Thursday September 25, 2008 ~We need to get moving!

When we woke up this Thursday morning, we finally got to see where we camped last night. (Remember it was pitch black when we pulled into this campground at 8pm). It was so beautiful! We were right in among the giant Redwood trees.

Look at the size of the stump behind me!

Bob getting the camper loaded up.

When you look up into these magnificant trees...well, lets just say one feels very small indeed.

It's interesting to look at the bark of the Redwood up close. Not like the Douglas Fir that grows here in the Pacific northwest, that's for sure.

They have these food lockers at all the camp sights for those with tents. Put your food in there & lock it up or the bears will come looking for it in your tent.
On the road again. This is a little section of highway called "Avenue of the Giants" off Highway 101. Very narrow but then 101 isn't much different in some areas.

We stopped here briefly. Sometimes there will be a chainsaw carver working but not today. This place along the highway has all things Redwood & Bigfoot. (They don't know that Bigfoot lives in Washington state!)

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We finally got on the road again, knowing that we needed to cover some distance today if are ever going to get to Pasadena by Friday evening. We stopped in another cute little town ~ Willits, California for gas. But, oh my it was so hot! I'm sure it was at least 100*. Just suffocating!

From Willits we continued on, rolling into the San Francisco around 4pm. Before heading across the Golden Gate bridge we turned off and went up into the Presido on the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula. The narrow winding road takes you high up into the hills above the Golden Gate bridge and offers magnificent views of San Francisco Bay and of the city. This area has a very interesting history. It has been a fortified location since 1776 when the Spanish made it the military center of their expansion in the area. It was later passed to Mexico and they passed it to the United States in 1847. In 1995 it was closed as a military base and since then has began the change of mixed commercial and public use. In 1962 Congress recognized the Presido as a National Historic Landmark. As you drive around you can still see many of the old bunkers and of course buildings used for military purposes in the past. This particular afternoon, it was sunny and warm up there but extremely windy. Almost so windy we could barely open the doors of the truck to get out and take pictures.

Up in the Presido. I believe the housing down there is still being used by military personnel. There were people on the beach and vehicles coming & going. Can you believe that guy out there? The wind was blowing so hard~I was afraid he'd loose his balance and fall off.

Bird Rock (YUCK!!!!!!!!!)

One of the old military buildings left for public viewing. As I remember, this was a Brig. There were bars on the windows.

The Golden Gate Bridge

It was so windy here this picture of "The Rock" also known as Alcatraz was a little blurry. I was leaning on a bench but that wasn't enough.

We'll be down there soon.
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After leaving the Presido we crossed the Golden Gate bridge, paying the $5.00 toll (you only pay when you're going southbound) blending in with all the commuter traffic.

heading for the toll booth

We're in town now and heading for Beach Street that will take us down to Fisherman's Wharf.

This sign cracked me up! Even if I was a wine drinker, I don't think I'd feel comfortable in SNOB bar. LOL !

The houses are so close together but they are all so beautiful. When we came home I took more pictures of these homes. I'll share those at a later date.

heading down towards Fisherman's Wharf.

This particular line of the trolley car system starts in front of this 24 hour Walgreen Store.

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The traffic wasn't really that bad, those people move right along and are courteous enough to let you change lanes when you put on your turn signal. Our destination goal was the Fisherman's Wharf area to get something to eat and then on down 101 to a campground.

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We actually found a parking place right at the corner of Jefferson and Jones. Bob pulled that big truck & camper right in and we filled the parking meter full of quarters and took off walking down the street.

How would you like a loaf of crab shaped sourdough bread? I got a small loaf of regular shaped sourdough~theirs is so good!

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Most of the eating places were already really busy by this time, so we ended up walking back past the truck and went into In-N-Out for dinner (yum? yum!).

Robin, I had a fry in your honor!

One last walk past the marina and then we went back to the truck and headed south on Highway 101.

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It was now after 7pm and Bob said that we'd pull into the first campground or rest area and spend the night. We saw some private campgrounds but a couple of them wanted $40 for a night and that's just ridiculous! We kept thinking we'd find a rest area~so we kept driving and driving and driving. Finally about 150 miles south of S.F, near Soledad, CA I saw a big McDonald's sign off to the side of the freeway and we could see lots of semi trucks in their parking lot. By now it's almost 11pm and we are both exhausted. So we took the exit and found a spot out at the end of this huge parking lot and settled in for the night. We figured if we could get a couple hours sleep & then someone pounded on the door and told us to leave~at least we would have some sleep . Well, no one bothered us and we slept like babies.

The next morning, we went into the McDonald's for some breakfast and told the manager we'd looked for a rest area after leaving S.F. and there didn't seem to be any. He said, "no, there's no rest areas between here and S.F. but you're always welcome to park here." Wow ! How nice of them! I'm still going to write Arnold Schwarzenegger (former actor and now governor of CA) about this situation. That's crazy not to have a place for people to pull over & take a rest break. We did consider that big prison just off the highway there in Soledad but by the time we stopped we were too tired to care. However, I had my can of Hornet & Wasp spray ready in case someone came breaking in the back door of the camper.

It's now Friday morning~will we make it to Pasadena tonight or not? That remains to be seen.