Day 33 – April 12 – Slowing Down

We left the Target store lot around 7:30 as promised and turned north on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).  We do not have any place to stay for the current night – we called a couple of campgrounds but nothing panned out before we hit the road.

Finally we stopped around noon to take a break and do some more searching for a campground.  We got off the PCH at Santa Barbara and Rick headed toward the old mission figuring they would have a parking lot large enough for us to park without problems.  They also had a really neat walking Way of the Cross in a pretty garden.  So we walked. 

A few more calls and we found a place to stay in Morro Bay, the Bay Pines RV Park.  We booked two nights over the phone and hit the road again.  Finally pulled into the RV Park about 2:30.  We were all very tired for some reason – I think the stress of the day before (trying to find a place to stay) and the drive today ganged up on us and wore us all down some.  After setting up the campers we talked it over and decided to go to the local grocery store and get some steaks and potatoes for dinner.  During the trip to the grocery store we all decided we would try to extend our stay for two additional nights at Bay Pines.  We got our extension and decided tomorrow would be a down day – just rest and relax.  I think we all need the down time.

The dinner was outstanding.  Nothing like fresh meat grilled to perfection, baked potato (or sweet potato in my case), and a glass of red wine (several in Dorrie's case)!

Just a word about how Californians refer to their roads and highways.  Everyone knows that Californians seem to have a love affair with their cars.  That seems to carry over to the road systems.  We would refer to Interstate Highway 70 as I-70.  In California it would be referred to as “the 70”.  Pacific Coast Highway is “the PCH”, Interstate 5 is “the 5” – you get the idea.  It sounds funny to hear the news people talk about the roads on TV.  Just for fun listen and see if you pick up this strange way of speaking about roads on television shows or movies.

Dorrie and Mary pointed out that we seem to be hurrying way too much – almost racing from point to point.  That is part of the reason we extended our stay in Bay Pines.  So we will attempt to remember that we are retired, not on a vacation.