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To escape the overcast sky of the coast, we dress in sneakers and shorts and pack a cooling box with some iced tea. Then we head north on HWY 15, via Poway to Ramona and further up towards Julian. At Wynona Road we take a left and bypass Julian. Soon after we get to HWY 78 again (actually just after the road takes a 90 degree left turn) we leave it and take a gravel road. It’s a road without a name which is quite easy to drive. It leads through the mountains that separate the coast from the desert. Part of the road leads through Anza-Borrego State Park. After about 5 miles we get to an intersection where we turn left on the Mason Valley Truck Trail. Not far into this road we see a sign “4 wheel drive recommended”! Indeed, from here the road (trail) gets worse and worse, more and more rocky and in parts quite steep - the first real off-road challenge for us with the Toyota 4Runner! At one point we have to wait for some Jeeps that are making their way up the hill and despite having Wranglers (real off-roaders) some of them struggle a lot. But, as driver and 4Runner are excellent and work together very well, we master the (about) 5 miles through Oriflamme Canyon to HWY S2 without any critical moments and scratches (as expected)! The Toyota is a far better off-road car than the Jeep we had and we are still very happy with our investment!

Even though it is fall and hasn’t rained for months now, the landscape wasn’t as dry and bland as you could think. It was very nice and surprisingly colorful:

For the second time since we are back in San Diego, we drive south to Otay Lake and then up to the mountains along the Mexican border. Today Wenche joins us and the weather is much better (less foggy) than last week. The area is much dryer now than it was back in spring - it is all brownish and the green has completely vanished. What has not changed are the border patrols that are spying out the area along the Mexican border. They are very present, much more, now that they have these drug problems with Mexico, than a few years ago. As expected, the view today is much better, we can see all the way to Coronado, Point Loma and down town and to the other side we can see far into the hilly backland of Tijuana, Mexico. Beautiful!

Odometer: 6,800

Time: 07:00

Today we head straight into the “chaos” of Los Angeles. HWY 101 leads us to Thousand Oaks where we spontaneously decide to call an old friend who lives there. He is up and on his way to church. But, we meet him a bit later (after church) for a coffee and a nice chat.

At around lunchtime we take the rest of the distance to LA, passing by Farmers Insurance Offices at Wilshire Blvd - a very nice part of town, we have to admit. But commuting to Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley is definitely not an option (should I ever get a job with Farmers). Even on Sunday the traffic is horrendous.

We follow Wilshire Blvd and then Santa Monica Blvd, through all these nice and expensive neighborhoods to the Ocean - where the actual fun is taking place. We drive along Ocean Avenue first and then the Pacific HWY for a while, but then decide to take the Freeway to get out of the crowd and down to San Diego. We are both tired and just don’t feel like a bath in all these people. We have seen it and can always come back. With the car it is anyway difficult here, either you park the car far away and walk or rent a bike.

About 2 hours later we arrive in San Diego. We are glad that we made it back without any accidents or other incidents, which is certainly not something that can be taken for granted. Our trip lead us through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, British Columbia (Canada), Oregon and California. We did about 14,000 Miles in 70 days. It was fantastic, we had such a good time and saw so many impressive and beautiful things, it’s unbelievable how much variety the Western United States have to offer and how close you can come to mother nature at certain places - just amazing and unique!

Overnight Stay: Extended Stay America, San Diego, CA

Odometer 6,450

Time: 08:15

We/I struggle with the new navigation system, so we take some detours today! But, eventually we find everything we actually want to see:

First we head out to the west of Bakersfield to the Carrizo Plain National Monument. We see huge fields of oil pumps on the way. Oil is actually the main industry of Bakersfield, besides oil companies and refineries there are hardly any other big companies here. Carrizo Plain is a large enclosed plain, approximately 50 miles (80 km) long and up to 15 miles (24 km) across, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Los Angeles. It contains the 250,000 acres (1,012 km²; 101,215 ha) Carrizo Plain National Monument, and it is the largest single native grassland remaining in California. It is one of the easiest places to view the San Andreas Fault which cuts through the plain. Soda Lake, its centerpiece, is a glistening bed of white salt, set within a vast open grassland, rimmed by mountains. The plain is home to diverse communities of wildlife and plant species, and is an area culturally important to Native Americans. To me it seems like a little “Death Valley”. It must be beautiful in spring after some rain and when the birds are there. Right now it is all dried up and no animals are to be seen. Well, almost none, we saw a coyote on the way to the Carizzo Plain!

After this dry land we look forward to seeing the Pacific Ocean again. We take HWY 41 all the way to Morrow Beach - it’s foggy there! We follow HWY 1 and 101 south and pass through little towns more or less touristy. Pismo Beach is very nice. And, eventually we even find our way to the harbor promenade of Santa Barbara, which is packed with people and cars. No parking space and expensive hotels force us to pass on to Ventura, where we find a low rate hotel (which would definitely benefit from a renovation).

Before dinner we head down to the pier, where people are fishing.

Overnight Stay: Travelers Beach Inn, Ventura, CA

Dinner: Sizzler