While reading a blog yesterday, I came across an item that reminded me of something I had all but forgotten.
Many years ago, when I was still in college, before I got married, my parents lived in southern California. My college was in northern California. I was dating the man I later married (and divorced). He lived with his sister in southern California. We had met at college where he was a law student. He had graduated and I was still an undergrad. After spending the summer at my parents’ house, I had to go back to school. He offered to drive me to college and take a load of my stuff. I’d have to come back and take more stuff up but it was nice to be driven because it gave us a chance to spend some more time together. We knew that soon we’d be a seven hour drive from each other so the drive to campus would bridge that distance a bit.
We drove on highway 101 which runs along the coast in a lot of places and a bit inland in others parts. He was driving me in his newly purchased vintage 1966 Mustang. As we approached the Pismo Beach area, he said that a friend had told him about Pismo Beach and how pretty it was and then he proposed that we get off and go check it out. It really was quite beautiful. He drove through town and toward the beach. When we got to the beach, there was a parking lot to the left. He headed for the parking lot then noticed that some people were parked ON the beach. He wanted to park on the beach like the other cars BUT he didn’t want to park WITH the other cars. He wanted to park away from them. So he drove onto the beach and steered left to the isolated spot instead of right toward the other cars. All was fine until he stopped the car to figure out exactly where he wanted to park. When he decided on the exact spot, he gave the car gas. The tires spun. The car did not move. The sand sputtered all around us. We were stuck.
About an hour later, a sixty dollar towing bill, and a lot of embarrassment, we had been pulled out of the sand and the kind of cocky police man showed us the sign next to the driveway leading on to the beach. In very tiny and faded letters, it had an arrow pointing to the right accompanied by the words Parking and in even tinier letters, it read “No Beach Parking To the Left.”
Kind of a dumb thing to do but it really wasn’t all his fault. The area wasn’t properly posted. In fact, it was probably a ploy by the towing company who towed us and then a couple of other cars who had followed us on to the wrong side of the beach parking!
I laugh now but at the time, it really wasn’t funny. It was embarrassing and cost us both money we didn’t have. Before driving back south, he also had to have some work done on the car to get all the sand out of the axle! I know he never tried to park on the beach while I was with him after that and I’m fairly certain he hasn’t tried it with anyone else, either.
I’ve been there myself a time or two and no…it’s no fun at all! Thanks for sharing and I’m glad my pics sparked this memory for you.
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Well, you know what they say about the young. Dumb and stupid.
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We watched a kid bury his dad’s brand new Escalade on the Outer banks trying to impress his girl.
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Aha, I’m not alone in dorkdom 🙂
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Hah! I had a ’69 mustang, got that baby stuck in a river in Red Rock Canyon, Santa Barbara. Me no stupid either. Thanks for the laugh.
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I knew there was something about you, madamedonna, I currently have 2 ’69 fastbacks, and a 66 coupe. One of the 69’s was my first car.
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Been there, done that, got the t shirt. You were outstanding compared to our experience. Loved your story.
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Reminds me of the night my first husband ask me to marry him. We were parked in my front yard, and it had been raining a lot. My dad had to pull us out, with his truck. It looked like someone had dug to graves in the yard.
We should have taken that as a sign.
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I Have To Be Honest And Say That I Enjoyed Your Post “Women work longer hours” I Came Across Your Site When I Was Doing A Google Search On “RITA RUDNER’S FACTS ABOUT MEN” And I Felt That I Should Drop A Note To Let You Know What A Great Site You Have. I Can Not Agree With You 100% Regarding Some Thoughts, But You Got A Good Point Of View Over This Issue.
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It’s so weird how driving on the beach used to be legal … can you even imagine such a thing now??
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That beach in Pismo still lets you drive and park on the beach. I hope the sign is much better these days! The sand was fresh and loose where we parked and packed solid on the other side. Oh well, it made for a good blog post!
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