Heading to California

In January, Biska and I drove two days to meet Laura in Atascadero, a small town just north of San Luis Obispo, near the central coast of California. Well, I drove. Biska slept. The first night we spent in Joshua Tree National Park.

We went for a short walk but it was cold, windy and miserable. Biska hung outside for a little while, but pretty soon we both just retreated into the van. The wind howled and the van rocked back and forth.

Sunrise the next morning:

Biska’s waiting for me to finish my coffee.

It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed our morning walk. I wished I could have stayed longer; I was not looking forward to our drive through Los Angeles.

The drive through Los Angeles went ok, and then we hit the grapevine, which is a twisty section of the interstate that goes up and over the mountains between Santa Clarita and Bakersfield. Due to mudslides, the multi-lane freeway narrowed to one lane. We crept up the mountain behind the trucks, laboring at 5 miles an hour for a long time.

I wouldn’t typically have even been on the grapevine to get to Atascadero, but my preferred route up the coast on 101 was closed in several places due to mudslides. I ended up going all the way up to Highway 46 and then west to Paso Robles.

We were originally going to camp at Cerro Alto campground, halfway between Atascadero and Morro Bay. We canceled those reservations when the flooding started about a week before our trip. It was a good thing we canceled, because soon that highway closed.

After canceling our camping reservations, we considered canceling the entire trip because the weather forecast was so bad. But the trip was Laura’s birthday present, and Laura had already gotten the time off, so we forged ahead with our vacation. I was able to find a last-minute airbnb for a very good rate. It was discounted steeply from their usual rates. I expect they had a cancelation.

Here’s Laura and Zane, setting off for the trip in the rain. It was two days drive for me, but only three hours for them.

It was a relief to get there! I was glad we hadn’t canceled the trip. It was a great little airbnb, with a fenced yard for the dogs. Here’s the view from the back deck when we arrived late that afternoon.

Happy birthday Laura!

Here’s the sunset that night:

The dogs were racing around the yard, happy to be free after long hours in the car.

There was a pretty sky the next morning too.

And deer in the back pasture:

The only weird thing about the airbnb was the laundry outside in the rain.

On the second or third day we suddenly realized we no longer had hot water. The owner came over immediately, and plugged the hot water heater into a different outlet with an extension cord.