Shortly after 10:00 AM this morning we set out to move from the Vines RV Resort in Paso Robles to Morgan Hill TT near Gilroy, garlic capital of the world. It was a nice, uneventful drive up 101 through emerald green pastures and oak forests to Gilroy where we turned off on some city streets and then some rural roads and finally pulled into Morgan Hill TT. The park is located at the foot of some green, grassy hills with a waterway named Uvas Creek flowing through the campground. Paving is a bit substandard and there is evidence of some drainage issues as some of the sites were mud quagmires.
Morgan Hill TT has mostly 30 amp sites and the water works well but they have no sewer connections. Although we camp for 21 days free at most TT campgrounds, we will be obliged to pay $25 three times during our stay here so the management can come around with their honey wagon and suck that which we don’t want from our trailer. Morgan Hill also seems to have a bunch of folks who appear to be living here which seems strange since stays are limited to 21 days before elite members like us are obliged to leave the park. Fourteen days is the limit for those with regular memberships so I am having a hard time figuring how a few of the residents have large Dogpatch-like sites complete with broken down compressors, multiple bikes (some with two wheels), sheds, fenced dog compounds and small stacks of yard furniture missing legs.
We found a nice spot under some oaks and set up for a 15 day stay. We will see how this place works out for us.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday so Peggy did the laundry and I went for a propane refill and did some maintenance on the blogs, adding some photos to posts for January 12, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28 and 30 plus February 2, 4 and 6. Select the word “here” at the end of each day’s entry to see some pix associated with that day’s travels.
Nothing else happened. Peggy and I will hopefully finish our chores before the big game and the unfettered capitalism that comes with it appear on our TV.
For some reason beyond my understanding, the January 26 post seems to be mixed in w/ February’s posts. I can’t explain it. Maybe it will work itself out (unlikely) or I will received a flurry of talent and become capable of fixing this issue (even more unlikely). Don’t hold your breath.

Today we went back to doing what seems to suit us best – we went exploring in the Santa Ynez Valley. Down Paradise Road towards CA-154 we skulked along, checking out the beautiful surroundings. Soon we arrived at CA-154 and turned northwest headed past Lake Cachuma and on to the turnoff for CA-246 which heads west to Solvang.
Solvang is a community based on Danish architecture and goods, most of which were not created in Scandinavia. We went into Olsen’s Bakery first where we purchased two heart-plugs with coffee and enjoyed the guilt we got from eating them. They were very tasty. Soon thereafter, we stopped in at the Copenhagen Shop which did seem to have Danish created or designed stuff that was quite attractive and expensive. Virtually none of their goods could be utilized while traveling in a 5th wheel trailer so we left with Peggy only buying a little plastic shelf wossname for use somewhere within our mobile homestead.
We then took a leisurely stroll down Solvang’s downtown streets, gazing into the shops which had huge selections of stuff we could not use but Peg did find some birthday gift stuff which somehow ended up being purchased. We strolled a bit more before hopping back into Charlotte and turning further west on CA-246 a couple miles to Ballard Canyon Road, a squiggly, skinny road running north.
Ballard Canyon seems to be a rarely-used road passing through rolling hills with lots of wineries, livestock in green pastures, some gorgeous houses, grasslands with widely-spread oak and walnut (?) trees along with mountainous backdrops on the horizons. This is a pretty spiffy drive. At the north end of Ballard Canyon, we got back on CA-154 going southeast through Los Olivos where we found a store on the main street selling western garb that was called Jedlicka’s. I’m not sure I want to tell too many folks about this place just so they don’t come up with irritating or annoying phrases like, “Jedlicka the skillet and is still hungry” or “Jedlicka that guy’s buttock to save himself from having his lights punched out.”
From Los Olivos, we continued southeast on CA-154 back to Paradise Road where we turned off and cut the speed to about 15 mph. It is a very nice drive up the Santa Ynez River along Paradise Road. There are a few federal campgrounds along the road along with some day use areas that are quite scenic. If I lived in Santa Barbara, I would come over to the Santa Ynez Valley pretty regularly to picnic and maybe do something else like screw or smoke a joint.
A couple of pix can be seen by clicking here

Last night I didn’t sleep as well as I might have wished but during the waking periods I was ably serenaded by the vehicles passing by on US-101 which is about 50 feet away from the trailer. At dawn the skies were clear and the sunrise was nice. Peggy awoke a bit later and we sat down for our usual coffee tonsil wash and then decided to go out for breakfast.
Fortunately, there is a truck stop right across 101 from our current digs that includes a greasy spoon called Jose’s. Peggy chose Cream of Wheat for breakfast and alleged it was both creamy and wheaty. It came with some lumps but Peg said it was okay. She only needed to add butter and salt and, voila, nothing. I chose country fried steak as part of my never-ending quest to find the best chicken fried steak in the country. It isn’t at Jose’s although my food was still pretty good; ample portions, tasty hash browns but somehow they cooked half of my eggs over hard and the other half over easy. I am not sure how they accomplished this. Prices were good and we left owing less than $20.
From Jose’s we drove south on US-101 to CA-46 which goes west to Cambria, Highway 1 and Hearst Castle. CA-46 west is a very scenic road as it winds through a coastal range pass which offers a spectacular panorama of the California coastline. We continued on 46 to Highway 1 and turned north toward Big Sur and Carmel. This section of Highway 1 is very narrow and quite twisty as it hugs the edges of mountains to the east and abrupt drop-offs to the Pacific Ocean to the west. I understand the tough, rocky sections of the roadbed were cut by prisoners using hand tools. Any attempts at escape going west would consist of several steps to make it to the edge of the road followed by a breezy, rapid acceleration as the convict passed through air before being squished on the rocks way below the road.
Just north of Hearst Castle, we pulled into a gravel turnout on the west side of the road and looked out the 100 yards or so to a sand beach covered with elephant seals that were using their large flippers to throw sand onto themselves. Maybe they get sunburned easily. This is the first time I have seen elephant seals in the wild and they are impressive monsters. A couple of bulls were bashing their heads together in a friendly, 4-ton dispute on the shore. The elephant seals we saw here were larger than most of the cars we passed on the road. There were also a few sea lions hauled out on sandy sections but segregation seemed pretty stark.
As we continued north we spotted several kestrels, more elephant seals and seal lions, lots of hawks, some big magpies with flashy flying displays and thousands of ground squirrels. The views of the coastline are magnificent. We soon arrived in Gorda, where we stopped to take pictures of the town sign. Gorda was the last name of my best man and friend, Arnie, who has regrettably passed away. I miss him. We took a couple snaps to send to his widow.
We continued north through Nepenthe, an artistic enclave. Nice views but terrible building foundations. This place sort of marks the beginning of Big Sur, a grove of redwood trees covering a few thousand acres. This part of the world is pretty and maintaining the posted speed limit is hard due to the scenery. We were nice and pulled out for those behind us trying to get through the scenery as quickly as possible.
After about another hour of pulling out to enjoy the sights and to reduce tailgating, we arrived in Carmel, where, strangely, Clint Eastwood used to be mayor. I’ll bet that was weird. Folks in this municipality have very nice houses or estates or castles. In Carmel, we turned southeast on a county road called G16 for the passage back over the coast range to 101. This road is mostly two-lane but long sections are one lane only so driving is slow since the corners are very sharp and inclines steep. After passing through the town of Carmel Valley, we pulled up next to a big grassy field with a very healthy-looking bobcat calmly hunting for rodent nibbles. He was beautiful.
G16 wanders for about 40 miles through the coast range, passing over a pass at about 2200 foot elevation. The views along this road are amazing and I would love to take this rural track again, time permitting. We finally made it back to 101 where we turned south for the 70 mile drive back to Paso Robles and the road noise.
A few shots of our travels are available if you click here

We departed from Rancho Oso TT sort of reluctantly today. We had some great times exploring the Santa Barbara/Buellton/Solvang/Los Olivos/Santa Ynez Valley on this pass through the area. The recent rains made the scenery bright green except where there is exposed rock and even it had interesting strata. Santa Barbara has a fair maritime museum and the downtown architecture is gorgeous but the traffic is absolutely horrible.
Our drives in the Santa Ynez Valley yielded great panoramas and ample wildlife. Solvang is a nice, touristy little town with good bakeries and even Lompoc had its charms albeit small ones. Just the same, we loaded up our stuff and checked out of Rancho Oso TT and drove west to CA-154 where we turned north to US-101. We continued north on 101 through Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo where there is an enormous steep climb north of town. I think we were doing about 35 mph at the top. We continued on to Paso Robles where we pulled into an RV park called “The Vines” although I couldn’t see a single vine from any side of our trailer. The park has concrete pads for parking your RV, full hookups, a hot tub, wi-fi, pools, very nice buildings and even a bar. It also has about 30 feet separating the park from 101 so highway noise is quite evident. The prices for a nightly RV space are pretty steep for a pull-thru spot in the midst of a large parking lot-like setting. The landscaping is well maintained but trees and shade are scarce. Behind the park is a long warehouse with spiffy sheet metal siding and three metal tanks in the yard.
We set up quickly and popped into the trailer for lunch. Soon we noted we could hear some noise similar to music but not really music. We couldn’t pinpoint the source of the racket so we just closed the trailer door which had been left open to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. Even with the door closed, the horrible noises were still audible. After a few minutes of annoying din from outside, I went outside to see if I could figure out where the noise was originating. Shazam! Our neighbor with an enormous mobile apartment block called a Fleetwood Revolution RV had one of the cargo doors open. That cargo door covered a very nice stereo equipment array being used to amplify some horrible country western music such that those driving by on the freeway could hate him, too. I approached the neighbor who was taking it easy in a folding chair on the far side of his machine. I was very nice despite my longing to ventilate his speakers with pistol bullets. I pledged to myself not to ridicule his music (it was difficult) while nicely asking him if he couldn’t tone it down a bit. He was quite nice about it and turned it down to where I can only hear it as low background noise instead of pervasive, mind-numbing twanging. Normally, I find some country music quite good but the selections made by my neighbor must not be the types I like.

This is our last day of our camping reservation at Rancho Oso TT in the Santa Ynez Valley. I had some maintenance items to take care of prior to departure but procrastinated instead and went for a spin around the valley area. We drove to 154 northbound but turned east just past the dam at Lake Cachuma and wandered around the countryside east of Santa Ynez and Los Olivos. Many really gorgeous estates dot the roadside and it’s easy to see why very rich folks live here. It is gorgeous.
Peggy found her way through this part of the county despite the map reading and interpretation by her husband. After a bit, we arrived back at 154 for a short drive up to Ballard Canyon where we turned south back down this road for the second time in a week. We liked it last time and found we liked it this time, too. There are gorgeous vineyards and tidy horse ranches along the road and the views are great although the road itself is narrow and curvy.
At the south end of Ballard Canyon, we emerged in Buellton, bought diesel and returned through Solvang back to our campground. I finally got after the maintenance stuff I should have done this morning and actually finished before dark. The truck now has a recently cleaned and oiled K&N air filter replacing the factory filter it had, my black and grey tanks are squeaky-clean, our water tank has a good amount in it and some of the trailer stabilizers are collapsed and stowed. We should be able to beat a hasty retreat in the morning on our way to the Paso Robles area.
We shot a couple photos you can see if you click here

Today we went nowhere. We had no plans and we followed them carefully. I did have a fascinating time dumping the black and gray tanks in the trailer. Peggy and I conspired to put a little plastic shelf thing she bought in Solvang the other day onto the back of one of our cabinet doors. I applied oil to the surface of a K&N air filter I will be putting in the truck tomorrow. I unsuccessfully tried to fix one of the key chain remotes for the truck but I think my supplies of batteries may be getting old because their doesn’t seem to be any current coming out of them. Peggy got some sewing done. We may be boring.
Late in the day, Peggy got inspired and whipped up some great banana and chocolate chip muffins which may kill me. Whatta way to go.

Our original intent for today was to drive into Santa Barbara’s De La Guerre Street to check out the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. We bailed off 101 in town and wound our way through the upscale town roads to the location of the museum but parking was a problem, particularly since the streets seem to mostly be one-way which means you are virtually unable to come back for a spot you identified without taking a six block detour only to return to the location and find some other savvy driver has scooped up the place.
After a bit, we bailed and decided to go down and check out Santa B’s waterfront. We dawdled for a while but ultimately found a parking place in the city’s $2 per hour outdoor parking lot just a short walk from the big concrete breakwater that surrounds the marina. Some guy was having a boat he had allegedly bought in Croatia placed into the ocean using a neat mobile boat crane-thingy. After watching the boat go in, we turned around and noted that the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum was right behind us. We popped into the gift shop, paid the $5 a head entrance fee and went in to peruse the collection.
The museum is pretty tiny but very well done. They had exhibits about the Point Conception Lighthouse, marine navigation, surfing, tattoos, scrimshaw, maritime ranches, commercial fishing and diving, a U.S. Navy disaster at Honda Point where a whole bunch of Navy ships drove into the rocks because they didn’t want to argue with the bozo in charge of navigation, a periscope, the Santa Barbara oil spill back in ’69, cannons from ancient ships and some other neat stuff.
From the 2nd floor of the Maritime Museum, if you look east you will see the Endless Summer, a bar/restaurant in the same building. We decided to give it a try and went over for a beer, lobster bisque and Caesar Salad. The food was okay tasting but inexpensive and the beers were good because I got a local ale and Peg had a Guinness. We finished up and headed out to the parking lot where the little troll at the booth made me part with $8.
Other than a stop at the local Fart & Smile, we headed back over the mountains to our camping spot in the Santa Ynez Valley. At the top of the ridge, we ran into rain even though the weather man said it was going to be clear and warm up. He may have been fibbing because it is raining and down around freezing at night. Liar.
You will find some photos of today’s fun if you click here

Other than taking a walk around the campground, we mostly just stayed in the trailer because it was quite chilly outside and breezy, too. During our walk we checked out the campground adult lodge, regular lodge and strolled over to a building that is sort of made to look like a church or schoolhouse. I can say for a fact that the church foundation and deck framing are definitely substandard and I’d stay off of them.
Everything else we did today was unremarkable so I’ll quit here. See you tomorrow.

We keep our ears fixed to weather reports as we travel and yesterday the reports indicated that stormy weather was on the way. They were right. It started light rain at about 5:00 AM today and got heavier as the sun rose. By about 10:00 AM, it was raining in excess of an inch per hour and the poor civil engineering of Rancho Oso reared its ugly head. Runoff was moving rocks up to about 4″ happily downhill in the numerous uncontrolled streams that formed everywhere. Rain was so heavy sometimes that our satellite TV antenna would lose signal for some of the time.
After about four hours of heavy rain, the rain quit and the cold wind started up with gusts of maybe 30 mph. Since the rain had quit, Peggy and I decided to take a drive around the area to check out any damage from the storm. We ended up driving through quite a few drainage issues on the campground road where water had jumped the roadside ditch and spread tons of rock and soil onto the pavement in numerous locations.
We drove from the end of the campground road up Paradise Road and the Santa Ynez River but had only gone about a mile before encountering a big government-looking barricade across the highway due to a flooded concrete low-water crossing and slides along the road. Peggy got out of the truck to snap a few photos and overheard a woman stopped at the gate who indicated she lived upstream but it looked like the only way she was getting home today was through swimming and walking.
We returned to our cozy trailer and hunkered down for the rest of the day. Since the rain has backed off, TV reception is back so we can watch old westerns until we can’t stand it anymore. The Iowa caucuses are tomorrow but we don’t want to watch political news because they mostly show the disgusting prick Donald Trump all the time, just like the twit had something important to say while badmouthing everyone who disagrees with him. I hope the American people are not foolish enough to put this goon in power. I shudder to think about how quickly the poor will get poorer, the rich richer and the brain-dead more powerful should this coiffure-challenged real estate salesman and loudmouth get elected.