Tuesday, May 28th, 2024 ~ Up at 8am after hitting the snooze twice. It’s a quick breakfast of cereal & blueberries, coffee and tea. Unfortunately, I woke up with a very sore throat so it’s Coracedin time. Packed up, flushed and on the road by 8:45! It’s 82° with a high of 104°. Lots of hay trucks on I-10, then hundreds of Wind Turbines on both sides of the road and up the hills. Looked on as we passed Desert Hot Springs, casinos, Pasadena, ABC, Hollywood, Mulholland Drive, Rose Bowl and so much more! 12:15pm it’s 73°. What a gorgeous day with a cool breeze. Stopped at a Mc Donald’s for a quick snack and 2 Diet Coke’s. 🥤 Back on the road we passed Hollywood Studios, Dodger Stadium, Universal Studios, Beverly Hills (Rodeo Drive) & Hollywood Walk of Fame! 🎥 Guess we’ll be back! 2pm we drove through Padres National Forest then passed Malibu Beach and Santa Barbara! 🏖️
Now the scenery has changed as we are driving through a mountainous area with lots of switch backs. We’re finally along the coastline and can see the Pacific Ocean on CA-1. Then back inland for a while. Grapevines cover the valley’s & hills for miles. Lots of wineries on both sides as we drive on by. Now the scenery changed a bit with farms…cows, goats & lots of horses. Rocks, coastline and sea stacks and cliffs as we drive up the coastline. Very winding switchback road up the mountain to our campground. Passed a very little town ~ Gorda. 5:35pm, we arrived at Paskett Creek Campground. Site #21, level back-in site. No hookups and lots of shaded! It was cool so on went jackets while we setup. We walked the campground, lots of tents and then we made dinner. It’s 8:44pm and its 57*. Traveled 389 long miles today…busy highway then winding, cliff roads!
Wednesday, May 29th, 2024 Day 59 ~ 🥶 Brrr, the heater went on a many times last night. It got down to 62.8* inside… outside 50.4*. Beautiful view of the ocean out of our front windows. 10:45am sunny 64* we enjoyed breakfast, and our coffee & tea then dressed warmly for the high is only 66* today. The camp hosts came over and talked awhile telling us about the area. Only 8 miles up the road and it’s closed due to the road has slid into the ocean. They feel this area will go next over the next year. Yikes! All of a sudden, we see a Smoothie Patrol van was driving through the campground! Kids were running up to it just like the old ice cream trucks that drove through neighborhoods when we were younger.
11am, we left to explore the area heading north on California 1, only about 8 miles where it was closed. We could see up the road where the whole side had just sheared off into the ocean. How scary and this happened 2 years ago! (Pacific Valley) One of the houses we passed had a gorgeous front yard filled with pastel flowers. 💐 The view of the coastline was absolutely beautiful. We stopped at all the turnoffs and did a few of the day hikes. Stopped at a small campground, where one of the volunteers showed us around. He told us of a few more places to explore and off we went. Took a road that went under a bridge where we walked along the rocks and beach area looking for Jade Rocks. No luck! Off to explore a few more day use paths where we climbed a few stairs to go over a fence and back down to the other side. Surprised when we came across cows deep into this field. Lots of lizards, squirrels, chipmunks & birds. We decided to drive into Gorda. We passed the Fire Forest Fire Station and surprised to see green fire trucks!
Gorda …. Well, it had a small Hotel, Whale Watchers restaurant, City Hall, Gas Station, LP Sales, all attached to a small grocery store and at the end of it all a set of mailboxes! That’s the town of Gorda! The size of a football field! 🤦🏻♀️ No kidding! Tim bought a Mexican blanket a bottle of Diet Coke and 2 small fountain🥤Diet Coke’s …..OMG he paid $5.00 a piece for them!!! For a grand total of $44.95!!! Next, we drove to a vista where we saw a Rookery out on a big rock in the ocean with lots of seals. Walked down the beach watching the sunset and saw lots of pelicans & sea gulls resting. Traveled 26 miles today.
Thursday, May 30th, 2024 (Day 60) ~ Cold, sunny, 49* with a high of maybe 60*. Long sleeve, pants and jacket day! 🧥 Started the day with oatmeal & blueberries and our coffee & tea. Left at 9am for our tour of Piedras Blancas Light Station. We met everyone at an old hotel then caravanned to the site. This guided tour is only given once a week and hosted by the Lighthouse Association. After the guided tour, we were given 1 1/2 hours to walk the trail. We saw Brown Pelicans, sea gulls, & seals on the white rock. Along the trail we saw the beginning of the elephant seal beach …which covers the next 12 miles of the beach!! We checked out the gift shop and Tim found a shirt.
Then we drove to a vista point where we saw 1000’s of elephant seals. A volunteer was on the boardwalk and she explained to us all about the seals. They breed, birth their pups, & come to this area every year to molt. She had pieces of molded skin for us to feel. Really soft.
Off to our next adventure…. drove to Hearst Castle. We had enough time before our tour to have lunch there. We had a burger, chicken sandwich and drinks = $47.33. We boarded the bus that took us up the hill to see the Castle of William Randolph Hearst…a publishing Tycoon who spent years building and adding on to his castle. As we got closer the castle, there was a mile long circular Pergola, lots of fruit trees and even a zoo where he had polar bears for his guests to see. We got to tour the grounds (manicured trees, shrubs and every kind of flower), the Assembly room, Refectory room, Billard room, Theater, Gardens, Neptune Pool & Roman Pool with Gold on the floor! Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities with old master European painting, sculptures and decorative art adorns the castle. 30 historic carved and painted ceilings from Renaissance Italy & Spain. He hired Julia Morgan (the first Architect in California) and he built the castle from 1919-1947 on 127 acres. Now it sits on 82,000 acres. In 2021 the estate was sold for 63.1 million. At the end of the tour, we watched a 45-minute film about the castle. We then went to San Simeon Village but it was closing but we were able to walk the grounds. On the way back to our campground we stopped at Ragged Point for a drink and summer melon salad. The heater was needed when we returned and we called it a night! Traveled 62 miles today!
Friday, May, 31st 2024 ~ 😴 Slept in…. Foggy day all day! Not one ray from the sun! High only suppose to be is 58* 12:30pm only 58* fair and still no sun. Made scrambled eggs, bacon & cheese casserole. Picked up and packed some things up throughout the day. Talked with Matthew and all is going good back home. Took a nap! We stayed in pjs all day. Then Tim packed up the outside and then stayed inside all day. Cold and gloomy out. We didn’t travel any miles today!
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