Good Morning from Walmart's parking lot! It was cold last night! we had to bust out the beautiful quilt we got from Sandra as an added top layer, and bundled the kiddos up as well. Woke up early and were enjoying hot coffee by 7am and making a shopping list. Headed into Walmart for necessities, and bought a gingerbread village kit to take with us to Palo Alto to decorate with the Cali cousins! x. Also stocked upon some Tylenol kids medicine having been warned about the shortage at home.
Back at the rig, I wrote some postcards and we searched up the route to take -- headed West. Decided it was prudent to skip the Sequoia / Yosemite Parks as it was too cold and lots of snow expected in the coming days! Yikes! We can put Yosemite on the list for another adventure in the future x
We left our parking lot "campsite" around 10am and hit Hwy 395. I have a scratchy note that we turned right on Garlock Road (missed turn)... no idea what that means. <shrug>
10:45am we drove past "Jawbone" - no gas. Also a huge solar panel farm that looked like a lake from a distance it was so shimmery and vast. Then past tons of Wind Turbine farms, and randomly spotted on google maps (and got a visual on it)... the "SS Minnow" (from Gilligan's Island).... just a random boat in the desert by some rocks, marked SS Minnow on the bow. Strange! Equally strange there is a tag on google maps for it!
Around 11:20am we stopped in Tehachapi, CA for diesel ($6.40 USD per gallon). Then it was onto Hwy 202 West . The scenery started to change to dry grassy hills reminiscent of a model train set (tunnels, tracks, dotted with trees).
By noon we were suddenly out of the desert landscape and into vast farmlands with crops and greenery and colour! no more bland beige. We passed orange tree farms (orchards? - I don't know what the correct term would be).
Another 45 minutes and by 12:45pm we were on the I5 North for 15 miles before heading to the Hwy 33. We passed Sunny Gem Juice Company - pomegranate juice/orchard. Then onto Hwy 46W around 1:30pm when we put a movie on for them (Home Alone 2) on the phone. We were in for some long driving times.
2:15pm we drove to Pasa Robles, CA and pulled into Barney Sahwarts Park to stretch our legs and play on the playground and have some serious rounds of "pizza frisbee". Made tuna sandwiches and noodle soup. I finally got to experience some fall colours on leaves on the trees! yay!! there's been a serious lack of trees for weeks haha.
3pm we left to find the TSC (Tractor Supply Company) to get propane - they had none. Did some re-con to find somewhere with no luck. Kept on driving... passed by vineyards, fruit trees, oil fields with 100's of pumps, and more miles and miles of vineyards. Kids continued their movie - lots of giggles x
By 5pm we were in Salinas, CA and got $55 of propane at the Salinas Valley Truck Stop (and diesel USD$117 at $6.11/gallon!) and some candies for the kids.
It was dark within 1/2 hour (5:30pm) and we rolled up to the Salinas KOA - but $67/night seemed too expensive for a piece of concrete in a cramped hilly parking lot. We were feeling like we were in a bit of a pinch, but really wanted to find a different option since literally all we needed was a place to park - but not for so much. Jonathan called the Moose Lodge in Seaside/Del Rey Oaks and got a very warm welcome for us to "stop on by! it's $25/night and you are welcome to come on in and join the indoor disc golf event or have a drink at the bar!". Sold.
We drove along the 156south to Monterrey and by 6:30pm we were in Del Rey at the Moose Lodge! It was the below map that gave me quite the surge of emotions... I could see we were driving beside the Pacific Ocean! It was so dark out that there was no way to actually see the ocean from the road, but knowing it was there felt like we were suddenly so close to home. x. I cannot wait to put my toes in the ocean tomorrow.
We parked by the lodge and when we stepped in through the main doors we could hear the ruckus from the indoor disc golf competition in the main hall. No one else around at the front so we peered down the halls (all still decorated in original 60/70's or earlier decor). We peeked into the main hall to see very jovial folks drinking pints and throwing discs across the room into the chain disc golf "nets", having a blast. Another room was the bar area where there were some poker games happening. We went into the bar and found the person to pay for the night. Kids were welcome to stay, but we took them back to the rig (beside the building) and locked them in with a walkie talkie (Ollie did stop motion videos and Amelia did art), and Jay and I went inside (with other walkie) to have a beverage... Red Stripe beer for Jay, Vodka Seltzer for me. A mini date you might say, haha. We tried to make plans for the last week headed home.
After a quick "date" we headed back to the rig and played Saboteur (card game) with kiddos from 8:30-9:30pm and all crawled into our beds... tired from the big day driving and thankful for a safe and inexpensive place to park for the night.
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