So, we heads on down from Santa Cruz to Morro Bay. Before we leave we stops off and get some goddies for Van (the Man)...(our bus) at a great VW shop in Santa Cruz. Now Van is 17 years old and we felt as if he might be needing a little support you know...so we gets him a...well it is a Manzere...you know a Bro...well okay its called a bra. Something to keep him snug and firm...and keep the rocks and bugs out of his teeth.
So any way, we have a great trip to Morro Bay...down the Salinas Valley and up and over the hills through Paso Robles...and down into God's greatest air conditioner...the Central Coast. So when it is eight hundred degrees in the valley, that heat draws moisture from the Pacific Ocean and cools off the coast. Now if your here looking to add to your skin cancer...forget it...it's cold and foggy...most of the summer. Come back on Thanksgiving day...it will be sunny.
But it is so refreshing to me...so...well its so cool. I mean cool not cool.
So of course we have no reservations any where...we're really gamblers at heart. But in the summer time the beaches are filled with the direct descendants of dust bowl farmers who all landed in Bakersfield, or Fresno, or Selma, or Ripon...you would swear the dust bowl had hit again. They come to the coast with trailors piled high with tentage and 14 bicycles per truck.
So the likelyhood of getting some place was slim. We checked two or three places and they had nothing. But then we called a place that was right on the beach, right next to The Rock (this and the PGE stacks are the landmarks for MB) and lo and behold...they had a spot for us. We snagged it pronto and came and set ourselves up for two nights of MB, Los Osos, and San Luis Obispo fun times.
We went to Los Osos and found all the places we lived when we lived here. We went to SLO and saw all the places we lived when we lived there. We also went to the courthouse cause Mimi needed to get a copy of our marriage license so she can actually become a real Wertz (another long story). It was hilarious...it listed my occupation as Gas Station Attendant...I can't believe I didn't say I was Oil Technition or something. I now know why Mimi's mom and dad were so against us getting married.
It is strange to come back and see things so different, and yet so many exactly the same.This place has exploded with new stores and shopping centers. We went to the world famous farmers market in downtown SLO. They close of about eight blocks of the main downtown street for tons of farmers, vendors, and food places. There were literally thousands of people walking up and down the streets...it was like a street fair. We bought some food and went over to the creek and sat on a bench and watched the water trickle down towards the ocean. It was so quiet and peaceful...while only a half a block away...it was a madhouse.
This was the creek my kids used to come and play in during the summer. Mimi and her frienf Helyn would bring the kids to the Mission and let the kids play in the creek while they connected about their lives. The kids would play and fight...you know just be kids.
As we sat on that bench and ate our food, we reminisced about our lives when we were much younger. We reflected upon the fact that the more things change...like SLO had...the more it stays the same. People making memories, building stories, processing and growing, and changing. And yet for one moment in time...we were so there again. I could even smell the gas and oil stained work clothes of a kid who had just met the girl of his dreams...oh my...the places you will go.
Oh good. A self portrait. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten how...
ReplyDelete:)
Linda
Granted I am reading this several months too late, but you know, you could have stopped at the primo Central Coast of all natural air-conditioned cities - Marina. You would have had great company too : ) Alas - it is too late now. Perhaps on a future return trip?
ReplyDeleteJenn B.