Central to Southern California

When we left Big Sur (headed to Pismo Beach) we were in some significant fog that we thought would make that long slow coastal drive even slower. Luckily after a short bit it began to break up mostly and we got to enjoy some incredible views one more time.

Pismo Beach - We checked into our campsite at Pismo Beach state park and immediately began to explore the area....we were a short walk to the beach.  We were finally in a beach area with sand (versus rocky cliffs) so it is a much more populated area. When Kathy and I came into the area we missed a turn and ended up in a traffic jam of vehicles (campers, four wheelers, dune buggy's, etc....) waiting to get onto the beach so our curiosity was up about that. We all decided to take a walk and it was pretty cool - hundreds of people flocking to the beach for the week-end (it is Friday night) and looking like an amazing party brewing.

Party brewing on the beach

Breaking News - we spotted a republican in California!

Paso Robles - a popular wine producing region is only about 40 miles away so our plans for the day are to visit that area - wineries, wine tasting & music. We first stopped into the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor's center on the square in Paso Robles where we met a nice young lady named Cally from California. She loved her job and it showed, and we benefitted from her advice. She shared maps, ideas, etc... and we left with a plan. She was disappointed that we only had a day and we quickly learned that she was right - we'd only scratch the surface.

Wine producing country

We identified four wineries to visit in our limited time. First up was Sculptera - a beautiful environment with nice wine and live music. The grounds there, in addition to nice gardens, are decorated with some pretty interesting sculptures. We enjoyed the live music there so much that we hung around there a good bit longer than scheduled......at least we had a plan ;-) Next we stopped at Cass wineries for lunch and a sampling - best hamburger we've ever had :-)

Sculptera Vineyards

Most of the wineries charge for the samples but we'd met a guy in Flagstaff who recommended one called Tobin James that offered free wine tasting, a great old bar, and just a good/fun environment so we had to check that one out. Our bartender there was Char who was very good and we had her take a couple photos for us. BTW - free wine sampling increases sales!!

Pour us another one!

Char dealing with a tough customer 😎

Last stop scheduled was J. Lohr wineries since that is actually one we buy and drink back home we wanted to visit there - bad news is they were closed by the time we made it there.....we'd had a busy and fun afternoon but that part of it was now over. Took a photo in front of the J Lohr sign and back to town for dinner.

Paso Robles is a cool town with a nice town square with many shops and restaurants in that vicinity - although still a pretty small town feel. They had a very small farmers market there that we enjoyed when we arrived in the morning and we returned to a recommended restaurant "The Catch" for a nice dinner that evening to end the day.

As we left Pismo Beach we headed further south on a route that includes a drive (with trailers) through the city of Los Angeles to San Clemente State beach for our next stop. The dreaded drive through LA, although heavy traffic, was not as bad as we had anticipated. I expected something like Atlanta where you may spend hours at a standstill but it moved pretty good....although slow at times.

San Clemente State beach is a very popular campground for families and children so it was a very busy place but also very nice. The campground sits atop a cliff area on the coast with a couple of steep walkways down to the water. Interesting is the fact that there is a train track near the coast and in several different locations (including this park) they have pedestrian tunnels under the tracks to allow beach access.

Metro Link commuter train passing San Clemente Beach

First night camping there while we were eating & just sitting around the camp visiting in the evening,  Kathy noticed something moving  - we thought it was a cat but as it got closer (actually too close) we realized it was a skunk! We all froze hoping to not startle him like he did us.😬 The nice family camping next door said there were several in the campground - as it turns out they wander around the campground in the evening scavenging for food...pretty amazing but everyone just gives them space. Can't we just all get along!

Pepe Le Pew

Weather - since leaving Big Sur we've been anticipating better weather as we head farther south but it is still cool days (low 60's) with clouds and cooler nights. I spoke with a local guy that said this is normal for June - in fact they call it "June Gloom." He said that the weather in August and September is beautiful but we should expect more of this unless we move farther inland. (maybe at our next stop). There is hope though - we were able to actually see a sun set while there and it was the first one visible since arriving on the coast.

San Clemente beach Sun set

With one day of resting and enjoying the local area - (lunch on their nice pier and walking the downtown shopping district) and another for touring we decided against Catalina Island in favor of a full day narrated bus tour of Los Angeles. This included a one hour drive north to Anaheim where the tour began. Our bus driver, Albert, was an amazing source of knowledge about the different locations, places where movie scenes were filmed, where celebrity folks had died or been arrested, etc.... In all we visited (drive by) a lot of places but only got out and walked four or five spots.

A popular star to find in Hollywood

Santa Monica pier and the end of Route 66

Venice Beach

We saw many celebrity homes (from the road and through the window) and were entertained quite nicely as we rode around. All in all it was a great day but very long and a bit bumpy. This tour was a good way to get the highlights of the area and help determine where you'd like to spend more time (maybe) on a subsequent visit.

San Diego (Ramona) - We had the luxury of a few hours to rest the next morning (much needed) before moving on to the next destination....Dos Pico County park in San Diego County near the town of Ramona. The campground is about 30 miles northeast of San Diego and nestled in a little valley with beautiful rock covered hills (think big rocks) surrounding it....but the best part, according the girls, who have been looking for the sun for weeks is the weather. We rolled in to 80 degrees and sunny which felt pretty nice. For the next several days we get upper 70's to lower 80's in the daytime with nights in the cool mid-50's PERFECT!

Plans here are to see all we can in San Diego and the Coronado Island along with a possible day trip into Tijuana, Mexico. We had purchased tickets (a few days back) to a San Diego Padres baseball game (vs St Louis). The game time was 7:10 so we decided to go into town mid-afternoon to see a bit of the town before the game since it would be a late evening. We parked and did the waterfront walk near downtown - USS Midway (but didn't go aboard) and eventually made our way into the Gaslamp district for some, as we learned at the game, cheap beer and dinner.

USS Midway on the San Diego waterfront

The game was great entertainment and the Padres who are in next to last place actually won the game. Beers in the ball park were from $12 to $16 dollars.....that will make you sip one slowly!

Petco Park

We spent the entire next day doing a "hop on" - "hop off" tour of the town (first time ever) and that was a great way to see the town and spend the day. Since we'd already done some of the things on their tour we decided to just enjoy the "very well done" narrated ride for the most part and we only explored two areas - Coronado Island and Old Town.

Coronado Bridge

Downtown San Diego from the Coronado Bridge

On Coronado Island we visited a museum, had lunch at an Irish Pub and then walked to the Hotel Del Coronado and had a look around at that old (1870's) facility and the beach area around it. Then we caught a bus to the Naval amphibious base where there is a small Viet Nam memorial with some river boats (like our father was on in Viet Nam) on display there. Nice memorial park!

Hotel Del Coronado

Viet Nam era River Boat

Viet Nam Memorial dedicated to the Navy and Coast Guardsmen that lost their lives in the conflict

Our last day in this area was set aside for half day visit to Tijuana, Mexico and the other half doing chores (laundry/shopping) and preparing for our early departure....the Tijuana portion got cancelled - some locals camping nearby said it was not safe to go there....they said there are large tent cities of hopeful migrants on the other side and it is just a mess right now. In addition to that, the waitress in Old Town also said emphatically "Don't Go". That left more time for doing chores and relaxing.

But.....before we got out of Old Town we ended up in jail 😡

This wraps up the southern end of the West Coast for us. From here we head north on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains to an area called Mammoth Lakes.....stay tuned!

Monterey & Big Sur

When this trip was first conceived I tried to get reservations at a regular campground in Carmel, California in order to attend the US Open in Monterey. Their normal rates were $80 per night (yes for camping) but for the US Open timeframe they were charging $200 per night - this sent me/us quickly to find other/better sources and we managed to get some California State Park campgrounds for around $30 per night - dry camping but that was fine with us.

Our First state park stop was a town called Watsonville that is about 15 miles north of the Monterey Peninsula, and the park, "Sunset State Beach" as the name suggest is right on the coast. A short walk from our camper offered a nice view!

Sunset State Beach, Watsonville, Ca.

US Open  - as we rolled into this area it was unusually warm (low 80's) and local folks were really complaining about the heat - they should try the southeast :-)
The warm clear skies didn't last as we headed out to visit the links at Pebble Beach there was a heavy fog that they like to call a "marine layer" and the temps would struggle to get over 59 that day. We had a great time at the course - walked it completely and enjoyed the beauty of the place and this helped prepare us to better enjoy watching the main event on a larger screen TV at our friend's home. Another reason for visiting this area was to visit our old friend, Abe Vargas and his girlfriend Kathy. That evening after walking Pebble Beach we had a cook out at the campground where Abe, Kathy and our friends Rick and Terri Boehle (also attending the US Open) joined us for a nice cool cookout.

Sunset Beach Cookout

7th Green at Pebble Beach

US Open photo op

In addition to seeing the open and visiting with Abe and playing golf, we did a lot of touring and looking around this area - one day we drove up the coast (northbound) and visited  Santa Cruz and went to Half Moon Bay (just riding and looking) to enjoy lunch at Sam's Chowder house - a nice (but very busy) restaurant right on the water. We went there for lunch but we had a very long wait and our intention to have lunch turned out to be an early dinner - no problem though as they had a bar with a band and some incredible views as we waited.

Waiting for our table and enjoying the view and the band

Sea Lions under the Santa Cruz pier

Bench with a view - West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz

The farming that takes place in this area is incredible - there are miles and miles of very pretty, well kept farms that are producing food for the USA and the world. We found ourselves many times looking at crops and trying to figure out what was growing there.....many of the fields were strawberries at this time of year but there were also many other crops. We stopped at a fruit stand on highway one just south of where we were camped to get some fresh produce AND because they had a huge field of something we couldn't figure out growing next to it - turned out to be brussel sprouts - pretty interesting how they grow on a pretty big leafy plant but the brussel sprouts grow on the main stalk. While there, Debbie bought an artichoke (also locally grown) but at the time I am writing this I haven't heard how it tasted - she hadn't cooked one before :-)

An interesting observation - there were many workers in the field harvesting the strawberries - it is obvious they are paid by what they produce/pick (versus by the hour) because they were literally running from the field to the trucks with the boxes they'd filled. Also noticed their automobiles (many of them) that were parked along the field were nice vehicles so hopefully/apparently they are well paid for their hard work.

Roadside fruit stand

Big Sur - Moving on after six nights in the Monterey area we are headed south on the coast on highway one to another state park in Big Sur. The coast road between the Monterey/Carmel area to Big Sur is amazing - filled with beautiful views of the ocean and cliffs/drop-offs of hundreds of feet. Before our visit to Big Sur is over we will travel these roads many different times - each providing a different experience because of the ever changing marine layer.

Heading through redwoods to our Big Sur campsite

This park is our first views of Redwoods as they extend from here to the north in a pretty narrow band - they are very large and tall but after the Sequoias the wow factor was probably not quite what it would have otherwise been.

Big Sur campsite - fog covered mountain in background

While in Big Sur we did some hiking - we took a four mile (round trip) trail that was called "Buzzard's Roost" to the top of a mountain that offered magnificent views (so they say) of the pacific ocean - unfortunately when we arrived it was so foggy you really couldn't see much at all except the movement of the fog....and that was pretty cool. The good news is that while we spent most of our time in Big Sur without a cell signal - we got great reception up there.....big price to pay for cell coverage.

Kathy on Buzzard's Roost trail

Creek/River across rom our campsite

While we were in Monterey the famous 17 mile drive was closed to visitors because of the US Open the entire time we were there so we drove back to Monterey one day (only about 30 miles) to do Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, and the 17 mile drive and it was a pretty clear day and we had a nice time doing it.

Coastal view

On the 17 Mile Drive

Iconic Lone Cypress

Hearst Castle -  the castle is on our list of things to do but we have a bit of a dilemma in that it is 60 miles south of Big Sur but the GPS says it is nearly 2 hours drive (each way) - how can that be? Well we set out to find out and the road from Big Sur south was even more mountainous on the edge of cliffs overlooking the ocean. It is a fantastic view and an engineering wonder as to how they built and maintain the road there -  they do have many rock slides that sometimes close sections of the highway.

Our day at the Hearst Castle was full since, in addition to four hours of driving, we decided to take two of the tours - the Grand Rooms and the Upstairs Suites. Again the marine layer had an effect on our view initially - as we drove up (bus) the mountain we didn't really get a glimpse of the "summer cottage" until we were there. The tours were great but some of the information was overlapping. Luckily since the second tour was a few hours later the fog had moments of temporary clearing by that time.

Hearst Castle

Neptune Pool

View of ocean from garden area

Indoor Roman pool located under the tennis courts

notice all the gold inlay!

Another highlight of this day was a roadside pullout just north of the Hearst Castle where the beach is a favorite spot for some Elephant Seals - AMAZING! We'd seen some sea lions at different spots and some of them are pretty large but these guys were huge. They had some volunteers there describing what we were seeing and answering questions.

Elephant Seals

Roadside Stop - Elephant Seals

A California difference - Walmart shopping - they don't give you bags for your groceries, they sell them to you for .10 each - but they are a bit sturdier bags. After forgetting to bring our bags back a time or two, we have now been trained to re-use and bring them when we shop. We just leave all the bags in the truck so we will have them handy when we shop. This is a difference that I like and agree with!

Next stop on the trip is more of central and Southern California.
Additional photos from this portion below:

Cannery Row

Sea Lion - they have ears and seals do not!

Fisherman's Wharf - Monterey

West Cliff Drive - Santa Cruz

Crazy Horse Golf Course

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

After a nice visit to the Grand Canyon and some amazing views we head farther west - making a lunch stop in Kingman, Arizona and to also refill a prescription  (the nearest CVS store). We have managed to stay in some pretty comfortable temperatures (by design) so far but as we leave the Grand Canyon for a two day drive to Sequoia National Park in California it calls for a layover near Barstow, California. Kathy and I are pretty familiar with Barstow from our days of working for the Marine Corps so we opted to stay at the family campground on the Logistic Base there and we know it will be warm.

As we left Arizona and entered California the terrain began to look more like a desert - the Mojave Desert and the temperatures began to rise. I think the highest we saw on the truck thermometer was 110 degrees. 🌞 Yes, it is a dry heat but still too hot for me. And to go along with the heat the wind was blowing at 15-20 MPH so it really felt like a hot fan blowing in your face. As we pulled into Barstow the temp had dropped to a cool (not) 102 degrees....electric hook ups (for A/C) were a must have for this camping spot. Overnight the temperature dropped to a comfortable 67 degrees so a morning walk felt good before departure.

Marine Base Barstow Campground

A Ride through the desert - Snow Capped Mountains in the background

The drive from Barstow into Sequoia was pretty interesting as we saw the terrain change from dessert to some hills (still very dry) and then into the San Joaquin Valley through Bakersfield. As we entered the valley it was still pretty dry but using irrigation they manage to grow some pretty amazing looking crops there. We were guessing what was growing in the rows and rows of fields beside the highway...some was obviously orange groves but plenty of other trees that we were not familiar with (yet).

Fuel stop in the small town of Mojave, California

The first big billboard for a roadside fruit stand also advertised some "Okie Pies" and after seeing several of their signs they had our interest as we tried to figure out what an Okie Pie was but wouldn't you know it, I (in the lead truck) wasn't paying close enough attention and we missed the exit. So, from there we looked for the next fruit stand and it was the California Fruit Company and they advertised free samples....doesn't take much to hook us. It was a fairly small place (the building) amidst huge fields of crops. They had fruit, juice, nuts and candies - the samples WERE free and very good so we stocked up. The lady running the place was very nice and told us that in that particular region of the valley they produce mostly citrus and nuts - in fact the huge number of trees that we could not identify we learned were Almond trees. She said that all nuts grow on trees except peanuts.
BTW - we are still wondering about those Okie pies.

California Fruit Company

In this area the huge snow covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada range are in view to our right and the temperature in the valley is heating up but we take comfort in knowing that we will be camping at an elevation of nearly 6000 feet and expecting cool nights and comfortable days (much like our Grand Canyon experience). After driving north of Bakersfield by about 50-75 miles we turn right and head up the mountain.

Pretty easy going at first through more citrus & almond groves and then we start climbing. The views are spectacular and the drop off of the right side of our vehicle is getting deeper and deeper along with the very curvy road that has little or no guard rails. I am getting a little worried about Don & Deb behind us because he is afraid of heights. After some pretty nervous driving I pulled over into a pull out on the right side of the road - he said "Man, you don't know how hard it was for me to turn right!" We laughed, took a couple photos and moved on into the park - he was doing okay, we'll call it nervously fine :-)

Our campground (Stoney Creek) was a really nice place to camp amidst some pretty large trees and a couple of nice sounding creeks gushing water through them - a couple of mule deer wandered through each evening. The campsites were mostly pretty small with no hook-ups at all but water available in the campground. Our sites were tight but once we were in it was a beautiful place to spend four nights.

Stoney Creek Campground

This is the first stop on this trip with absolutely no cell or internet service so Don and Deb's daily chat with the grandchildren in Morehead City North Carolina was in jeopardy. After a day or so here we learned where some WiFi was available and the best place in the park to get a phone signal so we all survived. These stops (without cell) allow much more time for reading our books.

Face Time with Grandkids

The first full day in Sequoia National Park we headed to the Lodgepole visitor center and gathered information about making the most of our day. We decided to take a shuttle from there to the Sherman tree area and hike from there through the Giant Forest to the Giant Forest museum (about 4 miles). It was a great walk with a picnic lunch on the way where we were able to see and get close to some of the most amazing trees on earth - including the largest tree on earth (Sherman tree).

Sequoia Stump near park entrance

Giant Trees

On the hiking trail in the giant forest - people in the picture add perspective to the trees enormous size

There are warnings about bears (Black Bears, not grizzly's) posted everywhere and bear boxes for food so we always had out eyes peeled hoping to spot one or two. Fortunately while riding the shuttle to the Sherman tree we saw a very cute little cub (blond in color) scamper across the road in front of us - no photos because he was really in a hurry. 🐻

After a brief visit to the Giant Forest museum we took another shuttle to Moro rock where we had 385 steps up to the top. The views were amazing there but Don and I didn't make it to the top - he was nervous and I was tired. But our girls pushed on and said it was amazing at the very top. After a selfie at the top we met them back on the ground floor for a couple shuttle rides back to our vehicle and on to camp.

Moro Rock View

Don & Deb headed up Moro Rock

The Climb

Taken at the top of Moro Rock

A Culinary experiment - Back in Texas we met a neighbor named Joe (from Tyler Texas) who bragged about a dutch oven cobbler recipe that was to die for so I think it was at the Grand Canyon where we tried his recipe one evening - we were not impressed. Since we had to buy a 5lb bag of self rising flour (takes up alot of room) to try it, we were now committed to continue trying and improving on what I'll call the cobbler experiment. Over the campfire we all agreed that Grandma Waters' cobbler recipe would do well in the dutch oven - WOW, it was great and we fully intend to do some more of that.

When we signed up to make a stop at Sequoia I knew Kings Canyon National Park was fairly close but I didn't really know they were actually adjoining. The two parks take up a significant amount of mountainous acreage so alot of driving. We spent the entire next day driving the kings canyon portions of the park checking out the views and roadside pull outs with stops at visitors centers. It was a beautiful drive.

Kings River - very rapid water

Viewing Roaring River Falls - short hike from the road

Driving into Kings Canyon

We had made contact earlier with some old friends from GTMO, Don and Martha Munroe and Bill and Norma Smith who live in the Lemoore area of California. We told them that we would make every effort to visit during our trip. As we looked at options it seemed logical to get down the mountain to see them on the next day while camped in Sequoia - we had a wonderful visit, a nice meal together and sharing photos and stories of the past.

Enjoying a meal (Mexican) in Hanford, California

Back at camp that evening (our last here) we began to break down the camping operation in preparation for the move on over to the California coast.

Some additional photos from this leg posted below:

Grizzly Falls

Clam view over dinner

Moro Rock View
We read that while we were at an elevations of nearly 6000 feet here, the mountains in the back were a full mile higher!

Giant Forest Hiking Trail

Burnt out from forest fire but still living

Giant Forest hiking trail

Several downed trees had a walkway carved through them

Snow still visible in many places

Driving view