California - San Luis Obispo

When we arrived in San Luis Obispo, the main goal was to find a payphone so we could get in touch with Bea's couch surfer friends. Which, I don't know if you've ever had to find a payphone in recent years, but they be busted as hell. 

As such, we ended up cruising quite a bit of downtown SLO. It is pretty darn funky…and which is where we saw the best thing in the WORLD. 

A huge line of children and their parents…waiting in line…to see snow. PAYING TO SEE FAKE SNOW. I am dead. 

Actually dying at this.

After the general hilarity of seeing this travesty, the hunt for the pay phones continued. TJ and I walked all over the damn world looking for a pay phone so we might call Bea’s friend, and after finding one with a broken receiver outside a movie theatre, finding three at the shell station that ate our money, TJ marched in the Gas Station Hut and ranted to the attendant about how lame this town is…he dialed the number for her and she finally made contact with our host for the night. 

Bea’s friend is an Artist who TJ has christened “The Artist Who is Everywhere” because her paintings litter the walls of her and her brother’s house. She is in Santa Barbara right now, but her brother, Chris, welcomed us with open arms. 

I am now going to sink into our air mattress heaven and sleep for a million hours. 

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Two days later...

We have been the laziest sons of bitches in the world…

A nice, laid back place to stay encourages TJ and JT to become pajama wearing, Supernatural watching, junk food eating blobs. It’s really quite enjoyable…     

We literally stayed indoors for two days straight, the second of which was entirely

unintentional. California has decided to hate on us and declare war from the sky. It has been raining like a bastard FOREVER. We were intending to leave and head to Santa Barbara, but when the skies opened up their hatred, and after hearing that the freeways through Los Angeles were apparently created by Satan himself, we opted to stay another day and do a fly-by-night, hopefully traffic-less, jaunt over to Joshua Tree in one go.

Our last day in San Luis, though much like the previous one, now included Chris' sister who had returned from Santa Barbara, and the creation of a pastime that was aptly named “The Magic Stool”. We all took turns sitting on a stool and told our “Best Story Ever”, Strombo style. It was very kumbaya in a good way and I talked about my Sperm Whale Dream.

The next day, after a delicious breakfast, and packing the van, we headed down town to see the sights.

San Luis Obispo has two main attractions, an old Spanish Mission…and bubble gum ally. For like, sixty years people have been walking down this plainly bricked ally, and sticking their gum on the walls. It has since morphed into a multi-layered, sickly smelling, monstrosity of a Ripley’s-esque monument. People have spelled out their names, stuck photos of their children (or at least a child), created tinfoil bubblegum wrapper displays, and layered Hubba Bubba so thick, as to create a foot-wide solid heart with varying colours. We were supremely grossed out, to say the least, but contributed anyway, (just a plain Jane blob, thanks!)

We'll be leaving shortly on the midnight run to Joshua Tree. On to the desert!