Part 4: Pacific Coast Highway

 This is part 4 of my Road Trip Across America

 

            After leaving San Bernardino, I wanted to go further west to do a drive on the Pacific Coast Highway. I took I-5 to get on Highway 166. I wanted to avoid interstates and drive on scenic roads that a friend recommended. Highway 166 is pretty straight but takes you past some huge farms. Eventually this takes you to Highway 33. After turning on 33, there was some road construction backed up pretty far. Luckily there was a restaurant called “Tina’s Diner.” I parked my car and stopped in there.

 

            Tina’s Diner is a weird place, not to say that it wasn’t good or that the owner wasn’t nice. There were only two other people when I went in. I grabbed a seat at the bar beside them. They were from Southern California and were doing a motorcycle trip up north. You’d expect that Tina’s Diner would be run by a lady named Tina but it wasn’t. Tina’s Diner is run by a lady named Tima, short for Fatima. I assume Tina exists in the archives of history somewhere. I ordered a chicken sandwich with fries and lemonade. Tina made the lemonade fresh. Hell yes.

 

            Eventually a friend of Tina’s came in. He had a dog with him. They went behind the bar and the dog stood up as if to serve us. He got the dog recently. It was a Black Mouth Cur. I only know this because he told us. It’s a fairly common breed in the southern US, but I never knew the name. Anyway, that is besides the point. Tima’s friend was a strange one. He was nice, but he was almost too happy. And he talked really fast. He had a very manic-like disposition. He was there to fix the freezer. He also had very shiny white teeth and he always smiled when talking. I wish I could better describe him, but that’s hard to do. Just know that it was strange.

 

            On the TV, there were reruns of The Andy Griffith Show. The other two people were in their 60s. Prior to this I told them I was from NC and they asked if I’ve ever been to Mayberry. I said yes, but that is sort of incorrect because the city is fictional. But I have been to his home town. When I told them that I have been there, they gave me a weird look. Eventually I ate and left.

 

            After some time, I turned onto Highway 58. This is one of the most beautiful highways I have ever driven on. It winds its way through some smaller mountains. The mountains are a wheat brown color. Words can’t describe how beautiful it is. At points you’ll be looking around and realize that you need to watch the road. You could easily drive off the road and go plummeting.

 

            At the end of High 58 I turned south onto Highway 101 and went to San Luis Obispo. I drove to the downtown area and parked on the street. You are supposed to pay at the parking meter, but it never accepted my card. There were some college girls nearby and I asked them if they could show me how to use it. They were very standoffish, choosing to talk from 15 feet away. Because distance makes it hard to talk, I unconsciously started walking to them and they backed up. They just told me to write a note in my dash saying the machine didn’t work. I guess they thought I was a serial killer or something. But California people are less approachable in general from my experience. It was a little weird.

 

San Luis Obispo is a cool college town so I chose to stay the night. There are a lot of neat shops. I got some ice cream first. There were book stores, record shops, and art galleries. One art gallery had amazing art. The art style of some of them reminded me of Soviet propaganda posters, though the art itself was about American places. They were very cool, but they were also very expensive. Otherwise, I’d be telling you instead about the piece that I bought.

 

At one point when I was walking down the street, I had another random encounter. Some college dudes in a convertible yelled out, “what’s the weirdest thing you’ve done?” I looked around for who they were talking to, but clearly they were talking to me. I should’ve yelled back, “Your mom!” I was wondering, “Do I stick out in California somehow?”

 

The next day I got on Highway 1 and started going north. I wanted to visit San Simeon beach. It’s supposed to be incredibly beautiful, but the weather patterns sometimes leave hanging fog on the beach for the entire day. Instead, I went to Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle isn’t really a castle, but it is designed to look like old Spanish castle architecture. It was built in the early 1900s. You can take a tour to separate parts of the castle. I did the upstairs tour. You see the bedrooms, office, and library. It is really impressive.

 

After that, I got lunch and continued north. It is a pretty frustrating drive, because you stop a lot to get out and take pictures. You definitely get nowhere fast because of this. But I guess that is no complaint at all. It is an incredible drive. I stopped at one place to go down to the beach. The beaches are nothing like East Coast beaches. They are smaller, cove like strips rather than long stretches of sand. They also have large rocks on the beach. I drove through Big Sur, but was too tired to want to get out and look around.

 

Next stop: Monterey.

Highway 58

Pool at Hurst Castle

Outside of Hurst Castle

View from Highway 1

View from Highway 1

Some really cool art in San Luis Obispo