March 5th – 12th
I got to Santa Barbara in mid afternoon, got settled at an RV park near Karleen’s house, then went over to visit with her. Karleen is a long-time Lopez friend who now spends winters in Santa Barbara. We talked for awhile, then went out to dinner. A great fish and seafood place called Lune.
The next day I drove to Ventura to visit with Debbie Boucher, a friend from my Bay Area days. I visited her and her husband Mike in Mammoth Lakes several times, but recently they moved to Ventura to be close to daughters and grandkids. She fixed lunch for us and we had several hours to visit until she had to go pickup her granddaughter. I spent the evening catching up on computer things: tracking down medical bills and records from my nerve injury, working on travelogues, etc.
Friday the 7th Karleen and I spent the day together. First we went to Leadbetter Beach and walked the trail along a ridge overlooking the beach. There were a lot of rock formations in the shallow water – not a sandy beach! There were a lot of wind surfers in the water and for awhile it was hard to see where they entered, because there was very little sandy beach for access. Wind surfers have a sail that they carry to catch the wind. There were a number of people who obviously didn’t have a lot of experience and they kept falling into the water. Karleen’s friend Rod invited to us to his place for dinner. It was a lovely day!
Next day I headed north on US-101 and CA-1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). I stopped in Pismo Beach for lunch, and realized that everywhere on the coast was crowded because the weather was sunny and it was Saturday! I didn’t even try to stop at a beach because I was pulling my trailer and roads were narrow. It was also hard to find a camping site because all the state parks in the area were full. I finally found El Chorro Regional Park which had sites available. I was hoping to drive up the PCH to Big Sur because it’s an incredible scenic drive, but when I checked for road closures it turned out it was blocked in several places, so instead I took US-101 to Monterey. I planned to stay at Laguna Seca, a regional park and raceway. They had a lot of open sites and after driving up a steep road I got to my site on the top of a hill overlooking the valleys in several directions! I walked all around the campground until it got dark. This was the slow season, no events happening, and I was grateful because it was quiet and only a few other campers.
On Monday I headed into Monterey. Virginia and I went to the Monterey Jazz Festival for 45 years (I lived in Hawaii, San Francisco area, and then Lopez) – so this whole area is very familiar and also holds lots of memories. We always stayed in Pacific Grove to be near the ocean. There’s a great sandy beach at Lover’s Point in PG, and that’s where I did my first scuba dive, sometime in the late 70’s. After that I did a lot of scuba diving in the Monterey area until I moved to Lopez in 1984. I walked the familiar trail from Monterey to Pacific Grove. Then I drove the length of the road along the ocean to Asilomar Beach. I had dinner at the Beach House at Lover’s Point – all seafood, Yum!
The next day, I headed north to Turlock and stayed at Stanislaus Co Fairgrounds for 2 nights. There were high winds followed by rain in the forecast, so I stayed put, spent the day catching up on emails and working on the computer, travelogues, etc.
Last travelogue coming up: To Davis outside of Sacramento, visiting friends in the Bay Area, then home to Lopez.
