I set off fairly early after a coffee in the breakfast room. I had to get 'gas' for the car as there was just under quarter of a tank left. I tried to add petrol but nothing was coming out of the nozzel. I had to lock everything up to go into the petrol station to ask the cashier what I was doing wrong. Funny enough you have to pay first, which is odd since I was not sure how much I would need to fill up. It was $28 in fact and its full now.Heading north the road turned into exactly how I expected. One lane in some places and quite twisty, turny. I have to say the drivers in the whole are very pleasant and don't tend to ride on your arse waiting to overtake... they keep back & hope that you will veer off to let them past.I headed to Hearst Castle which is a 115 bedroom mansion that was owned and renovated by Mr Hearst. He was apparently a newspaper moghul whose legacy is still worth billions. The tours are $20 and there were 4 to chose from, but I just went on the first available. Buses took us along the long, winding driveway to the house. Our guide took us into one of the 3 guest houses and then into the drawing room, billiards room and into the in-house cinema. We also went past the tennis courts and into the indoor pool area.... very flash. Apparently this was where late night romantic trysts occurred. The house was very nice, but a lot of the items in it are gleaned from Europe like the statues, ceilings and wall tapestries. There was even a statue from Egypt. A bit OTT if you ask me. Still very interesting. One brilliant thing when I left was that I picked up 3 booklets that give discounts on hotels in California, Nevada & Utah - lovely.I went along the coast and saw the elephant sea lions which lie on the coast. One of the rangers told me that the babies were the darker colours and were full of their mothers milk.I drove through the Big Sur - stunning scenery indeed. Headed into Monterey later in the day than I expected. Checked into the El Adobe Inn and went out looking for food. Ended up in The Mucky Duck of all places, but the steak, beer & two glasses of red where delicious. In car park of the Inn, I bumped into a chappie I had walked past earlier & we exchanged hello's. He had been wearing white plus-fours... nice! Chatted to him and his two friends for a while and they gave me their cards and said that if I needed anything on the trip to call them. There is even a free-phone number for one of them. A little too friendly???!