Time to catch up after several days of traveling and sometimes with limited internet.
On March 7, Nancy and I had coffee and granola at the Flying Goat coffee shop. Then we returned to the Santa Rosa County Cemetery to take photos of all the gravestones. This is a way we can pay back others who have photographed headstones on findagrave.com . I will upload the photos to findagrave over the next few weeks.
After mucking through the cemetery, we headed to San Jose to drop Nancy off at the Diridon Amtrak station. We had some spare time so we had a picnic lunch at Stanford and walked down to the Gates of Hell Rodin sculptures. The campus is much expanded since Nancy was there. In San Jose we had Chicken Saag, Chicken Tikka Kabab, Papadum (lentil flour crispy crackers) and extra masala sauce at Swaad Indian Restaurant. The ingredients included yogurt, saffron, spinach, mustard greens, lime juice, lea pepper, garlic and ginger. Excellent distinction of flavors that were not overwhelmed by a creamy sauce.
That night I drove in the rain and dark through heavy traffic to a winding road up the side of the valley. It was not fun going around 5 mph hairpin curves in the dark. Luckily the rain stopped when I arrived at Coe State Park. I popped the top of the Alaskan and went to sleep without unpacking the camper. In the morning I crawled out, dropped the top and headed out, but not until I watched the deer, wild boars and turkeys wandering around. That is an advantage of being only 1 of 2 campers. The wildlife are not deterred.
I arrived in Montana de Oro State Park near Morro Bay for a late lunch. I walked the bluffs and made dinner on a cold windy evening. I sat next to the feeble fire while listening to my Belgian neighbors speak in clearly understandable French (Belgian's french is better than the French's french).
The next morning started out with 3 endurance runs up the hills of the park. There was a 10k race, a half marathon, and a 50k race. I hiked up one of the 1350' hills that was on the course. Seeing the 50k'er flying down the trail reminded me of why I don't do trail runs...I am too likely to trip and break something. I hiked the hill with a local who has gone up the trail 650 times. He is 75 years old and a retired commercial beekeeper. He knows all the flowers and reminded me to avoid the poison oak that was all along the trail.
I had some internet on the mountain but not at camp. While on the mountain, I checked the weather forecast. They nailed it with rain starting at 5pm and continuing heavily thru the night. I packed up the gear and covered it before the rains started. In the predawn morning, I threw the boxes and wet tarp in the truck and headed to the first Starbucks in San Luis Obisbo for breakfast. I circumnavigated around the north and east sides of Los Angeles. I arrived at my cousin Melissa and Steve's house before 4pm. There were several traffic jams on the way, including one flower jam where people were slowing down and even stopping on the shoulder to walk to the exit ramp to view the California poppies in bloom.
Photos are of wild boars, turkey butts, Montana de Oro and the poppies.
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