Windy Roads, Cliffs on One Side, and an Ocean on the Other
Day 3 - April 15 - 3:42pm - Pfeiffer Beach - Big Sur, California
Wind blows the hardest at the top. I'm sitting on top of a cliff over the most beautiful seaside I've ever seen. Blue waves crash into staggering rock formations near 300 ft high. Pfeiffer Beach looks like the beach from Corona commercials.
We've driven on the Pacific Coast Highway, otherwise known as CA-1 today. Driving the PCH makes you feel like you're in a car commercial: windy roads, cliffs on one side, and an ocean with a faded horizon on the other side.
We spent the night last night at Limekiln State Park, CA. We hiked to a waterfall and watched the sunset on the beach.
We finally got the car organized in a system that will hopefully last us at least a week. It's always felt on our camping trips that day 3 is the day all of our petty worries fade away and we become ourselves again.
It's getting slowly colder as we head north. I'm excited to discover new places and see what else stunning America has to offer.
Day 3 – April 15 – 9:15pm – Katie & Kevin Day’s House – Monterey, California
How nice washing a pound of sand out of your ears feels. We are staying the night with Katie and Kevin Day. They are pastor friends of mine from when we lived in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s so nice to come out of the wilderness to a warm home and hot shower.
This might be a good time to talk about how we came up with the trip. After Corey and I got married in October 2013, we started going on camping trips. We went more and more until it got to a point we didn’t just feel that we wanted to go but we NEEDED to go camping. We didn’t feel like ourselves if we went more than a month without spending time in the woods.
October 2014 we were talking to Corey’s parents on a long drive in Tennessee about all the parks and places we wanted to camp in America. The idea came up to go on one long, epic road trip. We ran with the idea. Soon we had dozens of locations to stop all around the country. The trip was originally 93 days, but I figured an even 100 day sounded nicer. So hours of research and bookings later, here we are, day 3/100.
We Embark on our Journey
Day 1 - April 13 - 8:17am - Hollywood, CA
It's so hard to believe after 6 months of planning today is here. Today we embark on our journey.
We slept on the floor of our empty apartment for the last 2 days with only our camping gear and the feral cats outside to keep us company. The echoes of the empty apartment feel lonely, but on the other hand, the guitar acoustics are great!
We will miss our incredible friends and neighbors and will think of them often on our trip. We also look forward to visiting so many of our friends and family spread all over the country and growing in our craft and our marriage.
Day 2 - April 14 - 2:43am - Jalama Beach County Park - Lompoc, CA
Tip: If there's a sand/wind storm outside blowing your tent in and you can't sleep because the top of the tent is hitting you and your sweet husband in your sleeping bags, weathering the storm and tying down the tent works fairly well.
Day 2 - April 14 - 9:40am - Pappy's Restaurant - Santa Maria, CA
We expected to leave Hollywood yesterday around noon to arrive at our campsite around 3pm, leaving plenty of time travel, shoot, and enjoy our first day. We left the city at 5:15pm and arrived at 9:45pm.
When we finally arrived at our site, we walked to the ocean. We could see countless stars above and hear the crashing of the Pacific. That was the moment we felt the trip had begun.
This morning we woke still exhausted with the sun and walked 30 ft to the beach. The only people in site were 2 fishermen setting up their poles. We could see ocean waves hitting seaside cliffs. As we looked over the ocean I read, "Heaven is both present and future... Shimmering sunshine awakens your heart, gently reminding you of My brilliant Light."
We met a lovely man named Marty this morning also from Los Angeles who told us of his travels, and we bonded over the importance of getting out of the city every once in a while.
We've learned not everything will always go to plan and there's no breaking Murphy's Law. With the highs, come the lows and we will continue to venture on. We will start photography this afternoon in Limekiln State Park in Big Sur, CA.
Sequoias Take 2
This was our second time visiting the magical Sequoias. We stayed at the Azalea Campground near Grant Grove in the Sequoia National Park. We saw the General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world.
We came across several, ancient fallen Sequoias you could walk though. Sequoias have very thick, fire-resistant bark to protect from forest fires. The fallen giants we came across must have fallen long ago and fire burned the inner wood core, but the thick bark skeleton remains.
Fun fact: The most common way a large Sequoia dies is when it becomes too gigantic and falls over.
Reyes Peak on Pine Mountain
We're sure it got down to about 25 degrees outside when we camped on Pine Mountain near Reyes Peak in California. All night the fog rolled and the wind howled.
The windy roads find a way to smooth out the kinks in your soul.
UPDATE 3-4-17: It turns out the snake carving below was carved by artist John Noble.
