Pismo Beach

Sat, 1/7:  Uck.  Predicting heavy winds to 40mph this morning.  Called Pismo Coast RV to see if we could check in early, hoping to get there before the winds got too bad.  They said no problem, so we left about 8:30.  Yes, it was windy.  Fortunately, the winds were coming from the SW and that was the direction we were going most of the time so the wind was right at us.  As we got closer to Pismo Beach, the winds got stronger.  We checked in and were set up by 2:30.  The RV park was really nice.  It sits right on Hwy1, behind a sand dune.  Most all the traffic is on Hwy 101, so it's not really noisy at all.  There are RR tracks nearby and we heard them the first evening, but not after that.  Must have been the direction of the wind.  Met my sister, Carol, for dinner at Figueroa Brewing in Arroyo Grande which was near our park.  Nice visit and we made plans for the next day.  It rained heavily all night. 

Sun, 1/8:   Dave got up Sunday morning and immediately went for a walk down the beach boardwalk.  He moves way faster than I do in the morning.  Obviously the weather cleared up.  I took this fantastic sunrise.  Carol met us at our coach mid-morning and we went sightseeing.  We were curious about the Trilogy at Rio Vista.  We'd been there when they first opened and wanted to see how it had progressed.  They had no current models open.  Their next division is being developed but not ready yet.  They had planned for 2- 18 hole golf courses and 1- 12 hole course.  They found that their ownership wasn't that into golf, so rather than develop the 2nd 18 hole course, they planted a vineyard and their next division will be built around the vineyard.  They will harvest and produce wine from the vineyard.  Sounds like a pretty cool idea and a nice area for houses.  We then drove north to Avila Beach for lunch.  It's a quaint 1890s vintage seaside fishing town but their main industry is now tourism.  In the late 1990s, Unocal began the cleanup of decades of old oil seepage discovered years earlier from corroding pipes under the township, and which had caused a massive oil spill under the town.  Over 6,750 truckloads of contaminated material was sent to a local landfill, and replaced with clean sand.  Many of the town's homes and businesses, including several blocks of Front Street and Front Street Buildings, were razed as a result of the quarter mile wide excavation and replaced with new buildings, homes and businesses.  It's really cute.  We had a really nice lunch at the Custom House.  It was packed, so we knew we were in the right place.

Carol and I went back to the coach for a visit and glass of wine while Dave when next door to the Pismo Beach State Park Golf Course.  It's a 9 hole (flooded due to heavy rains) par-3 course.  There were a few "lakes" in the middle of the fairways, but Dave had lots of golf balls and rain gear and waterproof shoes and ball retriever....etc. etc.  Yuk.  He's more of a trooper than I am, but he loved it.  Carol and I had a good visit and said our goodbyes.

.....and then the rains came.  About 5:00pm the monsoons began.  It poured all night!  Mid-evening I asked Dave where our life preservers were (he didn't think it was funny).  We were watching the river flowing in the street in front of our coach and a little concerned about the creek adjacent to the RV park.  

Mon, 1/9:  When I got up this morning, I checked the weather and they had a flash flood warning in effect due to high tides.  I was glad we had a huge sand dune between the park and the beach.  Gad zooks.  Did we bring this with us from Washington???  I didn't bring waterproof shoes, but I'm going shopping soon.

Pismo Beach in front of our RV Park

Pismo Beach from the pier

Heading to Anaheim tomorrow.