Buellton to Salinas

These last few days have been relatively quiet. I think that it's because we've done some of this before; not all of it but some of it.

Well, today we headed up to Salinas on Route 101. I had no idea what to expect in terms of what to see or visit. I hadn't investigated or researched this particular part of the trip in any detail.

We had our 'free continental breakfast', paid up and set off... across the lot and picked up some fuel. That's one thing that is so different to the UK, the pay and pump system. You decided on how much fuel you want, pay up front for it and then pump it. It makes for a much slower system but it does cut down on non-payers. I don't think that it'd go down too well in the UK.

Off we started and the scenery was lovely. The morning had started cloudy but it cleared very quickly giving us blue sky all around us. The scenery was similar to the Santa Monica mountains and the MASH look. The road unfolded before us winding up and over the range. The hills and mountains were brown scrub with patches of green trees and bushes. We expected to see some cattle but there none! We first headed along 101 North past Vandenberg. That's where the space shuttle can land and the US spy satellites are launched from – not that we were that close or one is able to see any sign of that. We were mostly inland until we swung through Pismo Beach, the last of the sea that we'll see until we reach the Bay Area. As we passed through San Luis Obispo we could see the Madonna Inn, a pink creation covered with sea shells. We had stopped by there back in 2002 and found it 'interesting'. It's worth looking; the web site doesn't do it justice, it is soooo camp and ott.

We passed near Camp Roberts with signs telling us not to pick up hitchhikers, I wonder why! We pulled in at a rest station and reviewed what we were going to do. We had rather hoped to find the odd tasting winery near a vineyard but we hadn't seen any; places to taste that is; lots of vineyards across the rolling countryside. We decided to press on and then, within a comparatively short distance, we saw a winery! This was too good an opportunity to miss.

Following the directions on the big sign we headed in its direction. There were only a few cars there and an equally few number in the tasting room. We settled down and my partner talked to one of the servers who corresponded with a woman in Wales. She explained one or two thing about Wales and larva bread. We ended up talking to a really nice woman from the Bay Area. We ended up doing the compare the USA and UK thing. I think that we knew more about the USA than she did about the UK. One area was the education system – which I might write I have a little knowledge of! The tax systems are so different but the overall effect seems to be the same. We did taste some very nice wines and one of the reds was very good; It was smooth and lacked a tannin taste to it. We must have enjoyed a good hour there at least. All-in-all it was a fascinating meeting and a great time was had by us all.

So, quite sober I might add, we finally headed Salinas-wards. Following the 101 had been easy and sure enough as we approached Salinas we saw the sign for the Best Western. We came off, parked and registered. After off-loading our luggage we headed into downtown Salinas or rather we would have if we hadn't have gone in the wrong direction, like the opposite direction! We pulled into the mall and I set up the satnav which took us into downtown, or rather what it thought should be downtown Main Street from what I had put in! With a little bit of sense and guess work we made it into a very quiet and deserted downtown Salinas. Unfortunately it was too late to go into the Steinbeck museum but we looked around the town anyway. Being deserted rather made it feel emptier than it should have. Anyway we had seen the area that he wrote about and been through Monterey before.

The next big decision was whether to eat out or in! We choose to find a shopping mall and eat in since we had a microwave. I found that there was a Wal-Mart a few miles away. Jumping back in the car we eventually found it. It was more like a meeting club and an entertainment for the locals. When I say these shops are large, you wouldn't believe how big they are unless you've been in one yourself. The Wal-Mart was not only big, the prices were very cheap and the goods were of good quality.

We bought our goods and headed back. We heated our food and had the rest of the apple pie that we bought yesterday and a bottle of the wine that we bought earlier.

Tomorrow it's Oakland and Berkeley! It's our last day on the move as after tomorrow night we are at the Westin St Francis and the car goes back to the rental company.

Bye, bye LA; Hello Buellton

Whoops,yesterday I wrote that Soledad was our destination...no, it was Buellton, near Solvang. The reason for the mistake is that I had originally planned to stay there and I was thinking we were a day later than we were.

Be that as it may, we started off for Buellton, a small town on route 101 just north of Santa Barbara. The plan was simple enough not to use the satnav. We were going to head up I405 and pick up route 101 to follow that to Buellton.

From the word go the traffic was heavy. Up the I405 and on to the 101 was done smoothly. Along the 101 I took us down to Malibu State Park. There was a very good reason for this; the area of the park has been used in several films and television series. It has been used as a Welsh valley of all things in the film “How Green was My Valley” - it doesn't look very Welsh valleyish but probably the most well-known use was for 'MASH'. Looking around the park it was so easy to see that the landscape was familiar. There was even directions to the 'MASH' camp. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go there but we tried to listen for 'incoming copters'.

The weather has continued to be good; hot and sunny. It's easy to understand why the park was of with that in mind.

On the thought of television series we caught an episode of Monk. Towards the end the characters are at an amusement park on a pier. Now, Monk is set in San Francisco and the only pier amusement park is Pier 39. The one shown was not that one but it just so happened that we had seen the park the previous day, it was Santa Monica pier!

Back to today. We set off again and about 40 minutes later we pulled off the route and picked up some coffee and sandwiches. We ate them in the parking lot of the convenience store. There was a Salvation Army collection going on. There was also a lad sweeping the area around a skip. Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. He just took so long to do a job that need only have taken 5 minutes but he was taking 15 and still hadn't finished. A car drew up and a couple got out. They offered some goods but they appeared to have them rejected. The woman was really annoyed. Although we couldn't hear what was said her body language and the way she threw the items back into the car made it clear how she felt.

Our next stop was Santa Barbara where we went wandered around for a while. There was a bus service up and down State Street, the main drag, but is wasn't a patch on Denver's version. The one there was free and frequent and the City authorities had made 16^th completely pedestrianized; State Street still had traffic and the bus service was rather flaky, however, it served it's purpose as eventually we took one down to the main beach and pier. The wind was blowing and the beach wasn't quite as good as Santa Monica/Venice. However we walked along it for a while and then went back up to 16th. I went and bought a new pair of trainers at a Payless for the equivalent of £13 which would have sold for £26-30 in the UK.

Leaving Santa Barbara was easy as the 101 was well sign posted. The drive up to Buellton was simple for the first time in over weeks the hotel was on the right hand side of the road. All the others had been on the left or a corner site.

A little later we found an Albertsons, a supermarket, and bought some dinner. Microwaveable main course but an apple pie, strawberries and cream for the dessert, with a garlic bread starter and a New Zealand white to wash it all down.

Tomorrow we go from here up the central valley to Salinas where John Steinbeck was from.