Chowchilla to Monterey, CA

Today's drive exceeded expectations.  We were expecting more traffic and delays.  Instead it was actually pleasant.  We went CA152 to CA156 onto 101.  We exited 101 on to three surface streets, and then onto CA1.  Road surfaces were terrible in places, but we've been on worse.

While in Chowchilla we kept seeing these huge brown piles of something.  They looked like sawdust, but there are no forest products here.  They're nut hulls.  A search of the internet does not reveal what is done with them.  The white pile on the left is nut hulls under cover.

The central valley is flat.  On the left of the freeway are trees.  There are many trees.

There is also cotton, which surprised me.  I've always associated this area with food production, not cotton.

Those yellow things out in the distance are bales of cotton.

The closer we got to the coast the worse the weather got.

Here we are heading toward Pacheco Pass.  It's only at 1300 feet, but it does have a pretty good descent on the western side.

We're at the Moss Landing KOA.  We walked over to the marina this afternoon, thinking the rain had ended.  It had not, we came back completely and totally soaked.

The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow, at present it's raining sideways.  We're watching golf!