March 21-26, 2018
March 21: We know there will be rain for 1 or 2 days at Pismo but we are heading out just the same. Julie is going over with us. Deb, Sam, Spencer, and Soren will come over tomorrow. I think Matt and Sierra are coming tomorrow as well. Jeff, Miranda, Steven, and Saira will join us on Friday.
It rained most of the drive over, pretty hard at some points but we made it just fine. We arrived to North Beach Pismo about 1:15p and they advised us to go ahead and find a site, then come back and we could register at 2p for our spots. We found a couple sites that looked like they would work. There is a lot of wet ground, ducks are swimming in ponds in some of the sites. On our way back toward the ranger station one of the ranger trucks came along and stopped us to say they were closing the campground! We were shocked. They said it was a mandatory closure. They said we could stay in some parking lot but of course there would be no way to set up a tent for Julie. We quickly headed to Oceano Campground only to find out that it was full. Next stop was the little county campground. There appeared to be open spaces but we called the number to check for sure. Yes, there are spots for tonight so we drove back to Pismo Coastal Dunes and paid for the one night. It is full hook ups and runs $53, which is a lot more than the state sites but we have little choice.
The rain is going strong again. We managed, with a lot of help from Julie, to unload the multiple things in the trailer and put them on the table, covered with a tarp. Then we set up the canopy so we could put her tent underneath. Then off to Old Juan's Cantina for dinner. We checked on Pismo North Beach again, the flooding has increased. It was absolutely pouring down rain when we got back to our camp. John dug a small trench around the one side of Jul's tent. It worked well, drained the large puddle forming, and she stayed dry all night. After that we all played cards, then John read and Julie and I continued to play cards. Finally we were all off to bed. We left the trailer unlocked so Jul could use our restroom in the night. It all worked out well though the rain continued pretty steady and hard all night.
March 22: At least Jul was dry all night. Another visit to North Beach Pismo and we confirmed we would not be able to camp there. It is badly flooded and no hope of the flood water draining quickly. John took Jul to McDonald's for breakfast. We tried to secure 2 campsites for the long weekend there at the county campground but they will be full on the weekend. We began packing up, thankful it is not raining, but what a wet mess everything under the tarp turned out to be. Julie was a great help. I had to drape a dry tarp over our beds and the floor to put everything for transport. I caught my foot in the strap of my laptop case and took a fall. My knee is pretty so but I am not hurt. Finally the packing up was done and we headed to San Simeon State Park where there are openings and we can secure sites for the weekend. Since it is Matt's birthday we had told them all we would have dinner at Splash Café to celebrate. I called the café and was able to secure takeout for 9 for dinner tonight. I was very happy about that. Matt and sierra arrived then Deb, Sam, and the boys. The rain is gone and they were all able to set up without the rain factor. Matt and Sierra enjoyed the hammock we gave him for is birthday, they set it up in a couple different places to find a good fit. After the Splash chowder, a Hostess Cupcake was served with a candle to Matt (they all like Twinkies better!)
March 23: This morning we took a drive up to see the Elephant Seals. It isn't far from the campground and always interesting to see. I would love to come Dec-Feb when the males are here and birthing also takes place. On the way back from that we stopped at another little "scenic view" point and found some very interesting information about this area the last couple hundred years. I didn't know there were Chinese families that lived here and exported a favorite seaweed (sea lettuce) to China starting150 years ago! This practice lasted about 100 years, ending in 1970, it is now illegal to collect seaweed of any sort. This sea lettuce was dried and sent up to San Francisco from Avila, Cayucos, and San Simeon and then shipped to China. There were rocks with plaques depicting a variety of information about the area. Native American tribes and villages in this area were obliterated by the Spanish beginning in the 1700's as they were forced to move from the area to the missions, forced to speak Spanish and by 1810, there were no tribes or villages left. Their language was lost and it is speculation as to what their dialect was. I found the story of a letter postmarked July 1854, that traveled from San Francisco to Nicaragua, then across land to the Caribbean Sea, then traveled to NY, and on to England, arriving in France in August 1854 - all that for 27 cents! One day we might want to visit the Piedras Blancas Light Station build in 1875 to commemorate the loss of ships here in 1869. We were told it is an interesting visit. Not long after we were back to camp Steven and Saira arrived, followed by Jeff and Miranda. Now our group is complete!
March 24: Since Jeff only caught one fish, we had to go into Cambria for some shopping, we needed a few other things as well. Before going shopping we stopped for wine/beer tasting at Fermentations. That was a nice little stop. The rest of the day we relaxed around camp and enjoyed family time.
March 25: Today Steven and Saira along with Matt and Sierra will head home. Julie will go with Steven and Saira because she has work tomorrow. Soren will go with Sierra and Matt since he has school also. Once they were on their way it was pretty quiet. We took everyone else out for an early dinner at El Chorlito Mexican Restaurant. This way, no one will have to cook tonight. We did get a little bit hungry later and roasted some hotdogs over the fire, those were delicious.
March 26: We thought about staying a few more days but John really isn't feeling well and we decided we would just come home. It seemed to take forever to get packed up. We stopped with Deb, Sam, and Spencer to eat at In N Out in Kettleman City. By the time we got home and started to unpack, John began to have chest pain. I called 911 and to the hospital he went in the ambulance. I closed up everything on the trailer and took it along with me to Kaiser Hospital. I really can't put it back in storage by myself. Sam did that for me the next evening. We are thankful to be home even though John is in the hospital.
