May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

We had originally planned to go to Death Valley from here. We are going to skip it for another time. The temperatures there are already exceeding 100F. After six months in the desert we are ready for some water so we decide to hit the beach. But first we have to get out of the Mojave Desert. Desert land seems to be quite popular here just like in Tucson. Despite being 100 miles outside LA, housing development is going crazy here. There also seems to be a run on squeegees in California. Every gas station I have stopped at has had no squeegee to clean my windshield. The last station manager said he puts out 4-5 new ones every week only to have them quickly disappear.

Heading west eventually the desert gives way, we meet up with I-5 North and we descend a steep road that suddenly opens up into the broad San Joaquin Valley. This fertile valley is the vegetable garden of the US. We pass row after row of grape vines and orange trees. We turn west again heading over the coastal mountains to the Pacific Ocean. We find a campsite at Pismo Beach State Park in Oceano. Aimee and I walk across the dunes to the beach and have some cheese and crackers while watching the surf. It is surprisingly cool and foggy, 180 degrees from the desert this morning. I am very disappointed. We sit there an hour and we see no sign of Pamela Anderson or her Beach patrol friends from Babewatch, I mean Baywatch. We only see a fat man in a wetsuit trying to kite-surf.