All the way to San Diego

Now that we have a way of traveling with the hounds, we decide to spend Thanksgiving with the family in Leucadia. First, I finished processing our apple crop this year into:

• Rum raisin apple sauce
• Ginger/lemon apple sauce
• Spicy apple butter

to give away as gifts to family and friends.

Whew! That was a lot of work.

Relaxing w Mary - who's now a healthy dog

 On the Road Again

After another mad packing rush, we're back on the road again (lyrics by Willie Nelson). We are lucky to have wonderful weather on the drive south. Although it can be hit or miss, California does have some great days in November.

Red barn with Hollister Peak in distance

Castroville - Artichoke Capital of the World

Smart Car - Odd they don't get better gas mileage

Peter, puppies and Navion @ Bradley Rest Area

Farm stand by gas station @ Paso Robles

The area around Paso Robles has become fine for wine time. The vineyards are full of their fall colors. Generally, we notice that red wine grape vines tend to have red leaves, and grapes for white wines have yellow leaves this time of year.

Humm, wine tasting & driving? Tempting, but probably not a good idea

Red grapes & leaves

Yellow leaves for white wines

Entering Gaviota Pass in late afternoon

Refugio State Park

Ojai

We stop for the night at Holly (Peter's sister) and Doug's cottage. In the morning, we are in amazement at their beautiful pomegranate (Peter's FAVORITE fruit) bush.
Later, we take a walk with the hounds along the trail that goes behind their house.

Toby is the advance scout

A neighbor enjoys the view

Large oaks and sycamores

Then it's time to hit the road, to try to sneak through LA before the holiday traffic gets too bad.

Oxnard plain

Praised be Diamond Lanes - Sooo necessary to survive the LA gauntlet

We made it!  ... and in record time - 3 hours from Ojai to Leucadia!  Holly and Doug aren't so lucky. They leave an hour or so after us and take over 5 hours to make the same trip.

Hap and Patti check out the captain's chairs in the Navion