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.

More LA

Today we did a bit of culture and then mixed with the masses.

One of the big art collections around these parts is the Getty Center. It's out in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains but don't let that fool you.

It's big and well designed. However, it's not brash or in your face. Okay, let's go through the day.

We set off with out using the satnav. It was so clearly obvious that the best route was along Santa Monica Boulevard, turn up onto I405 and come off at the appropriate exit. It was really as simple as that. The satnav would have none of that. Regardless of what settings I used it insisted on a different route. It was the same for the return journey. After arriving we parked in the underground parking ramp and made our way up. There was small platform with people waiting for a train that would take us to the Center itself. The train was similar to the ones used on the Docklands Light Railway. Our journey to the centre was quick and we had a wonderful view of I405 with all its traffic. The smog seemed poorer than yesterday. We reached the top of the ride and stepped out into a very modern facility and one that had been designed to house all aspects of art. It is a very magnificent and it's easy to access the series of buildings. The whole environment was calm and relaxed despite there being a large number of people.

The view across the LA basin was quite something. The haze from the smog was worse than yesterday and blocked the view of distant hills even more effectively.

We looked at the paintings from 1600 through to the late 19^th century. What was different was that photography was allowed, not flash though; there were no barriers; you could get really close to the pictures; it was very unusual to be able to get close to old masters and see the brush strokes they put down.

We went through the paintings and after an hour or so we went out and had a coffee. We decided that we would head back to the hotel and go to... the beach!

At the hotel we changed and took a bus down to Santa Monica beach. We went onto the pier and walked around the fair on it. This was a tame affair by UK standards but it was busy. We went down onto the beach itself and walked along for a while. Although there were lots of people it wasn't crowded as there was plenty of space for everyone. We sat on the beach for half-an-hour. The wind was strong but as it was warm we didn't mind. We went along to Venice Beach following the pedestrian path watching the cyclists, runners and skaters. After that we gradually walked back following the roads to the hotel. It must have taken us about three quarters of an hour. We went to an IHOP restaurant next to the hotel for our evening meal and did they serve large portions.

Not much today, just a peaceful wandering day. Tomorrow it's onwards to Soledad.

Hitting LA

What an interesting day! Today we hit LA.

We decided early on to go to the Griffith Park Observatory. We booked our tickets on line but there wasn't any way we could print the tickets but lucky us. I asked the man at the desk if he could print them for us and he did – excellent Best Western Casablanca in San Clemente. This has to be one of the best hotels we stayed in.

We headed north on 101 passing through Orange County. We stopped off at Laguna Beach and walked along the beach and into downtown Laguna. We watched surfers and bathers; families on the beach all under the bright blue sky and the crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean. I drove on up 101 all along the road where, in Easter2006, we had driven in torrential rain and deserted roads. Now it was brilliant sunshine and busy roads. As we reached the LA conurbation we pulled off and decided to go directly to the observatory since our tickets were for 3pm and it was now 1.30pm. We had planned to go to the hotel, book in and then go to the observatory.

I reprogrammed the ipaq satnav itinerary to take us by the quickest route and off we headed. Up onto I405 and the traffic was much denser than we had encountered before, which we didn't mind as it was quite speedy. It was when it all started to slow that the delays were anxiety inducing. The satnav took us on a route that I wouldn't have done if I had time to plan it better. We swung up through East LA(!) and on, what to my way of thinking, was a round about way of doing it. One thing that it did do though was to take around the one rotary, roundabout, in LA.

We made the parking lot for the observatory shuttle with 15 minutes to spare because of the heavy and slow moving traffic.

We took the shuttle up and for the next four hours we were fascinated, educated and entranced by the observatory. Initially it didn't look as if there had been anything done to it other than a tidy and clean up. Once inside it became apparent that big changes had happened since I was last there in 1999. The front lawn had been removed, the whole of the observatory had been dug under, underpinned with hydraulic jacks and new theatres and exhibition halls built under and in front of it. The exhibitions were really good explaining about space and the universe. We went to the planetarium show and it was highly impressive. The delivery was a live speaker and the projections here very cleverly done taking us on a journey through time. The whole thing was exceedingly professionally delivered. The effect of moving through space and was very cleverly done; real state of the art stuff.

After that we went around the new exhibition halls which were equally impressive and into the Leonard Nimoy(!) theatre where we watched a film, narrated by the man himself, explaining about the refit.

The views of the LA conurbation were amazingly good. The smog didn't seem to be as bad when I was here in 1999 or in 2002. Today was really bright and sunny which should have made the smog quite bad. The view of LA itself was much clearer than before although it's easy to see the brown smog layer.

We went to the cafe and had a very reasonably priced meal. As it was getting rather late we caught the shuttle back to the entrance. As we headed back to the car I turned on my ipaq to start up the satnav and as it started up it told me what direction to take. An American woman nearby was quite surprised that there were such things as portable satnavs that spoke! I was very tempted to say that everyone in the UK had such things!

We thought that it would be a good idea to take the shortest route to the hotel in Santa Monica. My idea of the shortest route and the satnav's idea are two quite different things. Mine is sticking to main roads and simple directions; the programmers' idea is to take as many dark, dubious and obscure roads as possible or so it seems. We had to drive through some very strange parts; taking odd turnings and managing to ignore the satnav commands quite easily on the crowded streets of LA. We did go along Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards until we suddenly found ourselves on Santa Monica Boulevard. All this was done in the dark, speeding, crowded traffic. The traffic thinned out and then looming out of the dark we could see the Best Western sign! We pulled in, registered, parked and sorted ourselves out.

Tomorrow it's up to the Getty and the La Brea Tar Pits.

On to San Diego

One of the things that I forgot to mention about when we visited Fort Laramie was that the dread West Nile Virus had been found in the area and that it is spread by mosquitoes. Luckily we had some insect repellent with DEET in which we liberally applied.

Well, back to today. What a difference a day makes! We set out at just after five for the airport and we made it with no hitches whatsoever! Hooray. We left our car at the car rental return after doing 2292 miles in it from 26^th July to the 8^th August.

We went through the usual thing at the airport with security; shoes off all bits in the grey plastic trays; who ever makes those has made a fortune as the airports all seem to use the same ones.

We didn't seem to hang about for too long when our flight was called and we were on-board and off on time. The flight took a little over two hours but we grabbed an hour back with the time difference. Landed at San Diego airport and straight out! Went to the car rental offices and we decided to up-grade from a saloon to an SUV type. This one wasn't as plush as the other one but was the same as we had when we went up to Yellowstone last October.

After a bit of a fiddling to get the satnav up and running we set off for the historic old San Diego.

It's been done really well and it's not just a recreation of the original San Diego it uses the real heart of the old town. There were people in period costume and acting their parts rather like at Fort Laramie. After a short walk around we spotted that there was a walking tour of the site. We went around with the chap who happened to be an architect and did this as a part of his community service. He was absolutely brilliant. He gave us a really good run down on the origins of San Diego and its history. We even got into British politics! If anyone reading this goes to San Diego make sure that you go to this gem. It's something that Americans do really, really well. It's probably because they don't have much history that they have to borrow so much from their originators and treasure it so much.

We set of for San Clementa after nearly two hours in the old town. We had intended to follow Highway 101 so that we could complete our voyage along the west coast of the USA. It was rather hit and miss as the satnav kept insisting that we go up on to I5. We just followed the road so that the Pacific was on our left.

Stopping along historic 101 and went to an Albertsons, a supermarket, and bought some food for tonight and a little bit for the afternoon. Pulling into North Torres State Reserve. This was a beach area and there were lots of people. It looked like Studland Bay in Dorset. After eating our sandwich we set off and walked along for about a mile along the beach. It was quite crowded near the parking lot but thinned out a fairly short distance from it. The sky was blue with clouds lazily scudding across it; little dippers played around feeding in the damp sand of the shore line as the Pacific Ocean slowly lapped and rose as the tide came in. A few people wandered up and down; some were families heading home; others were couples; there were a few anglers; all in all it was delightful. We must have spend about an hour there before heading off again.

This worked quite well until we reached Camp Pendleton. This is a large forces base and we could not work out how to get around it so that we could stay on 101. We had to concede that we would have to use I5. So up we went onto it and spend 15 miles on it until we reached San Clementa. After one more wrong turn we found the hotel.

It could not have been more different from the Denver dump. It's internet access is brilliant. It has a good laundry and is close to the beach.

Over the last few weeks we've been eating microwave meals. By buying carefully we can have quite good meals. One little trick I do to cool white wine rapidly is to put the wine in the sink, surround it with ice from the ice machine and put water over it. It works very well.

Tomorrow we head up to... LA!

Denver

Today we went into Denver. What a to-do to get there! The hotel is next to a vast interchange but trying to get on to it was a nightmare. In fact, we didn't. We ended up going all round the houses to get onto a road that would take us into the centre.

We ended up going in the right direction and in downtown Denver looking for a parking lot. Eventually we ended up using a parking meter for a couple of hours whilst we scouted around. The main drag is 16^th which has been partially pedestrianized. There's a free bus service that goes back and forth along it which makes for easier travel.

We went up to the main rail station and, like at Cheyenne yesterday, it's a wonderful building. Built at the turn of the 20^th century it shows all the features of a classic American train station. Very clean cut lines and classic light fittings. It was easy to imagine what it was like in its heyday.

We left there and did some shopping buying a few clothes and a book. Mostly we were window shopping. After the two hours had been up we had seen a parking ramp and moved the car to it. Denver has been the most cosmopolitan city we've visited so far. None of the others have had such a varied range of people.

At about five we attempted to find our way back to the hotel and used the satnav. It worked quite well and we arrived safely back.

Our big thing this evening was to repack everything ready for the flight to San Diego tomorrow. We're going to have to leave here at about 5.30 - 6 to be able to drop the car off and check in. The main problem is going to be getting to the airport but we think we've cracked it now.

Tomorrow's blog should be written from Santa Clemente in California.

and back to Denver

First I have to write that this hotel has one of the worst internet connections that we've experienced so far. That's why this is so late up for yesterday. However now we've a connection here goes.

The last part of the first part ends today, so to say.

The long distance driving ends today with a 270 mile drive to back to Denver. The connection to the Internet was flaky but obviously it got made and I uploaded the blog early this morning.

We set off heading first to Fort Laramie, not Laramie; they are two different places altogether. The drive was easy and straight forward. We ended up going little country roads and over rail tracks to arrive at the Fort.

It's not a stockaded fort but started out as a trading post and the US Army took it over and put in barracks and the like. The area was flat and open. The surrounding hills were a distance off so anyone approaching it could see it from a distance. After parking we set off and Isaw my partner stop and something was being pointed out to her on the ground. As I hurried over there was a small rattlesnake slithering away up a dusty path. Which I filmed. We've seen more wildlife, alive and dead, this time than all the previous visits together.

We went over to the Visitors Center after that bit of excitement and read up on the history of the place. This fort was one of those on the Oregon Trail when the first white settlers started heading westwards. It was quite an important place in its time but now was in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, gradually deserted as first the railway in the 19^th century spread westwards and then the roads bypassed it altogether. The site was made into a historic monument in the early part of the 20^th century.

What was there now was amazingly good. Houses and barracks were restored and outfitted. The general store/trading post had replica goods from the era. There were rangers dressed in period costumes acting parts of the locals. We wandered from building to building and through the wooden structures. The bachelor officer quarters were called 'Old Bedlam' due to the boisterous sounds that came from it at times. Strange that 'Bedlam' should raise it's head so far from it's original place (The Imperial War Museum in London, if you didn't know, is housed in the Bethel Madhouse – called Bedlam!) The day was wonderfully sunny and hot. Walking around the site was a real experience as the rangers were friendly and were only to willing to explain things. Basically the fort was a trading post and stop-off point. They didn't have any problems with the native americans and it seems that life at the fort was rather boring. No wonder that Fort Yellowstone, where they could go hunt and explore was considered a plumb posting.

There was even a laundress with her own tent and allotment. The allotment was quite genuine and they were trying to grow vegetables from the time of the settlers. The laundress could trace one part of lineage back to Wales. She was doing some quilting as she worked at doing the laundering too. We had quite a long chat with her and she told us about the conditions at the fort and her own part there. The life she described was one of great hardship and perseverance. The fort must have been hot in summer and cold in winter with very short springs and autumns. She said that the growing season was only 9 weeks so that didn't give much time to grow very much.

All in all a fantastic day at the fort.

We set off for Denver again and about half way pulled into Cheyenne, the State Capital, for a meal. A small centre was deserted but we wandered around and found the rail depot where there was the most amazing booking hall in the 1920s style; like the one that is seen in films; not huge but impressive nonetheless.

It was jolly decent meal and after a two hour stopover we made the last leg of the journey to Denver. We followed all the instructions but could we find the hotel? No! We drove around where it should have been but no sign for a Best Western. We looked again at the print-out of the booking and there was a picture of the hotel on the page and on the opposite side of the road from us was the hotel but under a different franchise... arghhhh!

We were told at the front desk that they had switched franchises and the signs had only gone up this week. We unloaded the car totally and took everything up to the room. The annoying part is that the internet access has been the worst of all. We've had it flaky but not so that we couldn't through. Here it's been dead. However it has come back but it's sooooo slow which is why this is a rather late entry.

I've had a request to put more pictures up so what I'll do is make a little portfolio of them in a separate place.