GOODBYE MORRO BAY

Shortly after arriving at Morro Bay, I discovered this strange and delightful building. Asking the locals about it, I learned it was built in the 80's, although there is much friendly debate about this detail.

Originally the home of some kind of tool manufacturing company, it is now empty and for rent. What you can't see is that just behind the elaborate facade is a quonset hut used as warehouse space. It's just so weird and wonderful!

Wouldn't this be the perfect home for Lucy?

On my last night in Morro Bay, I treated myself to a delicious dinner at the Great American Fish Company. It's a touristy little spot, but right on the water.

Nature treated me to a beautiful double rainbow for my trouble, which is very hard to capture on my little snapshot camera; you see only one rainbow, sadly!

After dinner, I began packing. It's been three nights in Morro Bay, the first leg of the trip, and I discovered something I guess I already knew, but didn't take seriously until this night: it takes about six hours to pack up all my precious belongings.

Most people, when RV'ing, take paper plates, a cooler and a few canvas fold-up chairs. Not me!

I have about a thousand chalkware chinoise ladies to pack up, then there's the vintage Hull pottery, the Vernon Kiln dinnerware set, and...no plastic tupperware for me, it's all Pyrex and vintage sugar canisters.

Each item has to be removed from the cupboards, walls and shelves, bubble-wrapped and stowed carefully on the floor of the trailer. Any shifting or unevenness in weight of this "stuff" while on the road could lead to a dangerous fishtailing of the trailer or even tipping over, I suppose, in a sudden swerve or tight corner.

I was glad to learn that Steinbeck also had the problem of overpacking on his RV'ing trip, but I still felt foolish when it became clear that out of every four days, I was spending a day and a half of that either packing, unpacking or driving.

It's gunna be a long, long road...

Chryss