March 24, 2022

No road video today, just a map.

Today was pretty much a disaster and the one good thing, a beautiful, scenic drive, only added to the scale of the disaster.

This was supposed to be a relaxing day driving just 135 miles up the coast from Ventura to Morro Bay and taking in a hike at a coastal state park near Morro Bay. Things were going well first thing. I ate an excellent breakfast sitting on the patio at Pete’s Breakfast House and was getting comfortable in the car for the day’s drive.

That was when I discovered that the tablet I use to control the dashcam, rate the quality of the current  view and collect GPS data would not turn on. This is the tablet that had battery and charging issues earlier in the trip and, without which, I cannot produce road videos. After trying for about 15 minutes to get it to respond I gave up and started on my way.

Soon after leaving Ventura the route became incredibly scenic, passing through canyons on windy roads with  extensive  panoramas of rugged hills which I was not recording. I realized that I have been treating the camera as a traveling companion that would enable others to enjoy what I was experiencing but now I felt very much alone. I used my phone to collect a GPS trace of the route so that I could insert a map of the route in the blog but It was very disheartening.

Then came the traffic jam. A journey that was supposed to be about 2 1/2 hours became 4 hours and I still do not know the cause. The nearby 101 freeway developed a seven mile tailback of almost stationery vehicles near Carpinteria. Maybe it was an accident or the road works in the area that sent vehicles spilling out onto every nearby road, maybe it was the wildfire producing smoke billowing across the highway but my GPS was sending me on a twisty route of jammed roads to try to get around the issue and,  about 90 minutes later, it finally found roads that were clear.

Finally, there was the weather. As I approached Montana de Oro State Park, where I had planned to do a walk along a bluff overlooking the coast, the sea mist came rolling in. Since California charges $10 just to park in a State Park, it was already 3 PM and the mist was shrouding the views I abandoned the walk.

The view from this vista point on the Chumash Highway (CA route 154) represents the sort of views I would have had in the dashcam video during the first third of the route.

View of Cachuma Lake on the same highway.

This was what Morro Bay looked like this afternoon. Compare that with the picture below taken in 2015. I think they are the same view but it was difficult to know with the mist hiding the Morro Bay Rock.

I am working on finding a fix for the tablet but don’t hold out much hope.