Day 6 -- San Luis Obispo, California to Piru, California -- 153 Miles

Today turned out to be a fantastic day, not because we got anywhere particularly exciting, but because of the scenery along the way. Last night we camped in San Luis Obispo at, of all places, a California National Guard facility. There were only five rigs in the camp, and one of those belonged to the camp host who, we discovered, kept up the grounds, greeted new arrivals, and served as the go-to person for camp amenities.

Since Camp San Luis Obispo has only a skelton compliment of soldiers, well, unless the Guard comes for drill weekend, the grounds were as quiet as a church and not a soul disturbed the peace and quiet. That changed this morning when Mike the Camp Host hopped on his riding mower and began cutting a couple of acres of grass around the camp sites.

Our goal today was to jump back on California Route 101 after breakfast and head south. And that, thanks to Concetta's IPhone GPS, was pretty easy. The traffic was brisk even though we didn't break camp until after 10:00 a.m. But we observed the posted speed limit and managed to keep up with the flow of traffic.

We got a surprise just after our curbside lunch in Carpenteria as the GPS informed us that it wanted us to leave Route 101 and head inland on Route 154. When we got a chance to pull over and consult the map we discovered that the GPS had routed us away from the seacoast and the town of Lompoc, and sent us down the most scenic and pleasant "bypass" we've seen on this whole trip. The road was slender and winding but the roadside display of everything from beautiful farms and orchards to wild natural vegetation full of bright yellow wildflowers just took our breath away.

Speaking of Lompoc, once upon a time when I was attending the University of California at Santa Barbara, I lived for the spring quarter of 1973 in student housing in that town. I had a roommate named Dale who, like me, played the guitar. Dale also played the Banjo and we would often play togther just for fun. I dropped out of college and went to sea after that quarter, but I would sure like to learn what happened to Dale. Dale and I were matched by computer for our first Quarter together in one of the campus co=ed dorms. We turned out to have exactly the same likes and dislikes and got along fantastically.

For the whole day we had been keeping an eye out for a grocery store and a gas station that would allow us an easy offramp and onramp next to Highway 101. Naturally, we saw neither. We made a valiant attempt when we reached Santa Barbara but ended up trying to thread our way through the impossibly narrow streets in old town as other drivers tried to be patient with us. Thankfully, though we didn't find our quarry, we did make it back to Route 101 without sideswiping anyone or stranding ourselves down some deadend alley.

Our next departure from Highway 101 came when it was time to head cross country toward Simi Valley and our intended destination of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. To that end, we segued over to California Route 126 East. Once again we kept our eyes out for a grocery store and a gas station. We like to fill the tank whenever it reaches the halfway mark as some gas stations limit purchases to just over a hundred dollars. In addition, the sticker shock is noticiably lessened. Plus, we were out of several grocery items which mandated a stop for supplies even if it turned out to be one of the smaller markets.

We hadn't gone very far when we encountered the town of Santa Paula and there we found a gas station. Tank filled, we rolled around town but found no grocery store. The next town down Route 126 was Fillmore and there we found a small, sort of one-horse grocery. We knew we would probably find a better store down the road, but we decided to take advantage of the bird in the hand. Thankfully the store had most of what we needed. Naturally, just a couple of blocks further east we saw not one, but two giant stores, but we just kept rolling.

Our final stop for the day was the Valencia Travel Village near the town of Piru. The camp was truly magnificent and came complete with its own large grocery, TWO swimming pools, a hot tube, propane fill up, remote dump station, and an amazingly pleasant and helpful staff. We liked it immediately. The cost was about $85.00 a night and they take the Good Sam card.

So, showers done, Concetta is cooking dinner and I'm, well, you know what I'm doing. Tomorrow we're headed for the Reagan Library where we plan to spend the better part of the day. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be back here at Valencia for our second night's stay. And the following day we'll be headed to my home town of Altadena where I intend to donate some California books to their little sales shop. After Altadena, we'll be headed further east and south and will eventually end up in San Diego. So until then, we wish you exciting and happy travels of your own.