Pismo Bound

Wednesday: (12/17) I stopped off at work for a pancake breakfast at 7am. That meant getting up about 5am. Too much like the old days! Not too many changes there at work. Excellent pancakes, sausage and eggs. It almost seemed like old home week. All the recent retirees were there. It was nice to catch up on what's happened this past year.

I met up with Lou and Dawn at a nearby park, hooked up the toad and we were off about 11am. They can get bored as I catch up on all the news so they did their own thing for breakfast. We stopped in King City to do a little shopping. We needed to replace our drinking water bottles. I also needed a nap and Lou needed one as well so I couldn't talk her into driving while I slept.

We made another stop in Paso Robles for Lou and Dawn to check a thrift store then we were off again toward Pismo Beech. It was getting dark as we selected our campsite. I took a short walk and met a nice cat. The cat and I enjoyed a short hike toward the beech looking at the sunset.

We went out to Country Kitchen Restaurant in Arroyo Grande. Unfortunately, our favorite fish and chips restaurant is closed through Christmas.


Thursday: (12/18) Wow, quite a difference today. Last night it was cool/cold and hazy and overcast. This morning, it's clear and 52 degrees now at 10 am. Looks like a great day. Google says it's 41 degrees at home in Palo Alto and having showers today. 30 minutes ago it was only 34 degrees. The weather in Pismo is usually good and I hope good weather follows us on this trip. However, we saw a report this morning about 4 inches of snow last night in Las Vegas, our destination? Above left our campsite. On the right one of the many flooded areas. You would have to be careful where you pitched a tent.


We took a walk on the beach this morning. Above left some of the birds playing at the surfs edge. Right, the boardwalk back to camp. Our RV at the end. The weather is quite nice. Later we visited several thrift stores in Grover Beech.
Lunch at the Girls Restaurant in Arroyo Grande. Lou and Dawn shared a cob salad and I had chicken fried steak and eggs.
Lou and I looked at the Miners hardware store while Dawn looked at a book store. I found the light fixtures I've been looking for but not finding. They are for our side yard lights. I wanted motion controlled lights that had a standard lamp base with a jar lens. They had scads of them. It's one of the best hardware stores we've toured, and we tour them all.
We went up to San Luis Obispo for the Thursday night Farmers Market. We picked up some grapes and avocados.
Back at the RV, we had left overs for dinner.



Friday: (12/19) We returned to San Luis Obispo and visited three thrift stores there as well as the shopping center. Lou and Dawn found a deal on pants. I got a few things at the market.

We also stopped by the Madonna Inn and looked around.

Saturday: (12/20) Another great day. Lou fixed baked potatoes with blue cheese and bacon for breakfast. We then went over to Arroyo Grande and looked through the shops there. Many are closed now that were there last year. An all too common sign of the times. We nibbled our way stopping at the Eclair Bakery. We shared a slice of chocolate pecan pie and a chocolate eclair. and then stopped at Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab and shared a scoop of peppermint ice cream. We also stopped by a pet store that was having a kitten adoption show. Lots of cut kittens.

After all this excitement, we went back to camp and had lunch. A bunch of left overs featuring chicken as the main course.

Next stop was Solvang. We drove the 65 miles down and looked around the village. It seemed like a good place to get a real feel of Christmas. Always on the lookout, I found the paper towel holders I knew existed but hadn't been able to find until now, not for lack of looking. Dawn examined a couple of book shops.

We topped off the visit with a stop in Buellton at Pea Soup Anderson's for pea soup, of course. We got back to camp camp a little after 8 pm.

Sunday: (12/21) Lou fixed breakfast burritos for breakfast. We went over to look at the butterflies again and I snapped a few pics. The Lou and Dawn were off in the car to Nipomo, about 12 miles South of camp, to a flea market. I took care of the RV, dumping the tanks and then headed down to meet them. We hooked up nearby an were on the road to Bakersfield via Highway 166.

At the summit above Maricopa there was still some snow on the side of the road. It must have We continued on to Helen's place in Bakersfield. We went over to Carrow's resataurant for a bite of lunch.