Oh yes, driving up the coast road. The trip from Monterey through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge was uneventful. It is a beautiful drive and the route was straight forward and traffic was mild. Carol got to drive through San Francisco and over the bridge as well as on into Sacramento. We used Thursday night to get some work done as well as some reading.
Friday We were picked up by Annalee and Jerry Braunstein. We met in Vermont at a FMCA Rally and I got friendly with them especially on an American Volkssport Association walk in Burlington. With them we toured the Capital – check off California. Then Jerry wanted to take us out to the delta area and lunch at “Al the Wops” in a Chinese Town that was built in 1915 to house the Chinese after an earlier town had burned down. The site provides some history of the Chinese in this part of California.
As five o’clock approached we returned to Gee 2 to prepare to drive to Davis to see niece Minda and her fiancée Will Fertman. We had a lovely dinner in their small grad student apartment just off the UC Davis Campus. We also spent Saturday with them. They chose a route to Sonoma and Minda had chosen a wonderful restaurant “The Fig and the Girl” for dinner. Carol and I treated and the cheese plate Will selected was wonderful – if a bit skimpy by his standards and the wine I chose was also pretty good. We dined well and fortunately we had left the car a couple of miles away so we had a nice walk to recover from the dinner and permit me to burn off the wine to be able to drive. As if we had not bought enough at the Davis Farm market before leaving for Sonoma, we had to go to the Sacramento Market and Minda joined us or the shopping on Sunday. Then she had to get the car back to Will for his work and she needed to get some work done as well.
The weather was not wonderful so I spent a lot of time at the computer catching up with personal finances. It is amazing how far behind it is possible to get even though I pride myself on checking in on this stuff daily. I missed some things that will cause me some aggravation for a few weeks. Nothing big, but I HATE to pay any interest charges.
We stayed on Monday and after yet some more grocery shopping, we went to the California State Railroad Museum. It claims to be the biggest in the country and second biggest in the world. I won’t argue. I love the size range from the Front Cab 4-8-8-2 articulated monster with 6,000 horsepower at 40 MPH to the Z scale models (track gauge is 1/4”) it is all there. Carol expressed doubt since the weather was chilly and the thought of a couple of hours wandering in a train yard was not appealing. It is not like that, they built a Roundhouse with a turntable to support the exhibit and everything on display was indoors! We loved the RPO (no not that RPO – Railway Post Office) with a docent “Jim” who had worked the line from Chicago to Sacramento for two years. The sleeper was set up to rock like was going down the road and there were flashing lights and the sounds of rail travel as we talked with the docent on board.
Back to the coach for one of Carol’s very creative dinners and off down the road on Tuesday toward Mendocino, more twisty roads. I got to drive mostly freeway, Carol took over the wheel as we left the 101 for 128 through the redwoods and up over the coastal mountains back to the 1. We had both noticed that the engine was getting louder and as we started to mention it to each other, it began to roar. Clearly something in the exhaust system has broken. It remains to be seen what and how long the repair will take. That is tomorrow’s project and we are set to stay in Mendocino on the beach for a week while we get that all in place.
We have great wifi and no phone service in the RV park.