Cayucos, California - Passing Through

Waning Crescent Moon

Ancestral lands of the Chumash and the Esselen people

My wanderlust has been overwhelming me lately, so I tried to do something about it by taking a two and a half day driving trip south to some of my favorite spots on the coast. I am not going to complain about the cost of gasoline. I repeat. I, Palomino, am not going to complain about the cost of gasoline. After all, what good would it do for me to complain about the cost of gasoline anyway - the sky high, ridiculously high cost of gasoline? It would do no good whatsoever, of course. Therefore, I am not going to complain about the absurd, buzz-killing, six-dollar-per-gallon cost of gasoline. I promise.

To be sure, I had a great time on my little cruise on the coast. Over the two and a half days, I had breakfast with a dear friend in Santa Barbara, I walked and sat for a while near East Beach, I puttered around downtown San Luis Obispo a little bit, and then I headed for Highway One, the Pacific Coast Highway, to set my soul free in the holy land - the Big Sur, as it is currently known. My first stop was Cayucos, a small village just up the coast from Morro Bay. I'll talk about the rest of the trip in another post.

I have ridden my bicycle four times (north to south) along Highway One over the years, each time stopping in Cayucos to eat and rest and soak up its gentle sea town vibe, each time amazed by how untouched it has been by the rest of the world's insanity. It's apparent that the big money has begun to move in and that things could quickly change, but for now, it's still a very cool place to practice being. I got out to stretch my legs and I wandered around for an hour or so on a typically foggy coastal morning. The first thing I like to do when I get there is to walk out to the end of the wharf and look back at the town and its simple, pleasing beach. 

After that, I walked a short block from the wharf into town. There was a lot of construction and road work going on along Ocean Avenue, but I dodged most of it, tuned out the noise, and looked around at some of the familiar shops and eateries (by the way, I really like the folks who operate the Sea Shanty Restaurant). After a while, I looped around back to the beach to study the previous night's deposits of sea weed and pebbles. This is not a prolific shell beach to speak of, but it usually has a wonderful variety of polished stones and pebbles left behind by the high tide.

Not even remotely representative of coastal tribal bands!

The woman in the background has been in approximately 1 million photos of this mermaid.

I selfishly do not want Cayucos (population 2,228) to change very much in the near future. If you are a thoughtful, responsible dude or dudette and you have not been there, I hope you get to see this wondrous little village in its relaxed state soon. If, on the other hand, you are one of those philistine vultures with bottomless bags of money who are intent on paving the entire continent and tricking everyone into forking out exorbitant sums to see it, could you please hold off on that idea for a little while? Better yet, could you please board one of your money-buddies' cool spaceships and get the heck out of here? That would be nice of you.

Peace, Love, and Beach Walks,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022