San Rafael, CA

At the Standish Hickey State Park in Leggett we got up to beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures. We fixed our standard breakfast of oatmeal, peanut butter and bread (sourdough since we are in CA) and fruit. We got our "typical early" morning start, 10'ish. On today's ride we got off Rt 101 and turned onto Rt 1 which took us back over to the coast. This meant that we would be climbing over the coast range. The climb turned out to be not so bad. It was very windy, through some big trees with little traffic. As we got to the top we stopped for pictures and heard someone talking behind us. We waited and here came Grant and Jenny up the hill. We thought we were going to see them at the state park the night before. They stayed there but they were in a different part of the park. As we were going down the hill I noticed that Hap wasn't going as fast and slowing down alot from what her usually does. I was expecting the usual bomb down the hill. So I figured something must be wrong. When I asked him he said the headset had come lose again. We had stopped the day before to tighten it up in Garberville. We stopped to tighten it again. The only problem is the tool that he needs to really tighten it is too big to carry so he had to use a teeny tiny adjustable wrench. It is kind of cute but it isn't really all about that. It 's more about tightening up the front headset so that when we fly down the hills it doesn't come lose. He did get it to tighten alittle, but it still didn't feel quite right. Hap and I have been riding tandems together for 21 years. I have also watched Hap race his motorcycle at 180 mph. So I am super comfortable and completely trust his judgement in riding. When he is that cautious I know something is up. Also, I am sitting right over the back wheel so if something is wrong on my end of the bike I can usually tell right away. But because it was on the front, it was difficult to tell from my end. To sum up........It was 24 miles across to the coast and the downhill wasn't much fun. We got to the coast and broke out into a beautiful sunny vista right on the coastline. It was beautiful. We stopped at a vista to eat some peanut butter and bread. As we were stopped two guys got out of a car and started talking to us. The usual.....where ya goin...how far do you ride...etc...etc.... They were from Jamaica, so I need to add, "man" to my previous statement. Then one of them started to talk about the "natural" products that he sold.....that he called juices...they could cure anything...cancer...arthritis...heart disease....wow... can it fix our headset? OK enough already. They finally left after giving us a card with their phone numbers on it and a promise of a "free" glass of juice if we ever came to Jamaica (I don't think so!). This part of the coast road was spectacular. We were riding right along the water. The temperature must be in the 70's, maybe 80 degrees. What a beautiful ride. There were quite a few ups and downs and what we like to call "California Creek climbs". This is where the road turns inland goes down a steep sharp hill, makes a short turn and then heads back up the sharp, steep hill to the same point you were before. The first time that we rode this road back in "ot 86", Hap had been working over in England for several months before we left so was unable to exercise. We started the trip with him out of shape. As we were climbing one of these "CA creek climbs" he yelled "these stupid hills. Why don't they build bridges across these. If I was the engineer out here, I would build a bridge............." It was so funny. Today the hills didn't seem so bad. Traffic wasn't too bad until we were near the town of Fort Bragg our destination for the day. Although the roads were narrow everyone gave us plenty of room. But when we got near "the BIG CITY" things changed. Also, the wind started WHIPPING from the front! What's up with this? The prevailing winds are supposed to be from the north. That's what my book says! The last few miles into town were pretty exciting. Narrow roads, stupid drivers, whippy headwinds and a sore back. And of course all of that means that Hap forgot how to drive and needed lots of "help and encouragement" from the backseat. When we finally got into town we found the post office to pick up our mail. Thanks mailman George!! What would we do without our good friends at home, picking up mail, checking the house and basically making fun of us! You gotta love 'em. After picking up our mail, we went to a Rite Drug because I had seen on the internet that they had a GNC (General Nutrition Center) where I get my vitamins once/month. I have a Gold Card that gives you a 20% discount the first week of the month. Speaking of that some people want to know what vitamins we are taking. Here's the list for you. (Both of us) Multi Vitamin, Vitamin E, Fish Oil, CQ10 (Hap) Selenium, Saw Palmetto, (Diane) Calcium, Glucosamine, Vitamin B (for migraines). I went in and picked up my vitamins and went to check out. The lady at the counter had no idea what a gold card was. Mmmm....it's a card that GNC....I explained....she gets on the loud speaker (I love it when they do that!)....management to Aisle 4......(by now there is a big line behind me which by the way is the ONLY check out line).....no, sorry we don't participate in that plan.......mmmmm.....ok...never mind....see ya.... Now we head off to the grocery to buy dinner stuff. In the grocery store it was packed. I couldn't even walk without bumping into people, or standing where they wanted to stand. I got out of there as fast as possible. We headed back out onto Rt 101 to the campground that we had told Grant and Jenny that we would meet them. The wind was awful. We even had to peddle DOWN the hills. While we were at the post office, I had heard 2 ladies talking as they came out "Wow this is really bad,. It's never like this......................" Where have I heard that before? We got to the campground, Pomo RV Park. I went in and she said that will be $25 please. Do you have a tent site with electric? Yes, that will be $3 please. Mmm...ok.... We have some other bikers that will be coming, can we share a site? No, it will be $25 for them also, PLEASE!". Mmm ok....Oh, she said AND it is 50 cents for a 5 minute shower....PLEASE......... I love camping................By now I'm am getting ....frustrated (a nice way to put it....). We walk up to the Riff Raff section where they put the tents. And the first thing we see is that the "electric" is at the next campsite NOT ours! WHAT? That campsite is a RV site, you can't pitch a tent in it, it is all gravel. This wasn't shaping up to be the end of a good day for the home team. This was the last straw. We tried to call Grant and Jenny and tell them not to come here, but couldn't get them. So we walked back down to the office. And she said oh just use the electric at the next site. I said no, I don't think so (very politely). There are bushes between us and WE PAYED YOUR$3 EXTRA FOR ELECTRIC! Oh, she said how about if I give you an extension cord? What a concept. Do Ya think? As we are walking back to the campsite, I am trying to remain calm and appreciate the fact that at least we are off the road, out of the wind and have a place to stay. Thank you Lord. In just a little while Grant and Jenny showed up. We felt so bad about suggesting that they come and spend this much on a campsite. But they decided to stay anyway. When we went for our showers though I only put 50 cents in the machine. I wasn't about to give them anymore money. We all cooked dinner and chatted about cycling and life in general. After dinner Grant "interviewed" us for their weekly video they are doing for YOU TUBE. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/slowcoast They say that the video we will be Episode 6 starting September 17. We had fun watching Grant putting together "Derricks episode". Derrick is a Star Wars character that rides on Grant's handlebars. Derrick has all types of misadventures. Check out their website and you'll see what we mean. We all got into our tents, on another foggy, misty night on the coast.

The next day's ride to Manchester started out as another foggy one. I think you'll see a pattern here! Grant and Jenny got away before we did. We cooked our usual breakfast of oatmeal, bagels and peanut butter, packed up and headed back out on Rt 1. Today's ride was mostly done in the fog. We had our three flashing lights on the back of the bike. Traffic wasn't too bad today. We had a great ride today even with the fog. The route didn't seem as hilly as I had thought it was going to. But it was fairly chilly most of the day. We stopped in a little cafe in Elk and ran into Grant and Jenny as they were finishing up. They were headed for the KOA in Manchester. I think we were all hoping for a Kamping Kabin at the KOA. It had been a damp few days of riding. When we got there though we found that they were all taken. So we stayed in the hiker/biker site for $9/pp. After setting up the tent, we got in the hot tub and took a hot shower. They had a nice shelter with cooking facilities so we sat in there, cooked and ate our dinner. There was a big influx of people as all of the fisherman came in with their fresh fish, crabs and whatever to cook and eat. We had a packed house. We were sort of hoping they might throw us some of that fresh fish but no deal today. We had a good dinner anyway and crawled in our tent.

The next morning we got an early start, 8:30am. We rode to Bodega Bay today, planning to meet with a friend who was taking out for real food at a real restaurant. Once again we rode most of the day in fog and cool weather. We stopped in Anchor Bay for breakfast and had some of the best buckwheat pancakes either of us have ever had. The route today was another narrow stretch of Rt 1. There was alot of traffic on the road today, since this was a Saturday. Most of them gave us plenty of room. But the 10% rule was still in effect! A reminder of the 10% rule: On any given day, no matter how much traffic, 10% of the traffic will just be stupid (i.e. not paying attention or not wanting to part with any of their road especially to a cyclist). We stopped once today for a snack at a deli. There was one long climb today that was unexpected over Jenner Hill. It seemed like a long climb that was made even more interesting by one section that was underconstruction so they had it down to one lane with a traffic light. We had to make it through the single lane section which was all uphill. Thankfully no cars came while we were on the climb. We also had a bolt break on our front rack again right on one of those sharp corners with an uphill. Hap fixed it in a couple of minutes. The road today was very high off the water. Alot of times there was no shoulder, no guardrail and a long way down to the water. It would've been pretty if it wasn't so foggy. Traffic picked up as we got closer to Bodega Bay. We got to the state park, set up camp and called our friend who came and took us out to the nicest seafood restaurant. It was delicious and very much appreciated. We really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Bobbi! When we got back to the tent, we had no trouble going to sleep!

This morning we didn't get away until about 10:30a and stopped in Bodega Bay for "brunch" of fish and chips. After eating my fish, I moved my cole slaw dish off of a cabbage (or some kind of leaf) and under it was a great big GREEN worm! I thought it was fake at first but it started moving. I called the waiter over and said, excuse me do you think you could take this away, I didn't order any WORMS today! Yuch...... The riding today wasn't that spectacular. Mostly we headed inland to San Rafael. We did ride along Tomales Bay for awhile. The traffic was pretty bad. There were lots and lots of motorcycles. You know I love motorcycles, have ridden since I was young and we both have them now. So I really don't understand when these motorcyclist would "buzz" us. Which means they would come zipping by us at a high rate of speed about a foot off our elbows. Very frustrating. I had called in the morning and reserved a room in San Rafael at the Travelodge so we had an endpoint to the day. We both agreed that we were tired of the damp, fog and ready for a dry hotel room. Tomorrow we'll be riding over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. Later.