After San Lui Obispo we headed first to Los Osos, where Bert could get some of the spare parts for the Westy, plus i bought him two Westy T-shirts. We checked out Montana de Oro park, overlooking the ocean and the beaches, most of the walkways had been closed off to try and give the local plants a comeback, these dunes are very precious and lots of people walking all over and through them is just not going to do it, but we did notice that there is very little garbage lying around, a good thing.
We ended up camping at Avila Pismo beach.
We stopped in Cambria the next day, a very fancy town, everything was so expensive, beautiful art but just not affordable for us, plus we cant use it anyways.

On the way up we had stopped at the Elephant seal rookery, it had been pouring rain, the animals were just lying around , nothing happening yet, so we didnt stay, but this time, the rookery was very busy indeed, lots of babies were born, and the females were oh so busy, trying to nurse them, fling sand over them and themselves to keep cool, the males were being a total pain in the ass, trying to mount the females while they tried to protect their babies, the big males, weighing as much as 2300 kg.can easily crush the babies, which happens frequently.
The females weigh as much as 800 kg. quite a bit smaller then the males.
In December through February, the males battle for breeding rights, and they can go without food and water for up to 100 days.
While we were there in December, males were slashing at each other, some with bloodied chests, one very big and powerful one definately had the advantage, and chased most of the smaller males away. The females were just lying about, yawning, looking very bored with it all.

A very dreary,dark day, but the Elephant seals dont care!!

We all decided to start driving north again, Bert still wanted to stop in Los Osos, where the Westfalia store is, we met up in San Clemente with Roel and Ineke, shared lunch there, at the little cafe we had found earlier in the trip, and then they headed out, towards home and we kept driving along the coast, past L.A. past Santa Barbara, towards San Luis Obispo. It is close to Los Osos, we had not planned to stop here, but its a very nice town, cute coffee shops, tree lined streets for shade, so we roamed around for a while.
The earliest humans to live and settle here in San Lui Obispo were the Chumash people.
In the 1700’s things changed, Spanish missionaries settled in the area, two missions were established, Presidio of Monterey and San carlos Borromeo, the Spaniards settled there and organized hunting parties to bring back food ,mostly bear meat, the native people were very impressed by the ease with which the Spaniards brought down the huge grizzly bears. The Spaniards traded some of the bear meat for seed with the native people, they all got along very well, the area had plenty of fresh water and food, and the climate was great, so eventually the town of San Lui Obispo was established.
Spanish is still a big influence , which shows in the buildings and art.
In one of the streets, we found a wall, large one, totally covered with old chewing gum!! Now this has nothing to do with me mentioning art, but its the strangest thing to see, quite gross too actually……..
here are some photos in case you dont believe me!!!

Gum wall!!!!

Just in case you still dont believe me!

It was a lot warmer at the coast, thats for sure, no snow!!
We headed to Encinitas and did some shopping and sat at a “terrasje”, a nice outdoor coffee spot, Encinitas is nice, it has some beautiful trees, and little streets ,lined by flowers and lots of succulents.
There is not a whole lot to tell, other then that we had a super time together, very enjoyable, and hope to do this again next winter.

Roel enjoying his “bakkie” coffee, sitting in the Encinitas sunshine!!

We all decided to travel back together the way we had driven, past Salton sea, and then follow route S22, towards Borrego Springs, then towards Encinitas,at the coast.
It had snowed all along the mountain route, cacti covered in snow!!! Must be a shock to their system!!!
We stopped here and there for snacks and lunch, and to take some photos, the scenery was just beautiful. Once we were at the coast, we decided to stay in Oceanside again, and spend New years eve together.

Ineke enjoying her snack!!!

Snowy route S22!!

Looking towards Thomas mountain range.

So, after this serious talk, we keep going towards Palm Springs,Palm Desert.
Our family/friends were already there,and had picked out an RV place, we joined them there, but the place would not allow us to stay, the WESTY was not allowed, not fancy enough among all those huge 5th wheelers and buses.
Needless to say we left, and took Roel and Ineke with us!!!
Back to Shadow Hills RV, where we love it, and they love us, Roel and Ineke were very happy to follow, and the price was a lot better too!!!
We hung out together, went shopping ,there isnt a whole lot to do in and around Palm Springs, but you can go up in the tram, up to the mountains, at the top is a fine restaurant, so thats what we did.
It snowed!!!!
Blasted, it was cold up there, but the tram ride was great, the cars turn all the time , so you get a full view from all sides.
It was almost fully dark when we got to the top, everything all white, a winter wonder land!!!!
We had a superb dinner, and sipped some fine wine, so good to be with folks you love, and enjoy being with.
The trip down was uneventful, it was raining down below, and we headed to our beds in the RV’s.

The view from the tram

Tram, coming up the mountain.

Looking down at Palm Springs

Anyone out there heard of chem trails?? These are the large, white lines across the sky, made by jets. oh yes you say, i know those, but they have always been there,right??? At least as long as the jets have been flying…….
If you look carefully, a normal, passenger jet ,leaves a trail of Contrails ,which disperse within a very short time, but the chemtrails stay in the sky, and slowly disperse to become whispy, white clouds, that mix together with the regular cloud cover,they can last as long as 48 hours.
Okay you say, what is in this stuff then??? They are made up of toxic chemicals, which are Aluminum Oxide,Barium,and Strontium.
No one should ever breathe in these chemicals, and believe me , they are out there every day, they are sprayed at a height of over 30.000 feet, to slowly mingle with the existing clouds.
So, just clouds then right??? Wrong!!!!
I am not going to write everything i found out, i asked all kinds of questions for instance,are there chem trials in Australia and New Zealand,the answers are scary. Go to your search engine and just type in “chemtrails”,and start reading, it will tell you all you need to know.
The stories are overwhelming, very, very scary!!
We are all part of this, we are all breathing this stuff in, it goes into the soil, yes, you buy, organic?? well, think again, the chemicals are in the soil at those farms too.
I watch the sky all the time, also because it is what sailors do, looking up, and the only time you wont see the chemtrails is when it is very cloudy, they are then above those clouds and mix with them.
A very scary thing that has been let known is that children’s videos are now made with the chemtrails painted in them, so our children are used to the white lines……
You can look up what these chemicals do to our bodies and brains, look at the diseases associated with them.
Look all this up on the internet, we are not suppose to question these things, not even know about them, type in chemtrails, Geo-Engineering, ask some questions, i am very concerned, how about you?????

Chemtrails