So we woke up to see this pretty impressive rest stop… It was a gloomy day… Tracey checked the weather report and it looked like we were going to see rain for the next week of #travels…

That’s why I mentioned the fact we didn’t take that opportunity to camp on the beach in #Malibu 2 days ago… #TheTravelingMac knows better than to skip such opportunities… but I was just starting this trip, so I was a little rusty… I took my chances and lost… We should have taken that single opportunity because once we get out of #California, the chances of a nice, hot sunny day get slimmer as we head north…

Note to any future travelers: Even though you have just started the trip and you have a long trip ahead of you, it doesn’t mean that you skip over rare opportunities that may not arise again… #Camping on a beach in #Malibu in #TheMillenniumFalcon on our way to #Alaska is a rare opportunity in my book… Just go for it and enjoy! Worry about the trip and plans tomorrow… This was one of Tracey and I’s biggest regret on this trip… We should have just pulled over… Oh well…

I couldn’t resist trying to mess with the pano technology on my iPhone… I wanted to see what would happen if Tracey took a pano while I was walking with the camera… Well, this was the result above…

We were soon on the road… We planned on driving most of the day considering it was so crappy out…

We were passing through #WineCountry now… Anyone who knows California knows you get some of America’s best wines from the wine region in the north…

We had a pretty good system of #travel… The Traveling Mac does all of the repairs, driving and chores involving The Millennium Falcon… Tracey is in charge navigating, special places to visit along the way, getting us there on schedule and preparing meals or finding places to eat… Tracey even took notes in my iPhone so I could reference them while writing my #blog… What an awesome #co-pilot!!!

So, we drove for a few hours and of course got a little hungry…

So my co-pilot found a cute deli sandwich shop called #NielsenBrosMarket&Deli in a town called #CarmelByTheSea,CA…

We made the best of a boring #RainyDay by making some good ground on our travels…

And enjoying a late lunch by the #sea… #Otters are known to swim around this area, so Tracey and I were fervently looking… But we didn’t see one… We did joke around and came up with a pretty cool little script idea called “An Otter’s Dream…”

You see, we have a stuffed animal we named Otto and he has become our inspiration in The Millennium Falcon… We have created a whole personality for Otto.. He has his own voice and attitude… Well, while driving and eating, thinking about otters, we came up with this tale where Otto the otter leaves his little town by the sea, to head to the #Galapagos Islands and make it big in the documentaries filmed there…

In his small town, Otto did the equivalent of street theater, swimming around being cute, hoping humans will donate some food for their efforts… But this town got too small for Otto… he wants to make it big in the film industry, so he takes a crazy journey full of nutty adventures as he chases his dreams…

Look folks, you get bored traveling day after day… We have to entertain ourselves somehow… And its always ideas like these, that come out of nowhere and make it big… Who knows why… Maybe because the idea comes from the soul when you fee the most genuine,free and creative…

We parked blindly in the night once again at a truck stop in Hollister,CA… I dumped The Millennium Falcon at a #RVPark close by… I used one of their sites which was unattended and left them $5 in an envelope… If I didn’t, we wouldn’t have water for a shower in the morning… Just one of the many things you have to constantly think about while you are on the road… It’s fun traveling in a house but there are many responsibilities you don’t even think of until you are actually doing it…

It can be very stressful at times but it comes with the freedom of travel…