Location: Cachuma Lake County Park; Santa Ynez, CA.
Great Drive from Pomona to Santa Barbara!
We pulled out of the Pomona Fairplex at exactly noon. Our exit was much easier then I thought it would be considering there was 3,000 + coaches still parked there. The plan was I-210 to 101 through the Northern reaches of LA, up through Santa Barbara, reaching the County park in Santa Ynez. The trip was about 150 miles.
The weather was perfect for driving up the coast. The only thing that worried me was 101 through the LA area. We reached it about 1pm or so. While we did run into some traffic, we never came to a complete stop and passed through pretty easily. The ride up the coast from Oxnard to SB was just gorgeous with very light traffic!
My first real mountain pass with the diesel came as we hit the San Ysidro pass to get up to Santa Ynez. It would be 17 miles of mostly 6 to 7% grades. Both up and down. I thought for a moment about disconnecting the Suzuki; Then I remembered, I've got turbo diesel power(arrr, arrr, arrr, in my best Tim Allen grunt!) Everything went fine and we pulled into the park with no issues. We set-up camp and pretty much relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Saturday turned out to be pretty much a washout, rain and cold all day. Laura's dad met up with us at the campground. We headed out to lunch at Cold Springs Tavern.
The tavern is tucked in the hills in SB. It was a stage coach stop in the late 1800's. Rachel Ray featured it in a $40 Dollars a Day segment. None of us had ever been, so we decided to give it a try. They had great burgers, awesome tortilla soup and Laura had a great pasta dish with shrimp. I would highly recommend it; Not on weekends though as its small and can be very busy.
After lunch we headed over to Los Olivos to do pick up some groceries and taste some wine. By late afternoon, the skies had cleared but it was too chilly to sit outside, even with my new 'Fire in a can'! We had a 'grazing' dinner of cheese and wine and wound up the night with a movie.
We are here for the week, so I hope the weather improves to get some hiking and riding in.
The weather was perfect for driving up the coast. The only thing that worried me was 101 through the LA area. We reached it about 1pm or so. While we did run into some traffic, we never came to a complete stop and passed through pretty easily. The ride up the coast from Oxnard to SB was just gorgeous with very light traffic!My first real mountain pass with the diesel came as we hit the San Ysidro pass to get up to Santa Ynez. It would be 17 miles of mostly 6 to 7% grades. Both up and down. I thought for a moment about disconnecting the Suzuki; Then I remembered, I've got turbo diesel power(arrr, arrr, arrr, in my best Tim Allen grunt!) Everything went fine and we pulled into the park with no issues. We set-up camp and pretty much relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Saturday turned out to be pretty much a washout, rain and cold all day. Laura's dad met up with us at the campground. We headed out to lunch at Cold Springs Tavern.
The tavern is tucked in the hills in SB. It was a stage coach stop in the late 1800's. Rachel Ray featured it in a $40 Dollars a Day segment. None of us had ever been, so we decided to give it a try. They had great burgers, awesome tortilla soup and Laura had a great pasta dish with shrimp. I would highly recommend it; Not on weekends though as its small and can be very busy.
After lunch we headed over to Los Olivos to do pick up some groceries and taste some wine. By late afternoon, the skies had cleared but it was too chilly to sit outside, even with my new 'Fire in a can'! We had a 'grazing' dinner of cheese and wine and wound up the night with a movie.
We are here for the week, so I hope the weather improves to get some hiking and riding in.
-Rich-
posted by Laura @ 11:06 PM
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