Hi everyone,
Glen and I are at his friend Trevor's house in Hollywood. We drove in from San Simeon last night.
The last few days have been a whirl of car problems and run-ins with small town angels who helped us get back up and running. On Saturday, we were driving down Hwy 1 from Big Sur, heading to some hotsprings in Santa Barbara. We noticed the car wasn't charging correctly, and not too much later the engine shut off and we coasted into a roadside turnout.
Luckily, we met a genius van dweller named RD who had tools, mechanical and electrical knowledge, and a heart of gold. He helped us diagnose the problem and provided much interesting conversation along the way. To make a long story short, over the course of the next couple days, we replaced the alternator and the voltage regulator, and now the jalopy is once again road-worthy. We stayed in the Las Piedras motel just down the road from our breakdown while we waited for the part to be shipped in to town.
Luckily, our motel was on a beautiful stretch of highway (5 miles north of San Simeon, the site of the Hearst Castle). On Monday, we walked to the castle and took a great tour. That place is amazing. Such opulence and extravagance I have never seen! I recommend taking the tour if you ever drive through.
On that same day, on the way to the castle, we had the pleasure of running into the funniest dang members of the animal kingdom, the elephant seal. There were hundreds of these guys lounging on the beach. The males (bulls) were huge and quite violent- they would have bloody fights to determine pecking order- ie, who would get the biggest 'harem' of females. We took a short video with our camera, that I will try to upload to the site.
Pics coming soon. Send me an email!
Greg
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