On the Road in the Left Whale: 4 June 2024: Last weeks at the coast for a while

My people

Spent 6 days at the Rincon Parkway State park. Surfed Mondo's - a surf spot for beginners.The surf was pretty small...

Mondo's

Also went to look at THE rincon break. Awesome, but unfortunately no surf. I did however meet Aza? who lives/squats in no-mans land by the break and provides food and beer for any surfer who wants. "I know all the judges and policemen in town and they are all surfers so they let me stay".

Did not see any, so...

Nearly looks like Alikreukel

Rincon - according to Aza, when it works, it is a loooong ride - and I can believe him.

Just down the road from Rincon Parkway RV park is the Emma Woods RV park. Unfortunately it is showing all the signs of the severe winter storms that has hit California. The park is closed, the road is washed out and either it should never have been built this close to the ocean, or this is what is waiting for the whole coastline in a few years....

Global warming results are here

Abandoned

Went out to explore Ventura. They have a massive marina where I bet 75% of the boats have not been out of the harbor in the last year....

Then Memorial Day weekend was upon us and I had not booked any place to stay... eventually found a site at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara. Really love SB - very very wealthy town (Oprah, etc. live here), but so so nice. They blocked off the main street - State street - to be a 3 mile long pedestrian walk with shops, bars, live music lining the street. Lots of students and just an amazing viby town. Did a 30 mile cycle down the coast and it was like cycling through a aboratorium - the smells of jasmine, jacarandas, etc. were just amazing.

What the public Defenders office should look like - Santa Barbara Mission building

Unfortunately I only know the 'old' South African name for this tree, but it is beautiful

The bicycle parth

Different type of palm tree

Manicured palms... only in Santa Barbara

Flowers, pelicans and oil rigs.

Then headed back to rincon parkway where Greg, Loretta and Riley were going to be for a few days. Hung out with them and got in at least one swim (although it was with wet suits on).

Taco's at the Ventura pier = note the jackets...

View at Rincon parkway from the lounge...

Then on Wednesday headed back to Pismo beach. Had to take Barbie out on the beach. Its the only beach in California where you can drive on the beach with a street car. Barbie did not go topless, but she behaved very well and got lots of stares and thumbs up. I even got a jeep wave or two...

Picked up the smallest Sand$ ever - that is it on the larger one just for perspective. Unfortunately it had a hole in it

Had to get the flag... but it is what you would think it should be

Once the weekend arrived again it was a scramble to get a site booked. With summer here, it is really difficult to get anything. I decided that seeing that I was heading up into the mountains, the Whale had to be in tip-top condition, and it was starting to 'hesitate' again going up hills, so booked it in at Pismo for new spark plugs (only 3000 miles since the last ones, so ???).

Headed back to Morro beach state park for the weekend - only place I could get a site. Unfortunately in California you cannot sleep in the Walmart/Cracker Barrel parking lot (else everyone would do it). Got to the campsite only to see a 4ft long garter snake sunning itself - it was very big for a local snake, and unfortunately before I could get a pic, it was gone.

Heard some great live music in Morro Bay over the weekend

The Whale at Morro Bay State Beach park

Beautiful bicycle/walk path to town

So all the 'vyggies'/figs are from the Cape and foreign to the States - they are everywhere

On Sunday headed back to Pismo for the Whale's TLC on Monday. As luck would have it, I saw the last part of the local 'Wheels' festival - awesome cars.