Good evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ with you again. Tonight we are safely parked at the US Forest Service Plaskett Creek Campground in Big Sur, California!
This trip (remember, we call this one “the Trip to Everywhere”) was planned to allow us to finish the lower 48 in the Airstream. Here’s the count as of now:
States visited this trip: 10. New states camped this trip: 2 (NV, CA)
States camped lifetime: 34. New states to go this trip: 14 (OR, WA, ID, MT, ND, MI, VT, NH, ME, RI, MA, CT, NJ, DE)
Even though the design point for this trip was “state bagging”, there are some secondary objectives. For example, we will camp directly on all five Great Lakes. Tonight marks completion of another objective... we are within sight of the Pacific Ocean. Not bad for two old folks and a 7,000 pound aluminum bubble pulled by a 7,000 pound steel mule! In 30 days we’ve managed to see both the Atlantic and Pacific.
We barely have cell service here, but I’ll try to catch you up with some of the pics we’ve missed sharing with you the last few days. (Tried and failed! I still owe you pics and will keep trying... SC’)
Today started back at Three Rivers. Since we were on full hookups, we took advantage and caught up on our laundry. I try to avoid some of the grittier aspects of life on the road while living “close to nature” with two people and two dogs but tonight requires me to open the kimono a bit more than usual. Although the dogs have their own bed built in next to ours, they prefer,not to respect the boundary. Golden Retrievers are notorious “cover hogs” and Zachary if raising that tendency to “hall of fame” levels. Let’s just say that after 30 nights there was a clear indication of where he likes to sleep on our quilt.
Our little washer might handle a twin, but not a queen quilt so we decided to put it in a bag until we get home and replace it for the rest of this trip with a new quilt in a duvet cover that we can wash. Target provided the goods on Friday. This morning was time to re-linen. So, being the trailer-husband that I am I volunteered to put the new quilt in the new duvet as part of remaking the bed. I probably should have volunteered to defend us from any giant squid attacks because I learned that a queen sized quilt and it’s duvet have more arms and better attack moves than a giant squid. First off, I searched all four sides of the duvet and could not find an opening. I figured this was made using some Army technology that I hadn’t read about on AirForums. Mrs. C’ offered to inspect the duvet and showed me the top-secret hidden row of buttons inside the folded over section on one edge. I’m sure I could have figured that out. She asked if I wanted her to put the quilt into the bag. I said “No, no... I’ve got it.”. I contemplated turning the darn bag inside out or maybe putting my entire torso into the bag and dragging a flashlight in to properly align the quilt. That’s when I discovered tie strings in the corners of the duvet. “Ah ha!”, I exclaimed. I’ll turn this sucker inside out and tie these bad boys to two corners of the quilt then roll the duvet over the quilt... kind of like folding the peel back onto the banana for storage! Well, actually, not exactly like re-peeling a banana since that never works. But I was sure my approach to duvet management was sure to succeed! So, I tied one corner, tied the other and inverted the bag to envelop the quilt. VOILA! That wasn’t so hard, after all. Mrs. C’ was watching this step and asked if I wanted help. “No, no... I’ve got it.”. I said. When I finished re-peeling and went to lay the quilt in its cover in the bed I realized that the length of quilt inside the bag where it should span our chins was greater than the length of the bag. To make matters worse, there wasn’t enough quilt in the bag to reach from our chins to our ankles. Uh oh! Either the quilt or the cover was going to have to shift 90 degrees. Back to square one. Untie the corners, index the quilt one quarter turn in the sack, retie. VOILA! That wasn’t so hard after all. Mrs. C’ was watching this step and asked if I wanted help. “No, no... I’ve got it.”. I said. That’s when I discovered that the corners at the end with the Soviet-era bag/button hidden seam technology had ties, too! That’s genius! I’ll use them. I had to wrestle the squid again to allow fresh air and daylight to reach the ties so I could use them as intended. Tie one. Tie two. VOILA! that wasn’t so hard after all. Now, to understand what went wrong with that operation I must describe how a wannabe engineer thinks of a quilt and it’s duvet. Imagine, it you will the duvet spread perfectly on a large, flat surface. I say “imagine” because a quilt and duvet never exist in that perfect, flat configuration in nature. In your mind, assign a capital letter to each corner of the duvet beginning at the upper left (A), the moving to the upper right (B), lower right (C) and lower left (D). Then do the same with the imaginary quilt which is mostly hidden in the bag but use lower case letters this time. a-b-c-d. The properly tied corners align like-letters using the built-in ties to join them. Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd. I did that. VOILA! that wasn’t so hard after all. When I spread the quilt out it looked like an “X” inside a square... like the example of a perfectly completed mark on a paper ballot or SAT test. Mrs. C’ was watching this step and asked if I wanted help. “No, no... I’ve got it.”. I said. Some careful diagnostic work led me to believe that my quilt was tied Aa, Bb, Cd, Dc. Hmmm... the quilt has more squid-like moves than I suspected. I untied Cd and Dc, switched corners making sure the quilt was approximately flat and not double twisted in the process (after all... I’m not an incompetent idiot when it comes to putting a quilt in a bag!) and retied. VOILA! that wasn’t so hard after all! I buttoned the sack and we were done!
After the washing and duvet management, getting from Three Rivers to Big Sur was a 3 1/2 hour breeze! The first half was through the farm country of the San Joaquin Valley. I saw far fewer crops and far more sun-baked grassland that I could have imagined. After 30 miles of rolling tan land more reminiscent of the Mojave than of Eden, we reached Paso Robles where we reprovisioned, gassed and grabbed to vegan sandwiches from a top rated shop and two apple fritters from a donut shop across the street. I would learn later when we consumed both that I am not a vegan but I might be a fritterer.
Paso Robles was the first town we have seen in weeks that struck a “home town” chord with Mrs. C’ and me. The parts we saw were clean with an appealing mix of modern conveniences with lovingly tended traditions. For some reason, being in that part of California made me talk like Spicoli from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. “Du-hu-hude. Those sandwiches were gnarley.” Fortunately, Mrs. C’ was the only person who was there to hear me, she shook her head and said “Cut that out”.
We headed west with an hour to go and crossed gorgeous rolling green hills dotted with vineyards, wild flowers and grazing cattle. It’s clear that this area is undergoing a transition fueled by serious investment. We saw more Ferraris than expected and about half of the vineyards were newly established and too young to be productive. Several wineries were even still under construction. Meanwhile the cattle operations were based around weathered barns. Some major investments are shifting the future if the area around Paso Robles.
The last 40 minutes of the trip were spent on California 1 ranging from 50 to 800 feet above the Pacific which was rarely out of sight. At times the road from Cambria north to Plaskett Creek resembled CA155 that nearly killed us on Friday or even the “Generals Highway” through Sequoia that we drove yesterday. It was narrow, steep and curvy. With the Pacific on our left and the sun about halfway between noon and setting, this road earned its reputation as one of America’s most spectacular drives.
We’ll be here at least two nights but maybe three or four. Hopefully tomorrow will be clear (it’s sprinkling now at 8:40 PM as I’m wrapping up) and we can finally see Big Sur. The last time we were here - about 35 years ago - a landslide closed the road and we couldn’t get there. I hope you’ll come along!
Later...
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