We left Arizona with our new rig and our first Covid Moderna shot on March 25th–who knew that our visit to AZ would be so productive! My college buddy, Kim Albee and her wife, Jennifer Nelson met up with us for a few nights in Palm Desert where we spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park. Then we headed over to Pismo Beach to catch the “vibe” as well as stopped in for wine tasting in Paso Robles. We then wandered up the 101 and cut over to San Benito to camp and visit the Pinnacles National Park.

March 28: We spent the day at Joshua Tree National Park with Kim and Jen in their sprinter van. It’s fun to travel with Kim and Jen and their van as they bring their dog and cat with them and attact a lot attention everywhere we stopped. We still drove in our truck, but basically picniced from their van.

We had been through Joshua Tree NP 3 years ago on our first outing, so we didn’t bother with too much hiking as it was busy with spring break crowds. We did check out Jumbo Rocks campground and determined that we could fit into a few of their sites…something we all want to consider in the future!

March 29 – 31: We headed to Pismo Beach and camped on the east side of the dunes. Sounds like a great location to the ocean, but it was a 20-30 minute hike across the sand dunes to get to the beach. We opted to drive! We even splurged the $5.00 to drive the truck down on the beach and saw the other folks with campers parked on the beach. Maybe next time!! LOL!

We weren’t that crazy about the town of Pismo Beach as it was quite crowded with Spring Breakers, so we drove up the coast to Avila Beach and had a seafood dinner

March 31 – April 2: Tom and I swear we visited Pinnacles National Park when it was just a National Monument and we lived in California in the mid ’80s’, but nothing looked familiar. We spent quite a bit of our time discussing the difference between a National Monument and a National Park. In general, the both need to preserve areas of unique and unusual beauty, but the bottom line is that the President can proclaim and area a National Monument using the Antiquities Act, but it takes an act of Congress (literally) to create a National Park. It seems that Pinnacles NP outstanding uniqueness would be the caves and the condors?