Much better day

IN SEARCH OF A BEACH
Woke up at 9am in the carpark, and had slept on and off for 12 hours or so and felt much better. Had some cheese slices on bread for brekkie, tidied up, and headed out to do battle with the highway traffic again at 10am.

After a while, I got off the highway to check out the beach, but the turnoff I picked was a small dead end with a smaller turning loop at the end. Bad choice, so back to the freeway to find a better beach.

My next choice led to a resort carpark (near Arroyo Grande) that had ample parking and turning space, so I parked the beast and went for a walk out to the coast. Saw an oil rig in the distance, and beautiful native flowers all around, and hoped the oil rig never had a disaster to ruin this gorgeous beach.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
So after a windy walk (brrrrr) it was back into the beast and onto Highway 101 (Ventura Highway), looking for the off ramp to Highway 1 to take in the coastal views. Got the exit number wrong and found myself in the suburbs of a place called San Juan Obispo instead. B*gger this, I thought, and pulled into a donut place carpark to ponder what a d*ckhead I am. By now it was 2.30pm so made some lunch (more cheese and tomato on bread) and ate it while I read the operating manual of the motorhome. Turned on the water pump and felt very clever to have water.

Time to keep going, so off we (that's the beast and I) went and got petrol. Another very clever thing to do. $84.03 for 20.3 gallons for about 240 miles, but I don’t think I fully filled the tank as it kept cutting out, so the fuel usage may not be quite accurate. I also think the tank wasn't fully filled when I picked it up, so I paid for more fuel than I used.

Then when I pulled out from there, I didn’t realise I had to turn left straight away to get back onto the highway … so cracked another right on a road full of houses but didn’t want to fall for that same trick of turning into a dead end street and having to reverse again. So thought the road is very wide – I’ll crack a U-turn. But not quite wide enough. Had to do a three point turn again. Sigh… And hold up a car going through…

But onwards and upwards.

TARGET: HARMONY

My target to stay the night was a little town called “Harmony” less than a 200 mile drive today, just off the highway on the coast. Turns out it was littler than I thought. Population 18. Yep! And those 18 are artists! The town consists of a stained glass studio, pottery studio, post office, and a very pretty wedding chapel. All very quaint and there is a winery on the hill above, which I’ll go to tomorrow before I leave.

I bought a pair of spiral earrings and then asked if I could camp the night just outside, which the potter duded said was ok. Good location, near enough to people but still private and quiet, and surrounded by scenery.

(Taken from the winery, that's my monster parked down there where I slept the night)

BREAKING NEW GROUND AGAIN
Again, new things to do. Had to level up the motorhome by driving 20cm up a little ramp thingy for one side. Then turned on the water pump and the hot water for a shower. Yay! Then I turned on the generator so I could nuke some food in the microwave. I know it sounds like nothing, but it was intimidating to try it for the first time in case I cocked it up and broke something.

The only thing I can’t work out is why didn’t I buy some wine yesterday so I would have something to drink in the evenings? Lucky for me there is a winery 200 hundred metres away and tomorrow is another day.