13. Big Sur to Monterey & 17 Mile DR.
With two nights at Big Sur, and up to three or four kind of planned for Monterey (not reserved, but pretty much researched), we looked ahead to the weather. Yuck - rain moving in. The day between our two nights at Big Sur looked to be real nice though, ahead of the rain, so instead of chilling and walking the trails here and such, we jumped in the truck and drove the highway to Monterey on this good weather day.
I think we lost the camera going up, but coming back down we took a few shots.
On the outbound leg though, as we approached Carmel, it was time to pull over and program SAL with street addresses from the Guide Book. You don't know SAL? Oh I'm sorry!
Everyone? SAL! SAL? Everyone.
We've had SAL with us every since we bought the Big Truck in 2006. We took delivery in a nearby town (100 miles+) on New Year's Eve 2005! SAL is the truck's female voiced GPS Navigator. As in "Search and Locate" - like the "2001 Space Odyssey" computer character HAL - as in "what are you doing Dave?"
And we've taken SAL everywhere! Back East when we lived there for a year. She was an absolute necessity driving through many places, including Washington DC - IN TOWN. Too fun.
When we moved to Alaska she must have choked. We lost her just north of Edmonton and never reconnected until we got back south of there.
But here she was again, going to help us in this more populated area of California.
No auto updates, no satellite connection, just a dependable DVD Map, updated only once in about 2009? I don't remember, but in areas of new construction, you have to be able to think! And read road signs.
There was a street sign on the south end of Carmel proper that said "Yankee Point - Beach Access" and I thought sounds pretty! We took the turn. We found ourselves in a nice neighborhood, with landscape workers here and there at very nice properties eating their lunches in the shade. But nobody else visible. No beach parking lots either.
We pulled over in front of a nice place to program the GPS and turned off the engine. That scene from "Christmas Vacation" popped into my head, where Cousin Eddy was dumping his holding tank in the Griswold's gutter? We took our time - can't rush planning - know what I mean Vern?
Then we opened the guide book with highlighted locations we wanted to see in Monterey and Carmel and got to work. About 3/4's the way through, I looked up and there was this elderly woman (about our age) - with evidence of hair coloring and custom body work - walking by and when she got abeam the truck she wavered REAL close to us, and gave such a glare - it could've melted lead! I was gonna ask her if we could camp here, but she was gone by the time I thought of it. :)
We thought, what a nice friendly place!
And what an industrious group of residents! Why back home, me and DW, and all our neighbors - we work day in and day out on our own places and they NEVER look this good. I wanted to ask the woman "Your yards are so pretty! What's your secret? Do you use chemicals?"
Once fully programmed we headed out, paying close attention to SAL.
First destination, an access to the world famous "17 Mile Drive" around the coast peninsula between Carmel and Monterey - it cost money. This is one of those places where rich people allow little people in (just on the road) so they can look out over the scene from the golf course and tell their important people guests, "see those are my little people, my losers, aren't they cute? One of my steady streams of income, day in and day out. Well, just for my Mad Money."
We pulled into the entry gate and this woman there looked at us like she was thinking, 'darn - I'm going to break a nail on this one'. She said "ten twenty five". I responded "10-4", because I had NO IDEA what a 10-25 was. Now 10-20, that's your location, so I figured she meant 10-25 was HER location, as in the gated guard shack we were at.
She looked back and said ten dollars and 25 cents. I said "of course".
We handed over the money and she didn't say another word, just handed us a missionary tract - or maybe a map.
I looked back at her and said "Hi - I'm Dave Pete, and this here's DW, and we'll be your Tourons today. Is there anything else we should know?"
She said, "follow the red lines and turn left at the top of the hill". I said "10-4" and we pulled out, several very small sports cars now waiting in line behind us, pushing and urging like you see in a race at the starting line as they rev their engines and stuff. Those poor residents, they really need to find them some gated communities.
First stop, "Pebble Beach Golf Resort".
We just viewed it from the truck - at an intersection, since we don't golf and all.
At the same intersection we got this...
You would'a thunk they'd do this at night, so these good neighbors wouldn't have had to know about it! Service sectors these days! Can't get good help!
So okay, we're an RV. And perhaps they usually only get "Tourons in Cars" under normal situations here. But we found plenty of normal places to pull over - what with our smaller size and all.
This is the Ghost Tree, or something like that. It was a map spot.
And one of only two remaining Monterey Cypress groves left - the other nearby on down the PCH.
I think I heard somewhere how they wanna pull these ugly things out and put in some hedges and stuff.
It was kind of a fun drive, with many turns and cars driving along their painted electric rails in the centers of the roadways. We got a good laugh which really stimulated our appetites!
By the time we got out of the neighborhoods, we were back on the coast, and we set about locating one of our time-shares for lunch.
17 Mile Road became Shoreline DR, and then downtown Monterey and Cannery Row area. We folded the mirrors.
This was kind of a funny stop. This truck was doing deliveries and folks were leap-frogging as traffic allowed. All those behind us knew the traffic jamb was caused by those dumb some-beaches from Wyoming because somebody was already posting live video to Facebook.
But the real hold-up (we could tell because our truck sits higher than the little people in cars) was this Touron way up there who was waiting for traffic to go around them, so they could back up about four or five car lengths to a parking spot they had their eyes on in their rear view mirror. So that took awhile - like about six traffic light cycles before they gave up.
"Quitters!" we yelled. Why back in Wyoming people will wait ALL day for a front row spot at the Walmart!
We took advantage of the delay and did our "downtown Monterey sightseeing" from the comfort of our truck.
Didn't have to "buy" anything, didn't have to fight crowds in line at a diner, didn't need gas.
Then we drove up to the RV Parky Ap site called "Veterans Memorial Park" and discovered just WHY so many small-unit RVers like the place. So it was a major contender, but we'd already seen a lot of what we came for. We didn't need to shop. We didn't need the Aquarium (been to a bunch of cool ones already). That right there? That was Cannery Row! Check!
Back southbound we went and planned for the rain approaching the next day. That's when we stopped at the Riverside Inn and walked around the campground mentioned yesterday. So it was another real nice day!
