Weeks 46 – 48 - ‘Constantly on the move. But not in a good way’

​Whilst awaiting for Meg’s new passport to return we have settled down for a little while in San Luis Obispo. It is made a little ‘famous’ by the Madonna Inn – some gauche, and garish hotel. But, it is also the home of Cal Poly (university) so has a very young feel to it. For example, we believe there is some ruling that no chains are encouraged to open in the historic downtown area, meaning it is full of independent shops & restaurants which gives the place a lot more character that a lot of other US cities.
 
As Meg has been doing a little work, there’s only really the odd spare day in which to explore. One day we did visit the University to have a walk about. They have this ‘architecture graveyard’ where students’ projects are made into actual buildings (since the 70’s), which are then sort of left to fall into disrepair. It was really interesting to see the different styles that have evolved over the years, and I am actually very jealous that people managed to properly build stuff during their degrees - all I managed to do was write an imaginary business plan for a coffee shop. Not much of a legacy. Another cool thing that was there is the Serenity Swing - a swing, attached to a branch, about 3 miles up a hill. A proper struggle to get up there, and windy as hell once there, but definitely made for some great photos.
 
However, these last few weeks have been a little bit of a struggle in terms of having to be constantly on the move. As per the rulings (in what seems to be the majority of Californian cities), full time RVers are very much frowned upon. There are signs all over the city clarifying that, “NO overnight camping is allowed”. This means that each night, pretty much, we have to change our parking spot to either try to be a little out of the city, or to find some side street that we think we might be under the radar parked on. This is proving a bit of a kerfuffle. One night in particular there was a bang on the door (at midnight), for 2 local police officers to be quizzing us on what we were doing. Whilst we were in a place out of the city, and it was not illegal to stay there, they certainly weren’t encouraging us to use that spot again. Combine that with yet another knock the next night from someone telling us we were parked on private land, it means our nights are a little restless - we are a little on constant edge waiting for that next knock (& in the mornings, dreading having a ticket on our windscreen). But, as we now enter into the Christmas & holiday season, we are hoping people will have a little bit of the holiday spirit, and be a little lenient. Here’s hoping. We certainly can’t justify the $60 a night to park in an RV park.
 
On a positive note though, we were featured recently in Passion Passport. An article a day for 4 days about our travels and adventures. It was really enjoyable to write the pieces and to see our work ‘in print’. We hope it inspires some people to take that plunge and hit the road!
 
p.s. Oh, and Star Wars came out recently. So to be honest, I have been watching that a lot. Big fan. Big fan.