Day 3 -- Pacifica to Paso Robles, California -- 202 Miles

Today we woke to light rain and more gloomy skies, but we didn't have to break camp right away. Jason and his family wanted to have breakfast at a Pacifica restaurant that they had heard about so at 8:30 they came to retrieve us and we headed just a few blocks away to a tiny restaurant near the seashore called "The Breakers." There we found a table, scanned the menus, then headed up to the register location to order our respective breakfast choices and pay. Everything was very streamlined and well thought out. Almost before we were back at our table, our orders were being delivered. As it turned out, high school English teacher, Caroline recognized our waitress for having been a former student. So, in addition to our orders, we were comped with a Belgian waffle topped with whipped cream and strawberries.

Back at the RV park, Jason and family dropped us off with hugs all around, and we were soon on the road headed south on California Route 101. We didn't really have any firm destination in mind and didn't know how far we'd end up driving for the day. Up near San Francisco, Route 101 is just about as heavily travelled and busy as the other two routes south, California 99 and Interstate 5. But once we had driven past San Jose, the traffic started to thin out a bit, and at least half the day was spent driving past ranches and farm land.

Just after noon we stopped in the tiny town of Gonzales and had lunch. Not much seemed to be happening there, and it was so rainy and gloomy that I wasn't tempted to take any photos. However, once we realized that we were traveling on "El Camino Real," the highway of the Kings from the Spanish mission days, we started noticing all the Mission Bells that had been erected along Highway 101. Naturally, I was suddenly hot to stop somewhere and photograph one. The problem was there was no good stopping place, at least none that would satisfy passing officers of the law. I just knew that I couldn't get far enough off the highway with our 32-foot rig to be safe from onrushing traffic.

Amazingly, we soon passed an officer giving someone a speeding ticket (I presume), and that meant for a short time the cop would not be out partolling our route. So, the very next bell we saw, I pulled as far off the highway as possible and stopped. I grabbed the camera, sprinted over as close to the bell as I could and snapped a couple of photos. Then I raced back to the rig, waited for a break in traffic, and sped off. I watched the side mirror for a bit to see if I had excited anyone, but it turned out I was home free.

If you'd like to know something about the commerative bells, here's a breakdown from Wikipedia: "...In 1892, Anna Pitcher of Pasadena, California initiated an effort to establish a commemorative route for El Camino Real that connected all the Spanish missions. It was adopted by the California Federation of Women's Clubs in 1902. In the early twentieth century, organizations

"A 1915 map of Higand government agencies became interested in creating official designations or commemorations of roads and highways. Given the lack of standardized highway signs at the time, it was decided to place distinctive bells along the route, hung on supports in the form of an 11-foot (3.4 m) high shepherd's crook, also described as "a Franciscan walking stick".

The bells were designed by Mrs ASC Forbes, who also owned the California Bell Company where they were cast. The first of 450 bells were unveiled on August 15, 1906, at the Plaza Church in the Pueblo near Olvera Street in Los Angeles."

highway 101 produced by the Automobile Club of Southern California traced the route that connected the missions for motorists to follow. The club and associated groups cared for the bells from the mid-1920s through 1931 after the original organization which installed the bells fragmented. Distinctive route markers were added to U.S. Route 101 and other national auto trails when the joint board of state highway officials adopted the United States Numbered Highway System in 1926. The state highways forming El Camino Real were identified as Highway 1, U.S. Route 101 and Highway 82 on the San Francisco Peninsula in a 1959 law. Most of the bells eventually disappeared due to vandalism, theft or simple loss due to the relocation or rerouting of highways and roads. The State took over bell maintenance in 1933. After a reduction in the number of bells to around 80, the State began replacing them, at first with concrete, and later with iron. Justin Kramer took over the production of the bells in 1959. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began a restoration effort in 1996."

"Keith Robinson, Principal Landscape Architect at Caltrans developed an El Camino Real restoration program which resulted in the installation of 555 El Camino Real Bell Markers in 2005. The Bell Marker consists of a 460 mm diameter cast metal bell set atop a 75 mm diameter Schedule 40 pipe column that is attached to a concrete foundation using anchor rods. The original 1906 bell molds were used to fabricate the replacement bells."

And there you have it. For our 2024 RV trip we were fortunate to visit no less than three of the historic missions so we probably won't do any missions this trip. However, if you decide to drive El Camino Real (Highway 101) sometime in the future, the space of highway between San Luis Obispo and Salinas, California contains the three missions we visited last year, and we heartily recommend all three.

A couple of decades ago I learned that along about 1915, a company had produced exact replicas of the famous El Camino Real bell posts and bells. If you could even find one they ran from about fifty dollars to a lofty one hundred dollars. The "if you could find one" was the operative phrase. I haunted Ebay for years and years without any success since I was looking to pay something on the affordable end of the spectrum. But success finally came, and I sniped a bid in at the last several seconds and secured a mint condition one for under the going rate. Now it graces my display case with all the other "treasures" that I just had to have at some point in my life."

By the way, Concetta did a bit of research on the pink flowered bush next to our rig and discovered that it's called a "Rock Rose." Very pretty and grew like a weed at the camp.