Influenced by their experience as trailer owners dating back to the late 1930s, the Curreys were always on the look out for free places to stay. Dad preferred to limit each day's drive to around 300 miles so longer runs like that between Nipomo and the California redwoods north of San Francisco always were a challenge.
For several years we dry-camped on the grounds of the then largely unrestored Mission Soledad in the Salinas valley. As I recall only the chapel had been rebuilt* and as you can see in the background of this photo, most of what was visible were crumbling adobe walls. The entire site was surrounded by fields of sugar beets and felt very remote.
[From my personal collection]
*According to Mission Soledad's website, the chapel was rebuilt in 1954 so this slide probably dates to 1955 or 1956.
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