Scott Steg (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} scottsteg) wrote,@ 2007-03-01 10:00:00 |
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Another camp story from California
Over President's day weekend, we headed to Solvang for a night to check out the quaint Danish town, feed ostriches, eat some decent food and taste some wine. The place has become pretty popular because of the movie 'Sideways' and it shows. Just about every winery/shop had maps available so you could go to the same places Miles and Jack explored in the film.
We took a wine van tour of about 5 places, 2 which were notable and 1 which was horrible. In any case, after some other stops the day after our drunken tour, we headed back to LA down the 101.
About 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara we found this place called Refugio State Beach. What started as a quick stop for a nice view and a bathroom break became a future trip plan. The campground is right next to the ocean so you can basically wake up and surf. There's trails up and down the beach, its a small area and you're about 20 miles from some good wines in Solvang/Buellton. All in all, a perfect spot.
Then I fell into the craze of campsite reservations. Man, its a grueling task. The state park website says "On the first of each month, campers will have access to an entire month of available start dates, up to 7 months in advance. Count the month you are in as month number one. For instance, if you count September as the first month you can make reservations for all dates beginning in March." They use ReserveAmerica for their booking engine.
So as I checked the website for reservations in July/August, no dice. All the sites were either packed on weekends or open for a Tuesday night. This meant I would have to reserve for Labor Day weekend on March 1st. So like a good internet buyer, I assumed that it would happen on 12:01am, March 1st. I stayed up late while Brandi slept and waited for the sites to go on sale.
The first setback started around 11:57pm when I logged on and a notice appeared on the site saying that sales won't begin until 8am PST on March 1. Ok, fine. However, I lost an hour's worth of sleep/bar time. Dang. So I wake up and get ready for work and get online. By 7:45 I go online and see alot of the campsites already taken, but I can't get anything online. I shake my head in confusion and wonder how they were already taken. Was someone giving out favors? Did people hack into the system? The only thing I could think of was maybe some people reserved Friday, August 31 last month and automatically got spaces for the rest of the weekend in September.
In any case, I searched their map and found a site (#39). According to the map its toward the back of the campground, but its still somewhat by the beach. However, I was wrong. I read an article about the beach later this morning in the LA times that says the "premium beach side sites" were 34, 35, 36 and 60 and if they were any closer to the waves, you could shore-fish from inside your tent. So as I re-checked the map this morning, I realize we're not closer to the road, but the beach. So thanks to an error in mapping at ReserveAmerica, we got a sweet spot, shaded, near the showers and near the beach at a cool park. Thank you Amazon for a deal on a great tent!
Here's an aerial photo with the basic idea:
Over President's day weekend, we headed to Solvang for a night to check out the quaint Danish town, feed ostriches, eat some decent food and taste some wine. The place has become pretty popular because of the movie 'Sideways' and it shows. Just about every winery/shop had maps available so you could go to the same places Miles and Jack explored in the film.
We took a wine van tour of about 5 places, 2 which were notable and 1 which was horrible. In any case, after some other stops the day after our drunken tour, we headed back to LA down the 101.
About 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara we found this place called Refugio State Beach. What started as a quick stop for a nice view and a bathroom break became a future trip plan. The campground is right next to the ocean so you can basically wake up and surf. There's trails up and down the beach, its a small area and you're about 20 miles from some good wines in Solvang/Buellton. All in all, a perfect spot.
Then I fell into the craze of campsite reservations. Man, its a grueling task. The state park website says "On the first of each month, campers will have access to an entire month of available start dates, up to 7 months in advance. Count the month you are in as month number one. For instance, if you count September as the first month you can make reservations for all dates beginning in March." They use ReserveAmerica for their booking engine.
So as I checked the website for reservations in July/August, no dice. All the sites were either packed on weekends or open for a Tuesday night. This meant I would have to reserve for Labor Day weekend on March 1st. So like a good internet buyer, I assumed that it would happen on 12:01am, March 1st. I stayed up late while Brandi slept and waited for the sites to go on sale.
The first setback started around 11:57pm when I logged on and a notice appeared on the site saying that sales won't begin until 8am PST on March 1. Ok, fine. However, I lost an hour's worth of sleep/bar time. Dang. So I wake up and get ready for work and get online. By 7:45 I go online and see alot of the campsites already taken, but I can't get anything online. I shake my head in confusion and wonder how they were already taken. Was someone giving out favors? Did people hack into the system? The only thing I could think of was maybe some people reserved Friday, August 31 last month and automatically got spaces for the rest of the weekend in September.
In any case, I searched their map and found a site (#39). According to the map its toward the back of the campground, but its still somewhat by the beach. However, I was wrong. I read an article about the beach later this morning in the LA times that says the "premium beach side sites" were 34, 35, 36 and 60 and if they were any closer to the waves, you could shore-fish from inside your tent. So as I re-checked the map this morning, I realize we're not closer to the road, but the beach. So thanks to an error in mapping at ReserveAmerica, we got a sweet spot, shaded, near the showers and near the beach at a cool park. Thank you Amazon for a deal on a great tent!
Here's an aerial photo with the basic idea:
