M&T Alpine-Tales: Back in Pismo

Those last 217 miles to Pismo Beach always seem to take forever, my impatience rising at wanting to be there. But first, we made a quick stop at Costco in San Louis Obispo to stock up on essentials. We are not towing a car yet, and the two grocery stores in Pismo Beach are a good two mile walk away. This is not a bad thing, and we have walked the distance when necessary. But it is a lot warmer now, so dairy and frozen items would probably not do so well during the half hour return walk under a blazing sun. It is a lot easier to stock up on perishables in the Alpine because the fridge is sufficiently large and there is plenty of storage on board. A definite plus.
We arrived in the early afternoon and set up, made a fruit & veg smoothie for lunch, then went down to the beach for a lovely long walk. It feels wonderful to be back here - it's only been about four months since we were here for the SoCal Alpine rally.

Here are a few glimpses of that final leg to this glorious destination -

there were several patches of bright yellow wildflowers

happy cattle munched the day away in the verdant pastures, which
just four months back were brown and dry

the California aqueduct followed the road for several miles, a reminder
that without this precious commodity, none of this would be possible
in this dry desert-like valley... and the billboards along the way are a
further reminder of the political wrangling that goes on here for water rights

vineyards are a common sight

as are various orchards

around Kettleman City, we veered off I-5 to head west to Paso Robles

after the recent rains, this normally dry stretch looked lush and
a lot more hospitable

out of the blue, we noticed patches of bright orange on the hilltops
which looked stunning, as if the hills were ablaze...they too are widlflowers,
the names of which I need to discover