Wednesday, June 10
Pictures from today.

I am in Soledad, California.

Soledad is where Of Mice and Men takes place.

I left San Luis Obispo yesterday and drove to Morro Bay to see the big rock.  I hiked around there a bit and then began my coastal drive. I have a bad habit of stopping around every turn to take pictures (and to take WAY too many pictures from the car) so I lose a lot of time.

I skipped Cambria and stopped in Lucia for lunch. Here’s the view out the window of the Lucia Lodge Restaurant. They keep the windows open and a nice cool breeze blows in.

The next three stops were McWay Falls, Pfeiffer Beach, and the Bixby Bridge. No one’s allowed on the beach where McWay Falls is and Pfeiffer Beach is down a 2-mile, 1 1/2 lane road.

Pfeiffer Beach has that rocky arch and there’s a McWay Falls selfie on my Facebook page.

Bixby Bridge was built in 1932 and there’s a selfie of that on Facebook, too.

I skipped Arroyo Seco Gorge. It’s a half day adventure that I added just as a stopping point on the way to Soledad. I was going to camp there in the original plans but I’m beat.

I stop way too much and hop in and out of the car, I drive with one hand while taking pictures with the other, and I climbed around a bunch of rocks barefoot.

And I didn’t wear a hat and my head is sunburned.

And everything was taking much longer than anticipated, so I decided to drive on to Soledad and stay at the Motel 8. Plus, since I’m going to the Steinbeck Center and the Mystery House on Day 3, I want to look nice.

I took over 400 pictures on Day 2. I’ll cull that down to something manageable and post them later. After the first 50 pictures of – hills, clouds, giant rocks in the ocean, etc – they all start looking the same.

I’ll have to find a McDonald’s with WiFi or stay in another hotel.

Day 3 will probably be – Soledad, Salinas (Steinbeck Center), Mystery House, Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and Half Moon Bay.  That way I get get San Francisco in the morning of Day 4 and drive on up to Schooner Gulch.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13