Day 13 - Avila Beach

10 am to 3:15 pm
153.1 miles
Hwy 101S
Port San Luis Harbor

An interesting drive this morning through the Carmel Valley on a two lane curvy road with next to no traffic.   We still can't get over how green everything is.

We thought initially we would go as far as Paso Robles but were not impressed with the campsites we saw in that area.   We saw online that some spots were available at Port San Luis so headed here.   

Norm couldn't resist the toe/water shot

Sitting in the passenger seat doing the blog via mobile hotspot

They just recently set up reservations here so we were able to see what was available and pick a site.   For years we were unable to get in here as every time we got here all spots were taken.

We'll meander down Hwy 101 tomorrow and expect to get home sometime in the afternoon.

Day 12 - Carmel

A full day today!  We started off this morning going to Los Lobos Natural Reserve.  It's a huge place with miles and miles of trails.  It was intermittently raining and strong winds so we didn't walk all that much.  The trails we did take, however were jaw dropping and in my opinion, very dangerous.  A lot of the trails were gravel, which was fine, then it got very rocky and nothing to stop anyone from falling off the cliff if they slipped on a rock.  Can't believe they allow all the children to along those trails.  At any rate, beautiful scenery.

Then we were off on a drive around Carmel and Monterey and by accident came to San Carlos Cathedral.

Our Lady of Fatima grotto

Lunch at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey and then a stop at Cannery Row...

Then it was time to return the car and get back to the campground.  We're off tomorrow southbound to somewhere...

Day 11 - Carmel

Got picked up by Enterprise this morning in BMW X3 and ended up getting that as our rental car.  Quite an experience.  This car has all kinds of neat extras, eg. the side mirrors turn inward when you park, the right hand side mirror points down when you back up so you can see the curb.  Of course, it has a backup camera and back and front sensors.  It automatically puts it in Park when you turn it off.  I'm sure there are many other things we haven't discovered yet.  A hoot, nonetheless.

We immediately went to breakfast once we had the car then made our way to San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission, another mission built by Father Juniper Serra who also built the mission at Santa Barbara and five other missions.

We then took a drive along the scenic loop ending up in Carmel River State Park.

Many interesting homes along the way, this wavy roof was amazing

A walk around downtown Carmel.

Found this alleyway and door fascinating which lead into a winery

Deli and Winery with the interesting wavy roof

Bell at a downtown intersection

Our scenic drive then continued...

Cypress tree at Carmel Beach

Deer wander all over Pacific Grove

Asilomar State Beach 

The road to our campground is VERY interesting.  We got a big kick out of seeing this yesterday when we finally got here.

Day 10 - Carmel

9 am to 1:15 pm
103.7 miles
Hwy 152W, 101S, 156W, 1S
Carmel by the River RV Park

A little housekeeping this morning meant getting gas, finding another BevMo, and breakfast at Pea Soup Andersen's in Santa Nella.  Then we headed west toward the coast.

Hwy 152 West

Coming into Carmel on Hwy 1

We found this campground on our app RV Parky and decided we would check it out first.  There are many campgrounds around so no problem finding something acceptable.  What a cute spot!  The owners have a fascination with frogs and there are frog references and yard decorations everywhere.  The place is immaculate and the landscaping terrific.  We've decided to stay here for 3 nights and will rent a car tomorrow to explore Carmel and area.

Entrance to the office

Our site (called Cypress)

Entrance to game room and lounge

Carmel River which runs behind the campground

Our site sign.  Each site has a unique name and a unique frog reference

Day 9 - Gustine

10:25 am to 2 pm

62 miles

Hwy 33N, 152W

San Luis Creek RV Campsite

After breakfast we went to the Castle Air Museum.  Very interesting.

 

This Air Force One served the administrations of  Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush

Then we meandered through field after field of vegetables to the San Luis Reservoir.   This place is enormous.  We asked for a 15 minute pass to check out the campsites before committing to staying and it took us 15 minutes just to get to the campsite, then more time going around all the sites and then we had to go back to the kiosk to request a particular site and then drive back to that site.  Whew!  Lunch was VERY late.  Lovely campsite and extremely quiet.  Slept like logs.

 

There weren't many folks here - maybe 20 in total in a very large camping area

Ready for a fire after sunset

Close to sunset

There is WiFi at the kiosk but not at the sites so the plan is to upload tomorrow morning on our way out of this recreation area as we head toward Pacific Grove.

Day 8 - Atwater

10:45 to 3:30 
101.3 miles 
Hwy 49N, 140W 
Castle Air Museum RV Park 

Quite a storm overnight and this morning! The rain hitting the roof is hypnotic and soothing. I woke up at 7, said "no way" and went back to sleep. I woke up later and it was still raining hard so went back to sleep. I woke up again at 10:30, shook Norm awake and we scrambled to get out of the campground before checkout at 11. 

Not easy to see but we were very close to the snow!  You can just see Merced at a break in the storm system.  After breakfast the storm had totally passed over Merced.

At breakfast in town we decided to head to Merced as the storm had passed there and we figured it should be warmer, being in the valley.  We set the GPS to a campground on the Merced River. As we were driving through Merced we stopped at a mall and got a coffee. 

Merced Mall - indoor and quite large

First time we've seen this vendor (in the Merced Mall Food Court)

We passed the Castle Air Museum and figured we would stop tomorrow and see it on our way south. When we arrived at our GPS campground it was full, so we figured we'd go to the Elks campground in Merced.  At the last minute we decided to stop at the Air Museum on the off chance we could get a spot! Lady Luck was on our side and here we are.  Photos below were taken through the window as we passed by going to the first campground.  We'll actually go into the Museum tomorrow.

An old Air Force One

At the RV Park behind the Museum