Vacation - Day 3

Ok, so I officially missed a blog update. I WILL do 2 this week because of that.

On the second morning I was in Long Beach I got much better sleep. Unfortunately there was some kind of thing going on in the apartment complex which meant that we could not use any water at all from like 10 in the morning till 6 in the evening. I of course, got up in the middle of that time period. Lucky for me and my friend, his girlfriend’s apartment isn’t where he is officially living.

So, we gathered up a few things and headed on over to the apartment he pays for. This place seemed more like the apartment complexes I’m used to. Perhaps one would call them college complexes or something. Judging from the fact that there were numerous girls who appeared to be around our ages sun bathing around the public pool. None of his roommates were there. Once we finished taking our showers we walked down to the shopping center a block or two away.

A large ‘VONS’ store was where I decided to eat. This was the market chain that seemed to be all over southern California. It is Safeway, no question, I even saw a shipping rack that said Safeway on it. This large place was even set up in the exact same way as my local safeway. This was the first time I had ever bought a sandwich from a Safeway, and it actually wasn’t that bad. After grabbing our grub we walked back to the apartment to eat.

We watched the first episode of this “Burn Notice” show, which wasn’t bad, and his roommates returned home with much surprise to see my friend there. It seems he really wasn’t exaggerating when he told me how rarely he goes there. Now, I had been debating heading out to Santa Cruz this day instead of staying in Long Beach one more day because I simply did not want to do that I-5 drive again. So that is what I ended up doing.

We went back to where all my stuff I would need was. I gathered it all up, gave my friend a hearty goodbye, and got a confirmation that if I got lost I could call him up for some directions. Then I set out for a scenic drive.

I started out by getting onto highway-1 north following the coast. Now, my timing for when I left was quite terrible, and I knew it. I was starting out in rush hour. But it was ok, cruising around the coast was just so nice compared to anything else I could have done. I actually like driving, I just don’t like driving roads like I-5; straight and flat, that literally it.

After driving up through Malibu and all those other smaller towns along the coast, the final one being Oxnard, highway-1 merged with 101. Eventually 101 left the coast, which was a little sad because it was a really nice drive with cliffs on one side and ocean off the other. The drive wasn’t very climactic or anything though. I stopped twice before reaching my goal, Salinas, once at a gas station for a piss and a drink, and once for food.

The food was a little comical, as you know I had a sandwich for breakfast. Well that breakfast sandwich was roast beef on a french bread roll with lettuce, onions, cheddar cheese, and a little honey mustard sauce. My dinner was an In-and-Out burger, ground beef on a bun with lettuce, onions, and cheddar. Ah the excitement of food when traveling.

Anyway, so I reached Salinas and was going to stay at a motel. However, I started seeing a bunch of signs for Santa Cruz in Salinas, and I wasn’t really tired. So, I went for it, took the 183 back over to highway-1 right into Santa Cruz. I got a motel room at about 12:30 in the morning. I watched some terrible TV before heading to bed, but that was it for day 3.