallest, and we see one 310 ft high, another about 1400 years old; AWESOME!  Here Claire inspects the numerous thin growth rings of a large tree.

 Noooo, she is NOT going to count them; we must leave here before dark!  The bark is heavy, like the ponderosa pine.  It protects the tree against ground fires.  We return to the RV just as it starts to rain again, but it is a short shower and Claire takes Purry for a nice walk before we head across country for the Windsor Walmart.  There are no signs in the lot, and other RVs are parked in the Home Depot lot, so we make ourselves at home.  It is a rainy night, but Claire prepares lentil soup.  It rains HEAVILY, and blows hard ..... the hot lentil soup with crackers is a really GOOD choice for this damp night!  As soon as dishes are done I'm happily in bed, and Claire shortly follows.

PLANS: We are waiting out the rain here north of San Francisco, and the forecast shows we should have good days next Monday afternoon through Wednesday, then more unsettled stuff moves in.  Plan is to see San Francisco Tuesday and Wednesday, then head smartly east, through Albuquerque weather willing.  We do not want a fast trip like the one west in September, when we averaged over 400 miles a day; we will take longer, see more, and let the east warm up before we arrive. Quick News Flash: Cousin Randy & Chuck, here from Orlando for a week's tour of wine country, met us in Napa on Sunday.   It's sure fun to meet up with familiar faces so far from home! There will be more details in next week's update! :-)

 That's all for this week folks!  ENJOY!