After days of being in the desert and mountains, I have finally reached the coast, the Pacific Ocean. I've always wanted to drive Highway 1 all the way down to San Diego, but for one reason or another, I have never been able to most of the trip. What a beautiful drive it was.
I woke up at 8:30 a.m. and headed on out by 9:00. The first full night of rest I've had in a long time. Generally I am a late morning person, and lately I haven't been getting enough sleep, and so it was a wonder how I got by each night.
The first order of business was to head down Highway 17 going through Los Gatos, California, and into Santa Cruz. The Spectra was a very weak accelerating car. At some inclines, it lost almost all power, I was only able to drive at about 45 mph, along with a few other cars.
At Monterey, the highway became a little less congested, and the ocean was in sight. I had stopped to put on my jacket and noticed some surfers getting into their wet suits. Along the long coast, it must be a surfer's paradise.
The water here really is blue or blue-green. Blue was the color we used to color in the lakes and ocean in pictures when we were in elementary school. Not green like it was in Galveston, Texas.
Much of the drive between Monterey and Cambria was very nice with many pullouts for scenic views. I was getting hungry, and wanted to cook one of the freeze-dried packages, but didn't have a drop of water. I had passed by a small stream of water running down a cliff earlier, but drinking water overall was difficult to come by during the mountainous drive. Then I was lucky to find another stream running down a sloping hill, which turned out to be the only other visible natural drinking water source.
I hitched my backpack and camera and climbed the little ascent and set up to make lunch. I made the Wild West Chili and Beans and ended up having gas for the rest of the day. While waiting for the food to cool, I read the San Jose Mercury News. During the 2 hours I was there, luckily, only 2 couples showed up to take pictures. I really enjoyed the quiet moments to myself in the beautiful hidden setting right off the highway.
I also made cheese cake, but it didn't come out correctly. Eating cheesecake like soup just wasn't right. This was the second time I've made freeze-dried cheesecake, and the second time it came out all wet. Next time, I'll know to put about ¾ of the water total from the instructions.
Even during late hours, Los Angeles's freeways were packed. Los Angeles with all of it's suburbs was a really large metropolitan area. I didn't really care to see anything here, and just wanted to find the freeway to San Diego.
I never made it to San Diego, and ended up sleeping in the front seat at a packed rest stop just north of Oceanside. Vehicles were constantly coming and out the whole night.
