Sand, everywhere

Hello Everyone,

I camped on the beach last night, falling asleep to the sound of the surf pounding the shore. It was dusk by the time I got here, and there isn’t a lot of direction in terms of where you are supposed to go. It’s just a big open stretch of sand. The guy at the kiosk at the entrance to the beach said that there would be a high tide at 8:45 this morning, and that I should park up from the high water mark. He said it should be fairly obvious where that was. It’s wasn’t, but I followed the example of how to escape a bear. You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the slowest person in your group. I parked uphill from a couple of the other rigs out on the beach.

I like this movie theme I have going, and was hoping that this bit of camping would be like a California surf movie, with chill surfers on longboards and girls in bikinis. Instead, it’s middle aged men in hip waders doing some surf fishing. Still, the sun came out this morning, so I can’t complain. I’m waiting around for my camper to dry out before I pack it up.

To get to the beach, I first had to drive down from the mountains outside LA. Figuring I was here anyway, I took a ‘scenic’ route down Santa Monica Blvd. This would take me through Hollywood, Beverley Hills, and if I had wanted to, Bel Air. However, it was a bit disappointing. The street goes from pretty seedy to quite fancy, and at one point I did see the Hollywood sign, but I didn’t stop. It was basically just a busy street through a big city, and it was already taking a lot of time. I had a beach to get to.

I drove straight to Santa Monica, then took the Pacific Coast Highway, PCH to the locals, most of the way there. I stopped is Oxnard for a coffee, and in doing so, pretty much completed my California experience. That is, I drove through mountains, through Hollywood and other fancy areas, got to see dozens of migrant workers in the fields around Oxnard, then I went through wine country with its fields and fields of tidy rows of vines strung up, and ended the day at the beach. The only thing I missed was meeting an Austrian bodybuilder along the way, but all in all, a good day.

wes