1983 - Snow and QE2 7 January 1984 –

Saturday 7 January 1984 – Los Gatos

I slept very badly last night, worrying about all sorts of silly things. So we got cracking fairly early and were on our way at about 08.00 heading for San Simeon and Randolph Hearst’s beach cottage.

There was quite a bit of fog about when we set off and we kept running into patches throughout the day. The countryside was beautiful this morning – green and lush. We were disappointed to find that the coastal highway Highway #1 was closed as a result of a massive landslide last winter about 50 miles north of San Simeon. This meant that after visiting the Hearst mansion we had to backtrack to Cumbria and head inland from there to join the Highway #101.

 

From the road

Matt and Rab by the outdoor pool

The Hearst place was simply unbelievable! As ever the logistics of undertakings like this intrigue me and building this pile and laying out the grounds in 1919 must have been an incredibly complicated operation. I was very glad we had visited it and even Rab and Matt (not renowned for their interest in anything like a museum) enjoyed it. We were quite lucky too in that we arrived at about 08.56 and the next tour left at 09.00 so we did not have any wait at all. Security in the mansion is very tight indeed since there are so many priceless art treasurers.

The main house entrance

After the tour we headed back towards Cumbria pausing for breakfast at the Cavalier at San Simeon. We only just made it, getting to the restaurant a couple of minutes before they closed up at 11.30. Once again Matt and I did justice to a full American breakfast, including pancakes, while Rab was content with toast.

The road from Cumbria back to the 101 was very beautiful, rising a couple of thousand feet over the coastal ridge and showing us some lovely countryside – rolling green hills stretching for miles. The descent was not quite so pleasant and the countryside behind much more dry and barren.

Our drive north on the 101 was not particularly interesting although we had a brief stir of interest when a CHIPS car pulled alongside us and told us to slow down before shooting off after a speeding motorcyclist. Got a bit of a fright, I did, as I had not seen him coming and have no idea where he came from. We had been driving for about two hours at this stage in convoy with a lad in a Buick and a couple in a Chevrolet pickup. We were taking it in turn to lead at about 70 mph – the speed limit being 55 mph. We had actually slowed down a bit because there was a bit of traffic about and we had caught up with the motorcyclist who had roared past us earlier, so we were lucky to get away with it.

We had intended heading back to Highway #1 to visit Monterey and Carmel but the Hearst visit and the backtracking took too long and we had to by-pass this area to my regret. We turned off at Salinas, having passed by Soledad where Rab says there is a high security prison containing, amongst others, Sirhan Sirhan and Charlie Manson. Rab also thinks that James Dean grew up in Salinas, but I think Rebel Without A Cause may have been based there. I know John Steinbeck wrote about that area – must check-up when I get home.

The parts we passed through after turning off the highway were rather grim and ugly. We had to turn off because we were heading for Robbie and Beck (Rab’s step-brother and his wife) in Los Gatos since we had promised we’d pop in and see them on our way through. We found their house without too much trouble. It is in a very mountainous area and the roads were very steep and winding. Beautiful outlooks.

We had intended to go on to San Francisco tonight but Robbie invited us to stay. As it was getting very foggy and it would have been dark by the time we got to the city, I accepted his offer. I find driving in the dark a bit of a strain at the best of times – and here it is ten times worse. They had to go out tonight (to a church meeting we think) so they led us downtown to Los Gatos where we had an excellent seafood meal at Steamers. I had grilled prawns, Rab had fettuccini with crab and shrimps. We had clams for a starter as well, which meant it was a pretty pricey meal by our standards at $38 but it was good value. The food was excellent.

I didn’t enjoy the drive back much in view of the foggy conditions but we made it without incident. Rab has just finished some hand-washing and now we are off to bed.