Incident on Interstate 59

So Joyce is driving up Interstate 59 north of Hattiesburg, Mississippi following a semi in the right lane. We were coming up on a rest stop and the semi begins slowing, brake lights on, but no signal. Joyce figures he's going into the rest stop and eases off the gas. But she is really getting too close, so I tell her, "Slow, slow, slow."

Now I see a woman on the left side of the road near the median. She is motioning everyone to slow down - uh oh, must be an accident up ahead.

Now we see her car parked on the right shoulder of the road. By this time we are down to about 25 miles an hour and I see the woman pointing down in front of her - something in the road just inside the left lane. Did she lose something from her car?

Oh, for crying out loud! It's a turtle! The guy in the outside lane next to us is blowing his horn. What the hell are you trying to do, lady? Save the world from itself?

I understand helping poor critters, but not at the risk to your own life on an interstate highway. And surely not at the risk to other motorists barreling down the road at 70 miles an hour. Not only did she take a risk by walking across the highway to the median, but it was been entirely possible that someone could have kicked that turtle with the edge of their tire and sent it flying into her.

It was the talk of the CBers for the next few miles down the road.

Miscellaneous

New Versus Old

As we were driving down I-75 shortly after leaving home on this trip we saw a new motorhome in front of us. It was shorter than ours, and appeared to be a Class C. But it was really nice looking. It looked like it was on a large diesel truck frame. Joyce and I talked about upgrading and I began looking on the internet to see if I could find the name and a rough price. No luck.

While camped at Kansas City, Missouri, we stopped at an RV dealership to buy silicone spray and noticed an RV in the lot. It was there for service and we pulled over to look at it. It looked to be the same type we had seen earlier. We got the make and model and went back inside to talk to the dealer about it. They gave us a brochure and we briefly discussed the price. $250,000 base price. It was a hauler - designed for towing.

Our motorhome was pretty much a top of the line gasoline powered Pace Arrow when we purchased it new in 2002. It's now eleven years old and just over half paid for. I had been complaining about many of the problems that we were having with our current RV - needs brake work, needs work on the front jacks, needs a new carpet (or at least a good carpet cleaning), needs work on the Onan generator, perhaps new shocks. The electrical system is 30 amps, not the 50 amps in many of the newer units. While we have two air conditioners, we cannot run them both at the same time. Nor can we run one air conditioner and the TV and the hot water heater at the same time without popping a circuit breaker. I would like to convert to 50 amps, but that might be a bigger job than I could handle. And the Pace Arrow division of Fleetwood had been shut down during the last recession so it might be difficult to get a decent AC wiring diagram.  A lot of little things.

I had already been making modifications to the interior. I built a new rectangular table to replace the inconvenient round table. I had replaced the stand-alone wrought iron chairs with aluminum folding chairs. Removed the TV from the overhead compartment up front and built a new TV stand which sits on a cabinet opposite the couch (much easier on the neck). Bought a new HD TV set and replaced the manual satellite dish with an automatic HD capable dish and ran all the associated wiring to the new TV location.

I built shelves in the old overhead TV space for spare maps and travel books. Removed the bedroom TV and modified the space to hold spare blankets.

But the thought of "new" remained. Until we started driving on the west coast. Everywhere we looked we saw older motorhomes. Some slightly newer than ours - but many more were much older. And very rarely did we see any of the new expensive ones.

Joyce and I had long discussions about new versus old. Although we needed work done on it, we had been slowly reshaping the Pace Arrow to fit our needs. And while new would be nice, we would have to begin anew to make it fit our personal needs and make it ours.

I guess the bottom line is that it will cost us much less to have a little professional work done on occasion than it would to purchase new. So we will probably wind up sending a few thou to make the V10 engine a little more efficient, not quite so much on carpeting, and maybe we can look into a shock absorber upgrade.

By the time we get home we will have put a little over 5000 miles on it from this trip and will have only 56,000 miles total on this 11 year old vehicle/home.

I'm guessing we will keep it at least until it's paid for in 2022.

San Antonio

The Good and the Bad

The Good - Reasonable price for the RV park.

The Bad - Our RV site is just downwind from the sewer dump site.

The Good - Was able to catch a bus right outside the campground that would take us to downtown for the Alamo and River Walk.

The Bad - It was a city bus and the return boarding location left a lot to be desired.

More Bad - I embarrassed myself when the bus driver did not immediately open the door and appeared to be leaving and I moved up and tapped on the closed door. The surrounding crowd all started in because the driver was getting set to lower the handicap ramp. On top of that, when we started to board he told us that his bus did not go to the campground - take the next bus.

The Good - It didn't take us long to find the Alamo. It looked pretty much like I imagined it. Took some photos of the front - had someone take a pic of Joyce and me and the rubber chicken.

More Good - I had heard from others that the Alamo was much smaller than they thought it was. Took a walk around the site and after reading the provided literature realized that the original site was much much larger and that the existing structure was just a very small part of the overall fort.

Artist's rendition of the siege of the Alamo. Mexican troops pretty much surround the entire fort. The Alamo structure that remains today is the small brown structure at upper center flying the flag.

The Bad - The person who took the picture of us with the chicken didn't know how to frame the picture and get the entire front of the Alamo in it.

The Good - Had another picture taken of us later in front of the Alamo.

Joyce and Michael at the Alamo

The Bad - The heat was beginning to be oppressing.

The Good - We found the River Walk and took a brief stroll, finally stopping for lunch and a Lone Star Beer.

Lunch on the River Walk

More Good - Found a souvenir stuffed armadillo at a local souvenir shop.

The Bad - The heat was oppressing.

The Good - Took a boat ride along the river.

View from the boat.

This hotel was built like stacking Legos in the 1960s.  It is referred to by some as the Lego Hotel.

The Bad - The heat was oppressing.

The Good - It didn't rain.

The Bad - The heat was oppressing.

The Ugly - The heat was oppressing.

Albuquerque

Part 3 - Everything Else

One of the reasons we go back is to recapture our past. One of the first places we drove by in Albuquerque was Clorinda Lucero's house at 901 Madeira. The house is still there and looks much the same as it did in 1960, including the unattached garage which was Arthur's room. What was obviously different was the absence of irises in the front yard. Mom Lucero loves irises and had tons of them in the front yard.

The Lucero house at 901 Madeira

Cecilia's youngest son, Jamie, now lives in the house. Cecilia described the neighborhood there as Jamaican.

The second spot that I had briefly considered seeing was Sandia Crest. I was told that the drive up the mountain was much easier now, but quickly dismissed the idea. I felt that there was not a lot to be gained by making the trip, and I had already had my mountain challenge for this trip at Colorado's Pike's Peak. Besides, Joyce doesn't like mountain roads (nor the accompanying heights).

Sandia Crest. The Sandia Mountains define the eastern edge of Albuquerque.

The third "must see" location for me was the old house that Nina and I had lived in on Sandia Base. In 1960 there were three bases, all connected: Sandia Base, Manzano Base, and Kirtland Air Force Base. As an Air Force Base, Kirtland had to do with planes. Sandia was home to Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA), and one of its principle missions was nuclear weapons training for all service branches and for all levels. I had worked there as a Navy photographer in a joint service photo lab. I had heard that Manzano also had to do with nuclear weapons, but cannot be sure of that. Today all three bases have been combined into one, Kirtland AFB, although it appears that the individual missions and associated locations remain pretty much as they were.

All that aside, my immediate goal was to locate the old house. I felt that the easiest way to begin was to use today's technology - Google maps. I located the base and the Wyoming Avenue entrance, following it aboard the base and making a right turn into the base housing area. I could see the cul-de sacs where the house would be, but the street names were unfamiliar. We had lived on 39th Place, but there were no names like that. Our house had backed up to nothing, as I recall, but as I looked more closely at the street patterns I saw a street behind all the cul-de-sacs. Something had been changed, and that something was the entire housing area. All of the original single family houses had been replaced with duplexes. But not only had the houses replaced, but the streets had been changed. The whole place had been razed, new streets formed, streets that kind of resembled the old ones, but not the same.

I mentioned this to Joe, and found that almost all of the buildings on Sandia Base had been demolished and re-built. It appears that very few structures of 1960 still exist. One of the few that still exist is the old Navy barracks, and as we drove past it we noticed that even it was undergoing renovation.

As for the rest of Albuquerque, it has expanded beyond my belief. The east mesa had been a wide expanse of nothing and now has houses all the way up to the foot of the mountain. The city has also grown northward for miles, stopping only when reaching the boundary of an Indian reservation. Joe tells me that a new town was formed, Rio Rancho.

But there is one thing in Albuquerque that has not changed through the years. Mom Lucero has but one pose when asked to stand for a photo.

At left is Mom Lucero at 901 Madeira in 1975. The picture at right shows her at Ute Park in 1994.

Mom Lucero at Pasky's house in 2013 with her trademark wave.

Albuquerque

Part 2 - Old Friends

I met Joe Hoffman in 1960. He was going to Nuclear Weapons school at Sandia Base in Albuquerque. I was stationed there as a photographer. What we initially had in common was that we both lived in the Navy barracks there. We hung around together all the time. He eventually met Cecilia Lucero and the three of us would hang out. 

When Joe finished school he was transferred to an aircraft carrier in San Diego, California. I continued hanging out at Cecilia's house with her and her mother, Clorinda, and little brother, Pasky. It was like my second home.

In April 1961 I married Nina in Albuquerque, and some time before she and I left for Kodiak, Alaska in September of 1962, Joe and Cecilia were married.

The next time I saw Cecilia was 13 years later in June, 1975. I had been last stationed in Guam and had gotten discharged from the Navy in Philadelphia. My daughter, Celine, and I were traveling by Greyhound bus from West Virginia to the west coast to fly back to Guam. We stopped in Albuquerque to visit. Joe was out of state, but we did visit with Cecilia and her mom before we continued on.

Left to right, with heads above the couch, Cecilia, Clorinda, Celine. Not sure of the other two.

Another 19 years had passed when, in July, 1994 while returning to Syracuse, New York from an automobile trip to San Diego, my two other girls, Angela and Erica, and I stopped by to visit Joe and Cecilia. Her mom was summering in Ute Park and Cecilia graciously allowed us to spend the night at her mother's Albuquerque house. When we left Albuquerque we altered our route and drove up to Ute Park to visit with Clorinda and her brother, Arthur.

Standing, left to right, Michael (Sam), Clorinda (mom), Angela, Erica. Arthur is in wheelchair.

When Joyce and I planned this trip, Albuquerque was one of the places where I had wanted to spend some time, specifically to visit Joe and Cecilia. While we were still in California I called Joe and Cecilia so that we could have a package of our mail forwarded there.

On our arrival on Friday we stopped by just to pick up our mail. We reminisced for an hour and a half. Joe noted that Clorinda lived with her son Pasky and his wife out in the northern reaches of Albuquerque. On Saturday Joe drove us to Pasky's house where we continued our reminiscences. 

Left to right, Joyce, Joe, Cecilia, Clorinda (mom), Pasky (Art), Michael (Sam), dog.

Later that day, Joe and Cecilia treated us to dinner at a Mexican restaurant where they served puffy sopapillas. Now, I was introduced to sopapillas years ago in Albuquerque. I have ordered them at times in the recent past, but have always been disappointed when I got them flat instead of the puffy so you could douse them with honey. In retrospect, I don't know if sopapillas are supposed to be flat or puffy, but only judge based on my first experience. I had asked Joe if we could find a restaurant that served them puffy. What a treat.

We had to cut our conversation short at the restaurant to free up the table, but Joyce and I asked them over to the motorhome on Sunday for a grill out. 

We had hot dogs from Syracuse, Gold Star chili from Cincinnati, dill pickles from Gold Beach, Oregon, and home-made everything else. And more reminiscences. We eventually ran out of reminiscences, but continued on with some of our life stories. We finally had to break up at 10:00 that night.

Joyce says really good friends who haven't seen each other for years can just sit down and pick up the conversation just like it was yesterday. 

In Albuquerque we spent time with really good friends.

Albuquerque 

(Part 1 - Our Camp Site)

The original plan for Albuquerque was to stay at the base - Kirtland AFB. The day before we departed Flagstaff Joyce started getting antsy about the fact that we had no reservations there because they did not accept reservations - that, combined with the minimal number of spaces available and no one to call in advance to see if there would be a space available at the time we called. So we made the decision to make a reservation at a commercial RV campground.

Found a place on a google map app and made the call on Friday morning. The gal that answered the phone said that she figured there would be a site available by the time we got there as she had three people leaving that day. I gave her my name to make the reservation, and she said ok. Didn't ask for credit card info as most do, so we left it at that - read "unconfirmed."

When we got on the road, Joyce had an opportunity to look in the KOA book to see if there was anything available near Albuquerque. As it turned out, there was a place located just past the base near I-40. We called and made the reservation, ignoring the other campground. We opted for one of the deluxe sites and paid a little more. It was worth it.

The site was wide, with lots of space, and in addition to the standard picnic table, had a patio set (round table with four chairs), standard fire ring, a chimney type fire ring, and a newish large size propane grill. They even provided us an umbrella for the table, and padded seat cushions.

One of the ways that campgrounds make a little extra is through sales of souvenirs and such. Most KOAs have a somewhat limited selection. This one seemed exceptional - good variety of shirts and caps, and lots of other things. Throughout much of our trip in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas we had seen roadkill armadillos and Joyce had wanted to get a small armadillo souvenir, with no luck. I found an armadillo wine bottle holder in the store and got it for her.

The girls in the gift shop had a good time laughing at the guy that bought the armadillo. Joyce and I had a good time laughing about the armadillo itself.

Saturday morning we were provided free pancake breakfast with sausage, orange juice and coffee. They even had strawberries and whipped cream available. Anne was the breakfast attendant and although she had a warmer full of pancakes already cooked, she cooked us fresh blueberry pancakes. Joyce and I were the only ones in there so we shared our table and conversation with Anne.

The breakfast hours were 8:00 to 10:00 and on Sunday we didn't got over there until after 9:30. As we walked in the door, Anne greeted us like old friends, chuckling, "You're late." I told her, "Yeah, I slept in," and we had another breakfast of blueberry pancakes.

Anne walked by our site on Monday morning as we were getting the motorhome ready to leave and we exchanged goodbyes.

I think there are two KOA campgrounds in Albuquerque, and this one was at the eastern edge of Albuquerque. One of the best campgrounds we have ever stayed at.

US Route 395

The Inside Passage

From Lake Tahoe we could have gone south through Sacramento and any number of cities between the Sierra Nevada range and the Pacific Ocean, but once you've driven the California freeways you really don't need to do it again - and we have really had our fill of them on this trip.

Instead, we chose to drive down the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, down US 395. This highway more or less follows the California/Nevada boundary. I had read that it would be an interesting drive.

Leaving Lake Tahoe we backtracked from California to Nevada for two reasons - 1) a better route back down to US 395, and 2) the price of gasoline in Nevada was $3.39 instead of the the California price of $3.89. That half dollar adds up when you're talking 50 gallons.

The first 45 minutes got us back to US 395 in Minden, Nevada, where we filled the tank. For the next 3 hours we drove a little over 100 miles on mountain roads - some two lane, some four lane, but mountain roads nonetheless. That proved to be a miscalculation on my part as we still had about 270 miles to go to reach Barstow.

After a serious drop in elevation in just a short drive, we continued south on this section of US 395.

The eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range.

More of the same.

By my calculation we would arrive in Barstow at about 7:00. We had wanted to get there before dark and started getting concerned when we lost the sun at a little after 5:00. But we were on the eastern side of the mountains, and after we cleared the mountains at 5:30 we were in sunlight again. When we reached the campground at 7:00 we had just enough light to set up camp.

Tomorrow we continue to Flagstaff, Arizona.

A "No Photo" Day at Lake Tahoe

Why? The available internet connection is so slow.... How slow is it? It has been taking me 20 to 25 minutes to upload one photo. I had a few more on tap for yesterday that never got uploaded. We will be leaving this area tomorrow so hopefully we will have a better connection.

Yesterday we had driven to Virginia City and to get there we had to drive east on US 50. Let me take this opportunity to note that while we were on US 50 East, we felt the pull of Owensville, Ohio, just a couple thousand miles down that highway. You can walk to Batavia from Owensville. We had to resist the pull in order to finish our trip to Virginia City, Nevada. We will see you in a couple of weeks Batavia.

Today we drove to Tahoe City, where water from Lake Tahoe flows out through the Truckee River. There is a dam there which just happened to be celebrating the 100th anniversary to the day of its opening on September 10, 1913.

Near the dam there was a bridge which we gathered around in 1953 to watch a great number of large trout feeding on the salmon eggs we would throw to them. There was also a sign there which forbade fishing within 100 feet of the bridge.

The bridge is still there and at the nearby visitor center we bought packets of fish food to feed the trout. There very few trout there, but lots of seagulls, and they virtually fought each other for the fish food we were throwing to the trout. 

On the way to Tahoe City we passed famous Emerald Bay. Hopefully we will be able to post some photos at our next campground in Barstow.

Tomorrow we leave for Albuquerque, New Mexico, via Barstow, CA and Flagstaff, AZ.

Virginia City

I guess that one of the reasons that I chose Lake Tahoe as a destination on this trip was to re-live a trip from my childhood.

My mother and I had spent a week at Lake Tahoe with my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Tom and their son Dick. Besides fishing and swimming we took a side trip to Virginia City.

Virginia City was a boom town in the mid 1800s with all of the silver mines in the area. When we visited in 1953, it seemed to me that there was still a lot of the original ambience and everyone there still spoke of the way it was.

Joyce and I took a trip today to visit Virginia City. Big disappointment. It  was so commercialized. It was like visiting Myrtle Beach or Branson. Sure, the old buildings were still there, but they were filled with schlocky souvenir shops and the like. We walked down the main street, had lunch and then sat down to have an ice cream cone.

The main drag at historic Virginia City, Nevada

I suppose that there has been as much change in me as there was in the Virginia City of today. A young 14 year old boy certainly sees things differently than a 74 year old. I guess that you really can't go back.

When we got ready to leave, I drove down a side street, then another, getting further and further away from the noise of the main street. We saw some old boarded up buildings, then an old dilapidated horse-drawn hearse. These were the scenes that I had missed in my mind. I was beginning to feel better.

These buildings are about two streets over from the main drag.

An old horse-drawn hearse in sad condition. Note the coffin in the hearse.

As we left town I pulled over to take a picture of a refurbished school building. As I parked the car I noticed some trees with bottles in the branches, then an old car with a tree coming up through the back seat. Got my pictures and we drove away with new memories.

This old Oakland automobile is actually in pretty good shape except for the shredded tires, and of course the tree. This car was in an unimproved (and un-attended) parking area at the edge of town. I really appreciated the lack of commercialization here. We did leave a few dollars in the donation bucket.

The Road to Lake Tahoe

Left Mount Shasta at 9:30 heading southeast on California 89. CA-89 to CA-44 to CA-36 which became US-395. Joyce took the wheel at 395 and continued on to Reno, on a two lane road for much of the drive. 

According to Google maps, we were supposed to stay on 395 until exit 38, but I thought that I would get Shirley, the GPS lady, activated because I wasn't exactly sure of the location of the campground. She immediately said to get off the highway at exit 51. We were due for lunch, so we obeyed, then at the bottom of the ramp we exchanged drivers (Joyce was reluctant to drive on city streets in Reno).

But then Shirley tried to get us back on the highway. We just wanted to find a place to park and eat lunch. Saw a Walmart sign and headed for it, staying in the middle lane because we weren't sure which side of the street to be on. By the time we saw it, it was too late so we continued and lo and behold, an entrance back to the highway. There was a space at the bottom of the ramp where we could pull over and eat.

After lunch we started back up the highway just like Shirley had wanted, but then she immediately wanted us to get off and on to 395. Wait, what? Ahhhh, finally figured it out. We were on a NEW 395 and Shirley wanted us on the OLD 395 (I guess no one told her about the new one). Saw a sign that said "Old 395, 9 miles," and the exit we wanted was 3 miles after that, so we stayed on NEW 395. All Shirley could say was "recomputing" and then she finally quieted down. She continued to pout until we reached OLD 395 at which time she started speaking to us again.

We got to the campground at 3:45. Our only problem here is the terrible WIFI. Will be here for a couple of days so probably have to find something better before we leave.

Joyce took this photo of our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe from the window of the motorhome. 

We have since found that Lake Tahoe is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide. That's about the same size as Guam. Hmmmmm.

Heading Home

Crescent City to Mount Shasta

The distance from Crescent City to Mount Shasta as the crow flies is probably about 50 or 60 miles. But the crow is able to fly over the Siskiyou Mountains without regard to the lack of roads. So we drove north and east from Crescent City to Grant's Pass, Oregon, and then southeasterly to Mount Shasta, California. We really had no other reason to drive to Oregon. It was just the convenience - like driving from Batavia, Ohio to downtown Cincinnati via Kentucky. It's just faster and on better roads.

So, while Crescent City was the westernmost point for this trip, Grant's Pass Oregon will go down as the northernmost point. That means that we are now heading in a homeward direction.

Closer to Mount Shasta we stopped for lunch and a photo opportunity.

The two of us laughing about the rubber chicken under my feet.

But let's return to our Crescent City stay and see some more of the photos from there.

Another view of the lighthouse at Crescent City.

While setting up another picture in the redwoods at Crescent City we introduced the rubber chicken to a banana slug. I really don't know too much about banana slugs, but we had been camping in our motorhome at Banana Slug Lane at the local campground.

Now if you happened upon this van you might be hard-pressed to keep a straight face.

I guess that you would have to see the entire van from the side .... see photo below

Do you suppose Dee-Ann has a clue?

Crescent City, California

Crescent City is a small coastal city, just about 20 miles south of the Oregon border. While the city itself is nothing to write about, the nearby scenery is unbelievable. 

Michael and Joyce with lighthouse in background. The lighthouse is accessible on foot at low tide.

I suppose that a scene like this has been previously available on postcards

Same scene from almost the same position several hours later at sunset.

Just a few miles from the coast are these redwoods. We were able to find a wide spot in the one-lane road to pull over and take pictures.

We need the two of us in the picture to show that we were actually here. We traveled this road while waiting for sunset for the earlier sunset photo.

Two midgets next to this redwood tree.

What is especially amazing is that everything pictured here is just a half hour apart.

Fun at Leggett, California

Benbow, California is halfway from Petaluma to Crescent City and was an easy drive of 150 miles. Just before we got to Benbow we drove past Leggett and a few kitschy tourist traps such as Confusion Hill and The Legend of Bigfoot. We had neglected lunch and arrived at 2:00. We figured we would head back down towards Leggett and get something to eat.

We stopped at Big Foot which amounted to nothing more than a souvenir shop and the food consisted of ice-cream sandwiches. We bypassed Confusion Hill, which I had visited in the early 1950s, (it's a place which appears to defy gravity, where water runs uphill), and continued on to Leggett.

Leggett's claim to fame is the Chandelier Tree, a 315 foot redwood tree with a hole cut out at its base where you can drive a car through. Even though the hole was cut out in the 1930s, the tree continues to grow.

Joyce at the wheel of the Subaru driving through the tree.

Joyce and Michael 

Michael on the 3-wheel bicycle driving through the tree.

Michael and the rubber chicken

The rubber chicken becomes famous, posing with other tourists.

The full length Chandelier Tree. You can see the hole at the base of the tree. The figure in front of the hole is Joyce, standing about 100 feet from the tree.

Right, we are still looking for lunch and it's getting late. None at this site, but we are told there is a place called the Peg House a couple miles up the road. For anything else we would have to drive thirty miles north or thirty miles south. Gotta be Peg House then. Two burgers, drinks, and chips - a little pricey, but really good. Black raspberry sundae for dessert. Al fresco lunch/dinner (Linner? Dunch?).

And back to the motorhome for "America's Got Talent."

RV Passengers

In Seal Beach we noticed that we had acquired a few passengers in the form of ants. Didn't really give them a lot of thought. They were not like the mice that had come aboard a few years ago and entertained the cats.

I suggested to Joyce that we should have gotten a couple of sheets of glass and made an ant farm for them. She was not amused.

We had tolerated them for a few days, then strategically placed ant traps around the motorhome. Everything seemed to be ok (low counts) until Joyce bought some Mexican pastries two days ago. We woke up to a pastry bag full of ants. The whole thing was immediately pitched out the door. Looks like most of the ants went with it.

There are still a few stragglers, but I think our Ohio winter will take care of them before our next trip. 

LOL.

San Francisco

Half Day Tour in One Day

When we arrived in Petaluma on Friday, the first thing we did was purchase two tickets for a tour of San Francisco on Sunday. The tour would require a minimum of six people to sign up - we were 3 and 4. Unfortunately no one else had signed up by 8:00 Saturday night so the tour was canceled. We were on our own.

It was nice and sunny when we departed at 8:30 Sunday morning, following a detailed (five page) self-tour provided by the campground. By the time we drove through Sausalito we began to see some fog, but the weather forecast was for a sunny day in San Francisco.

Golden Gate bridge from the Coast Guard Station.

We crossed the Golden Gate bridge and stopped at the south end pay the toll and wound up with a photo op (which will be posted later). We continued to follow the tour guide most of the way through Golden Gate Park. What wasn't covered in the guide was the possibility of road construction. We had to bypass about half of the park and continue on to Haight Ashbury, getting lost a couple of times, but found our way back relatively quickly.

Twin Peaks provided another opportunity for a photo as well as a reminder to me that Joyce does not like heights, including the drive up.

Atop Twin Peaks with San Francisco in the background.

A bit more driving, then a quick left turn into the entrance to Chinatown. Appeared to be about three blocks long. A bit of a disappointment when compared to the several block area of Haight Ashbury. From there we passed by the Powell St Cable Car Line and after getting lost one more time, found our way to Filbert Street, off Hyde. A 32 percent grade according to the write-up.

We are about to follow this car down the hill. Did I mention that Joyce didn't like heights?

After getting lost again, we found our way back up Hyde Street and a block further than Filbert and to the top of Lombard Street. Where Filbert is straight down, Lombard is a series of switch-backs. Lombard is a much more touristy drive than Filbert. People even walk the path down and gather to watch the cars as they traverse the slope. Police manage traffic at the top, as well as on the way down, in order to keep the traffic moving.

Looking back up Lombard Street. If you look carefully you can count six or seven cars at the top coming down the switch-backs.

The next stop on the schedule is for lunch at Fisherman's Wharf (and it's 2:00 already). So off to Fisherman's Wharf where parking is $5 per half hour. Lunch and shopping take up 2 1/2 hours and we are beat. It's 4:30 and I am ready to call it a day, with 1/2 of the tour remaining. We decide to head back to the campground rather than try to continue on.

Joyce took this nice photo on the way back over the bridge.

We got back to the campground just before six. Lots of traffic, but mostly heading the other way.

Tomorrow will be a kind of laid back day. Maybe visit a couple of wineries. Then get ready for the next day's drive to the Humboldt Redwoods.