After three weeks of desert and increasing heat we made it to Moss Landing, which is just north of Monterey. We have some great friends who relocated there and wanted to spend some time visiting. Everyone had to work but we made the most of our afternoons and evenings.

Moss Landing is a little peninsula that is carved out of the coast. It houses marine research and ocean recreation oriented businesses. The KOA Express campground was a postage stamp sized lot with 36 spots tightly aligned. It was beautifully maintained and very convenient to where we needed to be.

The dog park was located in a communal parking lot shared with the marina. It was a five minute walk that involved dodging seagulls and walking past barking sea lions. Our dogs seem to respond to every dog in a five mile radius that even thinks about barking. They had no clue about the sea lions’ noise. Somehow nature must have relayed the message that they were snacks in the eyes of those massive mammals. The ones we saw each day looked like they hadn’t missed any meals.

The temperature ranged from mid-50s to almost 70 degrees. It was warmer when we went inland to Marty and Christina’s place in a town called Marina, but only by a few degrees.

We met up with them and five year old Maya to catch up. We’d last been together when we took our previous RV to visit them in Denver two years ago. Since then they’ve adopted two poodles. A toothless toy named Peaches and a standard named Piper. Imagine the energy of Dani, Denzel, Peaches, Piper, and Maya. Maya is a beautiful kid who is engaged and curious. The dogs all have their personalities and when they decide to run around at the same time, it’s quite frenetic. Everyone mostly got along when we threw them all together Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

We went to a fun seafood restaurant on Tuesday in Moss Landing. Christina had been telling us about an eco tour through one of the sloughs where there were many types of birds and sea critters including otters. When we finished dinner one of the tours was returning in an armada of canoes. A big sea lion was swimming out to meet them. It was also sunset so it made for the perfect picture of life in Moss Landing. Clint was tickled by the otter crossing signs that are posted. We saw a lot of birds and sea lions, but didn’t spot an otter. It gives us a reason to go back.

On Thursday Clint, Marty, and I went to a winery in Carmel called Folktale. The setting is beautiful, the wine is drinkable and the food was tasty. Christina had to make a day trip to Sacramento and couldn’t join us while Maya was hanging with her grandma. After catching up on technology, ransomware attacks, our friends, and Marty’s buddies, we decided to go to another place for one more beverage. We were headed to the Baja Cantina, but wait, there is more.

Marty and I share a passion for racing and fast cars. He executes on acquiring cars more effectively than I do. His latest toy is an 8 cylinder Lexus LC (I think that is the model) that has somewhere over 500 hp and the engine takes up 1/3 of the car. He is lucky to live on the rim of Laguna Seca and takes the car on the track about once a month. Clint went ahead to Baja Cantina while I climbed in with Marty. We waited for the engine to reach the right temperature and operating conditions and then we went to warm up the tires. We hit 110 mph in the blink of an eye and the car stuck to the road like it was paired with the pavement. Needless to say we made it to the restaurant quickly. (The last time I rode with Marty, he picked me up at DIA in a blue version of an earlier model of this car and hit the gas going around the entrance ramps to a few highways. I barely stayed in my seat but we totally stayed on the ground).

The Baja Cantina is like a car museum with hundreds of pictures, posters, and signage that pays homage to motorsports. There was a band outside and we hung around for a single beverage and called it a night. If you get the chance, visit and wander through the place. It’s pretty cool.

We left Moss Landing first thing Friday morning and drove to Petaluma. We use an RV friendly app that tells us which roads are safe for RV travel. We drove the 1 to the 17 which takes you into San Jose. Having lived there and having driven that route in various cars we thought we were used to it. Driving a 26,000 pound Freightliner RV like a race car had me paying attention the whole way. Clint was really helpful by saying things like “wow, there is nothing there if we fell off the cliff, we’d roll all the way down, there is nothing stopping us.” It’s a beautiful drive if you can ignore the peanut gallery.

The route continued by taking us through the East Bay and crossing over the 580 through Richmond and past San Quentin Penitentiary. The whole drive took about 2.5 hours and we settled in to work the rest of the day.

We took the dogs to the Kamp K-9 doggy relief area and a couple was throwing a tennis ball for their puppy. After chatting about where they are going and where we are going we discovered that this woman has played golf with our friend we will be visiting in Bend, Oregon next week. It’s a small world after all.

-Cheryl