If you go far enough West the scenery improves… March and April

Wednesday, March 15, we made the short trip from NW Phoenix to Quartzite, AZ, a little dusty town almost on the California border on I-10.  In January and February there were nine gem and mineral shows here and fifteen flea markets.  This snowbirder haven saw 800,000 RVers last winter!  Yikes!  Don’t come here in the summer, though.  In the middle of summer, Quartzsite was one of the hottest places in the United States and had recorded temperatures as high as 122 °F on 28 July, 1995.  By the time we arrived in the middle of March there wasn’t a lot going on, but, you know us, we ferreted out the most interesting spots in this desert town.   The guy parked next to us went out into the desert every day looking for gold and usually came back with a few flakes.Jerry was walking through “Celia’s Rainbow Garden”, a memorial garden started by Celia’s mom in memory of Celia who died at 9 years of age.  You can see that the caretakers aren’t big on watering and lawns, but it was interesting to the various desert plants.  Quartzite Cemetery was the burial place of Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali), an Ottoman citizen of Greek-Syrian parentage.  Ali was one of several men hired by the United States Army to introduce 33 camels as beasts of burden to transport cargo across the "Great American Desert.  After successfully traveling round trip from Texas to California, the experiment failed, partly due to the problem that the Army's burros, horses, and mules feared the large animals, often panicking.  The tensions of the American Civil War led to Congress not approving more funds for the Corps.  In 1864, the camels were finally auctioned off.  In his final years, Ali moved to Quartzsite, Arizona, where he mined and occasionally scouted for the US government. He died in 1902 and was buried in the Quartzsite Cemetery.Quartzite was also famous for its flea markets and “commercial” yard sales.  We wandered the few remaining stands, but couldn’t find anything appealing.  The whole dusty, cramped place kind of gave us the creeps as we imagined hundreds of thousands of snowbirders pawing through the treasures.  I don’t think we will be back!The only other item of interest was a small museum displaying historic items from Quartzite's early days.  The town of Quartzsite was located on the site of old Fort Tyson, a privately owned fort built in 1856 by Charles Tyson for protection against Indians. Because of the water which existed at this place, Tyson's Wells soon became a stage station on the road from Ehrenburg to Prescott. In 1875 Martha Summerhayes described this place as being the most melancholy and uninviting that she had ever seen, saying that it "reeks of everything unclean, morally and physically..."We left Quartzite on March 18 to make our way to the central California coast.  We had two stops along the way, since we don’t like to travel more than 300 miles a day.  The first stop was in Barstow, at the Shady Lane RV Camp.  Not one of my better selections!  The sites were too small, the “camp” didn’t really have 50 amp service for us, and it was just one big dust bowl of a campground.  Ugh!  We survived it but barely!  The photo is a picture of the “office”!Barstow's roots lie in the rich mining history of the Mojave Desert following the discovery of gold and silver in the Owens Valley and in mountains to the east in the 1860s and 1870s.   Much of its economy depends on transportation. Today I-15 and I-40 converge here.  The one reason we stopped at Barstow was to have dinner at “Idle Spurs”, a steakhouse that has been here since the 70’s.  Many years ago we stopped here with two other couples on our way to Las Vegas and had dinner here.  It was delicious then and it was again!One night in Barstow was enough!  Our next stop was a tried and true stop at “Orange Grove RV Resort” (“resort” being a key word in the name!) on the east side of Bakersfield.  The clever owners had converted an old orange grove to an RV park so we were surrounded by orange blossoms!  There’s no smell like it!  In the photo Jerry was poised for another basketball game, amid the blooming trees.We needed a good walk so we drove across Bakersfield to The Park at River Walk and walked along the booming Kern River.  I doubt this river has been so full for many springs!  We saw evidence everywhere of California’s plentiful winter rains.  We heard that the snowpack in the Sierra was 167% of normal!  Last year on the same date, there was no snow.  Good news!  As you can see from the photo we had a warm and sunny afternoon for our exploring and it was delightful to work out the kinks.After our walk we drove back across town in search of a microbrewery and Bakersfield did not disappoint.  We found “Lengthwise Brewing Company”, a larger microbrewery than we usually stumble across.  It was a big facility with a large patio and room for games like ping pong and bean bag toss.  Good beer too!We left Bakersfield on Monday, March 20, to reach our destination in Morro Bay.  As we travelled through the hills on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley we saw lots of wild flowers, mostly fiddleneck, and velvety green hillsides.  More evidence of a rainy winter. 
We parked in Morro Strand RV Park, on the north side of Morro Bay and within a short walk to the beach at Morro Rock.  (More about Morro Rock later).  We had a paved path leading from our campsite, right past Morro Rock, to the north end of the Embarcadero.  We walked to “Tognazzini’s Dockside Too” a seafood market/restaurant we had previously visited with Visalia friends.  We ordered Firestone DBA, clam chowder for me and fish and chips for Jerry.  As we ate, we enjoyed the beautiful views of the bay and the rock and watched two ships unload their haul of crab right next door.  Dockside has a covered patio right on the pier, so we had a ringside seat for all the activity. 
When the two boats departed, we were still well entertained by the harbor seals and sea otters swimming just below our perch.   What a tough way to spend the afternoon!  In the photo you can see a baby otter resting on the mama otter…so cute!  This spot became our favorite stop on our afternoon walk through town.  We could justify sitting and having a beer because of our four-mile route!

So, I should talk a little bit about Morro Rock.  According to Wikipedia:Morro Rock is a 581-foot volcanic plug located just offshore from Morro Bay, California, at the entrance to Morro Bay Harbor. Morro Rock is the best known of the Nine Sisters of San Luis Obispo County, a series of ancient (23 million years old!) volcanic plugs that line the Los Osos Valley between the cities of Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo.  A causeway connects it with the shore, effectively making it a tied island.  The rock was quarried on and off from 1889 to 1969, and provided material for the breakwater of Morro Bay and Port San Luis Harbor.   It is about half of its original size due to the quarrying. 

This whole area was geologically active due to plate tectonics.  The Pacific Plate is subducting under the North American Plate along the west coast of California, resulting in faults.  You have heard of the San Andreas Fault and its destructive power, but there are many other faults up and down the coast.  Volcanoes form because of cracks in the earth’s surface, along fault lines.  The Cascade Mountain range volcanoes are the result of faulting. 

All of this  busy geology has resulted in some spectacular scenery!  We took the half-mile hike up to the top of Black Hill, another volcano plug and enjoyed the amazing views.  Morro Rock is in the background to the right of Jerry.  Black Hill was the second volcano plug in the line up.  The beautiful scenery continued along Highway 1 to San Luis and we could see these volcanic plugs lie up in a NW to SE direction.  Isn’t geology fascinatig?This was the season of Lent so we found a sweet little Lutheran Church in Morro Bay to attend the Wednesday evening and Sunday morning services…Calary Evangelical Lutheran Church.  Founded in 1952 by the Augustana Synod, this congregation worshipped about 35 people on Sunday.  Like many other churches we have visited, this church struggled with a diminishing membership and a decreasing budget.  In spite of those problems, we found it to be a warm and welcoming congregation.  Whoever planned the worship service did a great job of utilizing the projection screen (you can see it rolled up at the right of the photo) to guide the worship.  We didn’t receive a multi-page bulletin, rather followed the order of service as projected.  It was very effective and well done!
We got to know Bruce and Bev Torg, members of Calvary, and went to dinner with them a few times, as welll as attending the movie, “Martin Luther:  An Idea That Changed the World”, sponsored by Thrivent Financial.  If you have a chance, go see the movie go see it.  We were reminded of lots of 16^th century history, as well as the story of Martin Luther.  What a character!  The movie was at a Regal Cinemas theater in Arroyo Grande, right across the highway from A.J. Spurs!  It was great excuse to have dinner at this local landmark…yummy, too!  Great movie, great fellowship, and delightful new friends!  Bruce was a industrial pump specialist for most of his working life and travelled all over the world.  He had great stories, including his humble beginnings in North Dakota.  Bev grew up on a dairy in Kerman, CA and had lots of milking cows twice a day memories. 

Thursday, March 23, Paul and Cyndi Godlin, from Visalia, drove over to visit for a couple of days.  We’ve known them forever…from Christ Lutheran Church…and always have a good time with them.  We did the expected beach walk and found several “interesting” driftwood shelters.  We walked along the water’s edge looking for heart-shaped rocks and one-liners…rocks with a single contrasting   stripe.  Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. 

Paul and Cyndi stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast in Cayucos so we joined them for afternnon wine and cheese in the “parlor” and then found dinner at “The Grill”, across the street.  This was a unique place.  The kitchen and dining spaces were in separate buildings.  The dining area reminded us of a giant gazebo with open walls.  Huge screens dropped down if the air was chilly or the setting sun was too intense.  The menu included locally harvested produce and seafood.  Delicious!  We’ll see these old friends in a couple of weeks in Visalia.

One afternoon we decided to visit the elephant seals at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery north about 30 miles on Highway 1.  Those sausage looking things on the beach were the “weaners”…this year’s pups, born here in late January and early February, and juveniles…last year’s crop.  We learned from the docents along the boardwalk that elephant seals spent most of their life in the water, except for mating, birth, and molting.  The large bull seals weighed as much as 2500 lbs, dwarfing their diminutive 800-lb mates!  They dove to depths of 2000 feet and held their breath up to an hour to feast on their favorite dinner of squid, skates, octopi, and other bottom dwellers.  When on the beach they neither ate nor drank, but relied on internal stores.

Another couple of Visalia friends, Mike and Sandy Albaugh, drove over to spend March 27 and 28 with us at the beach.  We’ve done some RV travelling with these folks in the past during our early days and have learned a lot from them.  This time they chose a motel near us. 

Our first exploration was to Montana de Oro.  We’d driven out here a few days before and knew it to be a spectaular place…mountains and bluffs above the ocean.  Located just south of Los Osos, it was an easy drive.  As you can see, the walk along the cliffs was spectacular.  The beach in the photo is only accessible from the water…someone with some good kayaking skills, but not us!

Of course we had to have the requisite beach shot.  Mesmerizing to watch the waves crash against those offshore rocks!

We drove to Avila Beach with them, wanting to check the camping availability at Port San Luis.  We thought we might stay there next week.  We walked to the end of the Harford Pier to find MerSea’s, a little seafood restaurant with outside seating overlooking the harbor.  What a great place for a beer!  The harbor had no marina but rather accommodated all transient and permanent boats on mooring buoys.  A shuttle boat brought folks into shore or back to their boats, even the live-aboards!  Wouldn’t that be a different life…floating around on a rather exposed harbor and being dependent on someone to come fetch you when you needed to go get a gallon of milk?  Yikes!

Across from MerSea’s was a seafood market where we bought a yummy piece of swordfish for the grill.  Grilling swordfish was new to us, so we asked the fisherman who waited on us how to cook it.  It turned out so well I thought you might like to see his recipe:

Grilled Swordfish1 “ swordfish steaksSeasonings of choice.  We used paprika, cayenne pepper, and Montreal steak seasoning
Melt butter in a cast iron skillet on the grill.  Sprinkle seasonings on the melted butter.  Cook the fish 7 minutes on each side with the skillet lid in place.  I think this would work for any mild fish.

Monday, April 3, we moved to Port San Luis, near Avila Beach, and parked at the Coastal Gateway Campground.  

As you can see, it’s not a gorgeous campground, but our view, just across the street was of San Luis Harbor.  

Fabulous!

This little campground was unique.  There were a total of 30 sites with full hookups, all owned by the Department of Fish and Game.  Fifteen sites were sublet to Port San Luis to rent to RVers.  A two-week limit was imposed, at $67 a day.  Pricey!

We had several great walks and bike rides while we were in Avila Beach.  We were able to hop on our bikes at the RV campground and ride the Bob Jones trail, following the Avila golf course, to the end.  The ride was about 9 miles round trip…not huge…but got us going!  This trail was also popular with the walkers and we found the ride a little challenging as we dodged moms and strollers, teenagers walking the family dog, and large groups spread across both lanes.  We rode into Avila Beach and enjoyed the beach scenery.  We used to come to this beach with the kids in the 80’s and 90’s.

Our best hike was up one of the volcano plugs, Cerro San Luis, on the western edge of San Luis Obispo.  This is one of the 9 volcano plugs ranging from Morro Rock in Morro Bay to the east side of San Luis Obispo.  We thought this would be a leisurely Sunday afternoon jaunt, but discovered that this was 3 miles of UP!  We had beautiful scenery and lots of company…mostly college students bounding by us.

In this photo we were looking west toward the ocean and the last little bump out there is Morro Rock.  We would like to come here again and explore the other peaks.  There are lots more hiking trails with which to challenge ourselves!

Here we are at the top…having a water break.

We followed this young lady and her two dogs down the trail.  I asked how the little chihuahua did with his little short legs.  She told us the little guy ran up and down the trail...better than the big dog or her!

Our last adventure took us to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, west of Bakersfield at the south end of California’s central valley.  Because of the heavy rains over the winter, a super bloom had been declared and we were eager to see the flowers.  We weren’t disappointed!

Soda Lake, at the north end of the monument, gave a beautiful reflection of the Temblor Range to the east, dusted with flowers.

In this photo, we looked to the west toward the Sierra Madre Mountains, across a flower-covered valley floor.  Geologically, the mountains are almost entirely composed of marine sandstones and other sediments.  The Sierra Madre rose abruptly just south of the Cuyama Valley, which defines the northern boundary of Santa Barbara County.

As we drove south through the monument we saw fields of purple flowers to the east.  The light-colored low range of hills marks the San Andreas Fault.  The Temblor Range, in the background, was a marine basin with shallow to intermediate depths (marine waters covered the southern San Joaquin Valley region).  Thanks to plate tectonics, the range was uplifted as the Pacific Plate dove under the North American Plate.  Peaks within the Temblor Range average about 3500 ft. above sea level.  The highest point is McKittrick Summit at 4,331 ft., located in the center of the range about 35 mi (56 km) west of Bakersfield.

Instead of retracing our route on the asphalt road, north out of the monument, we chose to continue driving south on a deteriorating gravel to dirt track.  This route took us out of the south end of the monument and eventually to CA-168 and the Cuyama River Valley.  We saw lots of truck farming and ranchland…another part of California of which few are aware.  The route took us along the west side of the Sierra Madre Range and we saw more evidence of the plate tectonics that had created this area.

We stopped in an interesting little restaurant, Buckhorn Café, for a late lunch in New Cuyama…barely a wide spot in the road.  We had delicious burgers and home-baked cookies for dessert.  I found this sign in the ladies’ restroom.  I had not seen anything like this before.  Sure makes good sense to post that information!

Boater friends, Jim and Christie Caldwell from Ventura, drove up to visit us on Friday, April 7.  We had done some buddy cruising with them when we had “Cosmo Place”.  Their Nordic Tug, “Noeta”, was very similar to ours.  We walked to the end of the pier in the rain to have lunch at MerSea…first time we had eaten there.  Yummy crab sandwich!

Visalia friends Lynn and Maureen Heiges had a coastal home near Avila Beach, so we got to see them while we in the area.  They showed us an amazing Mexican restaurant in San Luis Obispo.  Some days it was all about the food!

Saturday, April 8, we did some serious grocery replenishing in San Luis Obispo and found this little microbrewery.  It wasn’t one of our favorites, but I didn’t want you to think we were falling behind in our mission to visit local microbreweries!

Sunday, April 9, was our last visit to the Morro Bay Lutheran Church.  Since it was Palm Sunday, everything was very festive, great music, and even a procession.

Sunday afternoon remade one last trip to MerSea's for a final beer and a check of the scenery.  We found a float covered with sea lions.  What a racket!

Monday, April 10, it was jacks up to head east about 140 miles to Visalia, in the big central valley of California, where we had lived for 32 years.  The drive through the coastal ranges was very green!  Even Cuesta grade looked good.

We will be in Visalia for two weeks, visiting old friends.  That will be a story for another day!