Sun. May 4 – Tues. May 7, 2013

On Sunday we relaxed as it was another windy day…about 20 mpr I think.  In the afternoon we drove around Salinas a bit to see what the city is like, then decided to get groceries.  I had put homemade pea soup in the crockpot but on the way to Walmart, we passed a BJ’s – one of our favorite restaurants, so the truck just automatically pulled in there.  Ok, pea soup tomorrow….BJ’s today!  Had great lupper (lunch/supper) and then got groceries.  Also found a Safeway in the huge strip mall and stopped there for our favorite nut and seed bread.  Not only is it delicious but it is only $1.98/loaf!  What a value!!

Monday, May 5 was another windy day.  We worked around the rig, I walked after supper when it wasn’t quite so windy.  Got lots of little chores done…always a good feeling!

Tuesday, walked in the morning and by noon we were ready to take off for our sightseeing trip south on Hwy 1.  What a thrill – it has been our dream for several years to see this beautiful area!  We traveled west from Salinas on Hwy 68, a scenic highway and caught Hwy 1 just north of Carmel.  The homes in Carmel Highlands are amazing and what views they must have!  What money they must cost!  LOL.  Saw quite a few for sale, many represented by Sotheby’s!

Our first stop is at Point Lobos State Reserve.  We were grateful for our CA State Parks Discount pass as we got in for $5 for our day pass.  This headland area was once a Native American gathering place in winter and spring, whaling station, pasture for livestock, an abalone cannery and shipping pint for nearby coal mines.  There are lots of miles of hiking paths which would be spectacular.  We did drive around the one road to see several areas. 

Below are harbor seals in Whaler’s Cove.  It is pupping season (April-June) so the steps to the beach were blocked.  We saw quite a few Moms with pups and some were swimming.  Fun to hear them barking…

The Point Lobos State Marine Reserve adjoining this area serves as a wonderful scuba diving area.  Two temperature zones meet and overlap here so animals and plants from both warmer and colder waters meet here.

Huge trees surround the Whaler’s Cabin which was the site of a whaling station from 1862-1879.

These are scenes as we progress around the loop drive in the Reserve.

Harbor seals frolic in the beautiful China Cove cold waters or snooze on the sun-warmed sand.

We took the short walk around China Cove out to Bird Island, a .8 mile hike through very diverse coastal scrub.  

We saw many arches created by the sea surging through tiny cracks in granite rock forming caves and arches.   On Bird Island, hundreds of Brandt’s Cormorants nest close together in the spring and summer.

 

We were pleased to see many school groups and artists utilizing this beautiful area.

Back on Hwy 1, we head through some housing areas…here’s an oops!

 

Further south, the high mountains hare on our left and the ocean on our right.  Magnificent…the photos begin to show it.  Breathtaking…  We climb from next to the ocean to heights of 700’ above with the bluffs right out my window.

Further south is the Point Lobos Naval Station – what a view they have.  There is also a lighthouse on the point.

 

It is time for some time from behind the wheel and refreshment, so we stopped in Big Sur, our southernmost destination for the day. Fernwood is a motel, general store and the Redwood Grill provides awesome food and drink.  Jerry and I each tried a local dark beer…both awesome.  Jerry had a great burger and I was wowed by their BBQ pork, all made from scratch on site.  Our waiter told us that development of all this area was stopped more than 20 years ago.  No foundations may be put on any of the private land owned.  (That’s why we saw cattle grazing in some areas right next to the ocean, and I said to Jerry…I’d have a house there…the cows sure don’t appreciate the scenery.)  LOL

Back north on Hwy 1…

This is the Bixby Bridge, an official historic bridge built in 1932, one of several built around then on this highway.  This one is the longest!

After traveling back through Del Rey Oaks, we take a side route through a small suburb of Salinas called Spreckles.  This is in the agricultural valley and extremely well kept. 

This was one of the most spectacular days we have had!  Life is so good and we are so blessed and so grateful that we can do this trip.  Thanks for sharing it with us!  

May 4, 2013

After such a busy, hectic day yesterday, today we hung around home until the cycle was repaired – 12:30 pm.  Picked it up and loaded in RV and took off for Salinas at 1:30 on Hwy 101.  It is sunny and 75 and we only have about 125 miles to go today.   Made it up the large grade over Cuesta Pass in Los Padres NF without having to stop today.  Just a bit overheated.  Yea! 

Rolling hills north of SLO.

 

As we roll along 101, we see street signs for bear and deer crossing.  Trader Jo’s stores, cattle under a huge tree in the shade, vineyards, wineries with names such as Opolo, LaVinge, rose bushes (?) in the median, many types of trees in every shade of green imaginable.  Train tracks appear and disappear among the very dry brown grass on the hills.  We see signs for San Miguel Mission…this might be part of it:

 

Several other signs to see other missions along the way and the El Camino Mission bells continue to lead us through the countryside.  We pass Camp Roberts (Army Nat. Guard) land and lament that the buildings look so neglected.  Assume it is still used for their maneuvers as we saw army vehicles parked in several places.  Cross over the San Antonio River which actually had water in it.  Unusual sight!  Sign for an RV Ranch (interesting name for an RV park.)  Six horses grazing – all of them different colors from white (yes I made a wish on it…lol) to brown to black.  Pretty!  This town below looked like it wasn’t a town – just a whole lot of oil wells and the accompanying storage and pipes.  Wow – lots of them.

Huge agricultural area through the valleys…lettuce, Romaine, and ???, trees planted in rows (peaches?), Saw signs for Dole and other companies, and as we got farther along, the traditional white buses with port-a-potties onthe back taking the workers back from the fields.   Even saw about 10 heads of wrapped iceburg lettuce on the side of the road.  Oops.  An occasional palm tree waves over a ranch home to remind us we’re in CA.

  Huge areas planted with grapevines and even areas where there are stakes shoved into the ground without any plants yet.  Don’t think you can tell but in the pix above the shrub in the foreground is shaking in the 25-30 mpr winds!  Wow.  Must   be a lot of northerly winds as many of the trees on the ranches are permanently bent!

3:45 pm – arrive at the Salinas Elk’s lodge, et up and I cooked chicken with saute’d onions and mini red and orange peppers and tossed with light alfredo sauce and whole wheat noodles.  Easy and yummy after a day on the road.

Checking out sights to see while here.  Looks like wonderful sight-seeing drives ahead – over to the coast – Monterey, Pebble Beach, Big Sur among them.  Will start tomorrow!  LIG!

May 3, 2013 – no pix – just problems

Egads – when it rains, it pours.  I’ll try to  condense today’s events.  10 am Break camp at Elks and start out to go to motorcycle shop which we were told was in Paso Robles – 1/2 hr north.  As we go up the grade, truck overheats while I try to find address of shop on Nuvi.  Called cycle shop – wrong – shop is in SLO where we just left 15 min. ago!  Turned around and back to shop.  Part ordered is in and will be 3-4 hrs (not 1-2 as told earlier).  Unloaded bike from RV and went back to Elks to park it.  Didn’t like sound of urmp, urmp coming from truck as we turned sharp while backing up.  Unhooked RV – and J took truck to Diesel shop as he wanted to check on overheating also.  Couldn’t duplicate noise w/o load. Checked u-joints etc.  Couldn’t find anything wrong.  Back to hook up RV and take it to shop.  Good news.  O/H problem due to clogged radiator with dust/dirt/bugs.  Blew that out.  Yeah – prob 1 solved.  As I was talking to someone in the shop he suggested noise was truck needing clutch oil – an easy fix that he had to do with his truck as it made the same noise when towing his toyhauler!  Yippee – problem probably solved.  Also found fender from last tire blowout was rubbing on front right tire.  It had been pulled out and re-screwed but apparently the wind pulled it out of screw and back into tire!  Egads again.  Pulled it out and will have to watch it closely until repaired.

Just got that solved and cycle shop called…after 4 hrs of disassembling bike to install new part, found out wrong part had been ordered by Bakersfield BMW shop.  Mechanic at this shop had just been told what to do – not to diagnose before doing.  Well, we thought the BMW shop in Bakersfield would know….so we didn’t question.  Wrong.  Called BMW parts in LA, CA and talked to a great guy who has worked on and owned lots of BMWs.  He started questioning why we needed the part we were trying to order as it very seldom goes bad.  After 30 min discussion he thought we should go back and talk to the mechanic to do a couple of diagnostic tests.  Left RV at diesel truck place and drove truck to cycle shop.  Talked to owner.  He was adamant that we needed that part.  Called Dave back in LA….he was still questioning so he and the cycle mechanic talked.  One easy test to perform to see if it is the clutch switch (and easy fix.)  Well, guess what – it was the clutch switch after all!  Oh boy – will have to pay for many hrs of labor unnecessarily!  They will get clutch switch Sat am and have it done by noon.  Good!  Back to diesel place, hooked up RV and back to set up 2nd time at Elks.  What a day!  Needless to say we are very peeved at the BMW shop in Bakersfield.  We are now so much wiser today!  But costly education.

Registered  for one more night at SLO Elks and will move on tomorrow to Salinas, we hope.  Had fish and chips, slaw, in at Elks as we were too pooped to cook or go anywhere else. 

Despite the problems, we are grateful to those who were helpful. And luckily, the Elks, Dieselro and Cycle shop were all within a few miles of each other.  Dieselro who fixed our truck got right on it and were friendly and helpful.  Dave at Irv Severs BMW (parts) went way beyond the call of duty when we called.  He asked us pertinent questions and educated us on various parts and what they did and why it could/couldn’t be that part because it could/wouldn’t affect the starting.  (the original problem – wouldn’t start.)  Don’t think it would do any good to call Bakersfield BMW to complain….???  They didn’t charge us anything for the driveway diagnosis.  Won’t fall for that one again! 

If it weren’t for life’s valleys, we wouldn’t appreciate the mountains! 

This is another beautiful town with  mountains al around.  It got to 95 yesterday but didn’t feel it as there was still a coolish Santa Anna wind blowing quite strongly.   Although those around here were dying of the heat!  They’ve never been in the midwest in August!…now that is HOT!

May 2, 2013

Found out this am when Jerry was putting a new part for the air horn in the engine compartment of the Dodge that a critter or two apparently got in there and chewed a 1-1/2’ hole in the hood insulation.  So he bought a new one and I helped him install it.  Pretty easy deal. 

After 5 pm we went to downtown SLO (San Luis Obispo) as it is known, and attended the street fair.  It is a farmer’s market but much more.  The downtown area is about 5 blocks long and appears to have many restaurants, wine places, bar and grills and lots of stores like the Apple store, clothing shops, antiques, etc, etc.  Many of the restaurants had their doors/windows/fronts open to the beautiful evening air and/or tables on the outside.  Lots of food vendors, many barbeques, frozen yogurt, pizza, Chinese, Asian, etc.  Many fruit and veggie vendors, with the famous strawberries and cherries, along with lots of lettuces, tomatoes, all kinds of veggies…all, of course, grown in the valley here.  We didn’t eat at this barbeque place as there was a block-long line.  McClintock’s, quite a well-known restaurant in town with two locations plus this portable.  They were serving Santa Maria style beef and chicken dinners.  Smelled yummy.  Instead, we chose Marston’s who had their grill going outside their bar and grill.  I chose barbeque sandwich (huge) on garlic toast which was thin slices of the tri-tip barbequed Santa Maria with the traditional salsa on the side.  WOW.  Jerry had a yummy bowl of their homemade chili.  We took our food and bought a beer in their bar but didn’t feel like we were inside, as we were just one table in from the sidewalk and faced the street so we could people watch while eating. 

 

After eating, we sauntered the five blocks to and fro. 

T

 

his was one of the pizza makers.  They had a round ceramic mozaic cover for their oven and you can see the flames in the fire area.  Sure did smell delicious!  Very unusual!

There were four different venues for street entertainment.  One, whose show we missed were two men on stilts.  Don’t know what else they did. We listened for a bit to a regular “old folks music” band.  Not too impressive.   Another was Crustacia Jazz Band with 4 playing instruments including tuba, and two playing the washboard out front.  Didn’t capture the little old lady in purple with her washboard but she was a character!  She had led lights blinking in her washboard and danced around to the music while playing.  Another band member was a young man – 17? – who also played the washboard.  Fun to watch them as well as a couple of toddlers who were certainly enjoying the music and dancing!  Cute.  Cute.

Another music venue was this Bucket Buster drum line and the belly dancers.  The drums were from a drum school here in SLO and they had been playing drums 1 yr and up.  They used 5 gallon paint buckets to sit on and to drum on.  Two others in the back of the line had garbage can lids for cymbals.  Had lots of fun.  The belly dancing ladies had interesting costumes and they sure could “move it.”  Great people watching.  The best part was when the drum teacher/leader invited the little kids to come up to play the drums.  More cute, cute!  They didn’t want to leave.  Very smart PR – they might be future drum students!

The downtown area was charming with varied storefronts and architecture.  We noticed several pocket alleys with shops

 

All in all a very interesting evening.  We like this town as much as we liked Santa Maria.

April 29, 30 and May 1

I’ve been meaning to tell a bit about Santa Maria.  Most mornings we have fog or clouds, then sun and 70’s in daytime.  Flowers and blooming bushes abound.  Landscaping is key here and very beautiful.  Even Walmart has small porticos (whatever you call structures with horizontal planks above to let sunlight in) with plants climbing all over it for their cart corrals.  Birds of paradise and thousands of roses are everywhere along with ice plants, daisies and lots of plants I’m not familiar with.

Monday we ran errands and relaxed.  I walked in the morning and we at a yummy chicken dinner in at the Elks.  Half a chicken barbequed with their special Santa Maria seasoning, pinquinto beans, salad, maraconi salad, garlic toast.  $9 – brought most of my beans, macaroni salad and half the chicken home for lunch tomorrow. Love that Santa Maria BBQ rub!

April 30 we drove about 1/2 hour north to San Luis Obispo. 

Checked in at the Elks and enjoyed happy hour visiting with some folks who will be going to Morro Bay for a huge car show over the weekend.  One couple was from Prescott, AZ.  Both couples had lots of suggestions for things to do/see up the coast.

 

 

Wed., May 1, – Happy May Day.  After an early lunch we drove north to Morro Bay. 

   

Stopped at Morro Bay State Park and got some info on their campground.  Just a half block or so from the beach.  

Morro Bay and Morro Rock.  Morro Rock is a 581-foot  volcanic plug located just offshore from Morro Bay, California, at the entrance to Morro Bay Harbor.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morro_Rock.  Morro Rock was first charted in 1542 by Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who called it El Morro, because of the similarity to the Moors and their head-wraps.  The Salinan and Chumash tribes considered Morro Rock to be a sacred site.  Morro Rock is the best known of the Nine Sisters of San Luis Obispo County, a series of ancient volcanic plugs that line the Los Osos Valley between the cities of Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. It was one of many local landmarks to be mentioned in "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1978 song "Take Me Down."

Lots of surfers enjoying the beautiful day and the wave action.

Further north, we drove around some residences with awesome views of the ocean.  Some were perched on the edge and others were away from the view but in beautiful forested settings.  Bet it is very quiet there with lots of birds!

In town, Cambria.

Below is Nitt Witt Ridge is a house on two-and-a-half-acres in Cambria, California, United States. Artist/recluse Arthur "Art" Harold Beal (d. 1992) bought his hillside lot in 1928, and spent most of the next 50 years carving out the terraces with only a pick and shovel, and creating his own "castle on a hill."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitt_Witt_Ridge

Arthur Harold Beal is known as Der Tinkerpaw or Captain Nitt Witt. Beal was garbage collector for the town of Cambria in the 1940s and '50s, and made good use of what Cambrians were throwing away, as well as the natural materials on the property, in the nearby pine forests, and on the area's beaches. Some parts are also reportedly remnants from Hearst Castle where he reportedly worked for a time. Other common building materials are beer cans, abalone shells, and concrete.^[2] There are also washer drums, car rims, tile, car parts, and old stoves.

After Art died in 1992 at the age of 96, his ashes were spread around his favorite redwood on Nitt Witt Ridge. The house still is full of knicknacks and architectural uniqueness, despite the deterioration and ransacking it suffered after Art's death.

In 1999 Michael and Stacey O'Malley became the owners of Nitt Witt Ridge. They have repaired some of the house and cleaned up the gardens. Their enthusiasm for Nitt Witt Ridge is apparent in Michael's guided tours of the property. Tours are available by reservation only and include a four-minute video.

Nitt Witt Ridge is California Historical Landmark No. 939. It is considered a thematic landmark, in connection with the Twentieth Century Folk Art Environments

 

Next we traveled to the Elephant Seal Viewing area.

The Friends of the Elephant Seal support the seal rookery at Piedras Blancas, on California highway 1 at the southern end of Big Sur on the California coast, twelve miles north of Cambria and four miles north of the entrance to the Hearst Castle. The location is ideal for the seals: it is protected by the Piedras Blancas point from storms from the northwest; it has wide, sandy beaches offering pups protection from high water; and it is protected from predators by a kelp forest.

Also important to the seals are the shallow rocky areas just off the beach. These areas are protected by the rocks from breaking waves and provide an ideal location for recently weaned pups to learn how to swim and for the males - from juvenile to adult - to spar.  April through August is the catastrophic molt with each seal returning for 4-6 weeks to grow a new skin and shed the one acquired the year before.  We saw lots of evidence of this molt.  Could have stayed and watched for a lot longer.

 

We were starting to get hungry so didn’t go further north to see the lighthouse. 

We finally had our anniversary dinner – better late than never – and so well worth the delay.  The Galley Seafood Grill and Bar in Morro Bay.  Picked it out from many listed in TripAdvisor and it was #1 rated.  And it was perfect in every way!  My meal is below – Blackened fresh-caught Rock Fish over garlic mashed potatoes, grilled asparagras and mango salsa.  Garnished with a strip of squash seasoned and sauted in brown sugar and butter!  Egads – lots of calories but so delicious.  Really special.  Jerry had steak which he said was the best he ever had.  We shared Molten Lava Cake for dessert!  A feast – expensive but it was our special treat! 

Elephant seals on a small piece of rock in Morro Bay near the restaurant.  Noisy!  LOL

A wonderful day of enjoying God’s beauty and bounty!  We are truly blessed.