We left the beautiful redwoods and headed south down US Route 101 towards coastal State Route 1. California SR 1 is 659 miles long, it is the longest state route and is usually designated as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). The closer we got to the coast the steeper and curvier the road became with one switchback after another. The worst part were the steep climbs right after sharp banking curves. It was a wild, amazingly beautiful drive along the California coast.
We arrived at the Westport Union Landing State Beach for a four night stay with amazing views of the ocean. We went to sleep each night listening to the sound of waves crashing on the beach. Such a beautiful, peaceful place. I could have stayed for months. 
But California state parks are pricey. They charge an additional fee for the tow car on top of the high price for camping, and the sites do not have any hookups. This park did not even have a dump station. The price of $35 a night plus an additional $10 per night for the tow car for dry camping is pretty ridiculous. Yes, it is California! 
On Friday we left Westport and continued the wild ride further south on SR 1 to a large vista point near Manchester where we had read overnight camping was permitted. With no signs prohibiting overnight camping, we decided to stay for the night. 
With the good days come the occasional bad, frustrating days. (Cue the ominous music here). Bill went outside to do his usual safety check and found a screw in one of our four back tires. Normally not a huge problem. But this threw us into a bit of a frenzy because we were on SR 1 in the middle of nowhere. Over three hours from the nearest tire dealer. Late on a Friday with the weekend looming. If the tire went flat and they had to tow the RV to a tire dealer, we weren’t sure how they would ever tow an RV along the steep, winding road to a large town with services. Bill has a tire monitor on each tire that lets us know if one of the tires has a problem. The monitor was not showing any air loss in that tire. We didn’t even know how long the screw had been in the tire. We regrouped, talked it over and decided to abandon our plans heading down SR 1. Instead we would backtrack seventeen miles to State Route 128 and then take a shortcut on State Route 253 to get back to US 101. If we were going to have a tire go flat, it would be better to be on US 101 a major highway instead of SR 1. We slept that night with one ear on the tire monitor listening for the beep beep beep signaling air loss.
The next morning the tire was still holding air. We decided I would drive the tow car in case a problem arose. We headed out early because we didn’t want to take a chance on being stranded on the side of the road late in the evening. We started out on the three plus hour drive for help.
To be continued.