Author: sandcastle

At Will Rogers State Beach, just north of Santa Monica, Califronia, there are masses of volleyball nets on the beach. No one was playing today but I bet they get well used in the summertime.

We drove by the Santa Monica Pier which is where we had intended to end our Route 66 journey but we got there too late in the day to stop then. We didn’t stop now either. We seem to just be driving south without stopping at any tourist places on this trip. Part of that is wanting to avoid as much as we can of this winter storm.

We also drove by the Electronic Arts building. That won’t mean anything to most of you but they create most of my favorite computer games.

The road goes under part of LAX. It looked like one plane was going to land right on the road we were on but the road curved and the plane ended up on its runway. Then we drove under another runway. My those planes are huge when you get up that close.

I saw a restaurant called “Fatburger”. Truth in advertising?

You know those sports team flags people fly from their car windows? This car had antlers above its windows. And a red ball fastened to its hood ornament. Rudolph the red nosed Jaguar?

I saw an LA policeman who had stopped a vehicle. That in itself was not amazing but the policeman was wearing plaid shorts! Only in LA.

The Port of Los Angeles is lots of refineries, containers, and cranes. Very industrious looking.

In Long Beach, just past the port, we saw the first truck stop we have seen in a long time. Trucks don’t tend to drive the roads we’ve been driving.

By Long Beach City College, we saw electric hybrid buses. Cool!

I saw a very large, very old, water tower than had been converted to an apartment. It was “For Rent/Lease.” I bet you have a great view of the ocean from up there but I sure wouldn’t want to haul my groceries up those stairs.

We finally drove out of the city and stopped at Huntington State Beach to check out the camping there. Wow! $60 per night! OK that includes electricity but… We didn’t stay there.

In Minneapolis we have streets that are lined with one after another car dealer. Here in Newport Beach they have a row of yacht and ship dealers. We have lots of lakes in the Minneapolis area and several boat sales places but I don’t remember anything like this even along Lake Minnetonka.

A housing complex had fences made of sheets of glass between posts. Must not block the views, I guess.  I sure wouldn’t want to have to wash all those windows.

In Laguna Beach a shop called “Toes on the Nose” offers surf lessons.

After trying multiple entrances to multiple beaches we finally found the one that lead to Doheny State Beach Campground. My new pass got us a beach front site with no hookups for $15. We were close enough that even I could walk to the top of the small dune to see the beach.  

 

I sure got my Crocs full of sand, though. And the sand was very wet. I put out our door mat to wipe my feet on before going back inside.

TTYL,

Linda

This morning Dave called an authorized generator repair place in Ventura, California. Their guy that works on LPG generators works Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and they take work on a first come first served basis. I am NOT going to be there at 7 a.m. Monday morning. But, it does look like we will hang around this area until Monday so they can look at it.

Riding along I saw a U.S. flag with an RV flag flying under it. It marked the entrance to El Capitan RV Resort. If we’d been looking for a place to stop, that would likely have worked for me.

This road maintained by “Blenders in the Grass”. Cocktails on the lawn? A bar? Some neighborhood group? Sounds like an interesting group to me.  Well read, anyway.

There don’t appear to be any Super WalMarts around here so we stopped at Vons for groceries. Dave says they are expensive and they only had half the things on our list.

Today’s street is “Santa Claus Lane.” I’m suddenly hearing Gene Autry singing “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Do you suppose the kids who live here expect him to come every day?

And what’s with that name anyway? I know it started with Saint Nicholas  But think about it. We’re in California so we are used to seeing lots of saints names. San Francisco. San Pedro. Santa Maria. Santa Rosa. Santa Claus. Wait! Santa Claus is female? 

In Ventura, California, where Highway 126 splits off from Highway 101, you go right to go left or left to go right. Is that clear?

We stopped at a mall. No, we are not doing Christmas shopping. Although stopping at a mall on Saturday this close to Christmas may not be the smartest move we’ve made lately, we do have chores that need to be done and it seems to make sense to do them while waiting for the generator place to reopen. So, we bought more groceries. And we bought the ribbons we are supposed to tie to our antenna if we go to the Escapees Class of ’08 gathering in Quartzsite, Arizona, next month. And we had KFC for lunch.

Then we went to McGrath State Beach to camp for the night.  We figured we’d charged our batteries enough between the solar panels and the alternator working while driving to be able to get by without hookups again tonight.  We’ll see how that works without being able to recharge using the generator.

TTYL,

Linda

Our batteries were at 73% this morning so I get to have microwaved turkey bacon for breakfast. I’ve been surprised to learn I like it better that way than cooked in a skillet.

We are not level in this campsite; I am very conscious of the fact that I am on the downhill side of the table. Please, don’t spill anything.

Along this stretch of road there are stiles over the fences between the parking and the beach  I wonder what else is on the beach side of the fences? Or is it what’s on this side?  

CalTran trucks have small blades on the front of them. If this was Minnesota the blades would be bigger and they would be snowplows. Dave wondered if these are for clearing landslides?

Another sign that we are not in Minnesota is road construction in December. In Minnesota the roads are frozen by now if not buried under snow or ice.

A sign in a pullout said, “No overnight parking or camping.  $200 fine.” Ouch! That’s some expensive boondocking!

The road is wet from waves washing over it. They missed us, though. Our RV needs washing but I don’t think we want it done by saltwater waves.

We saw a tour bus pulled into a view area so we stopped to see what they were all looking at.  Here’s what we saw:

   

We also saw two Views.  (The back one is ours.)

We saw the Hearst Castle sitting up on a hill but we drove right by the turn to it. We aren’t even tempted by massive houses any more. We LIKE small.

A nearby sign said the road was maintained by “Hearst Castle Employees.” I wonder if that’s a condition of employment? I can hear the interview, “You will also be required to walk along the highway picking up things people didn’t want to keep in their own cars.”

Another sign said, “No overnight parking or camping for the next mile.” Does that mean it’s OK to do so beyond that?

We went to McDonald’s for lunch. They were playing Christmas Carols  As we left they were playing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” In high school I learned the Spanish version of that song. In trying to remember it I found myself remembering my teacher telling us we must not translate things too literally  I plead guilty to having done that in the past. Take the Terminator’s “Hasta la vista, Baby.” If I have this correct, that literally means, “See the view, Baby.” Hmmm. If I think about where many people go to see good views I think about lookouts. So maybe he’s really saying, “Look out, Baby. I’ll be back.”

The road sign indicating a golf course ahead had a picture of a golfer in full swing. I suppose he has to be in full swing. If he was putting, it might just be a miniature golf course.

Under the sign pointing the way to the County Sheriff Department was another sign saying, “Animal Shelter.” Do you suppose that refers to the jail?

I was kidding! How was I supposed to know the next thing I would see would be high fencing with guard posts along it?!

In Oceano, California, there’s a dinner train that goes nowhere. It’s a diner is made up of several parked dining cars.

In Lompoc, California, we saw a sky that, if we’d seen it in Minnesota, it would be raining now.

I wonder what it would be like to live on “A” street. “B” street would be easier to handle. I can hear the conversation. “What street do you live on?” “A Street.” “Yes, but which street?” You could get a whole Who’s on First routine going if you lived on “A” street.

I saw a bicyclist scratching his back just above his bike shorts. What do you want to bet he’s sunburned there?

I know we have two things on our Home Depot shopping list. What’s the other one?

I pulled a winter scarf from my bag to cover my hands. Because they are hot not cold. I am trying to keep them from getting any more sunburned. I could apply sun screen but I don’t like the feel of the sunscreen I have so I’ll try this awhile.

“End Highway 1”–for real this time, I think. It’s now 34 miles to Santa Barbara on Highway 101.

We stopped at a rest area to get the wiggles out. Apparently I can sit still just so long, then I start adjusting my position every few seconds. I’m glad Dave decided to stop. Obviously, I needed to stretch.

We are now seeing oil rigs off shore. I wonder if they sit just beyond the three mile limit so as to not be regulated by California laws?

We pulled into site 16 at Refugio State Beach. $20 to boondock on the ocean here.

We were using our generator to recharge our batteries when the generator stopped. We don’t know why. The fault code says, “Engine stopped without command by controller.” Really helpful, that. It is, of course, Friday night. Now what?

TTYL,

Linda