2.108 road trip

Thursday 03/25/2021

Today I had planned with sister-in-law Jean to go for a drive hoping to see wildflowers. It is California spring, the hills are green, flowers should be out.

Jean suggested I bring somebody from CH so I invited neighbor Patty, figuring she would get along with Jean. She and I drove to Mountain View and picked up Jean, and off we went down 101 past Gilroy to San Juan Bautista. We walked around the mission exterior. The church and mission garden were closed.

We walked around SJ Bautista’s tiny down-town. A couple of its restaurants were actually doing ok, selling sandwiches to go.

From there we debated whether to go west toward the coast, or east toward Hollister and drive some of state route 25. The latter was the choice so we did that, going south on 25 almost to the entrance to Pinnacles National Monument. Stopped at a county historical park to eat our sandwiches, and the drove home, arriving back at CH at nearly 3pm.

I did not set a trip odometer but it was probably close to 200 miles for the day, certainly the longest I’ve driven in two years. And it generally felt fine. I can still drive; my passengers agreed I was driving safely.

Only thing was, while there was lots of green grass on the hills, the only flowers were mustard plants, which grow as a weed in cultivated fields. A couple of patches of California Poppies, probably planted by the highway department. But there was nice mountain scenery.