Calistoga to San Juan Bautista / July 10 & 11

I'm back!  This will be a two day post.

We spent the night in Calistoga and from what I could tell it is a very lovely, quaint little town surrounded by a LOT of wineries.  Calistoga is known for some very good eating establishments but we did not partake.

We left Calistoga bound for San Juan Bautista and this is what I have to say about that - I will not be going back to Calistoga in a motorhome.   Now don't get me wrong - I would love to go back to Calistoga and do a lot of exploring and visiting the wineries, partaking in the lovely food, etc., but it will be in a car - not a motorhome.    Getting there was a hairy experience for me, but leaving was not very good either.    We had more narrow, curvy roads and lots of trees with lots of branches hanging over the road.   Not a good fit for a motorhome.    We hit some branches on the passenger side, that were pretty substantial.  Not wispy little skinny branches but thick heavy branches.  We were doing about 35MPH and I just about lost my cookies.   By the time we pulled into a gas station to fuel up, just before getting back on the 101, I was literally sick to my stomach.   Luckily I have a small trash can with plastic bag liners at my feet.   No bueno.   Gary did a cursory check for obvious damage but couldn't see any.   I think when we arrive home,  a closer look is in order.   

Here's a picture of our site in Calistoga.  It's at the fairgrounds.  Nothing special just a place to park and call home for a night.

So merrily we go on down the road but wait - we have to avoid San Francisco as we make our way to San Juan Bautista!    Gary had mentioned the night before we would be crossing a big bridge - I didn't ask any questions but stored that info for later recall.  Sure enough  we crossed a bridge alrighty - the Richmond Bridge.  That's right people it's a mighty long double decker bridge, and we were on the bottom deck.    And just to make it more fun - they are doing construction on the bridge, so there were just two lanes and some concrete barriers for us to drive along.   Fun times I tell ya.   But we lived to tell about it.

We then missed the 880 cut-off that Ms Garmin told us to take and consequently she re-calculated for us and took us on a little tour of the Embarcadero area of Oakland.  That's right people Oakland, California!   Another few edge of my seat minutes and we were back on the right freeway.   Gee this is so much fun - (she says sarcastically)! 

We proceeded on and made our way to Betabel RV Park.  I think I read that Betabel is "sugar beet" in Spanish.   156 sites, strictly RV's, FHU, lots of pull throughs, but boy you are close to your neighbors.   We are here three days, mostly because we don't like to be on the road on the weekends and we don't like to leave RV parks on Sundays with all the hordes of other people, so Monday it is.  Very friendly staff, nice clean laundry (yes people I had to do laundry again!).   We are very near Gilroy - the Garlic Capital of the world.  I'm happy to report that there is no overwhelming smell of garlic as I have experienced this in the past, so perhaps the garlic is not ready for harvest.   We drove on back country roads today to Hollister and then to San Juan Bautista, where we visited the mission.  Loved the country roads, this area is called the salad bowl, because they grow a lot of veggies for your salads.     Today we passed all kinds of wonderful veggies growing in beautiful fields; I could readily idenitfy red lettuce, artichokes, cabbage, all sorts of lettuce.  Lots of farm stands and we went to the Farmer's Market in Gilroy this morning.  I bought delicious strawberries, beautiful nectarine and peaches and amazing tasting tomatoes.    In fact had a tomato sandwich for dinner!  A-mazing!  They grow a lot of apricots and sugar beets, just to name a few more.  

When we arrived in San Juan Bautista we noticed near the mission there was a group of people sitting around some drummers and what looked like Indians dancing.  As we got closer it was and I talked to a lady about what was happening.  She said they were staging a peaceful/prayerful protest against the Pope's idea to canonize Father Junipero Serra due to his poor treatment of the Indians.   We watched a while, they had sage burning in the center of the ring, the dancers were circling around.   I noticed that there were several State Park Rangers across the street watching.   Fascinating to me because of how I was feeling about the poor Indians earlier in our trip!

The Mission was pretty typical but the church apparently is the largest built with three aisles.  Mass is still said here and it is a fully functioning parish.   I love looking at all the old furniture and relics from the past. 

Calistoga, CA / July 9

We left Fortuna at 10 and arrived here in Calistoga at 3.    Took a little bit longer than we had anticipated because the roads had a common theme today.  See if you can guess

Did you guess lots of curvy, narrow, hilly roads with lots of big, big trees along the very narrow or non existent shoulders?   You are RIGHT!   Yikes I was on the edge of my seat but for the most part I did a good job of keeping my mouth shut.   Gary did an awesome job keeping us on the road!  He really has done a super job.

We are now in Napa County - otherwise known as Wine Country.  There are just one field of grapes after the other and wineries everywhere.   Too bad we aren't wine drinkers!    We are just hunkering down for the night.   It has rained off and on all day, which is wonderful.  Nothing heavy just a light sprinkling here and there.   No sunshine, very overcast and cool - just the way I love it.

Here are some pics of the grapes and the winery signs - maybe Katie will recognize some of the names.

Fortuna, CA / July 8 / Redwoods

Ok folks got some pictures for you all today.   Redwoods - you have got to see them if you haven't.  Valerie and Roger you must plan another trip and we must make the trek up north here to Humboldt County!    This was our second trip here and we are still wow'd by them.   They are majestic, mystical, magical I just don't have adequate words and pictures just don't capture their essence.
We awoke to rain (yeah for that) but were not deterred from our plans to see the big trees.  We headed south on the 101 to the Avenue of the Giants, which is approximately a 30 mile stretch of two lane road that goes right through the groves of redwoods.  The road is very narrow in some spots because the trees are growing so close to the side the road.  So here goes:

This is a picture of a Pacific Northwest Madrone Tree.  Beautiful red bark, at some point in the year they begin to shed their bark and it peels off to reveal a light yellow/green which as it ages turns red.   I love this tree.   Our guide on the jet boat pointed them out to us and now I look for them.  I saw a lot of them today.

We then headed to Eureka and found out way to Woodley Island and the marina there.   We found a nice cafe and had lunch looking out at the bay and all the colorful fishing boats.    We also found "The Old Man of the Sea" there!

We then headed back to Fortuna, with a very quick pit stop at the Indian Casino, Bear River Casino.  They were doing a bit of remodeling and the smoke was overwhelming when we walked in - no bueno!    So needless to say we donated a few dollars and then quickly hit the road.

There is a lot of logging and lumber mills here (duh) so today I got a shot of one of the trucks full of logs for my lil boy.  Check it out Caleb - that's a lot of logs!

And finally my model stood by this tree to give you some idea of the tree's girth - wow - to be honest I think this started as two separate trees but has grown into one.   AMAZING............

Fortuna, CA / July 7 / A Change of Plans!

Howdee!   Well we left Gold Beach, Oregon and headed for Eureka, CA which was just a short 135 or so miles.   Stopped for lunch along the road, had a beautiful view of the Pacific and nice cool breeze.   Gotta love that.  

Then headed for Eureka, CA.  Sooner or later I figured we were bound to hit a dud when it came to RV parks and today was the day!   Yuck  - Redwood Acres RV Park in Eureka is at the fairgrounds and just wasn't a place we would feel comfortable staying.   We felt like that when we arrived but the deal was sealed when I finally found the office, which was a challenge, and checked in I was told "oh just pick a site and the nighttime host will see you later".   OK so we did that and we were in the process of leveling or trying to get level, when the night time host appeared and told us we could not park where we were.   She said it was the dump station.  Now we know what a dump station looks like and we know that campsites have an electric hookup and water hookup and sewer and this site had all those things.   But no, she said they like to keep people "on the other side of the fence".  Sure would have been nice to have been told that from the beginning.  By this time Gary was in the motorhome already researching another place for us to stay.    He found Riverwalk RV Resort in Fortuna which was just a few miles further down the road and they had an opening for two nights so we booked it.  I then went into the fairgrounds office and told them it just wasn't going to work for us and we would not be comfortable staying and they refunded my money!   So there ya go - it had to happen sooner or later.   

This place was more expensive but we feel like we "fit in" a little better.   

The sites are a little too close together (I miss Gold Beach already) but it will do.  We don't spend much time at the campsite.   Tomorrow we will be headed to the Redwoods!   Hopefully we will have some nice pictures for ya Connie!!! 

Gold Beach, OR / July 6 / Jerry's Rogue Jet Boats

Today was the day - we had scheduled our ride in a jet boat on the Rogue River and let me tell you I was verrrrry apprehensive.     I'm not the roller coaster lovin gal like my daughter is but Gary decided we were going; so we went.

I loooooved it!    I highly recommend it.  We did the 64 mile - "mild" ride up river.  You spend about 2 hours heading up river then stop for lunch and then 2 hours back.   Total blast, worth the money, loved it.   We saw lots of birds - a baby eagle still in the nest

, falcon, osprey, turkey vulture, Canadian geese just to name a few.   We saw seals and on our way back to dock, came upon a guy who had just caught a beautiful salmon.    We did loopy-do-loops and got soaking wet.   Fun - lots of fun and a great way to end our stay here at Gold Beach. 

In the third picture there is an osprey sitting in the tree and the birds on the rock are turkey vultures.
I have video I can seem to upload here but will try to upload to facebook.  We had a great time.