March 29 & 30, 2005

March 29 & 30, 2005

Lompoc to Big Sur State Park

Big Sur State Park to Watsonville, California

DAYS 284 & 285

 

Tuesday ; We left Lompoc this morning, filling up with diesel before we left town. We headed north on Hwy. 1. I wanted to drive California Hwy. 1 for at least a couple of days, and these two days were certainly the right choice. This is the stretch of Hwy. 1 known as Big Sur Highway. It winds along the side of the Santa Lucia Mountains, along the Pacific Coast. Very narrow 2 lane road, high up the side of the mountain, curving, winding, tight switchbacks ! Oh, boy ... it's known as California's most dangerous highway. It was like the ultimate RV'ers challenge ! It makes the Sea To Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler look like a drive around the block. I am amazed that I managed to not scrape the side of the trailer against the mountain on the many tight, right hand curve switchbacks. I needed both lanes of the road to get around a lot of the switchbacks. The margin for error is pretty narrow. Too close on the right hand side, the trailer scrapes the mountain. Too far over onto the left side, and you plummet hundreds of feet down to the Pacific Ocean below. In many places, there is chicken wire holding back the rocks from sliding down onto the road. In many places where there isn't chicken wire, rocks are sliding down onto the road. The upside was the jaw dropping scenery. This stretch of California Pacific Coast is immortalized in the rock and roll songs of our youth. Pismo Beach, Pebble Beach, Ventura Highway, Monterey, etc..

After about 7 hours of very stressful driving, with lots of short stops to take pictures, we stopped for the night at Big Sur State Park. Our rig is too big for their campground, so we paid 20 bucks ( U.S. ! ) for the privilege of dry camping in a picnic site area parking lot !

 

Wednesday ; We started out from Big Sur State Park this morning expecting to be able to fill up with diesel at the nearby town of Big Sur. No such luck. No diesel in Big Sur ! We continued north on Hwy. 1 / Big Sur Highway to Carmel Highlands, where I found a station with diesel. It was a station meant to service all the rich and famous folks in the area, with Mercedes Benzs, not 47 foot long RV’s. I had to sort of back my way in, and ask other people to move their cars to allow me room to squeeze in. Once filled up, I could relax a bit. Dee-Dee was really sucking dust the last few miles, and this would have been a hell of a place to run out of gas. Just a few miles later, and we were at the city of Monterey. We decided to get off the highway, and go explore the Monterey Peninsula. There is a 17 mile drive around the peninsula ( $8.50 toll, please ) called, of course, Seventeen Mile Drive. It winds ( again ... winding being the operative word ! ) around the privately owned Monterey Peninsula, and houses the very rich and the very famous. We stopped at famous Pebble Beach for lunch. Bo and I romped in the surf !

At the end of Seventeen Mile Drive, just before you leave the Monterey Peninsula, is the very chic town of Carmel-By-The-Sea. I think Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor a few years ago. Yesterday and today were marvellous adventures, although when these roads were developed, big rig RV’s didn’t exist, so the last 2 days were pretty RV unfriendly. We came off the Monterey Peninsula, and back onto Hwy.1 at Monterey. We continued north along the coast to the city of Watsonville, where we are camped for the night at Pinto Lake Park, a very nice municipal campground, on a lake, on the outskirts of the city. The camping fees for serviced sites are outrageously expensive in California, and to add insult to injury, all campgrounds charge extra if you have a dog ! That damn little rat shit terrier cost me 2 bucks extra tonight !

DSK