No sooner is Route 66 ended than the Pacific Coast Highway is started. With the ocean on our left, we have the best part of 1500 miles to reach Vancouver for the start of the trip back east.
After a hot panini in Malibu we are rolling north for Santa Barbara. I'm feeling much better and polish off a quart of milk on arrival at the Sandpiper Motel. We contact John and Linn Porter in Lompoc and arrange to meet the next morning.
We turn off the highway at Buellton on 246 for Lompoc. The Porter family are distant relatives from a branch of the family that emigrated to Canada in 1909.
We tour the wine country at Solvang, a Danish model village, and Los Olivos (home to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch). In the evening we go by Ford Navigator to "Brothers Restaurant at Mattei's Tavern" in Los Olivos. This was an old stagecoach stop and we have a splendid dinner, accompanied by a local Merlot, in this historic building.
Next morning we hose down the smart car and take family photos prior to departure. We say a big thank you to the Porter family and head for the coast highway which snakes north towards Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey. We make a lunch stop in Morro at the "Pizza Port." The weather is perfect and the scenery stunning.
The Holiday Inn Express in Monterey charges $168.10 weekend rate - by far the most expensive night of the tour. We luck out stumbling into a custom car show in town with the classics showing that touch of California class. A girl on an Indian motorcycle wants to know all about the smart - an old guy assures us that the car is built in Washington state - "my daughter is working there, they can't build them fast enough!"
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