Yesterday we got the Bounder smog checked with no problems.  It is nice to have that out of the way. It was a much better experience than when we got our van smogged.  If you remember, a mechanic caused problem made it fail and almost cost us over $500 to fix  a problem that didn’t exist

We drove up the coast to go camping at Emma Woods State Campground.  They have closed all but 22 campsites for the season. Only two remained.  One was way too small for a 34 foot motorhome.  We backed into the other and it was really bad.  Also, we were side by side with neighbors on either sided. We chose to leave there and head south. 

Since we had never camped at Leo Carrillo, we decided to try it.  This is another very nice State campground with spacious sites, picnic table and fire ring.  There are no hookups, but who cares when you are self contained.

Leo Carrillo has lots of trees and if you didn’t know it you might think you were camped at Sycamore Canyon, which I have written about in the past.  It is also across the road from the ocean and beach.  The beach here is a popular surfing beach.

On our beach walk yesterday, the water was a very dirty reddish brown.  This is an indication of a red tide…..NO, not communists invading. A red tide is a massive algae bloom in the water.  It occurs when water gets warm and conditions are just right.  It can cover huge areas of water.  The problem with a red tide is that the algae deplete oxygen and kill off fish.

The wonderful thing about a red tide is watching it at night.  The organisms that make the water dirty looking in the day, make the water beautiful at night.  When they are shocked, like in the crashing of a wave, they luminesce.  As a wave is breaking it turns a beautiful blue color.  This color travels along the wave as it breaks from right to left.

To add even more to this gorgeous experience, the almost full moon was shining on the water. And, as if that weren’t enough there were about 9 surfers out surfing.  Their board cutting through the waves added the luminescence.