We'll always have Pismo.

The bright red family truckster 300ZX is washed, the windows cleaned, two weeks of junk shoveled out, and it's ready to roll. Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we're off to the land of mild temperatures, breaking waves, A. Pismo Clam, and a visit with my Mom, Betty, and my son, Jimmy. Our only regret: we can't leave today...Loretta has to work ya' know!

Traditionally, Pismo Beach on Labor Day Weekend is just another one of those over-crowded, tourist spots along the central coast of California. Besides being a beach resort town full of semi-fancy, expensive, over-rated motel properties perched on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific, it is also an area possessing one of the only drive-on beaches on the west coast. Every available grain of beach sand and every motel room will be occupied this weekend. The throng of fun-loving vacationeers have already descended on this normally quiet beach burgh. They come from Bakersfield and Boston, Salt Lake City and Singapore, Eureka and Europe. All types, shapes, and sizes of happy hopefuls roll in with their suitcases, tents, R.V's, air mattresses, boogey boards, and, of course, money. Labor Day is one of several big holiday weekends that allow many local businesses to survive financially the rest of the year. It is also the biggest and the last opportunity to suck tourist's wallets dry before the long, relatively quiet Fall and Winter. The Last Hurrah.

We used to live there. Now, Pismo Beach for us is an occasional overnight stay in our favorite motel on a few non-holiday weekends. By design, we never go there when it is busy. It's just too crazy, too congested, and too expensive. Motel room rates skyrocket on holidays. Not to mention getting a reservation being downright impossible. We defer our old stomping grounds to occupation by visitors from the East...and North, South, and West. Loretta and I are spending the night at my Mom's place.

So what will we do while we are there? We'll visit...that's about it. Considering the temporary over-population issue and the short amount of time there, we will say a few quick "Hello's", snap some photos of the sunset at Shell Beach, inhale the seabreeze, make dinner for my Mom, then get ready to drive back home the next morning.

All in all, it will be a nominal opportunity to get out of Dodge for a little while, to escape the 100+ degree temperatures of the valley, and visit with a few people we care about and don't often see. We'll see and feel the ocean for a few short moments; something that always seems to provide a small yet welcome amount of rejuvenation in our lives.

Reminiscent of that line from Casablanca, "We'll always have Pismo!"