Angels Camp California

Angels Camp California

April 18 - 25, 2025

Monterey CA

 Monterey California

April 11 - 18, 2025

The drive from Pismo to Monterey was much shorter, about 3 hours and very nice along CA 101. We needed to fuel up and learned why it's best to stop at Truck stops when driving a 37 foot motorhome with another 15 feet of car behind you. Plus they have windshield squeegees on a long pole!

We camped at the Monterey County Fairgrounds -- we were literally just assigned a parking space. See the pic that shows our RV's slideouts about 4" away from our neighbors so we hadda keep the blinds shut most of the time. Luckily our neighbors were nice though they called Murray "Marie" so Murray sulked for a full 24 hours. Unlike the Pismo RV park the vibe at Monterey was much less friendly. No campfires were allowed so that added to the gloominess but we would not have anywhere to light it anyway! But the park was exactly 2.4 miles away from the pier and Fishermans Wharf on an amazing beachside bike path. We took full advantage of that path riding it all the way to Cannery Row a couple of times where we were lucky enough to see many seals and sea otters.

Klaus on one of his 15 minute breaks,
supervised by his boss.

We enjoyed miles of gorgeous beach walks. The weather was cooler than Pismo and quite windy. We didn't see much of the sun the entire time. The dogs enjoyed the Fairgrounds as it gave them ample opportunity to terrorize the local feral cats (translation: skulking quietly by them - they learned their cat lesson from Calvin's cat John Wick).

Hildegard (note the family trait of the
 out turned flippers)

Klaus was surprised to run into his seal cousin, Hildegard, who was visiting from Germany.  

Otter or Klaus ...?

Local asparagus, local artichoke
and San Diego cherry tomatoes.

Did you know that Monterey County is the artichoke capital of the world(1)? We enjoyed them on a few occasions and they tasted just like artichokes. We also partook of freshly caught fish from the Monterey Fishing Company. We stumbled upon The Sand Bar Restaurant on the pier where we had our first fantastic calamari that had been caught that day. 

On the way to Big Sur - there were otters in this cove!

We took a couple of day trips both as a couple and Sue solo. We enjoyed the Julia Pfeiffer state park in Big Sur and the lovely drive there (more sea otters!). 

Sue took a trip to Salinas to see the John Steinbeck Center which had a pretty thorough history of Steinbeck as well as the camper he took around America, "Rocinante" with his faithful poodle in Travels With Charlie. Pfft. (iykyk). We decided to name our RV "Riginante" in Steinbeck's honor. 

Murray if he were made of resin!

Wednesday afternoon, Denis took off work early and we biked to the Monterey Aquarium(2). We have been to a lot of aquariums so were not expecting so much, but this one was quite spectacular! The scale of the exhibits was huge and innovative. The giant tank of the kelp forrest environment had giant sea Bass, reef and leopard sharks, and uncountable smaller fish. The otters were active, endlessly swimming around their tank. Many of the exhibits are rescues that will be returned to the waters when they are fully rehabilitated.

The Aquarium created this actual
beach, replicating the
shore birds' natural habitat.

On the way back, we stopped at The Sandbar, or "Fathom of Monterey" as it was on the pier and had a bait and tackle shop next door. We had great clams and more of the calamari. Highly recommended if you go to Monterey!

Stuff we forgot on our trip: bras (eeek!), salt, pepper, (though we have plenty of Chinese 5 spice Seasoning) beach chairs, but most importantly - OUR PASSPORTS. Happily Sophia is in San Diego briefly and will bring them up with to to Eugene, OR which we will hit sometime in May/June.

Daily life: Denis works each workday. Sue tries to get 15,000 steps in per day so long dog walks and lots of hiking. We reconnect around 4pm ish to catch up/go on an outing before cooking dinner. So far we have not even come close to killing each other. This is a triumph given that we're within 20 feet of each other at all times when we're in Riginante.

Murray looking for the authorities
to correct the spelling of "Denis"

Next up Angels Camp...

Pismo Beach

 Pismo Beach California 

April 4 - 11, 2025

Pismo Beach Pier

It finally arrived, Leaving Day! The first drive is our longest planned, a little over 300 miles. We left at 10:00 on Friday April 4 (Denis' Dad's birthday). A lot of firsts. Our first big drive. Our first time towing the CRV, our first stop on the trip. 

First Campfire at Pismo Coast Village RV Resort 

Thankfully, the drive went smoothly. A bit of traffic through LA but we took 15 to skirt the heart of it. Arrived at Pismo Beach around 4 and set everything up. 

Introduction to Travels with Murray

Denis and Sue at Pismo Preserve

Hello, we are Denis and Sue! Since I do not think anyone other than friends would be reading my blog, I do not think this is news to any of you. In April 2024, Sue retired. We both want to travel but I am not quite ready to retire. Calvin is still in College and who knows what's going to happen with the economy these days. So we bought an RV and I am going digital nomad (I prefer digital commando but that implies I am not wearing pants) and we are setting out with the dogs on a west coast adventure. Travels with Murray seems a bit of a diss of Klaus but Murray sounds more like Charley(1).

We bought our 2008 Itasca Latitude 37 class A rig in August and installed a bunch of lithium, solar panels, and Starlink; bought an older Honda CRV to tow behind; took it on a couple of short weekends to get used to it; and packed up our stuff and the dogs and left La Mesa behind. We are still searching for the name of the RV, we are currently on Riganante but are open to suggestions (It really does need a name). The air suspension is super cush and it has a big rig horn that makes you jump out of your skin. We should be able to go totally off grid for quite a while.