Day Fourteen - California, It's colder than you'd think...

Carl:
We set out this morning from San Simeon State Park to travel up the famous Big Sur portion of the Pacific Coast Highway. While browsing around last night I’d noticed a flyer at the gatehouse for elephant seal viewing and thought we’d check it out this morning. After 5 miles or so we saw a pulloff area and stopped to have a look.

As soon as we stepped out of the truck our noses told us that we were in the right place. Coming up to the edge, what looked like rocks along the shore turned out to be hundreds of elephant seals. Some were rather dormant while others were barking, howling, or whatever other word you can use to describe the noise they make. Some were just coming in from sea and covering themselves with sand to stay cool, and others were trying to pick a fight. For once we were actually at the right place at the right time, and were able to catch a glimpse of this spectacle.

Moving on up the coast we passed an interesting looking lighthouse out on the rocks. Piedras Blancas is an older lighthouse resembling Ocracoke Island’s, and is currently closed for restoration. As we proceded up the coast we passed by small towns, scattered houses, and incredible vistas. Finally, as we approached Monterey, we turned off to visit the San Carlos Mission.


Lindy:
I had wanted to have the chance to visit a mission while out in the west. San Carlos is found in Carmel, just outside of Monterey, has been standing since sometime in the 1700s, and is still a working parish today. We walked around the garden wall and caught a glimpse of the statuary, flowers, and chapel.

Moving on down the road, we soon made it into San Jose, home of the Winchester Mystery House and the next stop of our journey. The house was built by Sarah Winchester, wife of the second heir to the Winchester rifle fortune. Sarah moved to San Jose after the deaths of her daughter and husband and began a fruit farm. Grieved by her loss, she consulted a medium who told her the spirits held a grudge against her and the only way to appease them was to continuously build upon her house.
That’s exactly what Sarah did for roughly the next 40 years. Someone was constantly working on her house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The result is mind-boggling. Winchester mansion took over 5 million dollars to build in its day. It houses Tiffany glass windows, 160 rooms, and countless stairs, doors, and passage ways which loop back upon each other. Here are some pictures of the outside, extra materials left after Sarah's death, and the rooftop, but pictures really can't capture the beautiful and bazzare nature of this place.


Carl and I took both the mansion tour, which is twisting turning walk through 110 rooms equaling over a mile in travel, as well as the “behind the scenes” tour where we got to see inside the pump house, the fruit drying plant, other unfinished rooms of the house, and the basement as well. Words can really not express the Winchester Mystery House experience, so we picked up a video in the gift shop, and then moved on up the coast.

Tonight we are staying at Half Moon Bay State Beach. It’s about 30 minutes outside San Francisco, and you can even see the glow on the clouds/smog from here! Tomorrow we will journey into the city for one last day of sight seeing in California.

As the title of this post indicates, we’re freezing here in Cali. We were expecting warm sand and sun, but instead we have been sleeping in our socks and have layered up every day. Guess we just timed things a bit off… at least we got to see the seals.

Day Thirteen - Escape From L.A.

Today we started out by getting ready at the Los Angeles KOA. While not as nice as some of our previous KOAs, it’s definitely nicer than anything else we’ve seen in LA. First up on our to-do list of the day was to re-visit Hollywood. The purpose of the visit can be seen on yesterday’s post as we had to re-create a few pictures that got *misplaced*. After that we headed towards one of my chosen destinations, the Petersen Automotive Museum.


The Petersen, while not the most comprehensive auto museum, is quite possibly the nicest I’ve ever been to. The displays have a lot of time and thought put into them and there are always special collections on display. Throughout the museum you can see anything from an early 1900’s touring sedan mired in mud to a 1930’s Ford Dealership to an impressive collection of Ferrari’s. Additionally on exhibit was a rare assortment of cars, art, and other memorabilia from Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, one of the most influential custom car builders of the 60’s and 70’s and creator of the “Rat Fink”.


After getting absorbed in the glossy paint and bright lights at the Petersen for almost 2.5hrs we headed up the coast. Upon recommendation we stopped at a Del Taco fast food restaurant for lunch. Sorry Justin, but they don’t hold a candle to Taco Bell, despite the impressive quantity and delicious French fries.

Moving on, we skirted along old Highway 1, aka the Pacific Coast Highway, and 101, as we headed North towards San Francisco. Eventually, after being forced to pay almost $4.00 a gallon for gas when there was nothing else around, we decided to stop for the night at San Simeon State Park and set up camp. The park, within earshot and eyesight of the coast, was very quiet and offered up some decent scenery for the night. I also took the time to do a little maintenance on the camper. Tomorrow we’ll be heading out early to continue on up the PCH along the “Big Sur” portion.

Day Twelve - Star Struck

This morning we slept in beside the ocean and awoke to a beautiful view of the crashing waves and sea foam. Lingering around our campsite, we watched the water and also the “burrowing ground squirrels” whose “rodent activity” effects the cliffs of the park. Once exceptionally chubby fellow even made his way into our garbage somehow; I took this picture before shooing him away. After a quick 50 cent shower, yay token restrooms, we were on our way up the highway and into L.A. On the way, Carl took a detour off the freeway and up route 1. Not only did it provide us with some more beautiful views of the beach, but we also saw the original Batmobile!

Along this route we also stopped for lunch at Arby’s where we met a girl who was originally from Arlington, VA and was impressed that we were on day 12 of our cross country drive. Back on the freeway, we finally rolled into L.A. and onto Hollywood Blvd.

After circling the area for some decent parking, we finally found a place which offered daily parking for $7 (this was a deal considering that the other places were charging $3 for 15 minutes and $8 for an hour), plus it had a high fence and a little Hispanic man standing watch. After loading our bags with all things valuable, we headed down Holly Blvd. our eyes constantly on the sidewalk to catch the familiar names of the stars. We even found Alice Cooper! (Well his star anyway).
We stopped by Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to see the foot and hand prints of the stars. There were a variety of names, everything from John Wayne to Johnny Depp. Here I am with Cary Grant.
We also went to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not odditorium. I’ve always wanted to go to one, and Carl was willing. It was great fun! We saw all kinds of things, including a two headed baby and a statue of Marilyn Monroe made completely of money.

After walking along the strip a bit longer, we decided to go in search of the Hollywood sign. We drove up a recommended street until we reached a trail. After a short climb we could see the Hollywood sign looming in the distance. There’s really not much else to say about today. L.A. is definitely not one of our favorite places on the journey. The traffic is everything you’ve ever heard and more. The entire city is covered in a thick haze, and, compared to the desert and the state beach, it’s a whole other world.

Tonight we’re camping at a KOA just outside of Los Angeles and tomorrow we’re cruising the Pacific Coast Highway.

Day Eleven - Carl goes to Carlsbad

The desert sun woke us up early this morning, and we were packed and on the move well before 8am. Before heading back into the city, we decided to spend part of the morning doing a bit more exploring.



After passing through some more canyons and following some washes, we came upon a place called split rock. From the picture I’m sure you can tell where the name comes from. We stopped here because Jack’s map indicated that there were some petroglyphs. We got out and began scanning the cliff’s surfaces for any patterns or designs and soon found what we were looking for. Right on split rock there was a small red figure of a man. Around the rock we also found some rounded areas that the natives of the area once used for grinding and preparing food.

The heat was fast approaching, and the day was slipping away from us, so we soon turned back and returned to the highway. Saying goodbye to Jack in Ramona, CA. we headed back into the city to visit some museums in Balboa Park and Old Town.

Our first stop was the Museum of Man, San Diego’s Anthropology Museum. The Museum is housed in an old church, and it was surreal to see replicas of Mayan ruins looming out from what once was a pulpit. The museum houses a variety of displays, including modern African Art and a full Ancient Egyptian exhibit which boast a collection of mummies.


After visiting the Museum of Man, we also stopped by the San Diego Automotive Museum and then headed downtown to Old Town San Diego. This is the birthplace of California and is now a State Historic Park filled with shops and restaurants and costumed guides. Many of the shops contained merchandise brought in from Mexico, and I was very excited to find two Calaveras, toy skeletons used in the celebration of the Day of the Dead.




Finally, it was time to say goodbye to San Diego. We headed north and made camp for the night at South Carlsbad State Park. We were able to have a campsite right on the ocean, and it was a very relaxing experience. It was so nice to be able to walk along the beach, dip our toes into a whole new ocean, and roast marshmallows while listening to the roar of the waves.


Tomorrow we’re off to Los Angeles. Hurray for Hollywood!

Day Ten - UMMM MUD?

After checking in late at the campground last night, we awoke this morning with a lack of knowledge about our surroundings. It was dark when we rolled in so we couldn’t really take note of where things were in the campground. After wandering around to find the bath house and showers we discovered that they had a punch-code lock on the door. So we went towards the office to see if it was written anywhere for night registration, and found an envelope with our name on it, well close, “Larry McWhirt”. Of course the bathroom code wasn’t in there so we wandered around a bit more and eventually I found another box with some night check-in details and on these were the code to the bathroom. Problem solved, sort of…

Upon returning proudly to the bathrooms with our codes we found obstacle number two, a coin operated shower. We again headed back, this time to scrounge around the truck for quarters. Finally some time later we got our showers and were ready to hit the road.

We met up with Jack, Jarret , and Uwe & Srisuda from 4wdtrips.net at Anza Borrego Desert State park to do some exploring in the desert. The temperature quickly surpassed 100*F but it was not at all unbearable, just had to be sure to consume plenty of water. It really is true what they say about a “dry” heat out west. We started off by heading up Coyote Canyon. While not particularly scenic it did quickly orient us to our desert surrounding and made for a fun drive. We also saw the only standing water of the day when we made a couple of creek crossings and one interesting narrow passage through a spring.




Afterwards we headed towards Font’s point. Font’s point is an overlook for the badlands of Anza-Borrego. The scenery here is much like some that we saw in the painted desert though not quite as colorful. We’re told that it’s absolutely amazing at sunset. It was also at Font’s point that we met a nice French girl named Madeline who was traveling solo around the west coast and came to spend the day in Anza Borrego as well. Since she was also planning to visit the next site we were going to and happened to be driving a rental Jeep Grand Cherokee, we invited her to follow along. She seemed to really enjoy tagging along with us, and it certainly gave her the change to take a lot of pictures. She even took a picture of my liscense plate - MMMM MUD. For some reason that has been a good point of conversation and entertaining to lots of people we've met.

Along the way we made a detour to see the area known as “17 Palms”. Its name derives from the number of palm trees that once marked this site, near a spring, where travelers and stage coaches would stop for water and relay messages. Today there’s a box still there where visitors can leave messages and sign the guestbook.



Continuing on we arrived at one of our primary destinations of the day, the “Pumpkin Patch”. Looking at the photos it’s easy to see where this name came from. The area was littered with several spherical shaped rocks that have been eroded away by the winds. The area used to be much fuller, but like many interesting geological sites in the west, many have been carried away.

It was here that Uwe and our new friend had to turn back, and Jack and I set off for the highway near Ocotillo Wells and the road to our campsite for the night. After navigating many different washes we arrived at the highway right on schedule and proceeded further south. Fish Creek, now a dried up wash, provided an access to Sandstone Canyon. Sandstone Canyon, one of the sites that I desired most to see, was more than I could’ve imagined. The narrow passages eroded away through the soft sand stone made for a spectacular setting. Eventually we came to a blocked portion of the trail. There was a detour but the sun would be setting soon so we headed back out to setup camp.


After finding a nice clear flat area away from the foot of the cliffs we made camp. The Four Wheel Camper’s advantages here were easily visible as we quickly popped the top and were soon fixing dinner, while Jack was still setting up his tent-cot. We enjoyed some Chili and Peas and sat around and talked for a while underneath the clear night sky as we watched the stars steadily become more visible. It’s so peaceful out here with a near-full moon illuminating the desert terrain.





Uwe and Srisuda also uploaded some photos from the first part of the trip here: http://www.whitethaiger.net/albums/ab052707/