SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 1 & 2

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 1 & 2:

       Drove away from our RV park, down the 1-lane road approaching it (I rode my bike to the bend where it becomes 1 lane to half any incoming RV's), and west on Carmel Valley Road. Quite melancholy, as we'd ridden this route nearly every day now for 2 weeks.

       We took Hwy 1 & then 101 to San Jose, then I-280 all the way to San Francisco, where the freeway ends and you're back on Hwy 1/101. A nice unchallenging trip until, predictably, we went thru San Francisco. There are no freeways through the city – the one which used to traverse the city was demolished after the 1989 earthquake. Our destination was Marin county, across the bay to the north, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and this was the route which both Mike and the RV park here recommended. I don't know if they didn't factor in Saturday afternoon sightseers all trying to get across the Golden Gate or to a viewing point of it, but it was horrendous. Took about 1 ½ hours to go 5 miles or less. Literally crawled up to the bridge access. At times, only 1 vehicle would make it through the green light cycle. All this is bad enough under any circumstances, but when you're pulling 8 tons on a grade (this is San Francisco, after all) and can't get any momentum going and so therefore you can't get out of low gear and your RPM's are racing like crazy, well, once again, not a fun experience. But also once again, Bill handled it masterfully.

      And then once we actually got on the bridge, it was mostly OK. The right-hand lane approaching the bridge from the south leads to a viewpoint, and I assume a parking area, and I think that's where the bottleneck originated – hundreds of cars trying to make that exit, and probably no room for them in the parking lot. At any rate, despite the stress, I have to say it was thrilling to see and then be on the Golden Gate. We'll have plenty of opportunities to view this icon from a less stressful vantage point during the next 2 ½ weeks.

      Made it fine to our RV park. It's totally nondescript. In fact, I'd have to say it may be the most unattractive, almost ugly, place we've ever stayed. Nothing but gravel, sites extremely close together, no picnic tables (no room), no shade trees. BUT – we chose it because of location, location, location. First, it's on the sunny side of the bay, and second, it's a 15-minute walk from the ferry terminal which will whisk us into the city. Or even closer to a bus stop. I knew we wanted to book a place which had access to public transportation – there was no way we wanted to drive into the city and try to park! And the staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful about the ferry & public transit, as well as suggestions as to what to see.

       So the remainder of Saturday and Sunday were catch-up days – laundry, paying bills, shopping.

       Tomorrow we'll start exploring the City by the Bay.