California is ginormous.

It took us the better part of Wednesday to drive across California. Just across. So we thought we were smart devils and decided to take Route 58 from Bakersfield into San Luis Obispo. We thought "ooh, we're gonna outsmart both Rand McNally and our Microsoft mapping GPS program". I think the dictionary definition of that is "foolhardy", or perhaps "idiotic". Let me just say that the last 75 miles between Bakersfield and Obispo took about 2 hours. I think we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Middle Earth. If you look at any of Tolkien's drawings of what Middle Earth looks like, complete with faeries and the like, you've seen the San Padre mountain range. We crept around these rolling green mountains at a pace of about 15 mph, due to the complete absence of guardrails or bravery. It was idyllic, yet horrifying. Herds of happy California cows (they better make some damned good cheese) and sheep grazed lazily as we made sharp hairpin turns. I snapped a couple of pictures, but as I was too terrified to take my eyes off the road, I sort of lost any desire to look down and snap a pic.

So we're sitting here in San Luis Obispo after a good night's sleep (the hostel here is awesome). We're planning on a leisurely day of more hairpin turns as we crawl up the coast towards San Francisco. This time the bottom will be the Pacific Ocean (which I have yet to see on this trip), instead of a grassy meadow.

A note: I highly recommend the San luis Obispo Hostel. For a private room (shared bathroom) we paid $45. It's a very comfortable room that reminds me of my grandma's house. Very cozy. There's a house dog here that doens't do anything but roll a ball to you and stare up at you until you kick it back.

Obispo smells like jasmine. It's heavenly.