Confessions of a Hit and Run Tourist - Day Eleven

[Riverbrian]

I have recently completed a solo 18 day road trip covering 8 ballparks, 9 games, 14 states, national parks, normal tourist traps and not so normal stops. My fairly new 2022 Kia Seltos had 6,400 miles on it before the trip and the journey tacked on 8,522 additional miles. Some of you may find this interesting and some may say what's the big deal, it's a crazy man with a torture filled vacation plan. I was encouraged to tell the story here by individual day because it would be a very lengthy post if not broken down by day. Some days are not that interesting, some days were more interesting than others and some days need a new adjective, but each day was different and they were days that I couldn't experience in my living room. 

Feel free to comment, shake your head at my moments of stupidity or tell your own experiences of the places I experienced. This is hit and run tourism... I didn't have a lot of time to hit all the stops but I wanted to hit all the stops because who knows if I would ever be back in any of the areas travelled. I researched and scheduled the trip to the minute and followed the schedule to the letter. 

Day Eleven - August 8 - San Simeon to San Diego

I could have slept in this morning. In consideration of the night before, I should have slept in but I didn't. I don't use an alarm clock, don't need one, I'm a natural early riser raised on central time, if I sleep in until 8, that's extremely rare, 8AM in California is 10AM back home, I'm still adjusting to PDT so in a sense... I am sleeping in, if I rise at 7AM. Just an easy 350 mile drive today to get to the game tonight in San Diego, that is really all I have on the schedule besides lunch about 45 minutes away at a restaurant that opens at 11am so there was no need to spring out of bed. Other than... that ocean that I paid extra for and that was enough to get me up and going. 

There is no need to complicate the ocean, I didn't bring swimming attire, I didn't rent a surf board. I brought a cup of coffee, I found a piece of wood, I sat down and slowly drank it, then I went back to the lobby for a refill and I repeated the process. There was a guy attempting to surf to my left, it looked like a lot of floating in the water but as long as he was having fun, who am I to judge. There were a couple of young kids running around to my right. I would have had to shout loudly for anybody else to hear me so I got this beach to myself. You watch the surfer, you watch the gulls, you look out as far as you can see and you wonder how long it would take to swim to Asia. Mostly... you just breathe. There has been a lot of running from point A to point B through Z on this trip, a couple of hours at the beach is a good place to breathe. Off in the distance, I wasn't looking for it so I wasn't prepared for it, but I'm pretty sure I saw a whale breach. It was quite a ways out so I can't be sure what I saw but if I could see it from that distance, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a walleye. It happens and then it's gone, just something large out there with slow arc out of the water. There is no way to verify... so I'm etching it was a whale in stone to make it reality forever. 

There is an elephant seal rookery a couple miles to the north that I drove past last night to beat the sunset. I made plans to circle back in the morning on my way out. Elephant Seals are big crabby creatures, they mostly just lay there on the sand, about 20 of them on the beach were today's entertainment and there are about 50 of us humans along the fence watching them from above... just laying there doing nothing at all. All of a sudden, one will decide to switch locations and it will bounce itself forward and this makes the 50 or so humans make an ahh sound, like it just completed a double back flip off the balance beam. When the moving seal bounces nearby another seal, it will get bit, which causes the bouncing seal to bite the seal biting it and this seems to be life as an Elephant Seal rule, lots of biting each other, for all I know that was Grandma biting her grand children, they all get in on the act. The prize for getting bit multiple times? just a different spot on the beach to lay down again. There looked to be about 5 in the water and they were biting each other. For animals that gather together, they sure seem to not like gathering together. The phrase "Get of my Lawn" was probably invented by Elephant Seals. I don't recommend them as pets. In contrast... the viewing area had some very friendly squirrels that walk right up to you for food. I was watching a young lady feeding one squirrel ice cream from the edge of her straw so I went to the Kia and grabbed those 7 dollar nuts that I bought in Gilroy. I sat down and hand fed squirrels until the nuts were gone. A bunch of them were suddenly my friend. Crawling over my feet, they get up on their hind legs with front feet on my shins. Some grab a nut and consume right there, some grab one and take it away but they kept coming. Once the nuts were gone, they seemed to know and they left, they were no longer my friend. Jilted, I drove off to San Luis Opispo for lunch because the squirrels just ate my food so I had to get something else.  

Research had suggested that I stop at the Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo. The Tri-Tip Sandwich is the internet recommendation. First off, San Luis Obispo is another beautiful town. For those of you that have been following along, you must be getting the sense that I'm taking a shine to this part of California... It's true, I certainly am. The Firestone Grill is a place your order, pay, get a number, turn around to watch them work the grill and wait for them to read your number restaurant. Good food... pretty damn fast. The Tri-Tip was very good and I'm off for San Diego ahead of schedule because of the efficiency of this restaurant.  

The drive isn't quite to the level of the PCH yesterday but it's still beautiful, the road leaves the ocean for quite a few miles to bounce around in the hills until you reach Santa Barbara which is a wow moment because the ocean comes back into view and you are still in the hills and the town of Santa Barbara is just hanging around in the middle of all that. Then you hug the coast to Ventura before breaking west through the mountains, back into the valley, back through the mountains and onto the world famous 405. I have heard of the 405 up in North Dakota, it's amazing how L.A. pop culture has spread L.A. to North Dakota for someone like me to put in my pocket. I was expecting a traffic nightmare because that is how it is portrayed but the traffic had a good steady flow to it. The Los Angeles area in general does a terrible job of letting you know what city you are entering. There are a lot of suburbs in Los Angeles and you move through them one after another but you don't ever know what suburb you are in at a given time. There is no signage letting you know. I stopped for gas and I had to ask the young lady behind the counter... "What city is this"? She looks at you funny before she says... "umm... Huntington Beach" and my reply made her even more confused... "Oh, I've heard of that" as I walked back to my Kia.

The worst traffic jam (so far) of the trip was about to occur in the countryside about 50 miles north of San Diego. Right before Camp Pendleton. All lanes had slowed to crawl and the occasional lengthy stand still. No idea what was causing this traffic slow down quite a ways from the city as I watched my GPS predicted arrival time go hard the wrong direction. With the memory of that fatal accident that I drove past around Waco, I considered the possibility of this being similar so out of respect I told myself to sit there and not complain because there are more important things in life... like life itself. While sitting in this jam, I had front row seats for Camp Pendleton Marine helicopter maneuvers that were taking place on both sides of the freeway. I don't know what they were practicing but I can tell you that these helicopters didn't look any helicopter that I have seen before. They looked expensive and they looked capable of clearing the traffic jam up it they wanted to. After a lot of time I eventually reached the source of the traffic bottleneck... orange cones. One lane closed for about a mile... caused all of that. Once I realized that nobody had been killed or hurt, I let all that pent up frustration out with a loud "ARE YOU SERIOUS" and I felt better. Once you get to the source of it all, you shoot out like a rocket and you are back to full speed like it never happened. I came up with a brilliant idea shortly after. A third set of identical lanes in between the North and South Bound lanes that can be used during construction of the primary lanes to keep traffic flowing. Yeah... I assume it would be expensive... yeah... I assume that it would require some engineering but let's get it done... because I got a ball game to get to. 

The City of San Diego is perhaps the most beautiful metropolitan area that I have ever seen. Not from a skyline standpoint, my favorite skyline, is still Cincinnati when you come across the Ohio river from Kentucky but from an everything else standpoint. It's clean, palm Trees all over the place and all of the structures, the lights, signs, offices, stores and houses have a great optic to it. I pulled into my hotel on the Harbor, quickly put my bags in the room and headed down to the lobby to call the Uber for pick up. 

If I had to rank my favorite stadiums prior to this trip. It would look like this. 

1. San Francisco

2. Boston

3. Baltimore

4. Pittsburgh

5. Citi Field (Mets)

6. Kansas City

Everybody has to move down a notch now. Petco is my new favorite. It's a beautiful stadium, the architecture is clever, it has nooks and crannies with interesting things tucked into them. it has a beach, it has a park inside the park behind center field that can be accessed by the public when games are not taking place. the sight lines are nearly perfect, the food choices are interesting, there is an section with maybe 100 craft beer options, the concourse isn't circular, there are up and downs that you must navigate but the escalators are plentiful. I sat in the shade under the Western Supply building in left field, the fans that I sat near were fun and into it. All in all, it was a great experience. Move over Oracle... you have been surpassed. 

I learned an Uber lesson from Phoenix so after the game. I decided to walk a bit before calling for the Uber to take me back to the hotel. This took me through the gaslight district, it looked like a lot of fun, plenty of bars with plenty of Padre Jerseys enjoying those bars so you know that it is a large part of the baseball experience here. Petco has been around for 18 years, I am not sure why the new Texas Rangers stadium didn't talk a long look at Petco and realize that a baseball stadium can be so much more. 

Back to the hotel... I'm hitting the sack. Tomorrow morning my North Dakota naïve fearlessness is going to teach me a lesson. I will start down that path at 7:30AM.  

 

[glunn]

The traffic jam around Camp Pendleton is a common occurrence.   I like your idea for the extra lane, but the cost would be massive due to the terrain.  And traffic would be a nightmare during the construction.

[Riverbrian]

34 minutes ago, glunn said:

The traffic jam around Camp Pendleton is a common occurrence.   I like your idea for the extra lane, but the cost would be massive due to the terrain.  And traffic would be a nightmare during the construction.

I don't want it in San Diego. Start with I-29 up here in North Dakota. Test it out. Let us be the Guinea Pig ?

[Squirrel]

13 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

some very friendly squirrels

Squirrels are generally happy, friendly folk, who enjoy all kinds of music, theater, the movies, baseball; like to bake and do needlework, like home design projects … just sayin’

[Riverbrian]

3 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Squirrels are generally happy, friendly folk, who enjoy all kinds of music, theater, the movies, baseball; like to bake and do needlework, like home design projects … just sayin’

And Nuts

[Squirrel]

44 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

And Nuts

Indeed

 

[Craig Arko]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

And Nuts