Friday Jan 26, 2024 Hawthorne CA to Carpenteria CA

We slept in the van on the street outside Maggie’s house and it was quiet all night. We discussed today how easy it would be to just pull into a side street in any old town and go to sleep. For future reference.

Maggie and her friend Tracy were heading to Palm Sprints later this morning so we had plenty of time for coffee and more catching up. Deb and Maggie went to the same elementary and high school and Maggie had the grade school yearbook so they had fun. Maggie has two small dogs, Fenway, a dauchsund and Cooper, another different small breed. Very nice dogs.

Around 9:00 we said our goodbyes and headed to a breakfast place Maggie recommended called Martha’s, a block from the beach in Hermosa. Traffic was very light so no problem parking. We are seeing a more balanced mix of retired age people and young people. Lots of mothers and babies meeting for play dates I suppose. The beach already had walkers and bikers. If we lived here, we would be using all the beachside walking/biking trails. Lots of e-bikes, not much peddling.

After Martha’s we set a course to hug the ocean all the way through and past Los Angeles. I would not have guessed that this would be so easy but since most of the heavy traffic is up on the interstate, Rt 5, the beachside roads are only busy with local traffic. Very few slow sections. The rule of thumb is travel through these oceanside towns between 10 and 2.

We stopped at El Matador Beach State Park, a Tracy recommendation,  where some kind of film crew had set up for the day. They were working on a short film of some kind dragging lots of props and equipment up and down the stairs. The beach featured rocky formations, more like an Oregon or Maine coastline. Beautiful.

We skipped lunch since we had a late breakfast. We took a detour through Oxnard which is the strawberry capital of everywhere it seems. We stopped and bought a few pints from a roadside vendor and had one for our lunch. 

We arrived in Carpinteria around 2:30 and stopped at McDonalds for coffee and to upload the blog. The campground is right on the ocean we found our spot (electricity!!). We walked the beach, Deb one way and Milo the other, and met back after an hour or so. Lots of young families here with lots of kids on bikes cruising the campground. A train track is right next to the campground and we were a little concerned with sleeping tonight but the guy in the next spot said they don’t go trough at night.

Walked into town to a brew/pub called Rincon Brewery. I had a big salad and Deb had fish tacos. Walked back via the grocery store to pick up yogurt. Watched another couple of Reacher episodes (Deb downloaded them before the trip) then off to bed.

Tonight marked our 100th night sleeping in the van!!