Ventura Highway

…in the sunshine, where the days are longer
You get the drift – it’s kind of nice here, and if you follow us on Facebook you already know this part of the trip is sponsored by America’s song – Ventura Highway. If it isn’t too obvious already Ventura Highway is a portion of Highway 101 that travels alongside Ventura, CA. Sometimes songs lead us where we go, and other times they just seem to fit.
Driving in 12 lanes of highway - and that is not both ways…  If Don has had his share of things while we are on this trip, it has to be driving across more pavement and concrete than ever before, such as Salt Lake City or San Francisco.  Add my directions and we have ended up in a senior’s gated housing development (Seattle) and a mall parking lot with no way out except to back out around a Round a Bout (Portland)!.  I have improved a lot since those first days of RV’ing.   We have driven through enough big cities with and without the trailer to not be newbies anymore, but in the San Diego and Los Angeles area it has been extreme.
But he is nothing but adventurous, so when we were thinking of what we really wanted to see while staying in Pismo Beach, my answer was the Hollywood sign.  Now most folk would not even consider our stay in Pismo Beach to be close to those attractions, but if it is within 4 hours of driving Don is game to go.  Yes we know LA has many things to see and visit, as does San Diego, but those are not our kind of “things”.  Between being somewhat “cheap” when it comes to admission, to not really caring, the basic tourist areas don’t amuse us.
However, we grew up in an era where TV and the common sins and sights of Hollywood seemed somewhat appealing.  So we were off to find the sign, without a tour guide and with the assistance of the ever amazing Google.
It did not turn out to be viewable from the intersection Google led us to believe, but with some random driving we located it.

Now mission accomplished so off to a new adventure.  Now that we were in the spirit of the big city we decided to find street names and communities that we recognized.  So we travelled to Vine Street (you know - She's got a pad down at 34th and Vine / Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion #9; Neil Diamond); Beverly Hills, Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, and on the way home through Malibu.  We may have driven past Charlie Harper’s beach home, and Alan is correct – it would be hard to walk down the Pacific Coast Highway!
So although I say we are not attracted to the touristy areas, you all know I am a shopper, and when Don said “Oh here is Rodeo Drive” my heart almost stopped.  I mean really me on Rodeo Drive?  So of course as part of his contract for Driving Miss Donna, we parked so I could shop.  And I was too overwhelmed to do that, so we took pictures instead.

We drove home though picturesque Santa Barbara, but other than a stop in at Starbucks to get me home, we did not shop or walk that much.  We were exhausted for some reason.  Santa Barbara has an incredible historic downtown which has been refurbished and is gorgeous, but we tend to find a lot of that on this coast.
Tomorrow we are travelling north to the San Francisco area, and although we have been there a few times before, we are looking forward to seeing more areas south of the city.
In 2002 we set out with our old travel trailer for a month, with the intent of making it to San Francisco and down Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway.  It took 5 years to get to San Francisco and the next 8 to say we have now driven the entire Highway 101.  And fallen in love with every stop we made, and always need to come back.
Can’t wait to tell you what we see next!