Cosmic Power Trip 1998 -- Pea Soup Andersen's Rally

The date was set for 8 August 1998. Jennie Hango flew into San Jose from Boston on the 6th, where she was met at the airport by Jeff Allen and Beth and Jon Leonard. After an obligatory trip to In 'N' Out Burger & a visit to Jon & Beth's house, Jennie & Jeff headed back to Palo Alto. Jennie spent the next day goofing around in the Bay Area and had lunch with Doug Wade. That evening, Jennie and Jeff waited for the SoCal contingent to arrive. Around 1am, they rolled in. Jim Frinier, Ocie Mitchell, and Paul Berry were ready to catch a few ZZZZs before the early morning departure of 5:30am. Jennie had the first leg of the trip, and she would've made both Bostonians and Angelinos proud. It's 93 miles from Palo Alto to Santa Nella, and about 20 or 30 of those are on a 2-lane road. Jeff had made a reservation for 7:00am, when Andersen's opens, and made sure that we'd be able to get soup that early. We rolled into the parking lot at 6:59am. Alas! We were not the first people into the restaurant! We're pretty sure we had the first bowls of soup, though. A small side note: Jim doesn't like Split Pea Soup, and Jennie was dubious about it. Since this was a Rally, rally rules applied. Each person in the car had to eat a bowl full of soup at each restaurant. Anyway, we walked in & sat down & ordered the soup. Then we went to the gift shop while we were waiting. Jim bought a soup gift mug, which we later decided to eat in the event of getting to Carlsbad after they closed. We also got postcards, and discovered one of those souvenir penny machines. You know, the kind that flatten a penny and impress some sort of special design on one side. For 50 cents, who could go wrong? We got our soup at about 7:20, and proceeded to eat. We convinced our waitress to take our picture, and we asked about the exocommunication of the Carlsbad store. We saw a sign on the wall when we entered stating that "The Carlsbad Andersen's is no longer affiliated with the Andersen's chain." Was there some sort of schism? We were eager to find out. Our waitress wasn't able to shed much light on the subject, so we resolved to investigate this mystery at our future stops. After having our pictures taken by the Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee board, we left lovely Santa Nella at about 7:45, and promptly started heading the wrong way on CA-152. We pulled a U-turn in the middle of the highway, and drove like hell for Selma.

While driving downt he highway, Ocie came up with a new "______-er? I hardly know here" phrase, and it was decided that that "letter opener" needed to be relayed to Mark Wilkins immediately. But, it would need to be told by e-mail, rather than by telephone (it being approximately 8:20 am on a Saturday). Using Jim's cell phone, Jeff called support at WebTV and convinced one of his coworkers to su to his account and send the mail to Mark. Talk about geeky! Anyway, we continued on to Selma, and hit the parking lot at 9:03. We spent 3 minutes in our U-turn maneuver back in Santa Nella, so we all lamented that wrong turn (Jeff had made reservations for Santa Nella for 9:00am). We were promptly seated and again ordered 5 bowls of soup. Selma had the best presentation, hands down. Five bowls were brought out, as well as an oversized teapot full of soup. The soup was poured for each of us, and we dug in. We again had our pictures taken, and when the manager heard our story, she came over to say hello to us. As we were nearing the bottoms of the bowls, Ocie suddenly pushed his away. As there were several spoonfuls of soup left, we all began to tease him about not finishing. He then said, "No, there's a fly in my soup." Sure enough, there was a little black fly doing the backstroke. We all agreed that he didn't need to finish his soup, and at least some of us tried to ignore the knowledge that the bowls had all been clean, and that we'd all gotten our soup from the same source (thanks, Jim....). The news got back to the manager, and she felt bad about it, so she decided to give us a tour of the entire place. The Selma Andersen's is the newest restaurant and hotel, and they put a lot of work into the buildings and grounds. They have a small train, as well as a koi pond and two black swans. Alas, the train didn't start running until 10:30am, and we had to get back on the road. After having our pictures taken at the Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee sign (again), we left. Of note: Jim found a new way to make stamps adhere to postcards -- he dunked the stamp into the soup & then stuck it to the card. Slimyu and damp, definitely. No word on whether the postcards were actually delivered. We were unable to find one of the penny-smashing machines, though it could've been in the gift shop that didn't open until after we left. At about 10:00, we set out again, with Buellton as our destination.

This Selma-to-Buellton segment would be the most gruelling leg of the journey, because very little of the 192.8 miles would be on the freeway. We crossed I-5 at Buttonwillow and stopped for the first non-Andersen's food of the day: In 'N' Out Burger milkshakes. We refueled as well, and finally switched drivers. Ocie took over the drive through the mountains. We made pretty good time until we got close to Attascadero. As the road drops down out of the hills, it takes some pretty tight turns, and the map does not do it justice. Once we got into town, we quickly found US-101. Before heading south, though, we stopped at an A&W Rootbeer restaurant for soda and "real food" and a pee break. We then resumed our journey. We drove through San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria and were then only a few short miles from Pea Soup Andersen's Ground Zero.

Buellton was, is, the Original Andersen's. It started as a small roadside restaurant. As its reputation for Split Pea Soup spread, the restaurant grew, added a gift shop & bakery, and eventually, 3 more restaurants joined the chain.

We entered the city limits of Buellton, and took the Avenue of Flags exit. The Avenue is a stretch of old U.S. Route 101, back when it was just a divided highway, rather than a freeway. When the freeway went through, they realigned 101 a few hundred yards to the east, and the old stretch of road was turned into something of a park. Traffic still drives on the old road, but the median has been converted to a park, and the flags of many nations are flown along its edges. The Andersen's in Buellton has the most Pea Soup Andersen's decorations. There is a map showing the four Andersen's Restaurants, large pictures of Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, a windmill, and several prominent signs saying Andersen's. We walked in & sat down, & ordered our soup. Then we went to take a look in the gift shop.

More of the story is to come; I just haven't had the time to write it down yet. Here are the rest of the pictures of note from the trip.