Friday: (01/22) Our new campsite above left. It was raining all morning ending with a long flurry of hail just after noon. Lou went out to get her glasses fixed and do some thrifting and had to hide the car under a service station canopy when it hailed. They were only 1/4-3/8" sized pellets but to us Californians, any solid object falling from the sky is a threat.
Lou and I went up to Pismo Beach for dinner at the Pismo Fish and Chips. We shared a bowl of clam chowder and a four piece fish and coleslaw. We looked around near the pier and found there was a lot of sea weed piled on the beach now and a lot of sand missing from the beach. The tides did get high.
We also stopped at our old campsite, North Campground that was closed due to possible flooding. It's no longer possible but actual. Our site is entirely under water, inches but wet all the same. It cold be called North Lake now. Very few butterflies to be seen and those that could be seen weren't moving very much. The weather has been tough for them recently. We expect a nice weekend so it will be interesting to see how many come out.
I stopped at an RV supply store Lou saw on Grand Avenue near McDonald's. It was very well stocked since it probably recently opened. I did manage to find something I needed, almost impossible not to. I drove off without my Lynx wheel chock and need another but Camping World doesn't carry them anymore, just some other incompatible brand now. I find they are very handy when using a bunch of Lynx leveling blocks (like big Legos for RVers) to use the chock to help arrive and stay at the top of the pile of blocks. So I bough a set.
When we returned to camp we took a walk out to the beach and South to Arroyo Grande Creek and the Oceano Dunes. The creek is running full and flowing to the ocean. We met Larry there doing the same and he asked where we were from. We said Palo Alto and he said he's a retired Palo Alto High School teacher, retired 20 years ago. He lives nearby in an ocean front house we had admired on our walk down the beach. The house is unusual because it has a high pitched roof with a lateral round dormer going through the middle. Unlike any other house we've seen before. When he described his house we knew it was the one we'd seen and discussed before. Turns out he bought the place back when a teacher could afford a beach cottage. Now all the cottages have been replaced with mega houses. When his neighbor built one next to him, he started expanding his into a house. After he retired he designed and built a second floor. He's now a sculpter and artist in many media and it was interesting talking with him and getting a tour of his house. It's amazing what you can learn by talking to strangers. We made it back to camp just after sunset.
Saturday: (01/23) I fixed some breakfast sandwiches using the last of the artichoke sour dough bread from the Pescadero store, garlic cheese, fried eggs and European bologna. After breakfast we hiked up to the North campground via the Oceano Trail. We stopped for a rest period at the entrance to Oceano Beach at the end of Grand Ave.
There was a man there from Castaic that had been in the Air Force, as I was, and had worked up in the bay area for Philco Ford's Western Development Lab in Palo Alto where I had taken a course in the early 70's, and had worked for years in the missile industry which I had worked with, somewhat, when I was in the Air Force in Sunnyvale at the Satellite Test Center. It was interesting chatting about how things were and how common place much of what was complex now is.
We continued into the North Campground which had dried out quite a bit since yesterday. the water was down a foot of more today. Most of the roads are now above the water line. The campground is now populated with a lot of ducks.
The bridge to the butterfly grove is at water level now. Lots of water remains even though it is now ,ore than a foot lower than the high level.
The creek from the campground now flows to the ocean rather than pooling in a lagoon.
Lots of water going down the creek. The beach was clean white sand before the storm. Now it's littered with what looks like all the landscape bark that was at the houses above.
You can swim to your own table. Our old campsite on the right is still rather wet. All that water is normally nice grass. The water was covering the pavement yesterday.
We stopped by the RV Peddler across the street to look a a few RV's then walked back toward home stopping at the Station Grill by the Amtrak Station for a nice choriso breakfast burrito. Choriso wasn't one of the meat choices but we mistakenly asked for it thinking this is where we had one a few days ago but that one was a bacon version. The chef had no problem making it even though it wasn't on the menu and it was past breakfast time being about 1230. It was as good as we thought we remembered it to be. We enjoyed our buritto and teas outside and watched as the Amtrak Starlight train arrived headed North. After our second breakfast of the day, we walked home via the streets on the East side of the railroad tracks back to our campground. We stopped at the Oceano CG Nature Center on the way into the park and watched a Huell Howser video about the Pismo Clams.
When we made it back to camp we were tired so relaxed in our lounge chairs in the sun but that didn't work out to well because the shadows were chasing us. Lou did see one of our red shouldered hawks. I got my camera out but missed it.
Several of the adjacent campsites are occupied by single women. Lou talked with them and learned they are members of a singles camping club. She collected informtion about the club of possible interest for Aunt Helen.
Lou baked another pork roast and potatoes for dinner followed by some fresh cherries for desert.
Sunday: (01/24) Lou fixed pancakes for breakfast. They were really good with the rhubarb spread. We were out early to go to the flea market in San Luis Obispo at the drive in theater. It was a good, real junk type of flea market without the commercial trash vendors. Lou found a nice Pendalton jacket and I found some more of my weird driving caps. We then stopped by a Goodwill thrift store, split a sandwich for lunch from the Von's deli, drove the back road back to Arroyo Grande, stopped at the Miner's Ace Hardware in Grover City to redeem a $5 coupon we received for a 1 dollar purchase last week. I didn't have any particular need when i arrived but we managed to find about $15 worth of stuff and paid only $10. A new pruning blade for the sawsall I carry. It's much easier and safer than using a chain saw for that unofficial campfire. A switch for the TV line cord to allow shutting it off easier when we're using the inverter power. And finally a filter screen for the vent in the RV. All useful items but not needed immediately. 33% savings are always nice but I could have had a 100% savings on a single $5 item. The older I get the more my Scotch heritage develops. Our final mission was major grocery shopping and refilling our filtered water bottles.
When we got home it was nap time. For some reason shopping is like work.
We went to dinner at the Rock And Roll Diner near our campground. It was all you can eat rib tips night. We did our duty. It's a neat diner in a couple of rail cars on Highway 1 in Oceano.
It was supposed to rain this afternoon but hasn't yet at 8pm and likely wont. There was enough cloud cover today to make for a not too productive solar day. Darn!
Tomorrow we will probably depart to head further South but haven't determined our destination yet. Not too far probably just North of Santa Barbara.
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