Goodbye, California

We have been on the road for a little over 15 months, and a full 5 months of that has been spent in California. The state is huge, and it has 9 National Parks (most of any state).

Point Reyes doesn't belong on this map; it's a National Seashore, not a National Park

I'm ready to move on, but there are some things I'll miss. Off the top of my head...

1. The beauty. With a few exceptions (I'm looking at you, Central Valley), the state is absolutely beautiful. And yes, that includes the desert portions. It's a different kind of beauty down there, but the desert is stunning in many ways.
2. The fresh produce. What it lacks in beauty, the Central Valley makes up for in productivity.
3. The lack of bugs. I have no idea if this is due to time of year, location, or dumb luck, but there have been remarkably few bugs during our time here.
4. The mild weather. I'll freely admit that this was largely due to our itinerary. The beauty of living in a house on wheels is that you can chase the good weather. While much of the rest of the country was baking in 100+ degree weather this week, we've been enjoying a Mediterranean 60 and sunny.
5. The ocean. I love water. I've never been tempted to settled down on the Atlantic, but the Pacific is a different animal. I love the rocky coast and the crashing waves. If I ever stumbled across 10s of millions of dollars, I might just have to get a house overlooking it.

Ah, but it's not all unicorns and rainbows here (in fact, we saw zero unicorns and only one rainbow). There are a few things I definitely will not miss about California.

1. The prices of gas. Gas prices have never been good in California, but with some help from the economy and Russia, they are truly awful now. The most we've paid per gallon is somewhere around $6.50, and the most expensive fill-up was somewhere around $350. Ouch. At least I'm not driving a diesel.
2. The prices of groceries. I've had to consciously stop worrying about prices when we shop, and I definitely had to stop comparing them to back home ("Orange juice used to cost me..."). We have to eat, and we're fortunate to be able to afford to pay elevated prices, but man, it's painful.
3. The price of food at restaurants. I used to be able to feed the entire family at Taco Bell for $25. Now it's $10+ to feed just me, and I order less than I used to.
4. The price of everything. This is a very expensive state. I now see why people can make well into the 6 figures and still struggle to pay bills. Yes, that's a thing out here.
5. Water shortages. To be fair, this is the entire American west, not just California. It's bad. Really, really bad. Don't laugh, but before this trip I had no idea there was such a thing as a dry river (my first sight of the Rio Grande in Colorado was a dry bed of rocks). Growing up in the east, rivers flow year round. While some rivers out west are definitely seasonal, others are dry because people are sucking more water out than the climate is putting in. That also means reservoirs are way down because they have less water flowing into them.
6. Allergies. Oh, my goodness. I've had allergies my entire life, but my body was not prepared for whatever it is that blooms out here. It was awful.