Week #6: Cruising Down the California Coast

Before getting into this blog post, we need your help in naming our van as we're now six weeks into our adventure and we still haven't landed on a name. Some names that haven't fully stuck are Willy Wonky (the name during the van build when most things we did were a little on the wonky side!), Patches (you've probably noticed the funny white patches on our van where the Amazon logos used to be) and Mochi the Catbus (inspired by Ginny's love for mochi and the crazy catbus in Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro). We've also thought about naming the van after Scout since we were supposed to be sharing this adventure with him. So, if you have ideas for names, please add them to the comments below. Many thanks!

We've spent the past week driving down the California coast from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. It's a drive we know well although we typically would have done it in a day in the past whereas this time we took our sweet time to meander down the coast. We're spending the holidays with family in Santa Monica so we're looking forward to that and to a break from living out of the van after six weeks on the road. We love being in the van but it's also nice to get out of the van from time to time!

After leaving our friend's house in Berkeley, our first stop was at a very sparsely used campground called the Arroyo Seco in the Los Padres National Forest. It was super quiet with very clear skies allowing for great stargazing. It was quintessential central California with lots of oak trees and manzanitas peppered throughout the hills and some beautiful trails into the Ventana Wilderness.   

The next night we planned to camp at a city park in Paso Robles which we found on our trusted iOverlander app for good places to camp. We had fallen asleep for the night when the dreaded knock came on the van door from a security guard letting us know that we couldn't spend the night there. So we got up and drove the van to a nearby Lowe's parking lot where we spent the rest of the night. It wasn't ideal but the beauty of being in a van is that you can always leave a place when you need to. 

Ginny got her COVID booster shot a couple weeks ago when we were driving up through the central valley but I wanted to wait until after my marathon in case I had any negative side effects. I easily got an appointment at the Albertson's in Paso Robles for the Moderna booster jab. Sometimes it's nice being outside of the big cities as things like this are much easier to get done. 

We stopped at the 805 Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles which was impressive. They have a huge operation complete with tasting room, brewery tours and a full emporium to buy all of their great beer and merchandise. We highly recommend stopping there if you're driving the 101 through the Central Coast. Their tasting room with plush leather coach is pictured below.

The past couple days we've been in the Santa Ynez mountains above Santa Barbara which are beautiful but rather chilly this time of year. Two nights ago we camped at a pullout along a steep mountain road which had a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean but was a little nerve wracking as it felt like we were just perched on the side of a cliff in our big campervan. While I was taking photos of the sunset, three teenagers came bombing down the steep, windy mountain road on their skateboards with no helmets or protective gear on whatsoever. Oh to be young and fearless!    

A few more van musings to leave you with:

• Not working - many friends have asked us what it's like to not be working anymore. When we were working on the van conversion, we were working 6-7 days a week and were probably working harder than we were at our old jobs. So it's really just the past six weeks that it's felt like we're retired. We're still finding our groove of retirement but all in all, we're big fans. It's great not to have to go to work every day and the stresses of the working world are becoming a distant memory! 
• Driving the van - is it hard to drive our van? Not really. It actually drives a lot like a car. In fact, I often have to remind myself that there's a lot of vehicle behind me (22' to be exact) as it drives so smoothly that it's easy to forget that it's a fairly large vehicle. The hardest thing is getting used to depending on the side view mirrors only as the rear view mirror is useless since we don't have windows on our rear doors (yet). And getting knocked about a bit more by the winds.
• Ginny's crusades for (meaningless) justice - you'll all be happy to know that throughout our travels, Ginny is on a tireless crusade to bring justice to the world! Ginny is quick to notice inconsistencies, injustices and other grievances and talks a big game about how she's going to 'right the wrong' of the world. Recent issues that have caught Ginny's attention are campground pricing, toll road practices and drivers who camp out in the fast lane. So don't fret, Ginny's on it and will be writing letters, circulating petitions and organizing protests until order has been restored to the world!