We started the day right. The final packing to leave went well. Lou cleaned the fridge and loaded it from the house. Mostly unrelated, I moved all the plants out of the green house back into the yard. I hope we have had our last freeze. It's been so nice recently. I hope to get chance to see how the drip system works before we take off for a longer trip later this spring.
We had dinner at the Longhorn Restaurant in Gilroy. We all shared ravioli and Beef Valentino which is something like veal scalopini. They also made a wonderful ministroni soup.
Lou and Dawn had to return to San Jose to pick up some things which puts us quite late leaving. I waited at Wallmart's in Gilroy. I topped off the gas tank. We hadn't used too much since the last fillup with only the trip to Santa Cruz and back but the price was good at the station here only $3.51 compared to $3.76 at home. I also filled couple of our drinking water bottles and got some tea at the Super Wallmarts. Then I found an open WiFi hotspot and did some updates to the blog before the hotspot became cold.
When Lou and Dawn returned, we headed on South stopping 20 miles North of Paso Robles at a rest stop for the night.
Friday: We were up early and made it to Pismo Beach SP by 7am. We checked it out and there won't be a problem getting a spot.
We then went over to Francisco's for breakfast. I had the corned beef hash, Lou had biscuits and gravy and Dawn had oatmeal.
We settled into our campsite, the same(#19) as on our last visit. It's not our favorite spot, they are all reserved, but it is good for the solar and satellite and is one of the best interior spots with no close neighbors.
Lou and Dawn walked the beach to Pismo village. I completed my blog updates. When they got to the Pismo pier, Lou called and invited me to lunch at Pismo Fish and Chip, our favorite restaurant here. By the time I arrived from camp, they had ordered two fish and chips that we shared.
They continued their exploration around town and I returned to camp. I wasn't feeling great so I took a nap. When Lou and Dawn returned, they took the car into Grover City to check a few thrift stores.
We've noticed that there are birds here at this campsite and the neighboring site, maybe all over the park that have a problem with their reflection. They can't resist seeing it. Last time we were here a bird couldn't resist the RV's windshield nor the cars. The result was very messy windows and hoods and grills. Fortunately on this visit there were more interesting targets. One was this pot left on the table in the campsite across the road. I'd hate to forget to look inside before cooking up dinner.
On the right above are a few of the huge eucalyptus blossoms.
About sunset I walked out to the beach to watch the sunset. I took a few pictures which I think will look good.
Just after dark the frogs really raised their voices in song. There is more water left in stream beds throughout the park, more than normally found in the park. Most of th stream beds are dry most of the time except for one all year stream that skirts around the East and South sides
When Lou and Dawn returned, I started a campfire while Lou prepared a salad and roasted red pepper soup. We topped it with the cheesecake I picked up last night.
The weekend crowd is arriving into camp. Lots of people arrive very late.
Saturday: Breakfast was leftovers. i had some of Lou's fried potatoes, Lou had her biscuits and gravy and Dawn had her oatmeal. Their leftovers were from day before yesterday's. Francisco's breakfast. All that supplemented with some microwave bacon. Generator time here is from 10am-8pm. We haven't used our generator here yet but many people start their's up even before 8am. Fortunately, most of them are quiet running but still, a rule is a rule to me? Back to the point, it's nice to have a large battery pack and solar to allow microwave use when you want rather than when you can run the generator.
We really like this park, and the area. There are a couple of drawbacks though. Of course there is the obvious, we're right next to one of the very few nuclear power plants in California. It's never comforting to see the signs warning what to do if the sirens sound. Another problem with this State Park is that unlike most of them, this one does not have WiFi. Most California state parks have WiFi provided by ATT which I can use. It is faster than the satellite and it uses much less power. My little laptop only uses about a half amp. When I want to conserve battery, for more important things like breakfast, it's nice to have a little WiFI. There is always any McDonald''s or Starbuck's which also have ATT WiFi and the laptop lasts for about 4 hours of use so I can always hang around one of them, even though i don't eat at McDonald's and don't drink coffee. I need a fast internet connection to update a sick website.
Lou and Dawn are off to visit every thrift shop, antique store and book store in the county so I'll be using my bike to explore today.
When I was headed home from a visit downtown, Lou called about lunch. We met at the RV. She fixed ??
We relaxed around camp all afternoon then went back to Grover City. Dawn looked around a book store and Lou and I looked around a hardware store. They have wonderful hardware stores here.
For dinner we went to the Girls restaurant. I had a senior tritip dinner and Lou and Dawn shared a spegetti dinner. Then back to camp for the evening.
Sunday: Breakfast was grapefruit and cereal. We enjoyed the nice sunny day eating breakfast and watching all the weekend visitors prepare to leave. Today. We're off to San Luis Obispo (SLO) today. First stops were a couple of Goodwill stores. At the second, we met Helen's neighbors. They are over for the weekend. They have a mobile home in the La Sage park next door to the State park. Small world. Next stop downtown. We filled up most of the parking meter before we were reminded that it was Sunday and they were free today. Thanks!
Monday: We worked around camp all morning. Me on my sick website, Lou and Dawn on their crafts. Lou fired up the kiln to cook her doll heads. They also met the man in th next campsite. He noticed them working on their crafts and he offered to give Dawn a class on making wire trees.
We tried to go to the Pismo Fish and Chips restaurant but they are closed on Mondays. Some day we'll learn their schedule. We went over to Brad's and each had a bowl of chowder.
About 2pm we walked down the beach to Oceana and then back through the Oceana State Park and via Highway 1 back home. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ponds in Oceana park. We thought the whole park was as drab as the full hookup area at the front of the park. The rear is quite nice.
Tuesday: We started the day well with fresh granola cereal mixed with flax cereal. While Dawn had her wire tree making class and Lou visited, I prepped the RV to roll including a visit to the sanitary dump. A little before noon, we headed South on Highway 1 through the countryside, through Guadalupe and into Santa Maria. Lou wanted to try out Barbecue Land (1975 S Broadway, Santa Maria). She had read a good review on it and is craving BBQ. I liked my BBQ pork chops and the coleslaw was an award winner in my book. Lou and Dawn had the BBQ tri-tip it looked good to. Lou said it was good but wouldn't drive out of her way, again, to eat there.
We then headed toward Bakersfield on Highway 166. We turned on Old River Road to come into Bakersfield from the West. Once at Helen's, we were setup in no time.
Dinner was, of course, BBQ at Famous Dave's (7777 Rosedale Highway,Bakersfield, California), a chain of BBQ restaurants that opened a store here in Bakersfield. We all shared two dinner plates, a Texas Brisket and a shredded pork. More than enough for the four of us. It was quite good too!
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