Lil' Queeny Shakedown - Central Pacific Coast Highway

2. Death Valley and four-wheeling Titus Canyon.

Arriving at Death Valley, our first stop was the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We'd been here before, back in February 2014. That was one our our first trips out in the new Travel Trailer, a 29' (not so big because National Park Campgrounds often have a 30' limit). It was that trip when we had gone on to Southern California that we realized the big TT was too big. We had been used to the pop-up Truck Camper for 10 years and thought because of retirement, we were supposed to go larger. Big mistake. But you live and learn. Later that Spring we found Lil' Queeny and began the long, loving restoration. So far this trip - HUGE benefits to going smaller. We'll get to all of that as we go.

So we liked the Furnace Creek campground called Sunset, across the road from the fancier place called Furnace Creek campground. Bought two nights at Sunset. Whoops, wrong one. What we REALLY wanted was Texas Springs campground, above Sunset (Sunset being basically just a big parking lot). So went back down to the Visitor Center and paid an additional $2 per night, and got an extra night for a total of three.

We set up the patio mats, chairs and awning, and the Citronella candle cans (doubling as weights to control the awning in a breeze) and enjoyed the warmth - finally!





People from surrounding campsites were enjoying climbing on the surrounding hills.



Since in past we had done the Bad Water Basin, Artists Point Drive, etc, this time we went north. Then went off road at Keane Wonder Mine for three miles. Not bad. She off-roaded pretty good! In the mine parking lot we came across a couple who had built their off-road RV out of an E350 chassis van. Wished I'd got a picture. They had been all over, including the Arctic Ocean IN WINTER! The woman was intrigued by Lil' Queeny, so we showed it to her. Her husband was less interested.

She told us to do Titus Canyon, a 24 mile four wheel drive road near there and said, "sure - you can do it in this". So we did.

It wasn't as easy as one might think, but we got up to Red Pass, then headed down. Oh sure, it was late in the day. It was a bit harrowing, but we were committed. And what's a shake down if you don't shake things down? Yup, looks like I need some better cabinet locks if we're going to go off road. Only the Salsa bottle opened, and we only broke two dishes!



We stopped at the ghost town site to clean up.





Of course, descending from the pass to the regular highway (1000' elevation) was quite a descent.



Took some time too, getting out of there in the dark.







Another night and another morning.



Then climbed out via Panamint and overnighted at the Palmdale, CA Walmart - same place as last time.

3. Jalama Beach County Park - Santa Barbara County

We morning-ed in Palmdale Walmart and decided to look into coastal lodging. We use a sweet little Free Ap called RV Parky; filters to fit your needs, and easily used on the fly.

The best thing we found in our jumping off spot for the Pacific Coast Highway 1 - that is to say Highway 1 north of Santa Barbara itself - which is a must see for Mission Santa Barbara and EL Presidio, but mostly the Santa Barbara County Courthouse! Wow!

But for us, that was the logical break in Highway 1 to switch from our TT method in February 2014 from San Diego to Santa Barbara, over to this little single vehicle long TC method, and why there's been a four year break in between the two.

We called Jalama Beach County Park (pronounced Ha-Lama) to see if they had any sites for the night. They did - only one night on the beach however, which is their Premium Sites at $50 a pop and no hookups and only like 12 sites of those - and the rest were full hookups $45, and no hookups $35, if my memory recalls correctly. But with fresh water fill and dump available, we were Golden with or without hookups! Off we went.

Leaving Highway 101 and getting onto HWY 1 near Lompoc, saw beautiful rolling green agricultural hills dressed in new Spring Green. The 15 miles from Highway 1 down to the beach was reminiscent of the Hana Highway in Maui!

By the time we arrived at the Park, the SpaceX launch (which would evacuate the whole park between 2:30 AM and 7:30 AM the morning of the launch) was postponed another day and there were TWO, count them TWO nights of beach premium site availability - so we took it!



So that was the dinette window for the next two nights.





That's Lil' Queeny above our heads.

Before we could even get parked, a neighbor camper-er was asking to see Lil' Queeny! She had a Lance on a Dodge dually 3500. A middle school science teacher with her kids on a nine-night Spring Break, booked EXACTLY six months ago - to the second. Reserved! Our deal was the result of a cancellation because of the Space launch at nearby Vandenberg AFB and the resulting Park evacuation.

I broke out the SLR and tried to re-familiarize with it. But man, these Smart Phone cameras are easy!



DW found herself easily falling back into a favorite past-time, Beach Combing. :)



Marvel Right.



Marvel Left.



Wait what!?



Cool.



Two types of gulls.





There was tar all over the place! Wait what!? Our new friend, the school teacher, explained this stuff was natural in the area. Just an oil rich area it seems.



The first day was a beautiful sunny day.





After two nights, and the one full day - included another nice drive up and down the Hana Highway, during which trip we shopped in Lompoc for groceries, gas and upcoming campsites for the upcoming week northbound - it was time to go. But no where definite to stay tonight. Just two or three options. Next time.

Great TR --we'll be following your progress!

4. Lompoc Area, Mission La Purisima, and Just Another Day watching a Space Launch.

My first (and only) live space launch was a Cape Canaveral Space Shuttle deal with a group of fellow students for a business course in the area. Quite a long time ago. Oh yeah! I have pictures! HeHe.

DW hadn't yet had an opportunity for live, but the last SpaceX launch in which Elon Musk sent his sports car into space. Ummmm - how is one supposed to feel about THAT! I guess like everything else in life there are pros and cons to everything.

But we couldn't get over the pictures beamed back, and the re-landing of the reusable boosters! Holy Mackeral Andy!

So we kinda felt it was worth getting up and getting into position on Ocean drive near the Vandenberg AFB barricades to check it out. But that was tomorrow morning, and today is today. We had the beach site until Noon, so we took it! Then over to dump and another drive back up the Hana Highway to Lompoc (pronounced Lom-poke).

Late starts - yeah that sounds like us. Ease into the day, know what I mean Vern?

First stop was La Purisima Mission.



Took too many pictures, but here's a sampling. Enjoy!

One of the chapels.





Lots of various rooms, as the best description of a mission is "a community".







Lots of neat courtyards and covered walkways.



The Park Ranger locked the door of the final building we were to see, JUST as we got there. That's the problem with late starts. ;)

He was like, "the buildings close at 4:30 and the parking lot at 5:00" (it was about 4:35), but he finished up every sentence with, "do you have any questions about the Mission" - like it was a job requirement - you know? Wouldn't he have been frustrated if I tried to keep him busy for the next 30 minutes with questions. LOL! No - I'm not that kinda guy.

We left the parking lot (before we had to spend the night) and drove east toward some Guide Book communities - Fist stop, and a walk around the streets, was the charming Danish community of Solvang with it's old European style of building and lots of windmills. Too cool! I have Danish ancestry.



Then through Santa Ynez, very tiny, but quaint, and the sleepy little town where "Return to Mayberry" was filmed, Los Olivos. There were some places for sale! Zillow placed them around a million and more.

By the time we got back to Lompoc (known as the flower-seed capital of the world - due to blooming we were a bit early for), we found our place to overnight, along with our new best friend - the school teacher - who along with others had been kicked out of the park for the next morning's launch, even though they paid! Weird, wild stuff. The community will need to decide how they're going to handle that, as the launches are now about one per month!

Yes, we set the alarm and waited on coffee until we were in place. About three minutes later the launch went off, and I was still fumbling with the SLR camera, and a battery that died before the video being recorded could complete. Doh!

You owe YOUR views of the launch to DW!







This one wasn't shooting Elon Musk's RV into space, as I had wondered. No, it was another group (largest yet with 10 satellites) for the Iridium Next-Gen Satellites system. Apparently. Connectivity had been spotty.

Then we had coffee - and breakfast, and hit the open road! The drive from there through Oceano, our next campsite for two nights, was through wonderful agricultural growing areas. Come to find out - the Santa Maria Strawberries we stopped and bought along the roadside (along with oranges, and corn, and several other wonderful goodies) are know far and wide for their sweetness! And HUGE I tell you, HUGE (and did I mention juicy?)!

Have you ever driven you RV on beach sand? Well - that's next.

5. Oceano Dunes SVRA

So that day between our two nights on the beach? When we drove back up the Hana Highway to get groceries, gas and propane? While DW got groceries, I got online to set about securing camping reservations. After about an hour learning the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the ResrveCalifornia web site (and waiting for their busy, busy, busy server), I set to my plan. Secure the most important first!

And because we didn’t yet have any clue as to how long our drives would take and such, we felt the first of the most important was Hearst San Simeon State Park – as we wanted to see the castle. So we found - and booked - two nights there ($35/night plus $8 reservation fee) - in three nights from Jalama Beach. Check!

Next was Big Sur. And we found two nights there - at Pfeifer Big Sur State Park ($50/night for a river side premium site, the only site with two back to back nights available, plus the $8 reservation fee) - in two days later. Check!

And what about the one night in between? We knew Highway 1 was closed between the two places - due to the mudslides and all - and figured we’d need some drive-time around it, either via highways, or the mountain routes over the top. So for THAT in between night, we bought the $55/night – no reservation fee - at the Paso Robles RV Ranch RV Park – you know, for laundry and dumping and filling - oh my! Check!

Now we just had to fill in the blanks for three nights before the rest of all that started. The first was that night in Lompoc - before the space launch. The next two nights were discovered (again, on the ReserveCalifornia site) at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (the area previously known as Pismo Dunes SVRA) just south of Pismo Beach, and would require driving in on the sand beach for who knows HOW FAR before we could find a suitable place to park Lil’ Queeny – near a toilet – so we could do daily Porta-Potti dumps, right? And we also knew what a place like this means: noisy, crazy, and fun! And cheap. Did we mention cheap? :) ($10/night plus the $8 reservation fee).

We pulled out of Lompoc and had a wonderful drive along Highway 1 through agricultural areas. That fresh green of spring popping up making us marvel left and right. Near Oceano, we pulled over and bought two ears of Sweet Corn, Avacados, Cara Cara Oranges, and (as we later were to learn) the Sweetest Strawberries (Santa Maria’s) in the WORLD! And huge! All from a cool, little roadside stand with a very nice young man who had probably helped pick these tasty morsels. We like to support local when we can. Mostly because they are superior!

Soon we arrived at the park check-in kiosk and got our camping pamphlet and sticker. “Off with you now, and look lively” said the hurried man at the main gate. We pulled onto the sand and parked in the middle of the road, behind a family airing down the tires on their truck and toy-hauler. We said, “Hi! We’ll be your newbies tonight! What do you recommend we air down to?”

Now we’ve been four-wheeling for decades, and we know about airing down for off pavement traction. In fact, I only run 12 PSI on Lil’ Willy because his tires are tubed, and strong side-walled and his ride is otherwise harsh, but we had Lil’ Queeny - 50 years old and showing her weight, what with all her modifications and all - so we needed local advice. The family man said, “you could go to about 20 PSI, but probably not 15 – don’t want to lose a bead”. Knowing my weight and all, I chose 25 in front and 45 in back, then off we went in the sand – and we looked lively, mind you!

Oceano SVRA Map

Camping doesn’t even start until after Post 2 (the blue diamonds - which are placed every half mile). The first spot we found was behind and above Toilet G, and after spending lunch time there, we came to realize it was smack dab in the middle of the 3-5 year olds ATV road and so we moved. The poor little kids had a hard enough time holding on to their handlebars, let alone avoiding campsites without the (apparently) highly-suggested yellow caution/crime zone tape set up in perimeters around the campsites of campers smarter than DW and I.

By the time we settled in for two days, we were closer to the seashore, and the parade route - which is the fond term we use for the access route (called a road, with Park Rangers issuing warnings and everything) near the water, where the pre and recently post-pubescent folks drive their lifted trucks, Jeeps, ATVs, Side-by-Sides, Dune Buggies, Sandrails, Big Trucks pulling up to three axle Toy-Haulers and Motorhomes!

The place was alive with a thousand eyes and everything in between! What a hoot to watch from the dinette window in our time share on the ocean. They had water fill and holding tank pump trucks, flag vendors, campfire wood delivery trucks, trash haulers, beer delivery, mechanics, un-stuckers, and the Taco-Truck, Re-Air on departure, all concessions - and for a fee of course.

And a great place to kill two days – DW reorganized the cabinets, after our hasty packing that day after the four-wheeling fiasco in the Titus Canyon, and I broke out the flow-able silicone sealer and doctored the front facing windows with the loving attention of those guys who wax their classic cars in the park on Sundays.

Side Bar - Unfortunately, as we sit in the rest stop of the Golden Gate Bridge writing this, because we finally re-acquired 4G, and after a very wet drive today (in real time), the window sealing didn't fully work, but after what WE just came through, it's working better than it DID! Still need to work that one though. End Side Bar.

Now back to Oceano SVRA. Without easy dump and fill available, and with just a tiny modicum of attention to detail, we learned we can stretch tiny-home livability in very environmentally friendly and creative ways. Later, taking advantage of the dump station at a nearby RV Park, provided for campers just like us.

Enjoy the show. We did.

A good time was had by all.















That's the Parade Route in front of our dinette window.



And a view from the water at lower tide.



That's Lil' Queeny there.





A cool '71 Chevy. I know because we had a '71 Blazer.



We have some ocean front property in California, from our dinette you can see the sea.





The big rigs knew the drill - stay on the wet stuff.



The one morning, Mister Two-Wheel Drive decided to try it without airing down.



He was cussing, and his DW threw her tissue and said, "I told you!"

I'm not shifting you - right in front of us!

But these nice guys next door came out and helped, then let them park inside their crime scene zone! What a country! I LOVE this place!





When we left, we aired up four, and handed over $4 ($1 charge per tire) to the concessionaire. "Thank you" I told him.



Then pulled off of the sand and went to our designated dump site.



What a great place to kill two days. And a new experience for us, even though we've been to Moab at Easter - twice!

6. Pismo Beach to North of Ragged Point.

North of Ragged Point - that's where the mudslides of the winter of 2016-17 closed the Pacific Coast Highway 1. But we'll get to that.

When last we joined our heroes, they we're leaving Oceano State Off-Highway and Recreational Vehicle and Other Cool Unpaved Dunes and Stuff - you know, the Oceano SOHRVOCUD&S - or whatever it was they called it. It didn't really flow off my tongue.

It used to be the "Pismo Beach SOHRVOCUD&S", so we began our day in the Pismo Beach area. Of course all THOSE campsites had been booked solid for six months! Except for cancellations of course. Which there were none - when I was checking - thus the Beach Sand Camping experience, which we were happy to have!

But right there is the Monarch Butterfly Grove - like within 2 miles or something. We stopped. Boy was THAT easy, compared to our previous TT style of traveling and finding parking.



We wandered the grounds for a few minutes. The place has a large walking paths area. We just touched on it.



The butterflies winter here, and other similar places, in the Eucalyptus trees.





We just missed them!

Moving on, we took Highway 101 to San Luis Obisbo, and turned left on Highway 1.

I think after Morro Bay area, we took on off'n the highway at an ocean public access place, for a rest stop and a walk on the beach. DW combed and I clicked.

That right there? That's Morro Rock - looking south.



And looking north.



And east. That's Lil' Queeny there.



Thereafter, we drove Highway 1 north on a beautiful and sunny Easter Sunday.

Cayucos, Harmony, Cambria, San Simeon - all came and went. Not far past San Simeon is the Elephant Seal Rookery, where Elephant Seals lay around on the beach, sunning them selves - I guess. Hey! Elephant Seals are people too!



Just like people, some were coming in from the water.



And in some areas, the big beasts were busy flipping beach sand onto their backs. Sunscreen I suppose.





Then a little further on we came to Ragged Point - a small resort-like business location with a little store, and a restaurant, and lodging, and wonderful grounds - which we walked around on.





I can't read the small print, but I think it said "Big Sur Portal" and it looked up the coast toward Big Sur.





You can't see the ocean for the trees.



Most people describe the mudslides as having closed the road north of Ragged Point, but if you don't do the remaining 5 miles north of Ragged Point, you'll miss the rugged beauty portion of the scene. We kept going.







That's Ragged Point from an overlook just north.











Sometimes providence just provides the right shot, even for a smart phone camera.



And don't forget to look down. Just a simple Morning Glory style blossom.











At the end of the road - 8 miles from Gordo (and actually only 3-4 miles of road is closed), we chatted with the road guard woman and received permission for a photo-shoot near the sign. As I backed up toward them from the regular turn-around spot, she actually pulled back the barricade and directed me here.



The biker and his dog - who actually has his own pair of goggles - and the other guy, a local with informative advice, were only too proud to be part of our report.

After heading back down, out of the higher and rugged areas north of Ragged Point and near Hearst Castle, we discovered horses grazing, and a herd of Elk!



Wait What?! I didn't know this was Elk country. As we were to learn the next day, these were Roosevelt Elk - escapes (apparently along with Zebras and an exotic type of sheep with a name I can't remember) from William Randolph Hearst's last century zoo, on the Hearst Castle property. But the Castle trip is a report we'll save for tomorrow.



Very soon, we located one of our time-share properties, which we have all up and down the Pacific Coast, and made up our Easter Sunday meal - late lunch/early dinner, which along with our generally late breakfast/early lunch (Brunch?) meals give us ample intake, and leaves plenty of time for morning coffee - and beer-thirty!





From here, it was a mile or two to the Hearst San Simeon State Park campground, our accommodations for the next two nights.

I've sure been enjoying your travelogue. You're seeing some great parts of our state.

One of our kids lives up in WY. I talked to her last night and she says everything is still OK up there, just the way you left it.

I just finished book #16 in C.J. Box's series, following the misadventures of a fictitious WY game warden. It feels like his stories have taken me through every inch of your state.

You passed right by another one of our kids at the university in San Luis Obispo. You could probably smell his dorm room if your windows were down.

I don't know if you and your wife are wine drinkers or not, but you're in the neighborhood of my favorite wine region in the state. We like it better than Napa. Highway 46 east out of Cambria will take you to Paso Robles. There are amazing wineries all along the highway until you get to Paso. There are even a few more good ones for the next few miles east after the 46 dog-legs to the north in Paso. Good stuff. We usually start in the east and tour west until we hit Cambria and take a break there at Moonstone Beach.

Keep those pictures coming!

Great TR -- thanks again for posting!

Thanks guys and you're welcome.

dedmiston wrote:
You passed right by another one of our kids at the university in San Luis Obispo. You could probably smell his dorm room if your windows were down.

Now that you mention it I DO recall an offensive odor in the SLO area. I turned to DW and said, "Can you smell that?"

She was sitting there with her eyes closed, a look of disgust, and a nose-gay held tightly to her face - made from a bunch of flowers she had picked illegally at the Butterfly place - and said, "Funny. Just roll down your window please. Do I have ask every time?"

7. Hearst Castle.

Our travel style is just like anybody else's - our own thing. Like your's is your own thing. No, we're not really wine people - beer, that's our beverage of choice. It kind of fits our simpler lives. Not that there's anything wrong with wine people - some of our best friends are wine people. Even one of our attorneys is a wine people (we actually don't even have one attorney - but I think that's an obligatory statement these days).

And take our neighbors for example, he's quite the go-getter, always on the move - he's here, he's there! Planted a vineyard right there in our Wyoming neighborhood! Some years they give us wine, and some years juice, or the fruit. Whenever we have a grand year for our choke-cherries - and if we get to them before the birds do - our neighbors will take a bunch and make the most awesome choke-cherry wine! She always gives me a bottle of their wine after I plow snow from their driveway with Lil' Willy. Sometimes I go over there with the plow - even in summer - if I'm thirsty.

If he really worked it, he could make Dandelion Wine too. Our grass and lawn areas don't get chemicals on them - and every spring we get such a beautiful batch. You'd be surprised how healthy and full of natural beauty Dandelions are when they aren't in a constant battle with Monsanto! And the bees?! Oh - don't get me started. Makes me wonder why we ever leave home!

But I regress. So as I was saying, our travel style takes us to breweries, haunted places, historic places, unique places - natural or man-made.

We're not big on shopping, souvenirs, large crowds, noisy places or paying too much for too little. We don't mind spending, but it's continuously evaluated for cost/benefit analysis. It's a "personality styles" thing.

So when we were going past Hearst Castle, it had to be seen - even while costing a pretty penny. $25 per person per tour. And you can't see the whole place unless you take all four tours, at $25/person per pop. We chose the "Bedrooms Tour", because we were late for the next movie, and had to decide quick, and the helpful Information lady told us it was her favorite.

We paid the price, and walked fast to the theater. It's an IMAX screen, in it's own building, 40 minutes long and gives what the web-site calls a "sanitized" version of the life of William Randolph Hearst.

The short version is this: His Dad hauled Lead Bars over the mountains, got on the other side and discovered they were Silver Bars, cashed them in and bought ranch land in this area, got a wife, they had a son, camped all over the mountain - especially liking that spot where the castle later got built - sent son and wife to Europe (they were new money so needed to learn the ropes), son (William) got a lesson a day - including his appreciation for "fancy stuff", got home, built a news empire, did lots of other stuff, retired, and then built a castle as an after-thought - based on his European experience. That's it.

In those days, collectors were buying up stuff all over the world, and so collectors like Mr. Hearst were actually doing a service for others by collecting all this stuff for sharing with friends (and now us - his kids gave it all over to the State of California - let THEM maintain this monstrosity), while so many others were planning to hide it away in their private places - like seems to be the case today.

After the movie we checked our clocks and found our bus-trip up the mountain started in 14 minutes. And we were hungry. No time to stand in line for the grill, which was selling hamburgers for like $25 a pop. Or even to stand in the check-out line with a piece of fruit and a cold-cut sandwich, made with weak Wonder-Bread.

I told DW, if we hoof-it back out to the camper, grab some cookies (these are highly nutritious and delicious, made from almond flour, pecans, dark chocolate, etc. and brought from home) and a handful of prepped veggies, some cheese sticks, an apple - and eat it all on the way back to the Visitor Center, walking not running, but walking fast - we could save both time AND money, and get satiated. Off we went - and we looked lively!

We even had a few minutes to spare for a look-see and photo shoot of this cool vintage Dodge Fire Truck in the lobby.



Next we took the tour bus up the mountain. Another reason we did the Bedroom Tour was that it's a smaller group. We had fun and got to know a few fellow tour-ons too.



The bus winds up the mountain while a Game Show host (Alex Trabec?) reads a recorded narrative.



Here we are approaching the castle.





At the top, they called on our Tour Guide to take us over; off we went up the stairs looking lively.







All concrete, built by Hearst's vision, and the woman architect Julia Childs. No wait. Why is it we always forget the woman's name? That's just stupid! Wait now, it'll come to me. Julia MORGAN, yeah that's it! Julia Morgan.

Our guide took us to the upper floors, starting the tour on the second.



The movie was really cool - and well done - and gave all these details. The tour guide filled in a lot of the blanks. I took WAY too many pictures, for our old age when we start to lose our memories. Here's a few for you to enjoy.





Most (if not all) of these ceilings were purchased from places in the old country, and used as "parts" here in his castle. In one case, an old ceiling was used for two twin bedrooms, because the rooms were too small to use the whole ceiling in one or the other. After having restored a vintage camper from two old campers, we felt a connection with the guy.

Here is just a sampling of the interior tour, in no particular order.





























Then they sent us outside to wander the grounds on our own.

























We took our time and just enjoyed the setting.



This is the "Neptune Pool", currently under re-furb.



And the SECOND pool, an indoor deal under the tennis courts, is viewed on your way to the exit bus-ride down the mountain. All done in mini glass-tile! I can relate - having tiled Lil' Queeny's stove surround in minis.











The parking lot was about empty by the time we came down from the mountain. We took our time this time, walking to the truck. Then located one of our time shares on the ocean.











When we can, we get the units with a window view.



And watched the sun go down.