Hello Everyone!
It’s been a week of ups and downs here in the Central Valley/Central Coast of California. The weather has been challenging to say the least. The week started out with some pretty wild weather in the forecast and, as I mentioned last week, I wanted to put some distance between myself and the Bay before it hit. Crazy weather affects you differently when you live in a van than when you live in a house. At this altitude, they were calling for torrential downpours with strong winds and possible flooding. The biggest superpower of being in a mobile home is its mobility, but this storm was so big that there was nowhere to run, so it became about finding a safe spot and paying close attention to the forecast and the water levels. I had to see where the creeks and rivers were and try and stay as far uphill from them as I could without being too exposed to the wind and the lightning. I needed to avoid parking next to trees that might come over on me, but use bushes as a windbreak. It’s a little bit nerve-racking but we got through it.
There’s also obviously quite a bit of conflict in California with “vanlifers”. I’ve been in 26 states over the last 5 years in my van and this is definitely the most difficult place that I’ve been. In most of the states I’ve traveled through, most people are completely oblivious to the fact that people are living in their vans and those who know tend to think it’s pretty cool. It’s rarely been hard to find a place to spend the night that feels safe and I have felt like it’s usually pretty easy to fade into the background. That’s definitely not the case here in California as every day I see dozens of vans whipping here and there and everywhere. Whole counties have made it illegal to park overnight and sleep on city streets and the “last resort” truck stops and rest areas are virtually nonexistent. Those places that have tried to set up “safe parking” lots near town have had people take ridiculous advantage of them by basically moving in and refusing to leave, making them more like homeless encampments than overnight safe lots. It’s a real problem and one that my out-of-state plates don’t help me with. Thankfully I’ve been doing this for a long time and am pretty good at finding my way, but they’re not making it easy. I have spent most nights on residential streets which are safe and quiet and fine, but not ideal. I will persevere as there are things I want to see, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
After I finished up this newsletter last week, I made my way to San Jose for the evening. San Jose is on the south side of the San Francisco Bay and is smaller, newer, cleaner and probably safer than its northern neighbors of San Francisco and Oakland. It seemed like a nice enough place and I enjoyed a wander around the downtown area and a few drinks at Dr. Funk’s Tiki Bar in San Pedro Square. San Jose looked like it had some nice museums, but it probably wasn’t the best place to hole up in a storm.
Thursday I headed out early and made my way south to San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) which is a wonderful, historic little town in San Juan Benito County. The old Spanish Mission there is quite interesting with a unique-among-the-missions three-aisle church which has been in regular use since 1797. The museum shows some of the rooms as they would have been during the mission era and has some wonderful books and artifacts to look at. Across the plaza is the wonderful San Juan Bautista State Historical Park which interprets the history of the other buildings in the area which were once owned by the Castro and Breen families.
The Castro family owned these buildings after Mexico declared its independence from Spain and began to shut down the missions. In the 1840s, they met with John C. Fremont whose “mapping” expedition for the U.S. Army was definitely illegal in Mexican territory. The Castros told Fremont that he and his men could winter on a nearby hill but when they started to dig in and build a fort they were quickly chased off. A few years later, Margaret and Patrick Breen wandered into town with their 8 children. The Breen family were survivors of the Donner Party and were welcomed into town because of their Catholic faith (they were originally from Ireland). One of their sons, John, would make a reasonable go of it during the gold rush the following year and would bring back enough to buy the adobe building his family was staying in from the Castros and some of the surrounding land as well. They turned the old army barracks into the United States Inn and enjoyed a prosperous few years as the gold rush played out. San Juan Bautista would grow as a stage-stop and crossroads town, eventually becoming one of the largest towns in central California. That would all change when the railroad passed it by and today it’s a sleepy town with population of just over 2,000. I absolutely loved all of this history and I was only disappointed that it was so rainy and I couldn’t get any good pictures of the town.
The rain had begun in earnest soon after I pulled into town and would continue pretty steadily through the night. After my time in San Juan Bautista, I made my way just north to the town of Gilroy, the “Garlic Capital of the World”. I made my first stop the Garlic City Café, where I enjoyed a cream of garlic soup, a garlic burger and garlic fries – all of which were excellent and full of fresh garlic. I spent the afternoon hanging around town and trying to stay dry and went to the movies and the gym in the evening before calling it a day. It rained steadily through the night and there was flooding near the river, but we were high and dry on the other side of town.
I spent most of Friday in the pleasant Gilroy Public Library and tried to plan out a route for the rest of my week from there. I also finally got my hands on some garlic ice cream (no joke). At the end of the day, it was basically vanilla ice cream with garlic in it. You got some of the garlic taste, but it was basically just vanilla ice cream. I wanted to find it and I’m glad I tried it, but it’s more gimmick than local delicacy and I wouldn’t have another. There isn’t much happening in Gilroy, so I went to the movies again that night – meaning I’d been to the movie theatre more in two days than in the previous two years. I remember when I was younger I used to go to the movies all the time. I enjoyed movies so much and seeing them in the theatre even more. I can tell you that in two nights I probably saw 12 previews and not a single one of them interested me. On the one hand, I know I’m getting older. On the other I can tell you that the quality of movies has definitely deteriorated significantly over time. But I’ve been trying to spend less time in bars, so the movies is a nice option and I’ll keep my eyes out for some good ones.
I was up early on Saturday and the sun was shining so I hit the road. I drove past a lot of flooded farm fields on the road and crossed over the Salinas River several times. It was really high – overflowing the banks and spilling out into the floodplain – and it was cruising. I can also say that in all of the time I’ve spent in California, I’ve never seen it so green. It’s really quite remarkable what some water can do. I made my way south to the east entrance of Pinnacles National Park and parked under sunny skies. I headed up Condor Gulch to the High Peaks Trail and was overjoyed to see three endangered California Condors swooping overhead. One was so close I could have touched it if I were sitting on your shoulders. I’ve only seen condors a few times in my life, and they are just awesome to watch. Over the course of the day, I would see no fewer than 6 of the maybe 350 alive in the wild today. That in itself was cool, but the trail and the pinnacles were also pretty special. I had been to this park before, but had never had the opportunity to hike in it and I’m sure glad I got a sunny day to hit the trail.
After a nice long morning and early afternoon in the park, I made my way down to Paso Robles and out to the Tin City section of town. This is a newish area which has built up around a couple of breweries and wineries and has some great looking restaurants as well. I had a nice cold beer at the Barrel House Brewery which also had some live music on. It was a really cool indoor/outdoor brewery with plenty of space to spread out and relax. I’ve been taking it easy on the beer and I really enjoyed the two I had there before I took off. I wandered down the road to Negranti Creamery where I tried a bowl of sheep’s milk ice cream. It was significantly better than the garlic stuff and was actually pretty tasty. I got mint chocolate chip and they used fresh mint in it which was a real treat. It was a long day but a very satisfying one and I slept really well that night.
I woke up Sunday morning and hit the gym and then traveled just 10 minutes north to San Miguel, the location of the historic Spanish Mission San Miguel de Arcangel. Of the 21 California missions, San Miguel is the only one which still has the original frescoes on the church walls. I was there to celebrate mass with the local congregation which seemed like an appropriate way to see it. I haven’t been to a Catholic mass in a long time and it seemed different than I remember it to be. Regardless, the priest seemed to be a pretty funny character and I was happy to see several women with prominent roles in the service as well. It was nice to sit in the historic church and soak in the history – way better than just coming in as a tourist. After the service I did have a wander around the mission which had some cool things to see. They discussed how it was the Spanish missionaries who first brought grapes to California because they needed them for wine to offer communion. These “mission grapes” were the only variety of grape in California for many years. I made a quick stop at the nearby Rios Caledonia Adobe, a nearby historic house which had once served as a stagecoach stop and inn before being converted into a private home. At some point it fell into disrepair and was actually in quite a sad state when a local man took it upon himself to refurbish the place. He did an amazing job and it’s a really cool place to see and definitely worth the $0 admission fee.
After a quick look around the house, I hit the road and made my way out to the coast where I took an afternoon tour of the historic Hearst Castle. I’ve been to the Castle once or twice before, but not for many years. I remember it being really difficult to get tickets for in the summer with a tour group and only being able to score some a couple of times on longer trips. I opted for the Upstairs Suites tour which took in the most opulent bedrooms in the house, including William Randolph Hearst’s. We also got to see the library, Mr. Hearst’s study/office and the indoor and outdoor pools. It was a really interesting tour and cool to see the upper rooms which I have definitely not seen before. Hearst’s father made his money in the gold rush and bought a huge tract of land in the area. William expanded their wealth with his media empire and built this castle on the hill as a vacation home. Seeing videos and photos of the parties he threw and the people who stayed there was pretty cool. Even though I’m not a huge fan of these ridiculous displays of wealth, it’s still interesting to see and I can admire the art and architecture. Hearst did leave the castle to the state of California (apparently after U.C. Berkeley turned him down), so at least it is something we can all enjoy. I’m glad I decided to go.
From there, I headed up the coast a few miles to the Elephant Seal Viewpoint which is definitely one of the coolest places on the coast. There were hundreds of elephant seals lying on the beach, looking quite exhausted after what has no doubt been an exciting mating season. There weren’t many people there (since Route 1 is closed just a few miles north due to landslides), so I had them almost all to myself. It was great to be able to spend some time there watching them and not have to rush off to somewhere else. After the sun went down (sadly behind the clouds), I made my way down to Cambria for the night.
Monday morning was quite foggy and I decided to take myself out for breakfast at the quaint little Redwood Grill there in Cambria. It was a nice little spot and I enjoyed my mushroom and spinach omelet topped with a whole Ortega chile and cheddar cheese. After breakfast I went for a nice morning walk along the boardwalk above Moonstone Beach right there in Cambria. As the fog started to burn off, I headed south on Route 1 to Cayucos, a pleasant little beach town with a nice pier and some cute little businesses. I enjoyed watching the surfers from the pier and taking some photos under sunny skies. I also treated myself to a delicious espresso cookie at the Brown Butter Cookie Company (for research). I enjoyed my afternoon there and then headed further down the coast to Morro Bay.
Morro Bay is another cute little beach town which sits in the shadow of the massive Morro Rock. Morro Rock has often been called the “Gibraltar of the Pacific” as it was unmistakable to early navigators. I did a fast and furious but much needed oil change in the parking lot there and then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon wandering around town. I stopped for a half-dozen oysters at Giovanni’s Fish Market which were alright, but sadly came in from Washington State despite there being an oyster farm right there in the bay. They were cheaper than the ones I had on Tomales Bay, but not nearly as good. I also got a kick out of the sea lions in the harbor and the otters by the dock. I watched two otters roll around for a full 30 seconds before I realized they were in the process of making baby otters – something which was clearly lost on everyone else who was watching them mess around. As the fog rolled in and the daylight started to fade, I made my way inland to San Luis Obispo. I definitely wanted to get away from the coast before the rains returned and thought SLO would be a good place to hole up for a few days. I’ve passed through SLO dozens of times, but never really had time to stop. My first opinion was that it is a deeply conflicted town – conflicted between students (of Cal Poly) and residents and conflicted between locals and travelers who come through on their way up or down Route 1.Their parking regulations are ridiculous for a town their size, something I believe discourages people from spending time and money in local businesses. I went for a wander around downtown, hit the gym and then eventually found somewhere to bed down for the night.
The rains came after midnight and I woke to a steady downpour which encouraged going back to bed for another hour. There wasn’t much point in going out in the rain, so I spent the day at the gym and working on my computer. I sat in Starbucks and watched it come down in buckets for hours. I’ve definitely not seen rain that heavy in a long time. It finally let up in late afternoon and I spent some time cleaning up Shadow Catcher and getting some things organized. In the evening I went to the Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus to see Los Lobos in concert. Los Lobos is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and I can’t think of a band that better defines California. Born in East L.A., they blend American and Latin music together really well and I enjoyed every single song they performed. They are probably best known outside of California for their work on the La Bamba soundtrack in 1987, and I’m sure it grates on their nerves when someone shouts out “play La Bamba” as one man did several times during the show. They did finish the show out with La Bamba, but you could tell they wished they didn’t feel obligated to play a cover song from 35 years ago. Regardless, it was a fun show and I was really happy to catch them while they were on this tour. The opening act was Guatemalan born singer Gabby Moreno who was also quite good. When Los Lobos brought her out to do a couple of songs together, you could see that she was almost giddy. It was great.
Today I decided I’d had enough of SLO and its unfriendly vibe and weird parking restrictions so I took off south to the coast and I’m writing this from the cute little town of Pismo Beach. My plan is to continue south from here, but I’m moving pretty slowly and keeping an eye on the weather. This coming week I’ll definitely get to Santa Barbara and with any luck I may get out to Channel Islands National Park as well. I’m almost done with editing and publishing my Arizona photos from last winter with the last couple of sets to finish this week. They’re from Sedona and the North Rim at Grand Canyon, so they should be good ones. Then I’ll get some more recent California photos from the last week or two. I hope you’ll check back in next week and see what I get into. I appreciate you following along. Thank you, as always, for reading. Have a great week y’all!
-Mike