Sunday, June 20
"Maybe," we joked, "It's all because we should have found a church to go to!"
We had eaten breakfast at 8, and headed out for Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Nobody minded the drive, since we were in the middle of listening to the audiobook "Young Fredle" (thanks to a blog reader's recommendation!). We had driven at least an hour, and were getting close to the park, when we saw a "road closed" sign ahead. A GPS is a wonderful thing (when it's giving out correct information, of course) and we simply headed up an alternate route -- a narrow, steep, winding little road. Nearly at the top, we met a pickup coming down. Squeezing off to the side to let it pass, we stopped and Chris rolled his window down.
"The park is closed," the lady informed us. "You might as well turn around the next chance you get, because you're going to have to turn around anyway!"
"Nice." Chris said.
"Not really," she laughed.
So, we turned around and went into 're-routing' mode. We had planned to visit the Golden Gate bridge -- actually had it penciled in for a visit at sunset -- why not go there now?
We finished "Young Fredle" and started a new Hank the Cowdog story, which kept everyone entertained. This was a good thing, because the traffic was terrible and the drive a long one.
I wish I had taken pictures of the streets of San Francisco, but it's so hard to get decent pictures out of dirty van windows. Not to mention that I was too distracted with holding my breath in the bumper to bumper traffic and the constant speeding up and slowing down and the darting in and out. Chris is a good driver but a city girl I am not!
We finally reached our destination, and there we ran into our next problem: most of the parking areas for the Golden Gate Bridge were closed and the ones that were open were packed full. We tried here and we tried there, and finally we drove across the bridge and gave it up.
We stopped for some lunch and afterward opted to stop at a gas station for restrooms, since the ones there had to be unlocked by an employee and were being kept busy by a crowd of cyclists. The first stop had no restrooms and the second one, the door was locked with a sign that said "Back in half an hour".
That's when we started laughing about everything and wondering if we should have found a church!
At that point we went back to our motel to regroup. Isaac and Chris went to check out a disc golf course and pick up some groceries for supper; the rest of us relaxed and even took some short naps.
Our motel had a lovely deck outside our second floor bedrooms and the weather was beautiful. We decided to be the rednecks that we are and make hamburgers out there with our electric skillet and extension cord.
And then, we headed back to the Golden Gate bridge to try again.
It was too late to walk across the bridge, so we went to Baker Beach and walked down along the ocean. It was misty and chilly, but so magnificent and fun!
4 comments:
That last paragraph!
Oh the stories I could tell of sleepless nights and road weariness, but worth it? Yes. Yes, it is.
I'm greatly enjoying your stories of your trip! It brings back memories of a similiar 3 week western trip our family of 7 took when I was a teenager. We also camped some of the time with a pop-up camper and a full sized van. There were also experiences such as 3 girls hopelessly lost in the Grand Canyon campground after dark.😊 But now we look back and laugh even at that! So glad you all can do this and best wishes in your continuing travels!
I grew up in Alameda just across the bay. We spent lots of time in the Redwood forest and drove through the trees. I can still remember falling and rolling down a steep, to me, hill. We would go to the park near the bridge many times to feed the ducks and have tea in the Japanese Tea garden. So many memories of my grandparents and family! The last time I was there was in 1977.
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