Vallejo to Crescent City

First stop was the KOA in Cloverdale CA. A pretty spot is the swing where you can look down Alexander Valley.




Then on to MacKerricher State Beach, where I had lunch.









Stopped to take a pic of the Mendocino coastline.









Then on to Humboldt Lagoon.









At a place called Elk Meadow, I saw these two lying in the tall grass. I was careful not to spook them in any way as I can't see me outrunning one or battling one.









Next stop was Klamath Beach, about 20 miles or so from Crescent City. First shot is looking south, next is looking north.













And finally, at the Crescent City KOA, about 5 miles north of town on Hwy 101. One pic shows my rig with the Admin. Bldg. in background. The other shows towering redwoods very close.

Day on the Bay

Memorial Day Monday: Awakened at 5.30 am by brother, in car by 6 to drive to Napa to the Sea Scouts base. There we boarded a charter bus to drive back to the Bay area to Alameda Navy Base. This first picture is my brother Harland ("Orlando"), his son Alex, and Alex's girlfriend Azure (nice young woman; I liked her). We're on the docks at Alameda.

This next pic is all family: me, Alex, and Harland, in front of the USS Hornet, now a museum.
The white boat on the left is the "Chaser," the Napa Sea Scouts boat on which we'll be traveling. Below to the left are some of the other ships moored near the Hornet. Most of them are named after state nicknames and are ships that fix other ships.




Below to the right is a picture of the San Francisco skyline from the Bay.







And here's the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge looking north toward Marin County. They did a swoop under the bridge just for us.

Then we wended our way to the San Rafael Straits into the Napa River, arriving at the Scout base around 5pm.

Then H drove me back to my rig in a glorified parking lot in Vallejo and dropped me off for some much needed rest.

All in all, a nice day, one I'm glad to have participated in. There were about 30 people on the Chaser, scouts, officers, friends and family.

SF Weekend

I decided I really really didn't want to go back into SF, not least because they couldn't find a more level spot for me to park. So last Wednesday I left Quinn's and hied myself to Vallejo, just over the river from Richmond (north of Berkeley). I had found a place to put the RV -- a lovely paved sited called Trailer City RV. They sell RVs and also have a trailer park out back with a few spaces for RVs. However, it's full hookups and not far from SF.

Today (Sat.) I took a cab to the ferry terminal and took a ride to SF down the Mare Island Straits into the mouth of the Sacramento River and out into the Bay itself. Takes about an hour. Saw Alcatraz and could just barely make out the Golden Gate Bridge, it was so foggy and overcast. Landed at the Ferry Bldg. which is full of upscale stores and boutiques of food and wine. There's even a caviar cafe with tastings, like the wine shop across the way.

This evening H and I attended the graduating party for all the dance classes that David Blood taught this past semester. Potluck food. Eventually, there was about 100 people there. For some reason (maybe the weather change), I didn't want to dance. We stayed about 3 hours.

Tomorrow will be a lazy day (I hope; H doesn't do lazy very well). Monday, we leave here about 6am to arrive at the Sea Scout base in Napa at 7am, board a bus which will bring us all back down to the SF area, Alameda to be exact, where we will board the twin-diesel boat the Sea Scouts will pilot back to Napa. Dizzy yet? Then H will drop me off at my RV on the way back to the city from Napa.

Tuesday I'll get ready to leave. Wednesday, I start north to Crescent City.

Lobster, Anyone?

Today, Quinn treated me to lunch at a spiffy Italian restaurant, Salute, at Marina Bay in Richmond CA. Too breezy to sit outside but inside was very nice. We started with bruschetta (fabulous bread!) and carpaccio. She had crepes with a seafood melange filling, and I had lobster ravioli. Scrumptious! I saved the last piece of bruschetta with tomato, dumped the diced tomato into the remains of the cream sauce, and sopped it all up with the bread. Had a nice sauvignon blanc to go with it all.

Now, tummy distended, humming in the back of my throat where the taste lingers, I'm ready for a replete nap with a smile on my face.

Will be going back into Bernal Heights tomorrow, after dumping my tanks. Deborah's gone for a week, so H and I will play house and I will park on a much leveler street.

Last from SF

Moving to Berkeley today, so here's a few last photos from Deborah's house.

Tilt-a-Rig

This is the angle my rig has been sitting at since last week. Everything is braced against sliding, including me. I've stopped sleeping in the cabover as I was thrown against the front side and all the storage bins there. Am sleeping on the sofa with my feet braced against the bulkhead to keep me from sliding into the driving compartment. Fun, eh?

And She Swings, Too

Am I Having Fun Yet?

I Think So

And They Swing

Sunday in Golden Gate Park: The bearded guy is my brother, dancing with Deborah.

Small threat -- a picture of me dancing.

Still in SF w/pix

The wall in D's garden


Was planned to move to Napa today but brother decided he could fix the black tank right here on the street. So he took out the black tank (after some swearing and stripped screws). This also entailed undoing the toilet (which we're going to put back in at a slightly new angle, both to bite the screws into new wood and to keep my knees from banging the wall). Anyhow, the outlet pipe has such a big crack it would have come off fairly soon. Turns out the tank isn't supported very well so that join flexed a lot. Much fiberglass and cement later, he's outside putting it all back together.

He's a really good guy (but I really owe him now).

Yesterday, I rode along with Deborah down to the Dahlia Dell in Golden Gate Park, which she keeps up, along with some volunteers. I wanted to get my hair cut so we found a listing for one not too far away from there. She gave me directions, which I attempted to follow but managed not to. So instead of coming out at 9th and Fulton, I came out at 19th and Irving. Not good, I said to myself. I also didn't have her cell phone number, so I called my brother, who was working on his boat, to tell him to call Deborah and have her call me. By the end of all this, I was hot, tired, thirsty, hungry, and pissed. So I hailed a cab and rode back to the Dahlia Dell and collapsed on a bench at the step by this conservatory next to the dell.



She was so nice, and horrified at how wrong I'd gone, that she drove me to the salon, put me out, found a parking place, bought a drink and brought it to me and waiting through my haircut. She's a sweetie, too. The cut isn't the best I've ever had, and I wound up looking like Julius Caesar as played by Richard Burton. But I washed and dried it myself today and it looks much better.

Then there was the plan to sail the Bay over to the big fireworks display to be held at 9pm, eat a picnic on board, and sail back. At night. So it was about 6pm when we started out, into a fairly hefty wind and really choppy water (up, boom boom, thud, splash). The jibsail came loose she H had to go forward to deal with it, D had to pilot and quickly got soaking wet. After about an hour of this (H had put on his foul weather gear; D and I didn't have such), we all agreed this was not fun. So back to the marina. Back to the house for dry clothes. Off in the car to the top of a hill where we sat in the car and ate our picnic and then the fireworks came and they were definitely spectacular (but dry is even better).

Red flowers in D's garden


Calla lily in D's garden --

Tustin to SF

Left Tustin about 11am Tues. so as to miss "rush hour." Still seemed like a mad rush to me. Got to Burbank and realized that's where Dark Delicacies Bookstore is. I've known the owners, Sue and Del, since 1997. Was nice to see them for real again and see their store.

Began threading the Grapevine up I-5 through the Angeles National Forest. The semis and I were grinding up the mountains about 20mph and freewheeling down the other side, over and over. About 4pm I found a Flying J truckstop, realized I hadn't eaten all day, and decided to stay right there for the night. Managed to make the grand total of 105 miles.

Next day, after breakfast, I started 7.30am and cut over to Paso Robles to pick up CA 101. Made it to my brother's marina about 4pm. The security guy rolled around and said campers weren't allowed, but I told him my brother's boat was here and he's out of town till late tonight and I'd be gone in the morning. So he graciously allowed me to stay.

About 9am I got back on 101 to go into the city. Hooray for GPS -- I'm loving this thing. I managed to get the rig up some streets and down some streets, but when my brother wanted me to back the rig up to get it set better, the little four-banger decided it couldn't push 5000 lbs up a hill. So I made H drive it around the block and repark it. So I'm set here in Bernal Heights until Sunday when I'll move to an RV park over in Vallejo, just off I-80.

The street is so steep that I have to hold onto things in the rig to go from back to front. At least there's no fear of rolling out of bed.

Enjoy the pictures.

SoCal Desert Trip Pix

Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park near Twentynine Palms CA.

Desert scene at night with crescent moon (more or less).


Joshua Tree
Ocotillo branches with hummingbird -- sitting.


Ice plant at San Clemente State Beach Park


Evening from our site

SoCal Update

It turned out that the San Onofre State Beach wasn't open yet for the season. By the time we discovered this, it was about 9pm and we were all exhausted. So we spent Sat. night in a Walmart parking lot (first experience for H & D). Then we trundled off to San Clemente State Beach to just park in the day lot, have breakfast, and look at the ocean (way down below the bluff we were on). It was so nice that we decided to grab a spot in the campground. They gave us a spot with a great view of the cliffs and ocean and we were settled in by noon. Spent a relaxing afternoon.

Mon about noon we left there and H was determined to have lunch down on the pier, so he maneuvered us down through town to the beach. There's one restaurant at the head of the pier where he and I had seafood brochettes. D is deathly allergic to shellfish so she walked out to the end of the pier and watched the surfers.

Arrived back in Tustin at Jon & Jennifer's (he's D's brother) and began the unloading and sorting process, including washing clothes. It's now Tues am and I'm almost ready to hit the road on the trek to the Bay Area. Finally got the pics transferred to the computer and will make a selection soon and post them for all to see.

Later.

Desert Week

Forgot to bring along the cable to download pics from camera to laptop so no pictures until later. Tues. night and Wed night we were at Joshua Tree National Park at Jumbo Rocks Campground. Thurs. moved south in Joshua Tree to Cottonwood Spring Campground -- lower by about 1000 feet and correspondingly hotter. Today went by the Gen. Patton Museum (I lolled about in the shade) and then drove through a canyon to Anza-Borrego National Park but didn't camp there. Instead we are in a luxurious RV "resort" called Borrego Springs, with a pool and wifi and showers etc etc. We all though we deserved a little spoiling after four days with no services (including cellphone and computer).

Tomorrow we're heading to San Onofre Beach for two days and then back to Tustin, a day to unload and clean the rig, and then off to the Bay Area.