Friday, June 22nd

In Bodega Bay!

15:05hrs - With fast and free Internet access.

19:00hrs - The best food is found in the small, local eateries. Last year, we traveled the central west of our great country and found our best meal at a small cafe in Palisade, Colorado where we were treated to an awesome country style, western breakfast.

This year, the majority of our route follows the Pacific Coast, in and out of small fishing towns such as Bodega Bay, California where we made camp today. As a family we have been sticking to ordering local seafood dishes whenever possible. Today we sopped at "The Boathouse" in Bodega Bay and found, by far the best Fish & Chips, Fried Clam Strips and Seafood chowder of the trip so far, all for a price nearly half of what we paid the night before at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. The chowder was super rich, the fried fish was Rock Cod caught the very same day. Below is a photo of the restaurant. Stop by for an excellent, cheap meal on our recommendation if you have an opportunity to travel this route.

After Trip Update: "The Boat House" remained as the top value and quality, Seafood eatery the entire trip.

The Northern California Coast is all new to me and our family. We have never traveled here before. The following photos were shot around Bodega Bay in the afternoon and early evening sunlight.

Bean Avenue homes along the salt marsh, just north of town.

Homes along Highway 1 and right on Bodega Bay.

Fishing boats moored in the west marina.

The rugged coastline near the mouth of Bodega bay.

My favorite, an old abandoned pier in the harbour.

Tomorrow, we have a long drive of over 200 miles up to Garberville, California and the heart of the the Redwoods. Our route will be slow with a few stops too include the Point Arena Lighthouse.

Point Arena is also the location of a major, trans oceanic, fiber optic cable landing. If we find this facility, we'll snap a photo.

Thursday, June 21st

In San Francisco - Updated at 10:00hrs on Friday, June 22nd

Whew! We were on the move and on our feet from 0800-2200hrs today. The walking tour of working, Chinatown was awesome. I can highly recommend http://www.allaboutchinatown.com/ for their services. The tour stuck to the "day to day side of Chinatown" and away from the tourist streets. We saw how the locals live, where they shop, how they shop, where they worship, and basically how live their daily lives.

Below, an herbal pharmacist doles out his medicine from a list provided by a very elderly, Chinese man. The rudimentary scale you see in the pharmacist's hands was used for all measurements.

There are many, open air, produce markets in Chinatown. At 1030hrs, each store was packed with shoppers picking over very high quality produce.



The store in the photo below, sold a wide variety of dried foods and nuts, some bizarre and most recognizable.



Ah, the Chinatown meat market. This was a real treat for the kids. This market not only sold fresh fish, poultry, pork and beef but there was also live chickens, frogs, rabbits, quail and various sea creatures that could be slaughtered , wrapped and prepped for purchase on the spot. I will cover this establishment in detail in my photo gallery at http://pjcnlv.smugmug.com/ in the months ahead.



Croakers! Their demise is near and PETA is nowhere to be found to save them!



UMMmmmmm!



The architecture and colors of Chinatown are a photographer's paradise. I shot many images that will be in the above mentioned gallery. Here are two as a sample.



One of the many alley's in Chinatown. Some are just as busy as the main streets.



We also visited Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf and what follows are just a few of the images from Alcatraz.

Looking, north, north-east from the Island through ruins near the powerhouse.



An area of the old Military fort and prison, vintage 1850's.



The main cell block area of the former US Penitentiary.



Fisherman's Wharf - Crab stands, not to be missed for fresh Clam Chowder, local crab and shrimp salad sandwiches.



Sunset on the wharf.

It's time to roust the troops to hit the road to Bodega Bay.

Just in time! This weekend there are two featured events in the San Francommieco area, the Gay Pride parade and the NASCAR event at Sears Point Raceway.

WE ARE OUTTA HERE!!!!

Wednesday, June 20th

At Santa Cruz Boardwalk

We sidetracked today on our way to San Francisco and made a stop for the kids at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Not completely removed from the unabated socialism of the area, the family attraction is on the beach in Santa Cruz where the following activities are against the law:

Alcohol
Pets
Bottles
Motor Vehicles
Fishing
Skateboarding
Baseball

That’s right, “baseball”.

Of course there was no mention of laws against pan handling or sleeping on the beach and a few of the locally coddled parasites (read “BUMS”) were out plying their knowingly entitled trade.

Back to fun, the boardwalk and muni pier have seen a revitalization over the past few years. Once inside the gates, the crowd was all families having a good time.

Our older kids stuck to rides that challenged their digestive systems to keep the lunch down they had eaten, thirty minutes prior.



----with diversions that gave them their best bang for the buck on their athletic abilities and to shoot projectiles, large and fast.



* On Thursday, the 21st, we will be in San Francisco. We will be on a walking tour of Chinatown with a Dim Sum lunch and then off to Alcatraz. By the end of the day, I am sure I will be longing for narrow, windy, vacant roads again.

Tuesday, June 19th

At Big Sur and up to Monterey Bay and back.

Today we drove north from our Big Sur camp to Monterey to visit the aquarium.

The aquarium is a must see for families. It represents the best variety of sea life on display in the US. With two stories of displays across two buildings, it took us 4 full hours to see everything.



A Coastal Sunfish, the biggest fish I have ever seen. It's huge and it look like it came out of a spaceship. This one is reported to way more than 500 lbs.



On the way back to camp, our route included Scenic Drive and Seventeen Mile Drive in Carmel. We also stopped to capture the Big Sur Coast in an afternoon light.



On Scenic Drive we found a 4000 sq ft lot for sale across the street from the ocean for a discount price of $4,700,000.



Tomorrow we are off to San Francisco with a full day stay to visit Chinatown via a walking tour and luncheon and then, a visit to Alcatraz.

I suspect that in San Fran, we will finally have decent Internet access again. The service in Monterey was horrible. When I could connect, the speed was 10% of dialup. This is what we get when the big phone companies monopolize wireless – crap service.

Monday, June 18th

Morrow Bay, CA to Big Sur, CA

We found the model for the architecture of the new Chicas compound.



June Gloom was out in force as we left Morro Bay and was compounded with an even temperature of 60 degrees. Kim likes this kind of weather, I do not.

We made the short trip to San Simeon and Hearst Castle in no time. We boarded the taxi bus and as we climbed hill to the big house, we started to break through the clouds and fog. Once on the top of the hill the sun was out strong with the coastal breeze occasionally pushing streaks of fog through the former Hearst compound.

We were back on Highway 1 by 1230hrs heading for Big Sur. Because of the many sharp curves on this stretch of Highway 1, instead of flat towing the Escalade, Kim followed behind.

Ninety five of one hundred RV owners avoid Highway 1. Because the Monsterhome has a wide and stable chassis, has great brakes and great power (unlike 90% of the RV’s that make up that scandalous market), we had no reservations about the highway.

We maintained a good clip where I only had to pull over for faster vehicles four times in 80 miles. My queue was 2 or more cars piling up behind Kim who was in close follow of the Monsterhome. All passing driver’s were courteous and happy to not have to follow a large vehicle. Many waved a friendly hand with all fingers extended.

Overall, there were only two, really narrow sections of the road, one as seen below. Going north is always preferred in a big vehicle instead of southbound on the edge.



We landed at Big Sur Cabins and RV Resort about 1500hrs. This rustic camp is full of people from all ethnicities and background. The resounding thing we hear from them as the wander past our camp is about the size of the Monsterhome. Unfortunately, there is no WIFI Internet in the campground and that little dweeb from Verizon hasn’t done his job again as the entire area is void of voice and data cell service.



The kids have never seen such trees before. Wait ‘till we drive the Escalade through the “Drive Through, Redwood Tree” in a few days. Now, that will be "politicaly perfect"



A few more photos from W.R. Hearst's digs - the indoor pool.



Dining room. many more photos will be in my http://pjcnlv.SmugMug.com gallery soon.

Sunday, June 17th

Tehachapi, CA to Morro Bay, CA

We enjoyed perfect weather on this leg. The traffic was light on all routes except CA State Highway (SH) 41/46, between James Dean Memorial Intersection and Shandon. The eastbound traffic in this section looked like an exodus before a Tsunami. Just wild!

CA SH 41 is a real hoot of a road. narrow, twisty and without a lot of traffic, all of which I prefer over a road with bad statistics like the run from Shandon into Paso Robles, CA we just avoided.

CA SH 41 is marked as "restricted" and not for use by semi trucks with trailers longer than 30 feet. The picture below was taken near one of the remote ranches along this route.



We had a few folks pile up behind us on the twisties but, never too stressful as there were opportune turnouts to let them by.

In to Morro Bay.

We arrived at our destination by 1400hrs and took off for a tour of the town. We visited the Natural History Museum and walked Embarcadero a few times to find the right restaurant for the evening meal.



We also stumbled across a revolutionary new bicycle design and ordered one for Kim and myself. I asked for a new option that makes both wheels "steerable". Imagine that !



Tomorrow, we are off to Hearst Castle and Big Sur. We will be navigating California Highway 1 in the Monsterhome. Photos to follow.

Saturday, June 16th

We are on the road for the big three week road trip of 2007.

We left V-town at noon Saturday. West on I-15 to Barstow facing 30mph head and cross winds the whole way - no sweat in the Monsterhome. We set the cruise for 60mph and motored on. Everyone riding in back, hadn't a clue of the weather.

For awhile a driver of an RV from El Monte Rentals attempted to keep pace in the wind. Each time the driver attempted a pass and came up alongside, his bleached white fingers clutched to the steering wheel stood out like a beacon of light. On the occasion that he actually got by the Monsterhome his big, Rental RV would be "crabbing" down I-15 like a 747 landing at the old Hong Kong airport in hurricane force crosswinds.

We left I-15 and headed due east on Cal State Highway 58 west of Barstow. By Boron, the winds were 40-50 mph and were the strongest most aggressive winds I have ever driven in. The gusts were actually noticeable in the Monsterhome as we passed lesser rigs parked on the side of the road, often sans the driver's side awnings that were removed by the crosswinds. Too often one member of the sidelined party was sprawled out on the roof clutching awning remnants like something out of a cartoon show.

As usual, our party was unaffected.

Once we crossed into the Tehachapi Valley, the weather settled down and was down right nice. We landed at Mountain Valley RV Park situated right next to Mountain Valley Airport an abode that caters mostly to Glider Planes and Pilots.




Tomorrow, we are off to Morro Bay, crossing the Cntral Valley of California into the coastal foothills and down California Highway 41 which is a "twisty road" warmup for driving on CA Highway 1 up the coast.