The road from Spokane to Calgary portended great scenery some wonderful mountain roads and nothing to totally surprise us.  Our first stop near Bonners Ferry at Blue Lake RV Park had a really scary entrance.   We had been warned that the turn was nearly 180 degrees with a steep descent.  We were not told that a major BNSF rail line crossed the road at the bottom of the descent.  Yup after I pulled off the road to let tailgating traffic through I execute the turn only to find a long freight train across the road.  I was able to get far enough down the grade to let a track work truck join me on the little piece of road.  The campground was just the other side of the tracks, very close, felt I could reach out the window and touch the passing trains.  Neither of us heard a single train all night long.  It is like sleeping at Dockwieler RV park. What 747s?

With an unhurried start in the morning we took a route up the west side of the Canadian Rockies  planning to cross them near Banf.  Since we did not want to go all the way to Calgary (actually Cochrane) in one day and open campgrounds are rare at this time of year we made an early stop in Radium Hot Springs, BC.  The Canyon RV Park is wonderful.  It sits in the bottom of a canyon (surprise!) isolated, yet within walking distance of the town.  Again the descent was very steep but there was no railroad track, only rocky Mountain Sheep grazing on the cliffs beside the road. The park was nearly full and mostly families for the Easter Holiday.  They all quieted down before we needed them to.  As we were checking in the owner suggested we might want to go the the hot springs.  Surprise, a town with the name Radium Hot Springs has them.  Not more than 4 kilometers from our site was and incredible complex with cool springs (30 C) and hot springs (39C – for reference 98.6 F = 37 C). We soaked away what was left of the afternoon in the hot, the cold and the hot tub 40C.  Put that together with my newly butchered haircut (electric razor and some help from Carol) I felt like a new man. 

Saturday with Carol at the helm we climbed over the Rockies on Highway 93 through Banf and on to Springhill Campground in Cochrane just north of Calgary.  To say that we oohed and aahed and oh wowed as we took the drive is an understatement.  I limited myself to very few pictures and here is one:

Hmm, almost looks like a postcard.

One last item.  We have updated the map on the inside of the door with three new states, OR, WA (both planned) and ID somewhat of a surprise.

I know that  is a funny place for Alaska.  Will fix it when we get there.  Oh yes will get to add the Yukon too, as we go.

Looks like I will need to get an RV plumbing type person in one of these days.  There is a miniscule leak at the connections I made.  I suspect the inlet connector is stressed since the new faucet’s pipes were longer than those on the one I removed.  I am not prepared to rebuild the piping although I am told online that it is easy to do.  I will let $$ do this fix and install a new kitchen faucet as well.  I hate to give in, it looked so simple.  In the mean time we are topping off the freshwater tank and using the onboard pump to provide water.  This way we can take the pressure off the system when it is not in use.  It seems to be leaking about 4 ounces every 12 hours and I have a container catching the drips.  There is another advantage to using the pump and freshwater tank supply, it forces us to refresh that 100 gallon tank and turn the water over so it does not get stale.

My last post, just yesterday, elicited a reminder that our friends the Goldman’s in Rochester have a son Andrew who is on faculty at Gonzaga University.  We have known Andrew since . . . oh I won’t go there, he is the same age as our son Yechiel.  When John and Roz reminded us, we sent email and then established phone contact.  More importantly, in the middle of a very busy end of semester, end of academic year time we were able to get together for a couple of hours on the Gonzaga campus.  We even had a few minutes with Andy’s wife Amy.  We had a marvelous tour of the campus and spent time in the art department gallery and then had a tour of the Bing Crosby Memorabilia Room.  He grew up in Spokane and attended high school and college at Gonzaga. 

Andy got out a map and showed us some interesting points that we had missed for one reason or another.  Life and schedules being what they are we will not be able to get to everything this time.  We will save the list should we get back to Spokane in the future.  Nevertheless we made an immediate trip to Manito Park on South Hill. We stopped and took a walk through the Lilac Garden and the Rose Garden, neither anywhere near in bloom yet and around the duck pond, which looks like a miniature of the lake in Central Park.  It is quite lovely although we did not take time to see all five of the gardens.  Then we zoomed downhill (a local would clearly understand the zoom downhill thing – that road is steep) to the Davenport Hotel which we had driven around and passed without ever stopping.  The restaurants looked scrumptious the meeting and event rooms that were open to public viewing are really grand and the Peacock Bar could give its name sake at the Waldorf Astoria a run for the money, although it appeared far more affordable. 

After that we went back to the coach, put the bikes up on the roof. One of these days I will put the front wheels on and we will ride – haven’t done that in a couple of months.  The weather has been lousy for the most part.  We are planning on rolling down the road into Idaho tomorrow.  It will be a short day because we can be into Canada in about 2 or 3 hours and we don’t plan on that until Friday.

Not sure where the next post will be from.  Probably the Calgary area.  Carol has been busy making plans to see as many of our friends as possible in the 14 days we will have in Rochester. 

Not sure why the route changed from right up US 97 to the Canadian border to a run to the east to Spokane WA, but it did.  It may have had something to do with fewer miles and less time in fuel pricier Canada.  It may have been the availability of an Elks Lodge (#228) with an RV park run by The Wheelin’ Elks.  Add to both of the above the opportunity to continue through Idaho and add yet another state to our rapidly filling map and I guess there are enough reasons. 

On the way we stopped at Steamboat Rock State Park just south of Grand Coulee Dam for a couple of nights so we could tour the dam and see the area. 

Got to Spokane on Friday and could not agree on how long we would stay so we paid for three nights.  It is now Tuesday and Carol is doing laundry so we will not be moving before Wednesday.  I have a faucet to replace in the rear sink which if all goes well should take less than an hour.  Well it took almost an hour and I am not sure that it is totally tight, but it will hold.  The pump is not cycling which means any leak is minimal if not just my imagination.

Last night we had a complete Seder for two.  Carol prepared a wonderful meal to which I added chicken to satisfy my craving for meat to make it a feast for me.  We dug out the Haggadot, which we have carried for several years now, and took our time over the entire order.  It was very interesting, but certainly the children and grandchildren were missed. 

As we relaxed after clearing up the remains Carol noticed that the furnace was running and running and blowing cool air.  At 10:30 pm it did not seem likely I would find a service person.  We turned off the furnace, which kept on blowing.  I disconnected the electric and turned off the master power to the coach which did shut the furnace down until I turned the power back on and it resumed blowing, not good.  As I undid the screws to open the furnace compartment, it shut down, at last!  After a brief hesitation, the usual count to 10, I had Carol turn the furnace back on while I held my breath.  The fan resumed blowing and after the usual pause the gas valve opened and the flame ignited.  We did not have a chilly night after all.  There is no good explanation for this heart stopper, but I will have it looked at when we get into an RV service place.

In Spokane we have been to the Post office, to  mail tax stuff to various government entities, toured the river front and attended a play.  Oh yes we also drove to Coeur D’Alene, ID just because we could.  The post office turned into a mess.  They only have General Delivery at the main post office in downtown Spokane.  I had had our mail directed to a branch in Spokane Valley, about 2 miles from the Elks Lodge.  The mail was delivered to the branch and was there on Friday when we went to pick it up, but they would not acknowledge that they had it as they don’t do general delivery there.  We went downtown, but the package had not been transferred there and would not be there until Monday.  Little did I know that the package had a checkbook that would have saved a lot of grief in finalizing my tax payments.  I found that out on Monday after I mailed all the checks and returned to the coach with the still unopened package.  Lesson learned, but I am not sure what the lesson is.

While we wandered downtown Spokane after the post office we found the Loof Carrousel – sorry about the lighting –

and the Spokane Falls Skyride. Had to go on the skyride. More walking around brought us to

which has a companion store “Atticus” which sells goods for a more mature clientele.

Retracing to Portland for just brief paragraph.  We had not been to the northwestern most corner of Oregon by the time we got to Portland and we had wanted to see where Lewis and Clark had wintered so we drove to Astoria OR and then out to Fort Clatsop.  Since it is all reconstructed we did not bother with many pictures, but we did stop to see a demonstration of firing a muzzle loader.

This is a fairly typical shot, nice frame and balance not much interest.  Sometimes you just get lucky with the timing:

I have this desire to see if I can share with you what a day on the road with us is like.  Our plan for the day, Sunday, April 10, was to see as much of the Columbia River Gorge as we could traveling from our campsite in Beaverton, OR to someplace near Yakima Washington.  We chose Yakima because it appeared to be under 200 miles and it is on US 97 which we had decided to take north because of advice from the Hoggs who make this run every year.  Actual total miles came in at 176.4 and total hours on the move were metered at precisely 4 hours by our GPS, all in all an ideal day.

Having determined the beginning and the end we had to fill in the sandwich.  I had noted during my mapping time that the Historic Columbia Gorge Highway branches away from I 84 which parallels the river several times to interesting sights.  Carol and I agreed that if things were going well we would take as many of these side trips as seemed reasonable/comfortable.  The next key questions was where to cross the Columbia River.  This is a non trivial question as there are four bridges, each offering advantages and disadvantages.  We settled on The Dalles Bridge as it is toll free and had no width warnings nor is it subject to high winds as at least one other bridge is.  The Maryhill bridge had been recommended, but it would have meant not driving any of the Washington side of the river.  The final decision of where to spend the night was left open.

With Carol at the wheel for the first two hour shift, we pulled out of the Beaverton Elks Lodge at 9:15 AM and negotiated our way through Sunday traffic in Portland to I 84.  Once clear of the city we decided that the first Historic drive seemed to add too many miles and the prospect of significant mountain driving, we decided to pass and stay on the freeway as the views were quite beautiful from that road.  Further along at Bridal Veil Falls we exited onto the Historic Road and made our way to Wahkeenah Falls for a brief stop along the road and then 1/4 mile further to Multnomah Falls where Carol was able to pull into a turnout that was large enough for the coach and car to be off the road.  I am not posting pictures because there are many on the web taken by people with better equipment and time to wait for the rain to stop and people to get out of their way.  If you come this way, don’t miss these stops.  Ignore the rain and the cold, that is the way most people will see these sights.

We returned to the freeway eventually, some of those bridges were so narrow that Carol had to take the middle of the road, the lanes are not as wide as our coach – a legal 103”.  At Cascade Locks we decided to leave the freeway and get a view of the locks and stop for lunch on board.  The view was not to be.  The only apparent access road has a 12’ height limit sign and we were not about to see if maybe they meant 12’3” which is our “official” height.  We parked in front of the library and had lunch before changing drivers.  My turn!

We decided to take another nine mile side trip on the Historic Road from Mosier to Rowena.  The names are not important unless you want to track us on Google Maps or Google Earth.  Although there was a general warning about vehicles over 50 feet long not being appropriate, we pressed on.  In those nine miles the road climbed high above the river, maybe 2,000 feet and then descended a series of switchbacks and corkscrews that were really breathtaking.  This was all done at speeds less than 20 mph.  There was a bicycle group on the road, fortunately going the other way or I might have had to pull over to let them pass.   After our return to I 84 we were content to continue on to The Dalles (yes that is an intentional T in “The” It is not Dalles it is The Dalles) where we left I 84 for good and Oregon as well as we crossed over to Washington.  We also left the rain and chill behind as we drove on to the Yakima Valley where they claim 300 sunny days a year. 

Our last decision of the day was where to stay the night.  We are low on propane so we wanted a place that could fill our tank, we are cheapskates with many discount arrangements so it had to belong to one of those and after the friendly Elks parking lot we really wanted someplace with a view.  The Yakama Reservation (in the Yakima Valley – go figure) has a large RV park that met all of our requirements.  We pulled in and were greeted by a groundskeeper who said the office was closed, but we could take a space and settled up in the morning.  So here we sit with no idea what we plan on doing in the morning, but we know it will either be interesting and fun or it will be chores and such on the coach that have been ignored for the past month.

I hope you enjoyed riding along.  The four hours of driving encompassed a day of seven hours from departure to arrival.  Not really tiring and our favorite way to cover ground.

The short version is while staying at Coyote Rock RV Park south of Lincoln City we drove north and toured the Tillamook Air Museum which is housed in a blimp hangar that is a remnant from WW II – it is LARGE!  It held nine blimps for servicing at once.  There were two of these hangars.

While driving from Lincoln City to Portland we stopped in McMinnville at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.  The major attraction is The Spruce Goose, the largest wooden airboat ever built.  It is as large as a 747 (of which there is one forming the roof of water park!) It wingspan is 20 feet longer than a football field.  A DC 3 is on the floor tucked in under a wing between the sponson and the body with room to spare. There is also a P 38 WW II twin boom fighter.  I have read extensively about this plane and this is the first I remember ever seeing. 

When we arrived at the Beaverton OR Elks Lodge #1989 We started looking for tickets to the Altenberg Trio which was playing at Lincoln Performance Hall at Portland State University.  Although we could not reach the box office we went on in to town, in heavy traffic 15 minutes, and located the hall and found a place for Thai dinner nearby.  When we returned to the hall it was filling with people and we were able to get seats together, way up near the back, but the hall is so good we were not bothered by the distance.  It was a wonderful concert, Beethoven Trio in D Major, “The Ghost”; Martin Trio of Popular Irish Melodies (it is in French actually); and after the intermission Brahms Trio in B Major Op 8.  Take a deep breath.  From large and small airplanes to large music in a day with a stop off at an Elks Lodge bar for small talk and to register for the RV park. 

The longer version: It has hardly stopped raining, yet.  We had a delightful dry day, mostly, on our run up to Tillamook.  In addition to  the Air Museum we took in the Tillamook Cheese Factory self guided tour.  I remember why I do not usually eat cheese made in vast quantities.  It is all very consistent and has no surprise and no great flavor.  They do not even age it beyond 4 years, and very little of that.

As we circled the scenic loop we parked the car and took a 2 1/2 mile hike on a trail that eventually brought us out onto the beach for the return to the car.  We stopped along the road to watch hang gliders doing their thing including landing almost on top of me.  A bit further along we came to one of the shortest lighthouses ever at 25 feet high.  We returned to the coach tired and ready to have dinner and read.

On a previous day we came out of our campground and instead of turning left to get back to 101 to explore the coast, we turned right and circled inland on a 25 mile search for excitement or least something interesting to see that was not in the guide books.  We founded a hidden Elks Lodge when I pulled off the road to let traffic through and found I had turned into Toledo Lodge facility.  Who knew!  We also found another railroad museum tucked away on Siletz.  It is a leftover from the logging era and the docents may be too.  On yet another day we took a walk on the beach from North Jetty Road in Lincoln City.  Carol wanted me to get a photo of her with a wave washing over the toe of her boots.  I was using her camera.  I will leave the rest to your imagination, the photo I took does not show the aftermath as I was running up to help her regain her footing.

More about our explorations in Portland in my next post.

but first an update on the wetness.  Had a dry sunny day in Crescent City, CA at Village Camper Inn.  Please note that did not last 24 hours.  I got up on the roof and caulked everything in sight, again, with a fresh tube of caulk.  Then I determined that we had a lot of humidity in the coach from showering and cooking, Carol has been making some wonderful soups!  We have not been venting thoroughly.  Added some vigorous ventilation to our program and the carpet is drying out. 

Slow forward  a week (we do nothing very fast here) and I set up at the Elks RV Park in Florence, OR only to find that the satellite would not work.  After a lengthy discussion it was determined that the LNB must have given up the ghost to weather and vibration and needs to be replaced.  Now all I have to do is figure out what an LNB is and install or have installed a new one.

Enough!  After our day with Jerry and Anna Lee in Sacramento they were able to get tickets for us to join them at Ashland Shakespeare Festival.  We reserved an adjacent RV camping spot and met them on Friday, the 25th of March.  Their journey over the mountains was moderately more harrowing than ours as they had to delay a day to avoid 70 mph winds and snow in the passes.  We just crept in from the coast.  There are stories to be told but I will save them.

Friday night we went with Anna Lee and Jerry and their long time friends Ann and Jerry (you are not seeing double) to The Oregon Cabaret Theater to a performance of “The ‘Daly’ News”  the story of a father’s weekly newsletter throughout World War II to his 4 sons serving in various branches of the military.  The music was written by Gregg Coffin who has written many things we have seen performed at GEVA Theater in Rochester.   It was a wonderful performance and foretold great theater to come. 

Saturday, after a wonderful brunch of Challa French Toast prepared by Jerry on their coach –hmm brunch for 6, that must violate some RVing rule someplace – because it was raining we sat around and shared stories with Jerry and Jerry and Ann and Anna Lee, of course by now Ann Carol was using her full name just to be part of the pattern.  Nothing to be done with “Paul”.  Jerry and Ann left late morning for home.  No one needed lunch so we went off to a 1:30 performance of “Language Archive.”  This is a wonderful play and the performances were superb.  The theater, a relatively new theater, has a thrust stage with audience on three sides.  The staging and lighting were really well done and furniture seemed to appear and disappear without distracting.  Dinner was the four of us at Arbor House in Talent, that is a town about half way between Ashland and where we were staying in Phoenix, OR.  OMG, I seldom use that expression, but in this case it is needed.  Each item was beautifully prepared and flavored.  Carol and I ordered curry dishes and they brought out samplers so we could adjust the level of spice to our desire!  None of us had ever seen that before.

Sunday the Braunsteins were off to brunch with local friends they had met on a cruise so Carol and I waited out the rain and headed into Ashland for a light lunch and some light shopping, before settling into the large theater for “To Kill a Mocking Bird” performed from the only stage version approved by Harper Lee.  The stage was practically bare and yet it was very dynamic.  Shadows on a scrim gave us Boo’s house and the mad dog and other visitations and they changed in perspective as the actors approached or retreated.  The cast was excellent the three children were really very good.  It was hard to believe that the boy playing Dill was only 9 years old.  Because of the children the performances are only during the day and only 40, so seats were at a premium.

After a lovely ethnic dinner at Sesame with the Braunsteins and their friends we returned to the theater to find it transformed for a modern day version of “Measure for Measure”.  The lines were pure Shakespeare, even those in Spanish and the mariachi band of three women certainly brought a different approach to the play.  The standing ovation at the end was certainly well deserved.  Well entertained and exhausted, we returned to our coach for a good nights sleep to the sound of rain on the roof.

As we set up for departure it was not raining, yet.  As near as I can figure it has rained on us some part of every day from March 8 to today, March 29.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow, the 30th, as well.  I am not complaining but the moss on my head will need trimming soon.

We have been traveling up the wet coast.  That is not a typo!  It has rained some part of every day for the past week since we left Sacramento.  After we finally got the exhaust repaired in Ft Bragg, we settled in to a rainy day and as I approached the closet in the back of the bedroom I found myself with a cold wet foot.  We drove on up to Eureka and the Eureka Elks Lodge with its 32 space campground in a separate parking lot for RVs.  When we arrived the sun was out and things were drying off so up I went onto the roof with the usual repair materials all set to put and end to that nasty leak.  I know I closed up every crack and possible opening, but the rain resumed as did the leak.  Every time we have had a dry period I have applied new treatments to different area to no avail.  Today on return from touring Crescent City with its tsunami devastated harbor and then driving up into the Stout Redwood Grove on the edge of town and hiking among the giant redwoods in high top rubber boots, I stretched a tarp over an area I think is the source of the infiltration.  (In case you didn’t notice I am practicing my run on sentences)

I have a call into a mobile RV repairman, but he didn’t return the call today and my hope for his help is limited.  I am frustrated, but I know I will get this fixed too, some day.  Of course it would help if we could get someplace where it does not rain several hours of every day. 

The Towlers, founders and majority owners of City Newspaper in Rochester were reading this blog and realized that we were very near a friend of theirs from the Independent Newspaper world and they sent us email with phone numbers and such.  Wow are we ever grateful.  Kat and Doug picked us up at our coach in the Elks lot and walked us in to the Sunday Elks Brunch, they too are Elks.  Later that day with their invitation, we drove to Ferndale, a Victorian Village they call home, to see it and to pay another visit with them.  It is not necessary to replay the details, Carol may need to write a book to do that.  Suffice it to say we will delight in calling them friends and hope to come back this way when there is slightly less rain. March is usually wet and this March has been particularly rainy.  We do understand that wet and cool are normal here year round. 

We are enchanted with Humboldt County, although we did learn that others are enchanted by the good marijuana crop that is grown here, now largely legal.  We walked into a couple of shops advertising glass blowing.  Yup they blow glass, into bongs of all sorts, sizes and shapes.  I remember when we knew these as head shops.  Am I showing my age?  We backed out and decided that we really weren’t interested in blown glass any more at least until and if we get to Seattle.

We took a leisurely drive up the coast from Mendocino to Eureka where we found another very nice Elks Lodge with a 32 space RV campground adjacent to the Lodge.  Full hookups yet and cable and WiFi.  Having found this we next had to figure out why we might want t o be in Eureka for a while.  First we just had to take the Avenue of the Giants which parallels US 101 through the Humboldt Redwood Forest.  You have all seen pictures of the trees and the road.  It was cloudy and rainy and we did not have a large format camera to do justice to the majesty of the trees.  Carol tried and may post some of her images.  I took some pictures but nothing you want to see.

As we were sitting at lunch I received email from one of my bulletin boards that there has been a major slide across PCH 1 between Carmel and Big Sur.  That is called a long term closure.  Sure glad we are well north of that.  We have seen many places along the way where slides have been cleared from the road and a couple where the road is routed around places where it was undercut and falling into the sea or a gorge. 

We located the local Jewish Community and will be attending Friday night service and pot luck dinner – sound familiar? Not sure about Torah Study as it starts at 8 AM and runs up to 3 hours!!  Then of course there is Megillah Reading Saturday night.  Brief explanation, we read the Book of Esther to commemorate Haman’s attempt to destroy the Persian Jews and his eventual downfall.  The celebration includes food (what else?) drink, of course, and lots of noise.  Much fun for the children, and the adults.

Eureka is a wonderfully preserved Victorian area and the buildings are really great to see.  Add to that the Lumbering Convention at the Fairgrounds which we will drop in on and there is a lot to do and see. 

Written one day later: It is raining again and still, Noah isn’t until the Fall, but . . .

We retraced to the coast and CA 1 north on the 101 to 128 to 1.  As we progressed the noise level from the engine began to rise.  Suddenly we were driving with a very loud opening in the exhaust system.  This is illegal, unpleasant and potentially dangerous as fumes began to leak into the coach.  We opened windows and continued to press on to our campsite in Caspar Beach RV Park just north of Mendocino.  As we drove I got on the phone and made arrangements for a repair requiring us to make a week long stop to wait for an appointment.  There is only one place capable of doing this work along the coast and the drive back to a larger city on 101 is not to be thought of.

Fortunately Mendocino has been in our dreams for 31 years.  That long ago we made a trip to San Francisco for a New England Life meeting and then stayed on for ten days to drive down to Carmel and then up the Central Valley to Napa and on to the coast with a stop at Harbor House in Elk.  The plan was to check in at Elk and then drive to Mendocino and for the day and see the galleries and tour the town.  We never made it because our rental car had a flat tire as we were pulling into Elk and the arrangements to fix it ate up our travel time.  We waited a long time and it is worth the wait.  But we did arrive with yet another vehicular malfunction.

We love the location of the RV park situated just above the beach in a sheltered cove with high headlands to the north and south.  Remember that!  We toured down to Elk and further on the Pt Arena and refreshed our memories, Harbor House has not changed and iota.  The garage now sports a cafe and coffee shop in one wing and the old junkers in the field beyond that Carol lovingly documented 31 years ago are all gone.  There is also a wonderful artists collective gallery that we spent a long time wandering through and congratulating ourselves that we have given up collecting beautiful objects for there certainly were many to choose from.

Friday got off to an early start.  At 4 AM our neighbor was knocking on the door.  He had a NOAH weather alert radio and the first Tsunami alert had been sounded.  We were not real coherent, but got online to see what the ruckus was about.  I do not need to tell you what story greeted us.  By 5 AM the local fire department had two and three trucks in the campground at various times.  They spread the word that we were in the Tsunami Warning area and needed to evacuate by 6 AM.  I got some clothes on and went outside to stow the awning I had just deployed, remove the windshield cover, put the bikes on the car, put away all the outdoor toys like the chairs, grill, and other conveniences we deploy when we are going to stay for awhile.  Carol was busy putting the interior into travel mode, something we usually allow a couple of hours for as we do it slowly over breakfast starting before bed the night before.  By 6 we were hooked up and ready to roll.  We rolled all of 8 miles to a gas station located on the high ground by the 1 where I topped off the tank and got permission to hunker down.  If the exhaust had not needed repair we might have gotten more creative, but level, high and safe seemed to satisfy our needs and so there we stayed for the next ten hours until they reopened the road to the RV Park.  We got a lot of reading done and many phone calls made. We still have our repair appointment for Monday at Jacks Muffler, another early day.

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.