Use the Ponies

Friday 02 Nov 2018

On the road again today after repacking our suitcases to cram souvenirs around superfluous jumpers and long pants – this trip has certainly been warmer than expected for late fall!

 

 Our outstanding GPS took us on a peak hour freeway tour of Northern Hollywood/LA. Eventually we made to the Pacific Highway and went north past the well to do’s that live along the coast. Malibu has some expensive real estate and we continued past until we got to Carpinteria State Beach where we politely declined paying $10 to park in one car park and instead parked for free in a side road on the other side of the kerb from the car park AND closer to the beach.  Go figure!  We stopped at this beach because Jenny’s research had said it had tar pools where the native Americans used to make canoes and also rocky pools to explore. The bit we stopped at, however, basically consisted of a very nice stretch of white sand.  So we basically spent 5 minutes going ‘What a nice beach with very nice white sand’ and then hopped back in the car.  Thank goodness we hadn’t parked for $10!

Onwards to Santa Barbara where we decided it was lunch time. Called into the Shoreline Cafe and had a very nice lunch and Larry decided to test his ability to drink beer again after being sick for the last two weeks. We can report that the trial was successful so he followed it up with another to ensure it was an appropriate test. 

Back into the Mustang and after all that beer it was Jenny behind the wheel.  We decided to put the roof down and headed inland as we were headed for Solvang which is a Danish inspired town. Well it was 34deg by the time we got to the town and our ears and necks were burning as it was hot. A very nice town and we had a Danish from the bakery and Jenny hadn’t had a coffee today yet so that was sorted.

Back into the Mustang, this time with the roof back on and we took some back roads as it was interesting to see the massive fruit and veg growing farms. From what we could tell they are strawberries, lettuce, broccoli , grapes and artichokes etc all ground grown fruit and veg.

Called into Pismo beach for a look and quite nice.  We walked onto the jetty past an old bloke tunelessly singing away into a microphone (not quite sure why he is allowed?) and chatted to some guys fishing.  He very nicely explained what he was trying to catch and how to catch it but wasn’t’ having much luck.  We have found everywhere we have gone in America that the people are nice and friendly and more than willing to have a chat.  Back into the car this time and we decided as it was a bit later in the day we would try with the top down and off we went towards Cambia. Well first the windows went up and after about 20 minutes we had to stop at a red light and the top went back on. It was freezing as the temp had dropped to 18deg but the wind chill factor on the highway caused it to feel much lower.

Arrived in Cambria at our motel just in time for sunset and it was pretty good. We went to the beach and watched the seals poke their heads out of the water as if to say peek a boo before going under and coming up again close by to repeat it.  We stayed watching them for quite a while until the sea went that oily mirror grey that it does just after sunset and then headed back to the motel for jumpers and long pants as it had grown quite chilly.

A very nice dinner at a restaurant close by of seafood chowder for Jenny and Larry had seafood pasta washed down with a couple of Coors Light stubbies to confirm the earlier tests were accurate.  We then had a shower and grappled with the most interesting tap we have come across on our travels and that includes the weird boxes in the UK.  This one consisted of one tap but you had to tilt it, push it and turn it to get the water and temperature right.  It seemed a bit ironic that there are signs everywhere telling you how desperately short of water Cambria is and yet they give you a shower tap that means you waste 3 minutes worth of water down the plughole trying to get the water right!!

And so to bed.  A big driving day today, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more leisurely.