A Tale of Two Highways

Why, you may ask, would Dave and I want to go for a walk along Highway 101?  Well, the answer is--because there's a walking path there.  We've seen people walking and biking along this path and it looked like a good distance for a walk, so off we went.  We knew the traffic noise would be loud, but the path was wide and safe and we saw things from a different perspective.

The beginning of the paved path near the freeway onramp.

A view of very crowded Holiday RV Park.  We're glad this isn't our park!  Can you see the ocean view on the right hand side of the middle of the picture?

A view of from up above of the mobile home park that's across Highway 1 from Pismo Coast Village RV Park.  We've biked through this park and it's actually a nice, quiet park, except for the traffic noise, of course.  ;-)

Returning on the same path

Actually, it was a good walk and just the right distance for us--70 minutes round trip.  The path ends at the Pismo Beach Outlet Stores, but we didn't pay them a visit today.  The other reason that we went on this walk was because...we had never done it before!  We're always looking for new places to explore.

Welcome to Pismo Beach!

After our "exciting" morning freeway walk, we took a picnic lunch to the beach.  We drove out onto the beach and listened to the weekly podcast from White Horse Inn.  They are spending three months discussing the Gospel of John and offer a perspective that is often enlightening to us.

A bunch of beach bikes

Horses and riders dodging the "highway" traffic on the beach.

Camping on the beach 

The view of the beach "highway" as we drove along at 15 miles per hour.  It was a lot quieter than Highway 101, except for the roar of the waves!

Guadalupe Dunes and Oso Flaco Lake

The Chamber of Commerce is glad that warmer weather has now arrived in Pismo Beach.  The last few and the next few days are supposed to have temperatures in the seventies along with bright, sunny skies. 

For today's walk, Dave and I drove south on Highway 1 to Oso Flaco (Skinny Bear) Lake, just a bit northwest of the town of Guadalupe.  We take this walk every year when we are here, and it's an enjoyable walk along a dirt path, then a boardwalk over the lake and up to the edge of the dunes and ocean.   It's a state park which charges $5 to park, but Dave bought a senior off-season pass for $20, so we were able to park here for free.

Little Oso Flaco Lake

As we reached the lake, we met a group of photographers who had been out bird-watching.

My own attempt at bird photography.

The last part of the boardwalk as it climbs up over the dunes.

We made it!

Where's this 747 going?  Maybe to Tokyo??

I always enjoy seeing swans, but in this case, this might be a pelican.

After our walk at Oso Flaco, we drove a short distance to nearly Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve.  This area is a county park with no entrance fee.  The road goes all the way out through the dunes to the ocean.  With six foot waves, this area appeared to be popular with surfers.

Sand mining plant on the way to the Preserve

On the way home we stopped in Santa Maria and ate an outdoor lunch at one of our favorit iconic California eateries:

And, oh yes, here's the story about Skinny Bear.  According to legend, the Chumash Indians used to hang their rotten meat for the bears.  The bears would eat it, then get sick and become skinny.  Then the Indians would eat the bears, and they would become sick.  I'm not sure what the story has to do with the lake, but there it is. 

One more detail about the Guadalupe Dunes is that the Ten Commandments was filmed there and after the filming, Cecil B. DeMille decided that the sets should be buried in the dunes.  They are still there, and are reportedly buried somewhere behind the sand mining plant that I showed.  One of the latter movies to be filmed in these dunes was Pirates of the Caribbean starring Johnny Depp.  Dave and I both agreed that we could picture Lawrence of Arabia riding through the dunes!

Margie and Bruce Memorial Walk

Every day, Dave and I try to get some form of exercise.  When we go for a bike ride, it's hard to take pictures, so I'll combine the pictures from a couple of walks that we recently took. 

Today we went on our "Margie and Bruce Memorial" walk.  The place where they were killed in October, 2010, near the Tides Motel and Cottages, was marked on a pole.  They liked to take long walks each day and this time a car came through the fence from Highway 101 and hit them as they were walking along the sidewalk.  They were both killed instantly.  Pismo Beach was one of their favorite places, and it was because of Margie's blogs about their time at Pismo Coast Village that we are now shareholders at this park.  So thank you, Margie and Bruce--we miss you and think of you often!

View up the hill

Interesting weather vane

View from the street

One of the Pismo painted clams is at our park.  The Monarch butterfly area is just up the street from our park.

The painter's signature

Embedded mailboxes

A colorful porch--one of my favorites!

Beach Walk to Town

Our first full day in Pismo was cool and cloudy.  I dressed warmly for our walk to town.  We drove onto the beach this noon and ate a picnic lunch in our car.

Not a bad lunch-time view!

After lunch, we took the car for a badly-needed car wash.  Dave did the honors.

We took a walk to town because I was looking for a tee-shirt or a sweatshirt, and ended up finding one I liked at the park store.  Here's a hoodie that I chose NOT  to buy.

Looking across to the "best" sites at Pismo Coast Village RV Park.  These sites are under construction this year as they have gradually been upgrading all the sites in the north area of the park.

View from the Pismo Creek out to the ocean

It's off-season for these lifeguard stands!

The Pismo Beach fishing pier

Pismo Beach!

We got all checked into Pismo Coast Village RV Resort for the next couple of months.  The site we had the last two years was not available, so we got a site next to it.  On January 26, we'll be able to move to our favorite site, #161. 

Site #160

We've had a fun trip so far with a lengthy stay in Las Vegas and then six days at Death Valley.  Bakersfield was a respite trip in order to visit a Walmart Supercenter, Winco, and Great Clips.  Now those errands are done, and we're stocked up for a while.  Yes, they have stores in this area, even Walmart, but the prices are higher here in the Central Coast of California. 

Oil wells along Highway 46 near Lost Hills

Rolling hills along Highway 46

Tonight we walked to town and ate a celebratory first-night dinner at Splash Cafe.  It's a hole-in-the-wall place, but I love their clam chowder.  Don't worry, I included the cup of chowder in my daily calorie budget, but I didn't have much budget left over for today. 

Splash Cafe

The Chowder

Dave's Splash Cafe burger and fries.  I got to eat his pickle--lucky me!

One of the murals painted on the wall at Splash Cafe.  Another mural featuring clams having fun at the beach.