Monday, September 25, 2017

MAFCA National Tour - Day 2

September 25, 2017, Paso Robles to Hearst Castle to Ragged Point to Paso Robles, 119 miles.   Started day right with a trip to NAPA.   Ray replaced his noisy alternator.   New alternator plus move the pulley from the old one to the new one, 58 bucks, I think that is a heck of a bargain.  Tried to recruit the ladies to do the work, to no avail.



Stopped for gas and saw this rather unusual sticker, this station has obviously had a problem in the past.



Took 46 over to the coast, and up hwy 1 to Hearst Castle.



As always, the Hearst Castle is a fascinating place.  W. R. Hearst started building it in 1919 at the age of 56 and construction continued for 28 years until his death.  Castle is 1600 feet above sea level, has 165 plus rooms.  At one time, Hearst had 250,000 acres.



Loved the statues in every nook and cranny,,,,, Click on any one for a larger picture.





Had lunch at Ragged Point, didn't get to park on the grass this time,,,,,,   On the way back south, lots of wildlife,   Zebras (no pic), elk (lookit the rack on that guy guarding his 35 cows) and piles of seals at the elephant seal beach.   Population is on the order of 23000 seals, up from 1 in 1992.  Male elephant seal can be 5000 lb and 16 feet long, there were a couple of monsters down there on the beach.




Looked for antique rust in Cambria, but all we found was apple pie.



Called it a day and took the Santa Rosa Creek Road (which had been cancelled as a return route),  14 miles of roller coaster, 40 minutes to go the 14 miles.   But it sure was scenic and occasionally very steep,  had to go to low gear once, lots of second gear.  Great road, narrow, treesy, dippy and curvy.



Finished off the day with wine and cheese tasting in the lobby of the hotel.   Tomorrow, we trek to Monterey.




3 comments:

Catherine said...

Looks like you did a week's worth of travel adventures and variety in just 1 day! Those seals are amazing!

Anonymous said...

At least it looks like the weather is co-operating for all of you. :))) maybe not the cars so much, but enjoy their pitfalls if not the beautiful sites and coastline. Model A's are always fun.
John and Judy

Bob said...

Apple pie is always a good consolation prize!

-Bobby