Peterson’s Tree Care Shop Yard, Goleta, Ca., 94 mile jump
The ride from Pismo down the 101 to Santa Barbara was interesting, changing from tourist to agricultural, to vineyards, to steep rolling hills having deep cuts by the railroad and highway right of ways. Absolutely phenomenal!
On the way to Penny’s family in Goleta just outside Santa Barbara, we stopped at one of my favorite campgrounds, ever! On my first large scale trip, I was 25 years old; my wife Jacquie and I had a 5 month old son, Shawn. Following in the footsteps of another hippie couple, we bought a 1956 Chevy school bus with a 235 cu. in., 6 cylinder engine. It had been fully refurbished with the components of a wrecked RV, so the exterior looked like looked like a hippie bus. But inside it was equipped with a gas/electric frig/freezer, stainless steel sink, 3 burner gas stove with small oven, monomaniac toilet, and nicely built dinette, bench sofas, and closet.
Long story short, on our epic trip of 1974-75, we stayed at Refugio Beach State Beach, it remains, in my mind, the quintessential California beach park. Penny and I had planned to stayed there, but her cousin, Peter, offered a spot in his lot for no charge. That and being closer to her aunt and cousins swayed us to accept his offer. In addition, there was an oil spill at Refugio recently that had been fairly well mitigated, but tars balls still cover the beach and stick to one’s feet. Why not harness the sun’s clean, free energy and stop polluting our environment? Free is the problem; how are the petroleum corporations going to make a buck? Too short sighted; our kids need clean energy!
Iris and her husband, Gary, treated us to dinner at Chili’s tonight!