How do I divide this key lime pie and still get the biggest piece?
We arrived here in Santa Cruz at around three in the afternoon and went straight to the Pacific Blue Inn where we would be staying for two nights. After getting everything into our room, we headed over to the sailboat piers where my cousin Larry and his wife Myra have their 5th wheel parked. It is a really nice trailer with pop-outs. We had a great dinner of homemade burritos prepared for us by Myra. We also had a nice bottle of wine that I had bought Larry for a bet I lost to him during the March Madness college basketball games. I bet on Baylor when they were playing Kentucky! What was I thinking???? But beings the good sport that he is, Larry wanted to share his winnings with us by serving us some really good wine.
We are staying in a place called The Pacific Blue Inn. I t is really nice and they have a special breakfast cooked to order that will blow your socks off! The pop-overs they serve you are home-made and are to DIE FOR!
Santa Cruz is an old hippie town. You can see all kinds of old VW microbuses parked at the beach with the surfboard racks on top. The city doesn’t allow any franchise food joints in the city limits.
If you are thinking about a trip that would put you into this area, you need to consider stopping here. You can Google them at Blue Pacific Inn. You will not be sorry! The stores and markets are local. Really it’s a pretty neat idea because you can find some really unique things. The top speed in town is 25 and there are bike lanes on all streets.
We went to a place last night called The Crow’s Nest that had a really nice view of the ocean and the lighthouse there on the sea wall. When the fog began to roll in, the temperature dropped to 56 and the light jacket I had packed only because Charlotte made me was feeling pretty good! Heading back to the room last night, we drove down a stretch of beach and we counted over 10 big bonfires burning with parties going on around them. I kept waiting for Frankie and Annette to run by singing something from one of the Beach Party films.
Tomorrow we will meet my cousin after breakfast and head on down south about 120 miles to Paso Robles for a wine and food tasting event and a tour through the vineyards. Sounds good to me! Let’s get in the truck!
Ted Purcell 
Sounds like my kind of town! It’s going on my list. Love you both ♥
Hey Grasshoppa,
Yeah, We came back to the room last night and passed a house that had this HUGE peace symbol lit up on the roof. Just little things like that let you know you’re not in Kansas anymore! The whole personality of the town is more than a little “laid back”. I had problems believing people at a four way stop would actually wave for me to go before them! That was the first clue they weren’t from Dallas! That many manners make me nervous, I’m just not used to it!
Hey Ted….mmmmm Old Hippie Town, huh? Is that one of those ‘Takes One to Know One’ thingies? Back in the late Sixties, I played some Beach Volleyball on the beaches near Santa Cruz, and you are so right….it is a laid back place. Of course, being fresh off the Monahans Sandhills Beaches and from Podunk, Texas, I spent a lot of time ‘Gawking’ at the ‘Hippie Culture’ and watching for Frankie and Annette…and the Beach Boys…the Band! Somehow, they never showed up, but I sure got an eye full of the other Beach Boys/Surfers and CalifornIA.
Wine and Food Tasting in Paso Robles, huh? Sounds like you and Charlotte better brush up on your dancing, too! Oh wait….that’s the Paso Doble! Alrighty then….you two have a great time Winein’ Dinein’ and Dancin’!
Hey Sue,
Yeah, I feel kinda like I’m back in the 60’s but with a modern twist. All the young women are still wearing tie-dyed, sleeveless, slip-over dresses just like the 60’s but I also am looking at their tatted-out arms with the full set of wings on their backs. That kinda throws me back and forth in a time warp. It’s like they are taking all the things that our culture has used to define weird, or maybe I should just say “different”, and put them in one package (themselves) and put it out there. I don’t think I would have given much notice if I hadn’t gone over to one of the local Java Joints to get a cup of Joe. There, out front sitting in a circle, were about six or seven young mothers all breast feeding while having their morning cup. It was, like they say, looking at a train wreck. You know you should look away but you just can’t! Look who’s gawking now!!! It was amazing! I couldn’t tell where the tie-dye stopped and the tattoos began! I wondered if the kids were having the same problem, but they seemed to be doing OK.
I started thinking of the tee shirts you can buy down in Austin that say, “Keep Austin Weird!” Sweetheart, Austin don’t know what weird is! Come to California!! God, I love this country!
It look that the trips is going great! The old VW Bus is on my wishing list, having one and restored from scracht is one of my car dreams, so if you yan get my some pictures of those you saw in Santa Cruz, I appreciated ! So have fun! Please!
Hey Mr. Miranda,
Thanks for the post! I don’t think you would want pictures of any of the VW vans here in Santa Cruz. All the ones I’ve seen here on the beach look like they are 90% rust being held together by old McGovern for President bumper stickers. In fact, I’m not sure they even run because they have been sitting there since we got here!
When I find a neat one I will most certainly take a picture and post it for you.
Keep posting!
Hey Ted,
Wow, this is getting better and better. I never knew when I hitched a ride on this trip that I would actually learn so much. You, my friend you are truly an educator.
One thing though, Ted. Remember our lesson a couple of days ago on how the high price of gasoline you are paying is actually a good thing? Well, here is another pearl of wisdom – organized labor not good while big corporations good. Oh, I know Cesar Chavez was a great man, but Ted, you need to continually think of your ’65 classmates and their ties to “The Man”. I don’t know, but I sure hope Jane or Janie chose to sit in my lap in the back seat of our virtual truck, because I am afraid the next passenger allowed in will be Rachel Maddox.
I was thinking back to when we were 11 years old, trips, etc. Remember there on Hwy 80, which must have been one of the main routes to CA then, there was always an old 40’s or 50’s something car broke down on the side of the road. Always, it seemed, with a family heading to or from CA inside. Remember, the car usually had about a 10 gallon canvas water sack hanging from the hood ornament and usually completely covering the radiator inlets. The water was used to make it across the dessert – because the car was constantly overheating and the radiator boiling over. I was wondering if some kin folk of those service station guys in Williams sold those water bags to travelers way back then?
Sue Pittman playing beach volleyball…………man, I would have loved to have seen that !! I watched a little beach volleyball this last week on TV – I like it a lot, if you know what I mean?
Ted, tell Charlotte hi for us, be safe, have fun and we will look forward to your next posting.
Edge
Hey Edge,
You, my friend, are the man! Rachel Maddox!! Why didn’t I think of that? Man, can you imagine the truck fitted with an MSNBC satillite dish on the roof? We could put big banners on the sides saying Rachel Maddox Live Road Trip!! Out here in this country that would be like flashing your black Centurion American Express Card in your favorite topless club! It would be a carte blanche to go anywhere, park where we want, stay as long as we want, go as fast as we want. In fact, we would probably get a complementary California Highway Patrol escort as long as we were in the state! Yeah, she’s “one of them”! And hey, you got to give the girl her dues! She says her political views match up with the Eisenhower-era Republican platform, she met her partner who hired her to do some yard work at her place, so she’s a girl with her hands in the “earth”. And the first date she went on with her partner was to a Ladies Night at the NRA! She may be playing for the other team but she’s playing very well! Rachel Maddox, Rhodes Scholar, riding in my old truck, sitting on Capehart’s boney lap. You got to love it!
As for the connection with the Williams gene pool and the old canvas waterbags, once again, I stand in awe at your ability to bust through the years of B S, and nail the connection to the gas pumps! It’s the same game, just different players!
OK, one last tweek to my philosophical base. Let’s see if I’m getting the right message from you. Organized labor — NOT good, Big corporations –good. Ergo, Bain Capital and Romney — good, ergo, Anyone who has less than $50,000,000 in Cayman banks NOT good?
Keep posting, you’re not the only one learning something!
Hi Uncle Ted,
I’m so enjoying this trip! Happy to be vicariously and virtually tagging along .
Reminds me of a trip i didnt take with ya’ll when i had the chance (brazil) Man, we make sum stupid choices when we are young.
Anyways, I absoulutely love, love, love to travel now. It’s in my blood , my sisters too. Maybe from all the moving around while growing up. There is so much out there to see. I can,t imagine statying put. Thank you dad.
And thank you for this amazing journey. love you.
Love to Aunt Charlotte
Debbie
Hey Debbie
Good to have you on board! We are about one third of the way through our projected trip but we are having so much fun we may not make it back home as soon as planned. We just have to be back in September in time to fly to Mexico with Mollie and family for the wedding of one of her cousins. We are changing the last part of our trip to go through Aspen for a few days and stay with one of our friends. Nothing is set in concrete. We’re retired! We come, go, and stay whenever and wherever we want. I really could grow to like this.
Keep posting!
I am glad y’all are still taking it easy! Have a little grape juice for me pretty please in Paso Robles! Hopefully they will have excellent complimentary pairings!
Hey Amanda,
Yeah, we have our tickets for the food and wine tasting this evening from 6 til 10. We went from 56 degrees this morning in Santa Cruz to 112 degrees in Paso Robles this afternoon! But I bet my cuz and I will find a cool place to slip into and “take our meds”.
Keep posting!
Hey Ted! Just love reading all your posts! Your words make us feel like we are right there, seeing every cool sight right along with you and Charlotte. I am so jealous of the lighthouse viewing!! Wish we were there! Please keep the posts coming!!
Hey Elizabeth,
Good to have you on board! This old virtual truck is like a mother’s heart, always room for one more! Don’t mind all of my ’65 classmates already on board. They won’t bite, just tell them to move over a little or sit on their lap! We have a lotta miles yet to go so don’t be bashful! Keep the posts coming!