12 Wednesday
From Buttonwillow we went north along interstate 5 to get onto highway 46 going west and made our way out to the coast. At the tiny town of Lost Hills, the landscape in the fertile valley contained huge areas planted in citris orchards and other crops with their large irrigation systems. As we progressed west we passed through an oil field with dozens of slowly rotating pumps and then back into citrus orchards and then vineyards. The road went through a pass between the end of the Cholame Hills and the start of the Trembler Range and headed towards Paso Robles. From there we went south a small way down the 101 (our old friend!) to connect again to the 46 and pass through a relatively low point in the Santa Lucia Range. The east facing rolling hills between the Cholame and Trembler ranges were very brown with only sparse vegetation; some of the hills just looked like large piles of soil and dust. But when we started to descend on the western face toward the coast the vegetation altered dramatically with many more trees, larger trees and hints of green in amongst the brown grass with many vineyards many of them looking very plush and profitable. We hit the coast just south of Cambria on highway 1 which runs from San Francisco through to Los Angeles. We stopped to explore the town for several hours in the small arty town center where we had a cup of coffee and a shared waffle.  Refreshed, we looked at the craft shops and galleries in the main street and marvelled at the exquisite glassware priced at up to $950.

The small neat village of Cambria

Further on we got out to the coast itself and then ran north parallel to the shore stopping at various places to view the striking coastal views. At one part of the highway we came upon an area where there were 30 - 40 elephant seals basking and jockying for prime position on the beach. The coast line gets quite rugged and spectacular further on with the road clinging to the steep rocky hillside and many interesting bridges across the deep gullies leading down to the coast.

We passed through three small villages (San Simeon, Gorda and Lucia) where there were just an inn, gas station, general store etc. At Gorda, (photo on the right) we bought a beef filled roll (called a beef sandwich) for $6 and two cups of coffee for $4. Moral: take your own lunch. The price of gas at this place was $3.20 per gallon. Further up the coast near Big Sur the road started winding through wooded areas which included a few Red Wood trees before breaking out onto the coast again just south of Carmel near Monterey. We found our motel (would you believe another Super 8) quite easily from the directions in the motel book. We were at last becoming quite skilled at it!