We spent a few days in the Pismo Beach area. This post is a bit longer and has lots of information and recommendations on RV overnight parking, camping, and what to do in the Pismo Beach and Grover Beach area! Technically where we stayed was in Grover Beach. We stayed on Pismo State Beach at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. It was sick!! You can drive your car right on the beach!! I drove the bus on the beach!! So cool!! Driving the bus through the sand with the ocean ten feet to your side! This area was a whole new experience. People brought so many rigs and toys! There are sand dunes right behind the ocean where you camp and people bring their ATVs, dirt bikes, RZRs, and dune buggies to rip the dunes! It was a cool scene. By Friday there were huge groups of campers and RVs with all their toys surrounding them! People would set their camps up huge! You could tell people were super into the camping and the dunes there! When you go this area you need to lower your tire pressure drastically for driving through the sand and not getting stuck. The bus weighs about eighteen thousand pounds so we dropped that pressure way down to about thirty-five to forty psi. Also recommended to drive near the water in the wet sand, where it is more packed down, that way you do not bog down in the thick dry sand. These are my recommendations for bigger vehicles towing, RVs, and buses! If you have a truck, jeep, or similar vehicle you still want to lower the pressure, but you will be fine to cruise wherever. It was ten bucks a night to camp here. Five bucks for day use. On our first night in town we rolled in late and parked on the street. Seemed totally fine. No signs. Another RV. Turns out you cannot overnight park anywhere in Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, and the surrounding towns. First parking ticket in the bus… Not stoked on it. There were no signs where we parked that said we could not. There is a small street sign as you pull into town that says 72 hour parking. So I thought koosh! Nope!! The fine print below that 72 hour parking says no overnight parking… Makes no sense to me. Oh well! Fifty dollar street campsite. The first morning we went to the Oceano Dunes SRVA super early. It was very relieving driving on the beach next to the ocean in the early morning after waking up to a parking ticket!! I drove down the beach two miles to where you could start camping. Went to go post up in a spot sideways so we could see the ocean when sitting on the couch in the bus and quickly got stuck!! That loose dry sand… I said fuck it! Kev was still sleeping. I smoked a J and went back to sleep. Woke back up a couple hours later and the bus was definitely stuck. We dug her out a bit and as we were trying this guy and his family rolled up in a truck, said we wont get out of there, and he would help. His name was Jeff and they were from Idaho. He helped us lower tire pressure and then towed us out with his truck! Super helpful!! He also taught us good ways to drive on the sand and with this heavy of a vehicle to back into the spot we want to camp at. Thanks Jeff! He taught us the ways of the sand! Of course to top it all off, when we went to go start the bus to get her unstuck she did not start right away… One thing after another to start off our stay in Pismo! Do not ever let the man bring you down! We called hella shops and made a couple appointments for later in the week. Went to Panera Bread and used Kevin’s gift card to brighten the mood! After we went to an AutoZone to get two new batteries. So far the bus has been starting no problem. The batteries were about three years old so we think that was the problem. No issues so far!! We went back to Pismo State Beach and posted up for the night! The sunset every night on the beach was beautiful! We watched three sunsets over the ocean sitting in the front seats of the bus while on Pismo Beach!! Incredible! The next day we chilled haaaaard!! Finally made it! Posted on the beach in the bus next to the ocean, no problems! That day we did absolutely nothing! It was so nice! Sat on the beach and in the bus straight chillin! I guess we did things, but did not move the bus. It was great! We were just beach chillin, writing, reading, drank lots of tea, jumped in the ocean, walked on the beach, jammin and tried to make music, surf was not the best there, took photos, and would shell hunt!!! I found hella sand dollars!! There were so many!! CRAZY!!! It was absolutely superb how many sand dollars were on this beach!! HA! I do not know why, but I would come back with handfuls of sand dollars to the bus and say that to Kevin. Hundred of sand dollars man! That night we watched a movie in the bus! The wind was so strong every day we were there. Kind of uncomfortably strong… Made it a little cold in the day and not ideal chilling outside in the sand storm! Also not ideal having bonfires… Life is goooood! The next day we woke up and adventured the town of Pismo Beach! Had to prep the bus to pull out a bit. We dug out sand that had built up underneath the bus from all the wind. We had a shield set up on the side of the bus with the surfboard, a piece of sheet metal, and firewood, but sand still made its way under the bus. That was a common move. Put up shields on the side of your RV to block sand from building up underneath. The bus pulled out no problem! Parking in downtown Pismo Beach was chill. There are three hour parking spots super close to the beach and more no time limit parking on the side streets. We walked around town and on the boardwalk. The pier was our main reason for going and it was closed for reconstruction! No worries though! Still had a great time walking around. We ate a dollar and twenty-five cents worth of chocolate covered crickets, chocolate cover worms, and salt water taffy! Then we walked over to Pismo Brewing Company, tasted some beers, and drank a blonde! Pretty good beer!! One of the highlights of Pismo is what we did next! Kevin went busking for his first time! From working in a corporate office to playing music on the streets!! YEEEEA KEVIN! It all worked out perfect! I was like dude you should play for money for enchiladas! Kind of joking, but serious! A beer later, he was down! We posted up in a poppin spot by the pier and beach! He killed it! Got people to cheer, song requests, people dancing, watching, and enough money for enchiladas!! In a little less than two hours he had pulled in $20.44!!! He was jammin his guitar, harmonica, and singing!!! So cool! Crushed it!! He was super stoked and loving every second of it!! I was just sitting there watching the waves and listening to live music! Pretty rad! Longboarded around town a little bit as well!! We dropped off the guitar and longboard at the bus and hit up Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant!! Amigos for life!!!!!!! We got three baskets of chips n salsa, two shredded beef enchiladas con rice and beans, and a carne asada taco all from money Kevin made playing his guitar!!! Super koosh! Great day exploring Pismo! Really cool little town by the beach! Headed back to the dunes to watch the sunset and post up for the night! On the next day we slept in and chilled on the beach for a bit! Took off in the afternoon back to the beach by the pier to surf. It was super windy still and the waves were pretty intense. We kicked it there for a few hours. Both of us took a nap! Hard life… The waves never really got better, but Kevin still tried sending it!! He was out there for about twenty minutes, came back in, and was like that was so much work! After chilling at the beach all day I was going to go mountain biking. That was the plan… We went to the gas station to fill the tires back up so we could drive more than just around town and it took forever!! Putting air back in these big tires with a shitty gas station air hose sucks!! It took us about an hour! By the time we were done the sun had set and it was getting dark. It was definitely the most frustrated I have been in a while. It was chill though. To cope with it I was just sitting there on the street holding the air hose with my eyes closed imaging the time in Alaska when the snowmobile broke down and I had to hike super far to get out, over glaciers, and in high enough winds to blow you off a ridge. That was much worse… I could no problem handle this air at a gas station in civilization! HA! After getting all that done we were super stoked to have finished and on our time in Pismo Beach! Since we had just put air in the tires, we figured we would not go back to camp on the beach, and hit the road towards Santa Barbara! Amazing time in Pismo Beach! I really like that town! If you are driving the coast, I recommend stopping here and checking it out! If you have some time, definitely go to Pismo State Beach and camp at the Oceano Dunes SRVA!!! Had some random struggles, but nothing to get down about! Loving this beach life! Ski bummin in the summer! Really have been thinking about POW lately! Having withdrawals!!!! AHHHHH! No complaints! Cali has been hella cool! Beaches are amazing! Mountains are fantastic! Brother is super koosh! And bus is great! Living in a beach! THERE IS SAND EVERYWHERE!!!!

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