MrGrumpy goes to the Laundromat

Today was the day MrGrumpy had to do his laundry, he was almost out of shirts and had a visit to Oregon for two days coming up. Now this should be easy but it filled MrGrumpy with dread, he could tell before leaving home that something would be difficult or go wrong.
MrGrumpy decided it would be a better use of his time to simply drop of the Laundry and pay to get it washed, dried and folded, sub $25, so less than a haircut and less could go wrong.

While his washing was being done, it was also time for him to treat the Mustang to some new fluids, off to see MrJiffyLube. As MrGrumpy did not know much about the history of the Mustang and it was now at 160,600 miles, he decided to get pretty much everything changed, oil & filter, Auto Transmission oil, rear differential oil, Air filter and Fuel Filter. When MrJiffyLube changed the fuel filter, he told MrGrumpy that it was pretty old and would recommend a fuel system clean / flush, MrGrumpy only intended to do such a major service once, so got it done. Just over an hour later and it was all done and MrGrumpy's wallet felt quite a bit lighter. Still he had saved on his budget buying the car, there was no point in him not servicing it well.

MrGrumpy felt this was going to be quite an expensive saturday morning. On the way back from the service, he called in at GPSports, a local motorcycle dealer, just to take a look at how much bikes in the US. He resisted looking too close, the cheapest bike he saw was $8500 for a Suzuki M109R with 8000 miles on it...  MrGrumpy could be tempted if he were over here for more than a year.

Capitola Beach

It was about midday and MrGrumpy was not sure what to do for the afternoon, he thought about going down to Monterey or Big Basin, while heading down highway 17 towards Santa Cruz he decided to stop at Capitola beach and take a wander around. Capitola was another little Californian town with a beach and pier.  MrGrumpy paid for a couple of hours parking as he was lucky to find a parking spot near the beach and off he went, camera in hand. He wandered around taking photos, it was a little cooler near the coast, but still hot enough for MrGrumpy.

He was glad he now had a hat, except it did get in the way of taking photos, so quite often he had to turn it round backwards so he could use the viewfinder (Photos link has been updated). While chatting to some Harley owners MrGrumpy was asked if he wanted a photo of himself, this would be the first photo of MrGrumpy in California (not taken by himself).

MrGrumpy was now getting quite thirsty, "must be beer o'clock" he thought, there were plenty of places to eat, but he really just wanted a refreshing pint and to sit down and rest his still hurting feet. He found the Britania Arms, did not look anything like an English pub on the outside, but had beer and various UK items on the walls. MrGrumpy sat at the bar and ordered a pint of IPA, which went down really nicely. He sat for a while watching the  TVs which were showing various sports.

MrGrumpy received a call telling him is laundry was ready to collect, so as he was about out of parking time, he decided to head back and collect it.

To his surprise, all the trousers and shirts were on hangers and everything else was shrink wrapped. This made MrGrumpy quite happy as it looked like he would not need to buy an iron and board after all.

So all that was left for today was for him to find somewhere to eat, this is always quite difficult as MrGrumpy's middle name is indecisive and he really dislikes choosing what to eat.

It was 7:25pm and MrGrumpy had heard on the radio that today there was a "Super Moon", the day when the moon is at it's closest and will appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter, he decided a good spot to try and get photos may be Santa Cruz, so he got in the mustang and drove down to the beach. He arrive at 7:55, the sun was just setting and there was no moon yet. He waited and walked along the boardwalk, taking some general shots as he went. Around 8:15 he could see the moon rising above the  cliffs, it was a little larger than normal and quite bright, but as he was by the beach it was difficult to really get anything in the shot that showed scale, he took a few photos but was not really happy with them, he really needed a longer lens and a better view point. Anyway he had made the effort to get some shots, so he did not feel the trip was wasted.

Time for a some food before heading home, MrPizza it was to be, unfortunately it was not the best, just overcooked and the base was a bit too much like a biscuit like for his taste. MrGrumpy boxed up 1/2, just incase he was hungry later and drove back up Highway 17 home.