California 4

I started writing this thing yesterday and then stopped because I was getting really boring listing in order the places we’ve been. Today we moved north out of the San Francisco area and are now at the Sonoma County Event Center RV Park in Santa Rosa, CA. Event Center is the new name for the county fairgrounds. We stayed in the San Mateo County Event Center (SMCEC) just south of San Francisco for the last 5 days. We stayed an extra day there because we had to fix the front wheel on the camper that was damaged at the toll booth on our way across the bay. I am way ahead of myself because before we even came to the bay area we spent 3 weeks up near Yosemite National Park.  This is what I wrote yesterday.

Yosemite to San Francisco with no flowers in my hair though I thought about stealing some flowers from the Golden Gate park just for a picture. But first I want to talk about Yosemite, the most

beautiful place that we’ve seen so far. We stayed for about 3 weeks at the SKP Park Sierra up near Coarsegold, CA about 40 miles south of the Park. We put a lot of miles on our little car while we were there making several trips into Yosemite; one to Mariposa Grove to see the giant Sequoia’s, another ride from Coulterville through the park returning through the south gate where we stopped at Bridalveil Falls; a trip into the valley to see the famous views of Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls from the Valley floor, up to Glacier Point  and a 1.4 mile hike up (and I do mean UP) to Sentinal Dome to see the famous valley from the top, a 4.5 mile hike around the Wawona Meadow and another hike up to Chilnualna Falls. We took a break from Yosemite and spent a day going to Sequoia National Park. It was there that we got the beautiful pictures of the trees with fog and snow.

Our plans were to move to another park when Ken and Lori joined us but when we learned they were renting an RV instead of tent camping, we decided to stay where we were. Then Ken and Lori came with their friends Ed and Reiko with their 2 year old, Alex (AKA Action) for a few days. A bunch more miles while we followed them on a different route to the Park through Mariposa following the Merced River up into Yosemite Valley for some more amazingly beautiful views of the park. We lost track of our fellow travelers that day so we walked around the Valley again and then returned home. There was no way to contact them

as cell service was not available up there. Ed and Reiko took the camper home a day early having decided that was all the camping that Action could handle. On our last day there, we took Ken and Lori back up to Glacier Point in hopes of sharing those views with them. It poured down rain and we were in the clouds so the view was nonexistent though we could hear Nevada and Vernal Falls if we listened carefully. When the snow began to accumulate on the roof of the car, we decided to head down the narrow switchbacks to lower ground. We repeated the hike around Wawona Meadow. I have to say that we had enough winding roads going up and down mountains to last us for a while. I will post some pictures.

 

We stopped at a Harvest Hosts venue, Gnekow Family Winery halfway to San Francisco for a night with Ken and Lori. There was not much going on at the winery as they had no water because of a broken pipe. We were treated to a wine tasting and purchased some bottles of wine. It was a beautiful sunny day so we walked around the winery and a neighboring organic dairy before we set up our Smokey Joe and barbequed some chicken.

So last Saturday, we made our way to San Francisco or more accurately, San Mateo. That is where we encountered the toll booth on the Dumbarton Bridge. Facebook friends have probably already heard about the impossibility of getting this rig through a normal toll booth. We had to learn the hard way. It wasn’t as simple as backing up and going to another booth. We couldn’t back up because we were towing the car. And we couldn’t get out of the camper to unhook the car because we were about 6 inches from a concrete barricade and couldn’t open the door. We couldn’t explain the problem to the toll booth attendant because he did not speak English well enough for us to communicate this to him. Another attendant attempted to give us advice and eventually called the tow truck. The tow truck driver was able to catch me exiting through the window while Don and Kenny held my arms and lowered me the 10 feet to the ground. Then with the tow truck driver’s assistance, I was able to get the car unhooked and get the hitch stowed on the back of the bus. It seemed like a very long time but it was probably about half an hour for the whole thing.  That is why we spent an extra day in the parking lot of SMCEC fixing the wheel on the RV.

Early on in our travels, I informed Don that I was not interested in becoming a diesel mechanic or an RV repair person and would just as soon pay someone to fix our camper. Well that was easy to say. If we decided to take this small repair to a shop we would be waiting for days to get it fixed. We had an appointment that we set up weeks ago to get the Aqua Hot fixed near San Francisco. When we canceled it yesterday because we couldn’t drive until we fixed the wheel they said it would be June 10 before they could get us in. That repair will be a while. We have an appointment set up in Eugene, OR for our hubcap and lug nut covers in a couple of weeks. So now I know how to siphon the oil out of that oil cap thingy, and replace the thingy. That part was available at NAPA Auto Parts. Next project is to rewire the driver’s seat since I swiveled the seat around the wrong way and disconnected the wires. This isn’t the first time this wiring has to be done. The previous owners already made this repair once.

Saturday night we had dinner with Don’s cousin Susan at her house with her friend Bill. After dinner, they came over to the camper while Don and Susan continued to reminisce about growing up in Montana. Susan moved to this area in 1969 as a computer programmer  for IBM and continues to work in the industry though she left IBM and programming many years ago. Her career has spanned the technological revolution. Her mother (Don’s mother’s sister) still lives in Montana. We will stop to see her when we are there.

On Sunday, Don and I set out to explore San Francisco. Fortunately we wore sweatshirts and windbreakers as it was cold. An article in the paper said that fishing boats at Fisherman’s Wharf would do boat tours to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. We decided to use mass transit


and took the train into the city and the bus to the Wharf. Sure enough a young man was selling a boat tour and we joined in. It was a chilly overcast day but riding on the front of the boat with the theme song to Gilligan’s Island and If You Come to San Fancisco blaring from the speakers just seemed right though I did wonder about whatever happened to that “new generation”.  Our tour guide was entertaining and he is the one who took the picture of us with the bridge in the background. We walked around the wharf and stopped to sit on a bench where we met a Canadian couple who said they are interested in reading my blog. Here is a hello to you if you are reading this. We found our way to the Victorian Houses by Alamo Park (the painted ladies). Picture included. I think most of the pictures I’ve taken this week are the same as you see in tourist brochures. But that is the way it is.

On Monday afternoon, we drove into San Francisco and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, had dinner on Fisherman’s Wharf and then drove over to see the crookedest road in the world (Lombard Street). More iconic pictures.

So yesterday we moved out of our camp site at SMCEC and saw the oil leaking out of the wheel that Don thought he repaired. That is why we spent the day there and this morning found our way out of the area and properly used the toll booth on the Richmond Bridge. Now we are in wine country and not far from the Pacific Coast.

Something that bothers me is this. Don’s cousin Susan informed me that from here on north in California people do not refer to the highways as “the 101” or “the 5”. They are more like normal people and just use the highway name as in “Take 101 north to….”  So I guess that is what I will do.