Day 12 - Venturing South

We said our farewells to Skippy late last night, as we needed an early start in the morning to catch our Greyhound bus south down the coast to Ventura. Leaving the house at around 6.45am, Skippy's wife Andrea kindly dropped us off in a deserted downtown SantaCruz, where we had a couple of hours to kill before boarding the bus. After unsuccessfully scouting around for somewhere to get some food for the journey, we decided an early morning hot chocolate was an essential. As we are being 'experimental' with food and drink this trip, we made the brave move to get our caffine fix from the aptly named 'Bad Ass coffee', rather than the more standard Starbucks.


Going out on this limb ended up as a positive thing, as 'Bad Ass' served up a couple of the best hot beverages we've ever had, and the ambience was top draw, complete with sofas, complementary internet access, and live streaming of the 29th Olympiad. Once we'd managed to drag ourselves off the aforementioned sofas, we headed over to the greyhound station to ensure we could collect our tickets in time enough for the journey. However, a dramatic scene was soon to follow, as we realised we still hadn't actually acquired any form of lunch for our 8-hour bus epic. After making a preliminary sweep of the immediate environment, we discovered the local Subway, and deemed this to be the most reliable sandwich option (were not that experimental). The drama itself was brought on by the fact that this particular store didn't open until 9am (our journey, from a few minutes across town, started at 9.15), and this wasn't a prompt 9am either. We had to stare out the staff from outside the window, and at a fustrating 9.06,the door was finally opened. We dashed in, had to be content with non-heated chicken, and dashed out again, making it back across just in time for the bus.

The first priority once on was to make sure we sat in...yeah, you guessed it...the emergency exit seats. We got them and they didn't disappoint. Legroom was copious, and the sense of responsibility (should a crisis arise) gave us a certain pride - upping the moral barometer. The journey itself, despite seeming like a long time and running slightly behind schedule, was actually quite plesant. The legroom certainly helped, the air-conditioning was thankfully in full working order, and the views were always interesting, being breathtaking at best. We were impressed by our drivers as well. The first was surprisingly friendly for a bus driver, and narrated the various stages of our journey with a comfortingly husky tone reminiscent of Morgan Freeman. The second, whilst not as overtly smiley, did think to entertain the passengers with an in-depth description of the numerous medical ailments one could induce by smoking inside the enclosed bus area (climaxing with "if he goes into cardiac arrest, you're in big trouble..."). Legends.




9 and a half hours after setting of from the land of the banana slugs, we reached our luxury pier-side hotel in Ventura, a relatively small beachside town a couple of hours north of Los Angeles. The pro's of the hotel? A very spacious (pool-side) room, equipped with queen beds, a study area, en-suite bathroom, and kitchen facilities. Italso turned out to be near a great place to eat tonight...'The Habit'; a fast-food restaurant aiming to provide quality chargrilled burgers, rather than mass processed junk. As if Joe needed anymore convincing, an Aristotle quote on the wall sealed the deal (pointing out Aristotle's argument about the connection between excellence, virtue and 'habit', for those interested).

The cons of the hotel? Atrocious internet access, for one thing. Not only is there a mere one computer between all guests, but the internet is slow and inconsistent, meaning this blog will have to be posted a day late. Booo.

It's time for bed for us (good luck J getting the other J up tomorrow), before what should be an exciting day of beach freestyle.

Sorry for the delay!
Will update you again soon...

J and the other J