Bob & Cindy's 2015 Travel Web Site
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Santa Maria Valley and Paso Robles
So we cruised on into a wonderful county/regional park about 5 miles west of San Luis Obispo and got all settled in to a good private spot. We restocked food, made a short Costco run and had time to explore a little of the area. We were still worried about the mechanical side with the coach so we made an appointment with the local service dealer for Tiffin. The plan was to have them look at it, fix what was needed (while we were out wine tasting) and then camp out at a place close to the beach (Pismo Beach). Friday morning at 8 we get ready to leave and it won't start (again). Eventually we called our Emergency Service provider and they sent a guy out who got us going and we got the coach down to the dealer by noon. He told us it was a starter problem and we told that to the dealer. The dealer couldn't get it to "not start". So he fixed the surge protection issue and off we went. More to come ....
Santa Maria Valley vineyard area. Grapes as far as you can see.
The area is much hotter than we would have thought, it didn't quite have that California feel, but the wines we tried were very good.
Cindy strolling along the water at Pismo Beach. Wonderful day, perfect temperatures ... what a life these people have (and there are a lot of people around!)
After a couple of days at the beach we came back to the regional park for a couple of days and pulled into this spot to wait for the people in our site to leave. That was a far as we got because it wouldn't start again, we were stuck!
This is Paul ... the guy who saved us. He told us it was a starter problem and it was still a starter problem. He ordered the part, came out to our location, replaced it and life was good again after spending a couple of days dry camping.
This is Elvis, Paul's 12 year old Jack Russell Terrier who made himself at home in the coach while his master finished up on replacing the starter. We were lucky we got stuck where we did, it was a good level spot with a lot of sun for the solar panel.
Paso Robles wine country. There are 284 wineries in this area (no we did not get to every one of them). But we did find a couple we really liked and joined their wine clubs.
Some of the wine tasting rooms were very over the top. This was Villa San Juliette, started by a couple of Hollywood producers who did American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance reality shows. About 14,000 sq. feet with them each having a suite of rooms on either side and the tasting room in the middle.
The area along US Highway 101 pretty much follows the El Camino Real road through California. The missionaries established many missions along the route, this was one of them and most are still active.
After our coach problems were solved we moved up the Pacific Coast to be close to San Simeon and Hearst Castle. This was the view from our coach looking out over the mountains.
Exploring around some of the rocks in the area.
The camping spot was a short way from the ocean and we could go down to get our beach time in. Water temps keep the temperatures down in the mid 60's most of the time.
Just down the road was a protected area for elephant seals. Why they started coming here to give birth and raise their pups is a mystery. But they took it over and occupy about 2 miles of beach coves in the area.
The bulls were all gone, but this was a young one who was still around. They are huge and we did not even see the big ones who weigh in at about 5000 pounds!
Most of the time these guys just lay around, crowding each other, flipping sand on themselves (and others), and when they want to move or go to the water they just slide over each other. There is a certain and undescribeable odor that accompanies viewing them.