The road it started getting rough. The car was tossed and turned. If not for the courage of the fearless crew (My “Little Buddy”), the Prius would be lost. You see folks, this tale of this fateful trip began at no tropic port, but in our fog shrouded campsite…

It was unusually hot in Monterey, but here in Salt Point, today’s high and low was fifty-seven degrees. Not much movement in the mercury. After our usual hot oatmeal and granola breakfast, with coffee, we set out.

Sorry for keep going off on a tangent, but we continue to find new Death Valley casualties in our larder. The first one was my shampoo. The bottle had melted, but fortunately it hadn’t spilled. Likewise our “spice rack” was melted too. Time will tell what else was damaged by the heat.

So, our going in plan was to hike the Kruse rhododendron preserve, but we ended up stuck driving it instead. It was only four miles, but it was also a dirt road, all up hill. It was also only one lane, but not one way, as we later learned. It was so twisty-turny that I made only 10 MPH. There were turns so tight that Anne and the cliffs were always on her side, feared that the right rear wheel would find air. We made it though!

We weren’t done, not by half. We crested, left the park and hit blacktop again at a place called Plantation. It was still twisty- turny, but we made better time from there. The most unusual sight was the Odiyan Retreat Center. Its Tibetan, but what caught our attention the most was its 10′ security fence, topped with concertina wire and equipped with security cameras. How do you spell c-u-l-t?

We eventually made it back to the One at Stewart’s Point. There is a great general store there. We had second breakfast.

Onward north, to the Arena lighthouse, our main tourist attraction for the day. The original lighthouse was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Apparently, it was way worse here. The tower moved 16′ north and then 16′ south in seven seconds. The lighthouse keeper who was up in the tower survived with only bumps and bruises. The original steel staircase was kept in the new lighthouse.

We spent the rest of the day working our way back south along the coast. Anne found a yarn store and we stopped at several beach turnouts. Found a really interesting chapel, in the style of Harry Potter’s sorting hat. Tonight, fog, no sunset, fire instead. What a day!!!