The Journey Continues - Part 4

The Journey Continues

Leg 4

October 30, 2007

Back To The Coast.....

It’s Tuesday evening. Just had a luscious bbq’d salmon and fresh fruit dinner. Yummmmmy.

Yesterday (Monday) I just hung out in Rohnert Park working. Really didn’t do anything else.

Today I packed up and headed west....to the coast.

I took a route that was small country roads all the way (it’s not that far....it only took me about an hour to get over here). It’s all rolling green hills....grazing land....sheep and cattle. Plus an occasional horse property.

I’m currently anchored in Bodega Bay.

Bodega Bay is pretty well known because Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie, The Birds, was shot here.

I am now far enough north and it’s late enough in the year that I figure I can go to just about campground or RV Park and won’t have a problem in the world getting a space, right?

Well, I pull in here today and tell Margaret that I may want to stay between 2 and 5 days depending on how I like it, what there is to do/see, etc. She says, “Sorry....we’re booked.” I look out the office window and they aren’t booked. They’re practically empty. I say so. She says, “No, I mean I can put you in for a couple of days, but November 2 is Opening Day.” Opening Day for what, I ask? “Crab Season. This place will be jammed with fisherman the first week of Crab Season.”

Crab Season? Who’d have thought of that? Not me, that’s for sure.

So now I have to explore Bodega Bay quickly and make plans to move north earlier than I expected. Or maybe do some serious schmoozing with Margaret (but I don’t think that’s in the cards).

Here’s another problem. I’ve been told that from here on up the Coast except around Fort Bragg and then Eureka, I’m going to have a hard time with cell service. And, that means I’ll also have a hard time with my wireless broadband connection for Internet service, too. Since I need both for work, I may have to change plans rather dramatically and head inland to find more civilization.

Oh, well. You gotta do what you gotta do.

I’ll try to take a trip around Bodega Bay tomorrow and get some pics posted.



October 31, 2007 -- Happy Halloween From Bodega Bay, CA

It is COLD outside. Foggy. Very windy. Wind coming off the ocean/bay so with all the wet it’s extra chilly. Glad to be snuggled up inside.

I will see no kids in costumes tonight. No Trick-Or-Treaters. No little angels. No ghosts. No goblins. There are about 4 or 5 travelers in the Bodega Bay RV Park and no kids in sight. I guess that’s going to change when the crabbers come in on Friday.

Anyway, here’s where I am:

(Yesterday after hooking up.)

(This is out my back window. The ocean and bay are out there and they say you can see them from here....but too much fog so far.)


Today around noon I took a break from work to scout out a few new RV Parks up the coast and inland a little bit. I could have just called, but they were fairly close and I needed to get out.

So I bundled up a bit because it was a little cold then (probably between 45 and 50), hopped on my motorcycle, and physically checked out 4 potential new ports of call. As I feared, I could get NO cell phone reception at any of them.

But, it was a fabulous ride and great to get outside for an hour. Along the coast. Inland through thick forests. Winding roads along the Russian River. Cold enough to be exhilarating but not uncomfortable.

Here are a few pics of our rugged Northern California Coast on a cool and foggy day:








Anyway, I’m now re-plotting my trip to go back inland a ways where I’ll have a better chance of getting cell and Internet connections. Nothing wrong with that and there is plenty of beautiful country to experience. But I was thinking “coast” so this will be a mental adjustment for me.

I’m here until Friday and then, by noon, must make room for the crabs. So tomorrow, sometime, I’ll go out and explore around Bodega Bay a bit and see what’s up here. I thought this was a bigger place, but the total population is less than 1,000.


November 1, 2007 – Last Day @ Bodega Bay

After working all morning and hoping the fog would lift and it would warm up, I finally put on my “try to keep warm” motorcycle garb and headed out to explore around Bodega Bay a bit.

Several problems. There isn’t that much to explore. The fog was so think you just couldn’t see very much/very far.

So I drove around, went down to the Harbor (all commercial/fishing boats), out to the county park, found myself in a brand new million dollar home development on a golf course (this on the outskirts of this tiny town with mostly shacks and shanty’s and beach cottages), took some pics in the fog (see below – sorry, that’s as good as they got today), and, at the last minute, decided to get even with the local crabs who are, for all intents and purposes, kicking me out of my place tomorrow.

(Beach)




(Bay)


(Whoops - You don't want to be the owner of this boat.)




(In an effort to get some revenge on the Crabs....I ate some. Crab Cake Lunch from local, fresh caught, Bodega Bay Dungeness Crabs...with Jalapeno pepper sauce. Excellent.)





I did take about an hour this morning to find new digs. I called a whole lot of places on and off the coast. I’d say 8 or so told me, in no uncertain terms, that I would not get cell service at their RV Park. I finally found a place near Cloverdale where the woman I talked to said that not only was the Park in a beautiful setting, but also that I should have no problem with cell service. So, tomorrow, I’m off to Cloverdale. I have no clue what I’ll find there. It was not on my hot spot list, I can assure you. Also, I'm not really convinced I’ll actually get decent cell service.


But what the heck. I gotta go somewhere. The population of the Bodega Bay RV park has at least doubled today if not more. I suddenly have neighbors galore. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Until then.....




November 2, 2007 – Friday – Cloverdale, CA

So when I first step foot outside this morning at about 8:00 what do I see? Blue sky. Still lots of fog, but there’s a little blue and you just know the sun is going to peep around the corner and burn off at least some of that fog.

At 10:00 when I got ready to starting securing all my gear for the next journey, I had on jeans, a tee shirt, and a flannel shirt over that. It only took about 5 seconds to get rid of the flannel....too hot. And the new people were moving in left and right. Crabbers Galore.

Naturally, this happens as I’m leaving. Oh, well. At least on the way out I got to see Bodega Bay (the actual bay). Happy to report it exists.

Drove over to Santa Rosa because I needed to find an RV place to replace some things. So that really put a crimp in my trip because, although Santa Rosa is a really small town, there was road construction all over and I was tied up in traffic for over an hour. Ugh.

Finally got up here to Cloverdale. I wasn’t sure if I could stay in the RV park I had chosen because I wasn’t 100% sure I’d get cell and Internet connections. So I came in skeptical.

But, luckily, everything is fine so far.

This is a pretty rustic place....no TV reception at all and no cable. And, it’s the first RV park I’ve ever been to that doesn’t take credit cards.

Anyway here are a few pics to give you the idea of my new setting. I like it.

(You can't tell here, but if I were to back up another 2 or 3 feet I'd fall off a steep cliff.)




(Here's the view out my back window.)

(And here's the view out my front window.)

(Stairs going down to a lower level at the park - I just thought this looked nice.)

It was at least 80 when I got here and it is expected to be down around 45 tonight. The air smells like pine and the starts are bright.

Not sure what there is to do around the area, but I’ll find that out tomorrow.

November 4, 2007 – The Fish, The Lake, The Quiet

Having had zero exercise since my last tennis match against Jeff in Rohnert last Sunday, I’ve been dying to get outside and do something...anything. In Bodega Bay, all my outside was via motorcycle and it was cold and wet and foggy down there.

It’s been beautiful here in Cloverdale, so yesterday I laced up my boots and made a trek to Lake Sonoma for some hiking.

It was picturesque, clear, warm. I visited the fish hatchery first. They grow Coho and Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Trout. I’ve been to hatchery’s before and the fact is they’re all pretty much the same, but something always draws me in when there’s one close by. Is that weird?

Besides, I have a special relationship with Steelhead. Basically a Steelhead is a big Rainbow that goes to sea before spawning. Grew up with one. Not in an aquarium. Stuffed....taxidermied. Hanging in my childhood family room. Dad caught it on a fly and up there over the door it still had the fly in it's mouth. I passed under it more than once virtually everyday of my life from Second Grade into High School.

(Here are some baby Steelhead. They'll be nurtured in the hatchery for about a year before release.)

Then I found a trail and made a hike. Tramped around the country for about an hour and half. Didn’t see another soul, but did see signs of horses and some mountain bike tracks. It was a steep, rugged trail in parts and I pushed myself to make it feel like “real” exercise rather than a walk in the woods.

I haven’t hiked a mountain trail since....well, I can’t remember when. It was beautiful and felt so great. I was sweating up a storm when I finished.

I plan to go to another area of Lake Sonoma today and for another good hike. Lake Sonoma is pretty big with 2 main arms, Dry Creek (about 9 Miles Long) and Warm Springs (about 4 miles long).

Here's an idea of what some of it looked like from the trail.

(Last week when I went to get my tennis racket strung, I came over a rise in the road and saw, as far as you could see, this bright yellow and orange field. We'll not exactly a field. Certainly not trees, but not ground cover either. Finally figured out it was grape vines. Duh. And the leaves had changed to Fall Colors. There are not just acres of these....there are miles and miles and miles. After all, this is Wine Country. Here's just a glimpse. Going off sort of to the upper left corner of the picture, this one sections keeps on going to the horizon/foot of the mountains.)



When I got back to my place, I laid down in my hammock in the shade reading my book for a little while before coming inside to catch up on some work.

And, I noticed something. The quiet. It was perfectly quiet. It seems like most places there is some sort of noise somewhere in the background. But yesterday, for that half hour or so, it was perfectly quiet. I couldn’t pick up the sound of anything at all.

It’s nice. I look forward to enjoying it again today.

I think with traffic and hustle and bustle and TV and MP3’s and cell phones and “elevator music” everywhere and everything else, we get used to noise. Seems like there’s always some noise in the foreground or background or right around the corner. I create my own. I always have on something in the background....TV or music or something.

But not here. Not yesterday.

Have we become afraid of quiet? Wouldn’t it be nice to get used to it?

Responses to Comments:

Frank – There is a Geyser Road here in Cloverdale, but didn’t find much info yet on drilling around these parts. Also, there is a place called Geyserville up the 101 a piece, so I may look into that. It’s not far. I'll update you if I find out anything interesting.

Sherry – Didn’t see your Comment on my Blog for some reason, but did get your email. Glen Ellen is back down the road south, so I’m not too close to there now. But I appreciate your story and can just picture you working off your muffins....and staying. Hope you and “Sweetie” are well and glad you escaped any fire damage. Sounds like I would have liked to have met Juanita. Oh, wait. I just found your Comment....you put it in on Leg One....let’s keep current, OK?....I’m on Leg 4 and looking in the teeth of Leg 5 for gosh sakes.

Final Thought

Glad to see USC FINALLY caught up with UCLA in the Pac-10 Conference Standings after yesterday. At least maybe that will make things more interesting.

Speaking of interesting, isn't sports of all sorts interesting. For example, look at how a team with basically no talent can perform and how a team with the best players on the planet can perform. Shows you there's more to winning than raw talent, huh?

November 4, 2007 – Sunday In Cloverdale

After putting in some work hours this morning, I headed out at 11:45 for a different part of Lake Sonoma for another hike. Looking at the map, I figured it was only about 15 minutes to a half hour away.

Got there at 1:15.

And it was only a ½ hour drive? Max?

How did that happen? I know I wasn't driving an hour and a half.

I know I checked the time on my computer and on my cell as I was leaving. Going around noon was important because it’s cold here at night and in the morning and later in the afternoon. So even though the high is around 75, it’s only 75 for a couple of hours mid day. So I was watching the time this morning pretty closely.

And, when I got there, I looked at my motorcycle time piece as I was dismounting. 1:15 for sure.

What the heck?

Shows you how smart I really am.

No TV, no news, little contact with humans...

Bye-Bye Daylight Savings. Ah....that was today, huh?

21st Century Technology. My cell time and computer time set themselves. So they “Fell Back” an hour automatically. That's what I use for time around my place, so I didn't know the difference. They were the same. My motorcycle watch needs manual setting.

Duh. You’d think you’d get smarter as you get older...maybe I’m just the exception to that rule. I hate to admit it, but it actually took me a long time to figure out what was going on.

Not as good of a hike today as yesterday. This part of the lake is kind of barren (as you’ll see in the pics, below) and there were limited trails to choose from. Still better than a sharp stick in the eye, though. And, I have a self portrait here for you today, so stand by...

(Here I am, at last. That's me (well, my shadow) on the rocks next to a substantial Oak tree - it's shadow crosses the rocks and goes down into the water.)


Tomorrow I have to figure out where to go next and I really have no idea at this point. I might just stay here a couple of extra days as I ponder the choices and try to find a place where I can be connected...we’ll see.