After four months and two days in my parents’ driveway, the final phase of our Airstream restoration was finished and we hit the road! But not before putting the driveway (+ a few hitch scrapes) and garage (+ a few saws and glue stains) back in order. Our adventure officially began on the day after my birthday – pretty cool way to start the year.

After a so close but failed attempt to see my cousin-in-law in Santa Barbara (wrong area code in my ‘we’ll be in your neck of the woods at this time’ text to him! grr!) we continued up the road to San Luis Obispo and El Chorro campground, a county park. We found a sweet little spot, #13, and would definitely recommend this campground to those wanting to visit SLO or Morro Bay.

After setting up camp, including the unfolding, mounting, rope tightening, and “AHH”wning all over our our new awning from Marti’s Awnings, we enjoyed crispy time with our (not as comfy as what we see others using out there, but we are pretty sure) Civil War era camp chairs and milk crate table. The rug was a wedding gift 12 years ago from our friends David and Donna – originally supposed to be more of a beach blanket, but we love it for this purpose! We’ll use it every day this way!

After a good night’s sleep, we headed out for Morro Bay the next day, where we indeed saw the Morro Rock, kayaked in the Bay – who can resist seals and sea otters in the wild? We lunched at Taco Temple, highly recommend the sweet potato

enchiladas. Then we went right across the street to a deserted patch of beach on the Pacific where I jumped in because you never regret a swim, though it was a tad cold. On the way back to camp, we made a few phone calls in our ongoing search to find a bike rack and found Heacock’s in Arroyo Grande. Not only did they have a version of the product we were looking for, but we saw a school (?) of whales heading north as we headed south around PIsmo Beach. Really cool – and though we were on the highway looking down as we drove past could see them really well. Back at our campsite, we celebrated getting the fridge to work on propane and Ben spent a good portion of the evening hammering the bike rack onto the hitch. Meanwhile, I chatted up Bryan, kind

of a random guy I discovered in the park next door. He’s a scientist by vocation, BBQer by hobby, who was “practicing” cooking ribs with his massive grill in an empty park, by himself, while drinking Bud Light and playing bluegrass music on his stereo. I can’t really explain any more about what he meant by practicing – something to do with creating the exact atmosphere he anticipates when the BBQing is perfect (this includes monitoring barometric pressure, wind speed, cooker temperature, and of course, crowd happiness and appropriate music), but it was really interesting and cool, and it’s nice to know there are people developing their talents out there while I’m reading

Twitter and gnashing my teeth about the collapse of the Nats at the hands of the Mets. Bryan’s ribs smelled great but, alas, no offers of samples.

We are now landed about 200 + miles up the road, spending the night at a Harvest Host site, our first boondocking, in Lodi, CA: the Klinker Brick Winery where we received a warm welcome.

We arrived too late to taste, but not too late to enjoy sunset among the vines and a glass of Two Buck Chuck (which we would deny drinking if the Klinker people came wandering by). Think Red Zinfandel, those gnarly flat topped trees. (I’m half expecting one to start throwing grapes at me, a la Wizard of Oz.) It is hot here in the San Joaquin valley this evening, but lovely.