Before I get on with it... I have finally figured out what to do about the clicking on the picture thing.  If you click on a picture, a new window will open with a large view of that picture.  I won't guarantee that I will REMEMBER how to do it.. but for this post, you can click!

The Ortega Highway (CA 74) winds through the mountains Easterly to Westerly from the Lake Elsinore Valley to San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Here is the Eastern entrance to The Ortega Highway.  After "The Pineapple Express" blew through last week, the road was closed due to numerous mud slides - the traffic cones you see surround a portable highway message board that read something like this ... Ortega Closed beyond Candy Street. 

In the earliest beginnings, the highway was nothing more than Indian footpaths, and a fire trail along the creek.

The earliest visionaries saw it as a highway to the Pacific Ocean.

Some of these words are from http://www.theortegahighway.com/OrtegaHighwayHistory.html.   I wasn’t denied use of this opening summary, but I didn’t exactly go through any labors to seek permission either. I do believe there is enough “me” in it to assign a very low value of plagiarism. The rest of the text is all me – as will be obvious.

Here is the view of Lake Elsinore (and Valley) with snow capped mountains in the background from the 1st pull out on the Ortega.  Becky and I both are very familiar with the California Highways that cross the mountains from The Silicone Valley up in the San Francisco area over to the Half Moon Bay area on the Pacific. 
 

 
Some of the geography is the same as those Northern passes, but some is completely different as the pictures above and below show.  Then again, if you have never been on those Bay Area passes you really wouldn't know the difference.
 

We have this view from our RV... well... the mountain is bit further off  but I did notice these folks our first day in the park.

They are not "hang gliding" or "sky diving" in the traditional sense yet their lift mechanisms look like standard parachutes.  I guess without any research I would call what they are doing... "para-sailing".  I have to check that out and determine if I have just invented a word / sport, or if that is actually what the sport is.  I know for sure they were catching "thermals" and "updrafts off the mountain.

Somewhere near the midpoint of the drive, between San Juan Hot Springs and Lakeland Village we stopped at a country store that, among much other stuff, sells wild game jerky - I have never had Elk Jerky so I paid an outrageous amount for a little vacuum packed bag.  It is really good by the way. 

Where was I... oh yeah, across the street from the country store is a "biker bar" - the message on the board outside the place speaks for itself!

I never did consider myself very good at sketching, drawing, painting etc.  Matter of fact most all forms of art have escaped me.  But in a sense, this picture I took could very well take an award at some symbolic form of nude art photography. 

 I took the picture because of the two "mounds" in the background - I admit it freely.  Come on!  They look like boobs - right?  It wasn't until I downloaded or uploaded (whatever) the pictures into the computer that I noticed the bush in the foreground and the overall subtle implication.  That's all I have to say about that!

Now then... Becky thought I was nuts when I asked her to take this picture.  It is our first view of the Pacific.  Those of you that have been following our sojourn know that we departed Bar Harbor, ME in the middle of October and took a rather zig-zagged course here to CA.  Well, I thought the first peek at the Pacific was rather exciting.

San Juan Capistrano is a beautiful town near the coast.  I am not sure if "Dana Point" is within the city limits of SJC or not.  In either case, the shot above is of the anchorage of the Dana Point Yacht Club.

The breakwater protecting the Yacht Club, Dana Harbor and public area seen above is about a quarter mile long.  Beyond is the only picture I have looking out into the Pacific.

I wasn't about to cap a 4500 mile coast to coast trip without getting my feet wet.  Yes the water is cold.

So that's about it... The Ortega Highway is a great day trip to the coast, we will return.  Come to think of it, we will return to Capistrano with the Sparrows (or whatever) in March.  Right now those cute little birdies are here in the Lake Elsinore Valley - crapping all over the roof of the RV.

And to wrap this thing up....