El Chorro Park

After being parked for 8 days in front of Liz and Stan's house, it was time to dump our holding tanks. We couldn't find the gas station with a dump station that we used last time we were here, so we decided to come out to El Chorro County Park and stay a night or two. This is also the site of SLO Botanical Gardens - Liz's main project these days. Besides, it's just the perfect location, halfway between SLO and Morro Bay. All those green circles represent existing geocaches! We've got a lot to do! Here's our site at El Chorro. We went for a walk right away after getting parked. And found the one geocache in this area. Then, today, we took the Eagle Rock trail and saw some great views. Here's Jim contemplating the *uphill* portion of the hike. The flowers were a little sparse, but spectacular. This is the first Indian paintbrush I've seen this go around. This is a golf course! If all golf courses had views like this, I might be interested in the sport. Notice the fog rolling in from the ocean. That's Morro Bay.

Dinner and Hike

Liz made a wonderful dinner last night. In the hopes that a photograph will remind me how to make it ... Pork chops with sliced sweet potatoes and apples - all sauteed in olive oil and a little chicken broth added to get everything cooked. Yum. Most of our time today was spent at the computers ... I made a start in updated bookkeeping records in preparation for tax returns. Jim went to the computer store to pick up routers and things to set up a wireless network in a friend's house. It's a good thing we got to take a little hike late afternooon - saved me from the depths if you know what I mean. And how. The weather today was spectacular. Hot in the afternoon. We went hiking in shorts and shirtsleeves. As the sun went down, it cooled off just perfectly. I asked Jim to just let me stand there and breathe in the air. Restoring my mood with every inhalation. Oh yeah ... he found another geocache to hunt for too. Odie helped too. This one was a challenge. It was a micro cammo'd cache. I thought that meant an ammo box in jungle or desert camouflage. Nope. We hunted and hunted. At last, I picked up a rock to look behing it. Aha! The underside of the rock had a small container glued to it. I'd found the cache. God! What a glorious evening. I just had to call Lynne and share it.

Another Hike/Geocache

The main mountain (hill) that strikes you in any view of San Luis Obispo is Cerro San Luis. And, that's what we decided to hike today. Of course, Jim found a geocache listing for the top of the mountain, so that's where we have to go. First, you need a good breakfast - mmm juevos rancheros. Liz is away for the weekend, so we took over her kitchen. What a treat to have more than 4 square feet! Actually, give me a bigger kitchen and I just make a bigger mess! Here's the start of the hike. Lots of people were bicycling this trail! No Thanks. Hey Diandy! Did you guys make it to SLO? You'd *love* it. Here's Jim part-way up and you can see the 'P' on the hill that we hiked the other day. What view from the top! Ah, but there's no rest for the geocachers. Once we get to the top of the trail, we must hunt for the cache. Found it! geeez - this is fun. The butterfly thinks so too.

Hikes and Geocaches

One of the reasons we chose San Luis Obispo to come and stay a while is the abundance of good hiking. Challenging hills to get a good workout, but not so challenging that we won't do it. A nice hike is right behind Liz's house. This was the first place where we tried our hand at geocaching. So, we figured we'd try it again. The hike starts off rather steep. Luckily, there were beautiful poppies that asked me to stop and take their picture, giving me a nice breather! The geocache seemed a lot closer than when we finally found it the first time in October 2004. Whaddaya know! The trinket that we left in the cache is still there! We continued on and made it a loop hike ... my favorite! I hate to retrace my steps. One of the very few drawbacks of hiking in California is poison oak. When I lived here in the 70s and early 80s, I did a lot of hiking. I never once saw a rattlesnake, I don't remember *ever* getting rained on, there are so few biting bugs that I would sleep in the open without a tent, but poison oak can make me huddle in a corner frozen with fear! Just looking at it and I would get a rash that lasts for weeks. If you're hiking with a dog and they brush against it, then you pet the dog ... that's it. I give poison oak a wide berth. Here's what it looks like: Leaves of three, let it be! For the next day, we chose a hike up the ridge behind Cal Poly, the local university. Just finding a nice hike isn't enough any more though, we needed a geocache to find also. No problem. There was one right on the trail we wanted to hike. First segment - hike up to the 'Poly P'. Then, up further to the ridge and some spectacular views of the special, ancient volcanoes that give the region it's signature. According to the Sierra Club, they're called the '9 sisters'. The geocache presented a little bit of a challenge, but we did find it. It would be fun to meet the person who put it here. This was the first use of SLO (shorthand for San Luis Obispo) that makes sense. Others include SLO Transit for the bus system and SLO Net for the 'high-speed' Internet service! Then, we continued along the ridge until it went down into Poly Canyon. Oh boy! Another loop trail. And into a shaded canyon by a stream. When we were done with the hike we took a little drive out to Morro Bay. Just to see if it's still there I guess. Yep, still there and as picturesque as ever.

San Luis Obispo

Many people have asked us, "As you travel around the country, have you found any place you'd like to live?" We've covered a lot of ground since we started this lifestyle 2 years ago, and I expected that we would 'discover' wonderful places that had perfect living conditions. Not that we would actually do it ... we hope to live on the road for 10 years or so ... but that we would find places to put on our 'short list'. It hasn't happened. Except maybe for San Luis Obispo. But, I figure that doesn't count because I used to live here. It's not a new discovery. But it sure is perfect. Usually sunny and in the 60s or 70s. Close enough to the ocean to get the cooling effects, yet far enough away to not be covered in fog. Large enough community to have all the amenities, small enough to not be crowded. The physical beauty is unsurpassed, hills that look like drawings in a fairy tale, and lots of hiking trails. Of course, there's always a drawback - the cost of housing here is sky high. The median house price is $534,930! And, that's after a 12% drop according to this article. And, as Jim is quick to point out - we wouldn't want to dive here because the water is too cold. The beaches may be beautiful, but they're not as useable as the ones in Florida. So, we'll stay 'bi-coastal' as Lynne puts it, driving our home from one place to another. Meanwhile, I'm so happy to have a good friend still in San Luis Obispo. We're parked in front of Liz's house, just like we did in October 2004. (if you follow that link, it takes you to the end of October, scroll down till you get to Oct 13 - then there are a few posts from SLO) We're going to stay until we figure out what we want to be when we grow up! Uh-oh, watch out Liz, you may have a permanent neighbor.