It's Clouds Illusions I recall

The car Walt rented is a Kia.

It has a boxy look I don't like.  And it's not very comfortable.  The seats feel like the kind you sit in on a short flight on a cheap airline.  Not plush like our Honda.  I was squirming a lot with pains in my back from not being able to get comfortable (though it was a little better when I was able to get my seat to recline a little).  It is not a car I would buy.

But it would do fine for our trip. We first spent 45 minutes wandering around the gated community where Alice Nan owns a unit.  I guess we own part of it now too, since she bought it with her mother, so when Alice died, Alice added 1/3 of her mother's interest and Walt and Norm each added 1/3.  So we own 1/3 of a half and that makes us the local caretakers.  They are trying to rent it and Walt just had to drop off a key, but it took 45 minutes to find someone to give it to.

Then it was on the freeway headed south.  The clouds were just glorious 

 I was fascinated by how the clouds were reflected in the side mirror and on the door of the car.

(I'm easily amused when we travel!)

We were listening to a David Baldacci book ("Hell's Corner") which is, as usual, gripping.  It pretty much eliminated all need for conversation.  Walt drove, I took care of checking e-mail and text messages on our respective cell phones.

 We stopped in Santa Nella at Pea Soup Anderson's, to have some of their "traveler's special."  It goes without saying that their specialty is pea soup.  The traveler's special is a big bowl of soup (which they will refill as much as you want) with toppings (little cups of diced ham, scallions, grated cheese, bacon (real bacon) and croutons, served with cheese rolls and your choice of beverage (one of the beverage choices is a milk shake).

To tell the truth, I'm kind of "burger-ed out" and so I was happy that we were traveling on I-5 and not 101, where we probably would have stopped at the Burger Queen.  I was much happier with my bowl of soup.

(Walt had a refill on his soup).

 

(I'm sorry I forgot to take the picture until after I had stirred in all the toppings)

We continued on down the road, texting the family in Santa Barbara to let them know our whereabouts (I loved my text to Tom and Joe:  "Peeing at the Madonna Inn."  The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo bills itself as the "Landmark Resort Hotel."  We have never stayed there, but we have peed there, and...trust me...it's truly a never to be forgotten bathroom experience.  I strongly encourage you to do a Google Photo search on Madonna Inn and you'll get an idea of what I mean! And check out some of those ROOMS.)

We pulled up to Alice & Joe's house in the middle of a Baldacci gun battle, just 1 minute before Joe got home from work, so we couldn't sit in the car and continue listening.  We'll have to try to find time to play a bit more of the book while we're chasing around to various points in Santa Barbara to watch Tom and Laurel run in their marathon so we can find out if Reuben was shot or not.