August 5, 2012 Day 58/60 Benbow to Bodega Bay, CA
Today was a day of miscalculations. I need to start by saying that I have a wonderful husband. A lessor man would have crumbled over today’s many miscalculations (all well-meaning, mind you). The boys were bickering so I asked for a volunteer to ride with the grandparents figuring a little distance would make them appreciate each other a bit. In some ways, this turned out to be a great idea and in others it was worrisome. Can you guess which?
After consulting the map, Mom and I determined that we should take Hwy 101 for only a short way before heading off to the coast on Hwy 1 for a more direct and scenic route to Fort Bragg. The road was certainly scenic and direct, but it was also VERY windy with steep curves and very few straight sections. There were no real towns, only a few homes looked lived in. The rest were abandoned and dilapidated. Even if we wanted to change our minds and head back to 101, there were very few pull outs and none wide enough to turn in and most were on or between curves. For those of you who have driven to Cutter Scout Reservation, it was like 22 miles of Hwy 236. Even though it was beautiful, it took way longer and a lot more concentration than we thought. By the time we hit the coast, we were low on fuel and patience. I
The coast was still overcast and the road was windy and steep with no shoulder and sometimes no guardrails. Things are getting tenser. There are no pull outs to speak of and yet slow traffic should pull over to let others pass. Yeah, right! Low on fuel, we finally got to Ft. Bragg and our hand-me-down GPS leads us to a commercial only gas station that is off the highway and not open. Mike leads us to a Chevron and we get gas and propane (our first refill of the long trip).
We stop at Safeway to get Ricola for Rick who on top of all this stressful driving has a horrible dry cough caused by a tickle in the back of his throat. We ask one of the employees about the Glass Beach access. She steered us to the non-State Park area. We found curb parking not too far from the public beach access. After lunch in the trailers, we walked out a dirt road lined with unripe berry bushes and lots of dog feces. There was a sign mentioning that there are many archaeological artifacts in the area and we shouldn’t disturb or take any artifacts from the area. Surely, they don’t mean the bagsful of sea/beach glass (human detritus) being taken away by the many locals and tourists on the trail.
At the end of the trail are two coves separated by a small cliff. There are several people already combing the beach to left and some scuba divers going for abalone. We decide to go to the less crowded beach cove on the right. There are some tide pools but not much was happening in them so we focused on the glass. There was sea glass everywhere (the area off shore was used as a military landfill or something like that). Without much effort we did our part to remove some of the human impact on the environment in the area.
We headed south on Hwy 1 only to be met with a lot more twists and turns. In some places the pull outs had as much as a 6 inch drop from the pavement to the gravel. At one such pull out, as Mike was pulling over to let cars by, the trailer struggled to stay upright when Mike drove off the pavement and hit the drop. Rick and I saw this from about ¼ mile away and really worried that they might topple. For just a second I went all concerned Mom and daughter. My heart was in my throat and then down in my stomach. Luckily, they were not near a cliff and Mike expertly got them back on the road. It took much longer for my adrenaline to subside. Luckily, no one was injured and the only damage was that the coffee maker hung by its cord and spilled left over coffee and the lock on the sliding door between the dining area and the bathroom seems damaged.
The car got very quiet save for Rick’s frequent coughs. Neither Dominic nor I wanted to disturb Rick’s focus and concentration. Feeling guilty for wanting to go this route, I didn’t want to talk about the road conditions or anything else. When I was a teen I read several novels that took place along the Northern California coast. Since then, I have held romantic notions about touring the area with my husband. Let me tell you there was nothing romantic about driving the crazy curves of the highway pulling a trailer and watching your family negotiate the turns in the trailer in front of you. The best I can say is that none of us got car sick. We were certainly sick of being in the car and Rick was sick of driving though.
We arrived too late to check in at the Porto Bodega Bay RV Park and Marina. They left a note telling us our spots and we will have to pay in the morning. The RV Park is literally right down the hill from a charming restaurant that Rick and I ate at with our friends Chris and Angie on the eve of their wedding. It is called the Terrapin Creek Café. It is delicious but has nothing for the kids to eat and I am not leaving them in the trailer by the marina on our last night of our adventure. Instead we park the trailers and Mike unhitches (easier for him than for us) so we can drive to The Sandpiper just at the top of the cliff on Highway 1 and down a bit. We don’t all fit in the truck so Mike drops most of us off and goes back for Rick.
We are all excited to have real SF style sourdough rolls fresh from the oven with butter. We know we are almost home now. We celebrate with a nice dinner including drinks and desserts (shared since we were all so full from the main course and salads). We have a lovely window seat. The bay is obscured by a bush on the highway but we can see our trailers and realize it is a short walk back down the hill to the RV Park. Mike drove Mom and Luca back while Dominic, Rick and I took the walk.
Since today was all about the winding roads, I almost forgot to mention the wildlife we saw. At various points along the coastline, we saw seals and/or sea lions relaxing on rocks and sandy spits or islands. One rocky ledge was well above the water line, leading Dominic to ask, “If those are seals, how on earth did they get way up on that ledge?” Our answers varied: they waited for high tide, they took a really big jump and then scooted, and they took an express elevator. We also saw what may have been a large chipmunk at the glass beach, too many gulls to count, some turkey vultures (looking very heavy and menacing on the electrical wires and also in flight), maybe some eagles and an osprey (Luca), a large white crane far below us at the edge of the Russian River, and a scraggly fox crossing Hwy 1 not far from the restaurant.
We are sleeping in tomorrow as we are almost home and don’t want to hit the Golden Gate Bridge during morning traffic. Rick will have extra to do to prep the tanks for storage so I will make a special pancake and bacon breakfast in the big trailer.
Tomorrow night we sleep in our own beds at home!
August 6, 2012 Day 59/60 Bodega Bay to Millbrae, CA
I am finally writing this last entry 10 days after we arrived home. Our trip home was uneventful. Once home we were relieved to find that our cats remembered us and were glad we came home. However, life got very busy, very fast. Dominic has already started high school. I am preparing to teach at a new school, same grade, relieved to have a job. I won’t outline other events and issues that have occupied our time. I’ll just say that I feel very lucky to have had this wonderful adventure with my family this summer.
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