Return to the motherland

Driving west from Las Vegas, we stayed one night in Barstow, and one night in Bakersfield.  It occurred to me that a first-time traveler heading to California on this route through the desert must have been saying, "This is the magical land of opportunity?  Where are the surfer babes?"

At least Barstow had a nice sunset.

Finally the terrain began looking familiar as we moved between rolling hills and beside vineyards and approached Paso Robles.  We stayed there for three nights in a nice campground we'd used before.  We enjoyed a casual dinner at Pappy McGregor's and especially were impressed with a glass of Tolosa No-oak Chardonnay.

The next day we drove to the Tolosa Winery on the other side of San Luis Obispo, and sitting outside on their patio adjacent to the fields of grape vines, we did a tasting of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.  Suddenly we felt that we were back in the California of our dreams.  The Chardonnays were very good and one of the Pinot Noirs was in the running for the best example of that wine we'd ever tasted.  Sixty-five dollars for the bottle, but we laugh at expense.  We'll save it for a special occasion, such as the next time we eat dinner.

We took the opportunity to explore the town of San Luis Obispo a bit further.  It has a charming downtown with many interesting restaurants.  SLO was named the happiest town in America a few years ago (Santa Cruz, I believe, also held the title for a year.)  The wonderful Cal Poly University is there, and most of the throngs on the streets of downtown were young college students.  We could see ourselves choosing worse places to live.

And so finally, after very nearly a year on the road, we returned to Santa Cruz.  Our campground is Smithwood's RV Park in Felton, which is under beautiful redwood trees but has the disadvantage of no Verizon service and no in-camp WiFi, so we have no internet service.  How did anyone survive before Al Gore invented the internet?  One consequence of that is that I've been unable to post blog entries for several days.  I'm writing this now in the clinic's Scotts Valley parking lot after my pulmonary emboli followup appointment with my primary care physician, Dr. Jim Telfer.

Incidentally, Tammy Faye, our little dog with the splenic hemangiosarcoma, seems to be doing okay, except that she has spells of loud coughing during the night that last up to an hour straight, making it difficult for human sleep.  Last evening Nancy gave her some drops that supposedly are derived from the marijuana plant, and she slept right through, more or less.

Our current problem is that our campground reservations extend only through Thursday, and all the campgrounds are full through Thanksgiving weekend.  Our friend Linda Lord has generously offered to let us stay at her home, but we have to find a place to store the motorhome for several days or a week.  I suppose we could park it near Costco with the other motorhomes there, if that's still allowed, but somehow that doesn't seem to be the smartest idea I've ever come up with.