Central Coast, California

When a friend calls up and suggests taking Poppy up the coast for a couple nights, you say Yes, please!

It was an easy couple hours' drive to Cambria/San Simeon, and Claudia acted as the perfect navigator and tour guide! 

She planned our campground and our activities! It was perfect!

Our home away from home was Hearst San Simeon State Park. The campground was pretty, wide open, and quiet. 

It was a very foggy couple of days, which surprised us. The weather apps had deceived us! Still, it is a beautiful area, with wide open, non-tar-marred beaches and lots of birds and other wildlife! 

We enjoyed a good, long beach walk after we arrived on Monday afternoon! Chatting with a good friend makes 6.5 miles go by in a flash! 

On Tuesday, we walked another six miles all told, along meadow-y beach bluffs, on another beach, along the bluffs at Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery, and through the cute town of Cambria, where we tchotchke-shopped, bought some yummy sweet baked goods from Linn's (olallieberry pie, anyone?), and picked up a delicious Thai dinner. 

Wednesday we walked another beach, then drove to Morro Bay and watched some otters! So dang cute! 

Here are my photos, not in order at all!

Morro Rock, what you can see of it!

Poppy's comfy spot

So damp the trees were dripping

This trail at Fiscalini Ranch Preserve had many interesting benches

The early-morning view from Poppy's bedroom window

The area had a scarecrow event. This one is for Diver Son!

A trip to the area is not complete without a visit to the elephant seal breeding grounds, the Piedras Blancas Rookery. 

We were told that these animals are juvies. Their moms and dads are thousands of miles away, feeding. Dads are up in Alaska's Alutian Islands, due back in winter, and moms are at sea, up to 4000 miles out and a mile down. They will mosey back at about five miles per hour. The females will return shortly after the males to give birth and love their husbands. 

This is the fall haul-out, when thousands of juveniles hang out on the beach to rest and develop after their thousands-of-miles migration to Alaska and back.

You can see them in a live cam here. 

Here's a little video:

A bunch of quail at our campground! There were lots!

We had sunshine on our last day, and we spent some time poking around Morro Rock before heading home.

Otters in Morro Bay

Another sea otter. Crappy pic, but I gotta prove we saw otters!

Blue skies. What what?!

Da Rock

Again, a beautiful, supremely accessible spot, but one I haven't visited for a decade or more. Why? I have no idea! I want to go back!

Thank you, Claudia!!

Part 14. Amarillo to Albuquerque

I got in to the Amarillo area in the afternoon and decided to make the short drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park to take in the sights of "The Grand Canyon of Texas" and take the opportunity to dump Poppy's tanks. 

It was a nice walk! 

I was fascinated by the layers of satin spar gypsum that cut through the sandstone.

I stayed the night at the Amarillo Cracker Barrel, just two doors down from the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum, which I will have to visit next time through.

And of course, a stop at Buc-ee's before heading west to Albuquerque!

Here's an interesting roadside attraction. There is a large store of helium underneath Amarillo. This 1968 monument was built to honor that, as well as to make a time capsule. The columns were to be opened in the years 1993, 2018, 2068, and 2968.

The contents from columns so far opened are located in the nearby Discovery Center. A quick search did not tell me what the items are, except: "Items preserved in the capsule include stamps, documents, toy cars, and other miscellaneous effects." (from Wikipedia). The emptied columns were re-filled with more memorabilia to be opened in the more interim future than the 2068 and 2968 capsules.  The monument also acts as a sundial, but it was cloudy that day.

I also stopped at Cadillac Ranch, which is literally a skeleton of its former self. It was damp and muddy and I did not go closer than the roadside to get a snapshot.

An interesting find at a rest stop! I again stopped at every rest area, as it was windy, windy, windy all the way into the Rio Grande Valley.

That night, I was lucky enough to visit my wonderful friend Lola at her home in Albuquerque. We had a nice dinner. Dang it that we didn't get a selfie!! Poppy and I had a good rest in her driveway.