The RV is packed the VW is hooked up. We climb aboard and say adios to 302 Day Road. It’s high noon, and we are getting out of Dodge.
The weather is clear and the sun shines brightly. Sure, now it decides to come out after an entire summer of June gloom. But we are too excited to hold onto a grudge. We are off on an adventure and life is good!
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| Lagoon at Pismo State Beach |
This is to be the “proof is in the pudding” vacation. Will we really enjoy driving almost 3,000 miles in a 30-foot motor home towing our trusty VW Vanagon? Or will we miss the adventure of driving our Vanagon over hill and dale? Will we miss the spontaneity of dirt roads and spur-of-the-moment side trips? Have we traded all that in for a bigger bed and an indoor potty? In other words, have we sold out? I suppose only time will tell.
But back to our trip. Being creatures of habit, our first stop on our first day is In-N-Out Burger in Goleta. A cheeseburger for Fred and a protein burger for me – we share the fries. Yes, I’m trying to stay at least somewhat close to my Weight Watchers Point Plus Plan, but already it’s looking doubtful. The fries just taste so darn good.
We roll along Highway 101 heading north. The RV rocks and sways, the VW follows dutifully behind. We pass brown hills of summer splotched with dark green California Oaks. A faded barn here, a few cows there, some rust-colored horses. And eventually, as most of you know, we come upon row, after row, after row, of grape vines. They are bright green right now, and when we return in October they will be turning autumn’s traditional red, gold and orange.
Fred fiddles with his newly installed Sirius radio and is bummed that Howard is a re-run. He vows he may cancel Sirius when we return. I highly doubt it.
We arrive at Pismo State Beach Oceano Campground around 3:15. We made a vow many years ago that we do not travel very far on the first day of a long vacation. After years of almost killing one another out of sheer exhaustion and irritability due to being overwhelmed by our vacation To Do lists, this makes a lot of sense. We find it has greatly increased the chances of us actually enjoying the trip together.
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| Fred puts up a wind break - there's a cool breeze blowing. |
Our good friends Mike and Lisa Marshall stop by on their way home from Monterey where they have celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on September 3rd. We fix margaritas and cosmos and munch on jalapeno flavored Cheetos. It doesn’t get much classier than that.
For dinner I fix yellow crookneck squash sautéed in olive oil with Italian herbs, spaghetti primavera, Caesar salad with homemade garlic croutons and toasted bread with garlic butter. After dinner we dunk Mother’s Glazed Oatmeal Cookies into our mugs of decaf coffee with a splash of Bailey’s Irish Cream.
We stand ‘round the campfire as evening begins to fade. We talk, laugh, and warm our backsides. We bid farewell to our dear friends around 8:30 and they head home to Ojai. We leisurely clean up and do the dishes. Lights out at 10 pm. And so ends Day One.
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