My perch above San Louis Obispo was wonderfully lovely, accessed by a hair raisingly narrow road I hope to not again drive up in the bus. And windy. Wear the headphones kind of wind. Plus fricking cold. I left a 8:30, praying to not meet another vehicle. Other than a solitary mountain biker climbing it was thankfully clear. Still, too steep and loose for my taste.

Breakfast and a walk were at Larry Moore Park. Popular with dog walking folks. Yeah what’s with all the walking? At a couple places back, before passing up another opportunity to bike yesterday in SLO, I was somewhere else totally peaceful and magical too and simply started walking and I dug it. Then hacky sack (remember that?). Then more exploring. Very nice, also the moving was good for me. And then I started jogging even, just a little, enough to stop that divide by zero error I keep getting. Well I took a walk here too. And more hacky sack. I guess that’s what’s on the menu for now.

Tonight, referenced above as here, is at Upper Sweetwater Campground. Yes! an actual campground. It’s a long and bumpy way back to the highway guys, nothing perilous like last night in any way except bumpy. In times like these I often wonder at the merits of suspension attention. I can pass the spring guy who was so on it and see what he thinks of the weight distribution of my plan, get it done and weighed, and then return discuss a second time his idea of taking out a leaf; he says the bus is so underloaded that the mammoth leaf springs are not flexing and thus a correspondingly bumpy ride.

Though maybe it won’t be an issue with the extra 140 lbs of house batteries, the second starter battery the bus is supposed to have which is probably heavy too of course and the second water tank. Did I explain that one? So it’d be great to have more water. And warm water in this cold would be devine. Then there’s the engine that just heats up on long climbs. Well, the plan is to take the coolant line from the back heater and run it instead through a heat exchanger that via thermosyphon we hope will heat water looped in from that second tank. All the while keeping the engine cooler. Hopefully.

My vision is to stay here one more night and then back to the metropolis. There’s a lot more of where I went today and there’s a trailhead across the street. Glad I took advantage of that water opportunity. Note it is totally cold and only 6:30. I’ve never had to wonder if any of the entirely uninsulated water line is going to break until nightly this last week.