California Part Four: Road Trip Begins (Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay)

April 2010

After acclimatising to both America and travelling, it was time for the Gap Year Buddy and I to break away from our cosy stay in San Jose and hit the road in our truck.

If you’ve been following my story so far, it will be of no surprise to hear that we got lost pretty quickly. Majorly. And it was my fault. We were on the way to a campsite in Santa Cruz, so when I saw a sign saying that Santa Cruz was in the opposite direction to the one we were travelling in, I made the Gap Year Buddy turn the truck around. After driving around, disorientated for a couple of hours, we realised that our campsite had been about 20 minutes from the point where we’d  changed direction. We’d been going the right way the whole time. Our campsite was not in Santa Cruz, it was just outside Santa Cruz, at New Brighton State Beach.

The campsite was quite nice, surrounded by trees with the beach in walking distance. That explained why this site had been a bit more expensive. After setting up our tent, happily drama-free, we headed off to the supermarket to load up on staples for breakfasts and lunches.

American supermarkets are like Disneyland for foodies. Simultaneously, they are terrifying if you, like us, are not good at making decisions. There was an entire wall of orange juice and milk. Eventually, we made our choices and headed to the checkout, where we started to realise that the British accent had magical powers in America. Everyone wanted to chat. The guy at the checkout helpfully gave us a clubcard and we saved a fair bit on our purchases.

After a sandwich dinner and a game of cards by lantern light, we pumped up our airbed and settled down for the night. It was still early but since we were at the mere age of 18 – and the USA drinking age is 21 – it wasn’t like we could go to any bars or anything so instead we just went to sleep.

The next morning, we had a lovely breakfast of cinnamon rolls and orange juice and then headed into Santa Cruz. We had heard good things about the place but sadly the weather was rather unpleasant meaning that everything was a bit quiet and we couldn’t sunbathe on the big, sandy beach. However, we did visit the boardwalk amusement park, which did indeed keep us amused with a couple of good rollercoasters for a little while.

We found a place for lunch, where we could charge our sat nav and then we went to find a library for internet. It wasn’t just that we wanted to go on Facebook but we also managed to book a dorm room in LA. With that all sorted, we went to find Pacific Avenue which was apparently the place to be. It was okay. We left Santa Cruz glad that we had gone for the day but it was probably a good thing we weren’t staying for much longer. It was a shame about the weather.

Another early night was in order, after an attempted shower where I left my shampoo in the tent, a read and a feng shui-ing session, where we rearranged the truck in case we had to migrate from the tent into the back during the night.

In the morning, it was time to move onto campsite number two, near Carmel and the Big Sur. However, after a couple of hours, we turned off the freeway and drove down what felt like the longest, most deserted road. The only cars we saw were coming in the other direction and even the sat nav didn’t know where we were. Eventually, we arrived and found the place to be deserted and in the middle of nowhere.

It was pouring with rain and there was nothing for us to do in the area. We had got used to early nights by this point but 4pm in the afternoon was too far. Since we were also a little creeped out at the eeriness of the place, I turned the truck around and drove the two hours back the way we came to Monterey. There we checked ourselves into the warm and dry Hostel International.

We immediately headed out for a Subway lunch and then to Cannery Row – the main street through the town. We had a lovely afternoon wandering around the shops and finally making it to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where I bought a brownie the size of my hand and the Gap Year Buddy tried one of their many types of toffee apples.

We also started off our shot glass collection – we planned to get one each per country. Perhaps it was optimistic that we would both get seven glasses home safe and sound (spoiler, I only broke one). We also discovered that Monterey’s Candy Factory was no exception to the general rule we’d found so far that America has many good sweet shops.

Predictably it soon started raining again, but it didn’t matter because we’d found the best place we’d been to since San Francisco and we not in a tent.

The next day was another relaxing day in Monterey. Our hostel provided pancake/waffle-making ingredients for breakfast and, after food, we went in search of a pharmacy, which we found on Lighthouse Avenue, to stock up on toiletries. We’d both come away with travel wash that would clean our hair bodies and would work as a washing up liquid. We wanted actual shampoo.

On our way to another library, on Pacific Street, for more internet, we passed the Bulldog British Pub. Obviously we had to stop in for a peek, even if we were too young to get served. On a parallel road, we found Osio, a cinema and cafe where we got big, reasonably priced salads and then it was internet time.

Finally back at the hostel and after more internet time and a failed game of monopoly,  we decided to mix things up when it came for dinner and went for toast rather than sandwiches. Even though we were no longer camping, we had yet another early night ready for a big drive the next day.

Read about the rest of my trip:

• California Part One: the journey begins
• California Part Two: a trip to San Francisco
• California Part Three: fish, food and detours
• California Part Five: sea, seals and Hollywood
• California Part Six: food, glorious food and Venice Beach
• California Part Seven: animals, beaches and even more food
• California Part Eight: lakes, driving and farewells