San Luis Obispo Trip

When Meowmy heard about the Margarita Taco Festival in San Luis Obispo from her friend Heather in Paso Robles, she knew she had to make a weekend trip to the Central Coast of California to attend.  Caravanning once again with our friend Chris and his cat Michi, we headed out after work on Friday June 1st to Paso Robles, where we spent the night.  The next morning we drove to Morro Bay State Park for breakfast and a stroll on the beach.  From there, we headed to El Chorro Regional Park for the festival.  Meowmy and Chris found the perfect shady spot for their rigs so that Michi and I stayed cool while they went to enjoy tacos and margaritas.

As the evening drew near, we headed over Cuesta Pass and took a dirt forest road off the top to our overnight spot (found on freecampsites.net), with beautiful views of the valley and all the way to the ocean.  I got to roam around while the humans watched a gorgeous sunset.

Sunday morning we headed to Carmel-By-The-Sea, but sadly Meowmy damaged her awning on a leaning tree trying to park near downtown.  After a quick lunch in the park, we drove to Sand City (near Monterey) so Chris could practice paragliding while we hung out on the beach.  From there we went our separate ways so Meowmy could stop off and visit her friends Joel and Rachel and their kids, where I made friends with Bella the chihuahua and two cute bunnies!

Looking forward to our next trip!

Death Valley & Alabama Hills Trip

Early last month, Meowmy and I took another trip down to Southern California, this time with the objective to see Death Valley and the Alabama Hills.  We started out driving South on Highway 101 while the sun was rising, ending up in San Simeon to check out Hearst Castle.  I chilled in the RV while Meowmy took the tour of the house, gardens, and pools.  I heard my human grumbling when she got back about Neptune Pool being under construction, but it sounded like the Roman Pool was gorgeous.  Meowmy was also bummed that she didn’t see any zebras roaming the hills since they are supposedly abundant on the castle lands. We had lunch by the ocean but sadly the fog rolled in and made it very misty.  We then headed to Paso Robles to visit our friend Heather and spent the night there.

The next day we headed to Ventura and Agoura Hills to meet up with Meowmy’s college friend Lisa.  After exploring the neighborhood a bit, my human took off to see some tribute band called Led ZepAgain at the Canyon Club.  Plus we spent Easter Sunday with Lisa at Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas.

The following day we had a really windy drive through Mojave, but totally worth it to see Red Rock Canyon Park, where Meowmy took me for a beautiful hike.  Then we continued on to Death Valley National Park, making it just in time for dinner and sunset at our campground.  Meowmy told me it’s quite amazing that you go from 4,500 feet to sea level in such a short drive.  I enjoyed a lovely sunset walk and we met some cool camping neighbors in Stovepipe Wells.  The next morning we drove to Zabriskie Point to see the view of the badlands, then headed out with a quick stop at Father Crowley Viewpoint.

We spent the afternoon in Lone Pine at a nice park where we met a hippie couple named Diva and Bram who were quite friendly.  Then we headed into the Alabama Hills to check out Mobius Arch and the interesting landscape around there.  There’s even a rock that’s heart-shaped!  Meowmy drove down some bumpy dirt road until we found a spectacular overnight spot with a view of the Eastern Sierra mountain range and Mount Whitney, which is the highest summit in the contiguous United States!  Meowmy made friends with other boondockers named Younghee and Willie hanging around a campfire, while I chased little mice around.  Meowmy & I really loved it there and can’t wait to come back!

The next morning we took off for Bishop, where Meowmy had a delicious sandwich from Schat’s Bakery.  From there we headed to Bakersfield to meet up with another college friend named Mike, who took Meowmy to a nice basque dinner.  After a peaceful night’s rest, we drove passed the infamous James Dean Memorial Junction as we headed back to Paso Robles for another visit with Heather,  and then we headed home the next morning.

Another great trip for this adventure kitty!

SoCal Trip & San Diego Van Meetup

At the end of January, Meowmy and I took a lovely trip down to Southern California for a week.  We headed down Highway 101 towards Santa Barbara, stopping for the night at Arroyo Hondo Vista Point between Gaviota and Goleta.  It’s a perfect overnight spot on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where we watched a beautiful sunset and met a local van dweller who stays there often.

After a nice stroll down to the beach, we continued South with quick stops in Santa Barbara and Emma Wood State Beach, just North of Ventura.  We saw a lot of beach front RV campgrounds between Carpinteria and Faria Beach too, something to note for future trips.  Then we headed to Aliso Creek Rest Area, a popular overnight stop a few miles after San Onofre State Beach and ten miles North of Oceanside.  Meowmy highly recommends getting there before 8pm because it’s fill up quickly, despite being a fairly large rest area with a lot of parking.  Meowmy took me for a long walk around the big park, I even climbed some trees and made some new human fans that took photos of me.  Due to it’s busy nature, this rest stop can be quite noisy at night with all the traffic coming through, especially the big rig trucks.

The next morning we headed to Fiesta Island for the San Diego Vanlife Connections Meetup.  We were one of the first ones there so we got a nice spot with a view of Mission Bay.  Over 100 vans and RV’s showed up that day for a fun and successful meetup!  Meowmy made a lot of new friends and many people liked our turn-key solution rig.  There were a lot of great van builds to see and the night ended with a bon fire.  A bunch of vanners decided to overnight outside the Fiesta Island gates, but it was pretty busy that night, so we didn’t stay there.  We heard that you could overnight at Ocean Beach Park as it’s only closed from 2-4am but Meowmy thought it looked a bit shady, so we headed to the San Diego Zoo, where we heard you can overnight in the parking lot without any trouble.  What a peaceful place to spend the night!

Our fourth day consisted of driving back North to Westlake Village where Meowmy visited with her best friend from college.  Lisa took us on her pontoon on Westlake Lake and I enjoyed watching all the ducks and birds.  We spent the night in Agoura Hills, then took off to visit Kyna, the lead singer of the band The Go Ahead that Meowmy manages.  They went out bar hopping in the historic Montrose downtown area where some movies have been filmed while I lounged in the RV.

We took off for Grover Beach the next morning to visit JC and Carly who just had a baby, then headed to Paso Robles where Meowmy went cider tasting with her friend Heather and we spent the night watching the amazing Super Blue Moon.  The next morning we headed home.  What a great week!