Each journey has its highs and lows.  A high for us was San Francisco that offered us great weather, urban excitement, and our son, the reason for this Western jaunt.Leaving, our GPS (Magellen - nicknamed Maggie by us) led us astray.  I have heard the GPS called "generally poisinous snake" and it turned on us is San Fran.  We were to take the long way to the Point Reyes area, but as we were leaving the RV park a neigbor encouraged us to take the Golden Gate.  He said route 101 was fine through town and there was no toll northbound.  It would save us an hour in time.  We went for it.

We didn't notice until too late that Maggie took us off route 101 in town and eventually to Divisidero Street.  This led steeply up a hill to the north coast.  Steeper and steeper until we hit bottom once and then encountered a sign three blocks from the highway that recommended "no trucks!"  We turned and struggled to safely descend and find our way to the Golden Gate.  I was pleased to find that one does not ascend to this high bridge from the south.  Rather the ramp comes down to it from higher land. 

A bit later we stuggled with another decision.  Maggie wanted us to continue on route 101 while our maps indicated route 1 as the only signifigant road to the coast.  We turned off for route 1 and encountered another sign that recommended against taking long RV's  there.  We resorted to Maggie and continued north to a Sir Francis Drake Boulevard that worked just fine.  We, having sailed  across the Drake Channel in the Virgin Ilsands, chuckled that this pirate has attained such fame.  (More Soon.)

April 10, 2010 - Crescent City CA (Continued)

Passing the post office we realized we could pick up our mail before going to the campground.  A quick check of Maggie showed a street to the right leading to a cross road that led to another road that came back to the highway.  Perfect. 

I turned up what looked to be an adequate road and then watched it narrow significantly.  Not a good sign but the cross street was coming up quickly, or so showed Maggie.  I stopped but saw no cross street only a narrow gravel lane that looked more like a driveway than a street.  No way we would fit on that.  Another cross street showed ahead.  The road became very steep.  More of concern, the GPS showed the next and last turn being more than 90 degrees. 

Reaching it the street looked adequate, but the turn might not be possible.  Knowing that backing up is impossible with a car in tow I gave it my best shot but still ran out of space and bumped the root of a massive redwood.  The jig was up and we parked to unhook the car.  Of course someone else came up the road while we were blocking it completely.  She waited.

The mail was there and we enjoyed that.  Since the camp was only a couple of miles farther we drove separately into the campground.  There we checked in with some difficulty because the young woman at the booth couldn't seem to understand that we had one camper and one car.  She wanted to charge us separately for the car.  We finally showed her the receipt showing two vehicles paid for as a camping unit.  She let us in reluctantly saying she would leave a note for the ranger.  The issue was never resolved.  Each time we returned to camp with the car she asked where was our sticker and I had to say she didn't give us one for the dinghy.  She would then say, "OK" and waive us through.  The ranger never answered her note and she never gave us a sticker for the car.  We accepted the hassle as a small price to pay for our adventure.

Our stay in San Francisco was wonderful.  There we stayed in an RV park opposite the entrance to Candlestick Park.  Alex and I (Chuck) watched a baseball game there some years ago.  Today it is a football park.  That was good because it is baseball season and there were no crowds nor extra fee for camping.

The neighborhood was bad and a camper told us weeks ago we would not want to stay there.  We considered camping elsewhere, but this was six miles from Alex's apartment.  We chanced it and found the park lovely except that the campers were packed closely together.  Most importantly, the access to downtown was excellent.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and drove into the City that evening.  We found a parking space and walked about Alex's neighborhood waiting for his call.  Then  Anne cooked us all, Alex and his apartment-mates, and us, a great dinner.  After great conversation and puzzles we returned to our home and rested. 

On Saturday we joined the group in the morning and went with Alex by trolly to the Ferry Building Farmers' Market.  Then we stayed in the apartment while Alex biked for a couple of hours and prepared another dinner before parting.  Sunday morning, Anne and I took the auto tour through downtown and stopped near Fisherman's Wharf for a walkabout before joining Alex for the afternoon.  The three of us dined out that evening.

On Monday morning we met Alex in the financial district at the Wells Fargo Bank and Museum there.  Messers Wells and Fargo having experience in the transportaion industry formed a peculiar bank in San Francisco during the gold rush.  Finding transportaion an issue there their bank became involved in the stage and horseback mailing (pony express) business.  The museum is a public service (there is no charge) with displays of stage coaches, gold nuggets, telegraph, and banking services.  We have a small relationship with the firm being account holders at Wachovia Bank which was recently bought by Wells Fargo making us now account holders there and also stockholders of Wells Fargo.  This added to the fun.  We walked around the historic Jackson Square and separated below the Pyramid Building.  Anne and I had to return quickly to camp to check out and begin our short but somewhat difficult drive to the Point Reyes area. 

There we enjoyed a few quiet days to tour and catch up on chores.  The weather was grand the next morning so we drove out to the end of the peninsula.  Although the land is now federal, most of it remains in dairy and beef ranch.  The cattle enjoy wonderful views of the jagged coastline and surrounding sea.  Most of the land is prairie with small patches of woodland contoured by the wind.  The lighthouse is at the tip of the point on a rock well below higher ground of the peninsula behind.  We walked down the three hundred or so steps to the metal cylinder with a giant fresnel lens lamp.  There the electric horn rocked us every few seconds.  A few thousand common murre nest on an offshore rock.  We gazed at them and the numerous pairs of surf scoters that paddled beyond the surf.  On the grass above the light white-crowned sparrows and savannah sparrows sang their distinctive melodies. 

The next day we drove California Route 1 south almost to the Golden Gate stopping to glance at the adjacent cliffs and surf below.  We followed the San Andreas Fault the length across the northern peninsula.  No shaking while we were there.  Behind the coastal plateau a series of ridges, forested on the slope facing the ocean and prairied on the opposite side.  We were camped in Samuel Taylor State Park on the third slope where the forest sports a stand of redwood.  The stand was logged almost two hundred years ago.  Fortunately redwood grow from suckers when the crown is removed and two-hundred foot giant trees grow in groups of twos, threes, and fours around the space where their parent perished.  Wonderful.

Alex joined us on Friday evening by taking a ferry from San Francisco to the harbor town of Larkspur on the bay side.  He shared our camp among the redwoods over the weekend.  We hiked on Saturday and made a campfire in the evening beneath the mossy monsters.  On Sunday morning Anne made us all eggs Benedict and we breakfasted before returning Alex to the ferry and beginning our next leg of the journey.