Two-fer Catnap

Rudy and Spouse doing what they do best...
 

September 18 Riding the Skunk Train Bike Rails

Wednesday, September 18 Riding the Skunk Train Bike Rails

I like it here.  My humans let me walk around a lot.  It smells good.  They won’t let me go under the bushes though.  Or under the big house that moves.  Or under anything for that matter.  I try though.

Today is our 42^nd wedding anniversary.  I am not sure how that happens as I am only 27 years old.  We are riding the bike rails of the skunk train.  That is the whole reason we came up this way.  We are told it is a rip off, but we will judge that for ourselves.

I did a short morning walk, then we headed over for our ride.  The skunk train got its name because it used a lot of smelly diesel.  The winds would actually travel faster than the train would, so the smells would permeate the forest long before the train arrived.  We are riding the bike rails.  These are little cars that ride the tracks.  We pedal and manage the ride as an ebike.  There is a driver (Spouse), and a passenger (me).  We can use pedal assist as needed.  There will be seven cars caravaning down the rails.  We are supposed to keep about 5 car lengths distance between the cars.  I don’t know how many times I yelled at Spouse to slow down so we don’t hit the people in front of us.  SLOW DOWN!!!

We start by crossing a few city streets to get to the forest.  Our guides have remotes that bring the railroad crossing bars down.  We give the ‘queen wave’ as we pass the waiting cars.  We both pedal.  We see the people in front of us are totally relying on the throttle.  What wimps!  It is fun to pedal.  As we leave the city, we enter a forest.  The rugged wall to our right is covered in ivy, ferns and nasturtiums.  On our left is a riparian canyon.  We are going downhill, so it is easy to pedal.  It is cold!!!!  We dressed in layers.  There are birch, pines and more pines.  Then there are redwoods.  We are having fun pedaling.  It is pretty weird in that there is a lot of stuff on the tracks, so you would expect to hit the bumps, but you ride right over, with the gentle clanking against the tracks.

We follow the tracks around to a huge pavilion.  Here is where you can have special events that the train brings you to, such as a wedding.  That’s it?  This is as far as we go???  It is only 3 ½ miles?  But, but, but I am just getting started!    We can almost see the collapsed tunnel, that will one day be restored so the ride can go all the way to Willits. One of our guides takes us on a short hike in the woods, with a little history lesson along the way.  It is a beautiful hike through the redwoods, albeit short… just like the bike ride.  The train arrived after we did and let the people off to hike and play.  Lots of games in the pavilion from Jenga with huge wood blocks, to bag tossing, chess, etc. 

We wait until the train leaves so that we can pedal back.  It is slightly uphill, but still pretty easy.  We do our ‘queen wave’ then end the ride.  The guides were good, but it is a lot of money for a little ride!  I am glad we did it as I enjoyed it, but it really is a ripoff!  I am glad Spouse got the ‘military discount’…

September 17 Pealing our butts around

Tuesday, September 17 Pedaling our asses Off

My humans always use this hole with water.  They splash the water with their paws onto their muzzles.  I jump up as I want the water for me to drink.  I have to push them out of the way so I can fit, but I do it!

It is very quiet at this park, and I love it!  My morning walk started with Spouse where we walked around the RV park.  We found some berry brambles with some ripe blackberries.  Couldn’t pass that up!  Then we walked a bit on Hwy 1.    Spouse headed back and I crossed the hwy (think Frogger) and went up a side street which ultimately took me to a botanical garden. 

Oh bummer…  An incredible vegetable garden was on display as were the dahlias!  Oh so showy!  There are several trails, some go to the ocean, some go to????.  Maybe I will get more time to explore here.

Back at Artee, Spouse talked to someone who said we can catch a bike trail not far out of the RV park.  So, we off loaded the bikes, and headed onto Hwy 1.  This is not my favorite riding, but there is a decent bike lane and it is only for…  Turn left at the Taco Bell…  Where the heck is the Taco Bell??  After nearly 3 miles, we made the turn into the Noyo parkland. 

We are in windswept grasses on bluffs overlooking the ocean.  Pretty f’n magnificent!  We follow the trail, gawking at the rocks, the whitecaps, the supreme beauty.  

Then we come onto Glass Beach.  Here is where bazillions of pieces of glass, that have been tumbled in the ocean, wash ashore.  Now they are nice and smooth.  You are not supposed to collect the glass.  So we didn’t, along with a bunch of other people that didn’t, I am sure!  My first trip down to the beach was a disaster in the making.  It looked rugged, but do-able. I contorted down…  Oh… hell no… this is NOT the place where someone with a recently surgically repaired knee should be.  I hadn’t gone far, but I had to really work to get back up.  We found an easier trail down.  It was fun pawing through the sand picking up bits of glass.  They were small, I am sure if you really hunt, you can find bigger pieces.  Think of this… this glass was trash at some point, now people are hunting for it as if it is treasure!

Since we were in this part of town, we headed over to the Skunk train to get some details.  Spouse wants to ‘bike’ ride the rails.  It turns out it is only half the ripoff he thought it was, as the price he saw was for 2 people, not one.  And then (no judgement, please) he got a military discount!  Still a bit of a ripoff, but hey, it is our 42d wedding anniversary tomorrow, so why not, right?

We pedaled back, and ended up at the Noyo River Grill, which is perched on a hill overlooking a bay.  Excellent food…

September 16 On to Fort Bragg

 

Monday September 16   On to Fort Bragg

Lick lick lick.  My paws are so clean.  Lick lick lick.  Look at my belly.  Lick lick lick.  I am so clean.  Don’t I look good?

I hear owls hooting in the night.  It is comforting and soothing.  The Elks is in a low rise business industrial center.  It is off the main highway.  The sidewalks were designed for enjoyable walks.  They are curvy and slightly up and down, landscaped with trees, grass, shrubs and flowers.  The businesses are not your normal retail business.  I see a research institute, a bio-science something or other.  The sandwich shop I see is only opened from 10-3 M-F, in order to server the worker bees in the area.  It is definitely an easy place to stay.

Another cool morning. I dress a bit more warmly today, but it really wasn’t necessary as there was no wind.  Spouse came on my walk today for one last time in Shollenberger Park.  The tide was out and we saw an egret fishing, with its reflection fishing alongside it.  A hawk swooped right by me looking for its morning meal.  Families of ducks are swimming up the river.  It is a great place to enjoy nature.

Back at Artee, we get ready to head up to the Fort Bragg area.  We decide to take 101, then cut over to the coast using hwy 128.  We have heard horror stories about towing on it, but there are fewer stories here than on hwy 20 cutting over in Willits.  WE listen to these stories, but we always take them with a grain of salt.  When we were in the Smokies in Tennessee, we heard horror tales about the road going through Smoky Mountain National Park, and to not even consider towing.  So we spent a day driving it (not connected), when we got to the end we couldn’t believe that people were afraid of this road.  Malibu Canyon has more curves than this road.

While I put the finishing touches getting the inside ready, I am disconcerted to hear a clunk then a beep.  Then again… and again.  Spouse is using the automatic leveling to raise legs, only it is erroring out.  Over.  And Over.  Again…  Legs would go up one inch, then down 2 inches.  Up 3, down 2.  After one full hour, Spouse got it to work.  This leveling system is actually pretty good… until it isn’t (which is rare).  But I always think manual is easier.  With electronics, it is just one more thing to go wrong.  But it is ok for now…

We throw Rudy in the truck (he was in the middle of giving himself a bath) and set the GPS up.  She tells us to get on the 101 SOUTH.  To Mendocino??? I think not.  We realized that the GPS has dementia.  There is something seriously off.  We watched as she refused to acknowledge our route.  When we get back, we will have to reload the software (which Spouse says takes several hours).  For now, she will just operate the dash cam, and we will use our phones.  Or we will get lost.

Anyhow, north on 101 along the rolling hills, then west on hwy 128.  The road is slow and windy.  The hills are covered in the golden brown straw grass that covers much of California.  There are oaks and sycamores.  We pull over when we can to let people pass us as we are going slow.  We twist and turn.  It is a beautiful road.  As we approach Yorkville, there is an occasional winery with acres of vineyards.  Continuing on are quite a few wineries.  More oaks and now some pines are mixed in. 

We pulled over to have a snack.  Rudy continued his bathing.  It is rural, pastoral, and beautiful.  Oh!  There is a deer!

On we go.  The pines increase until we are in a full blown redwood forest.  No need for sunglasses as only snippets of sunlight shine through the forest canopy.  Ultimately we get to Hwy. 1 and head north.  We immediately see an RV park that looks like it is on the water and Spouse jumps on it…  only the street he turned on was NOT the entrance to the RV park.  PUH-LEASE! Another windy, mountain road… slow… where, oh where, will we be able to turn around…  Hmm, there is a street kind of.  Spouse is game to try and back up the street while I stand and stop any traffic.  Back he goes, he is a bit grumpy.  Like why?  He can back up enough for us to make the turn.  No way he will go back to that RV park.  There is another one in Fort Bragg waiting for us for sure.

We ended up in Pomo RV park for the next 3 days. The whole reason for our trip up here is that Spouse wanted to ride the bike rails.  The RV host told us it is a total rip off and to not waste our time.  Plus, it is extremely expensive.  We will check it out tomorrow. 

Let it be known that on this date, I did NOT overeat.  I ate like a rational human being.  We had Thai food, and I had stir fried veggies.  I only ate half and got a to go container… an eco friendly cardboard container that comes with a non eco friendly plastic bag.  I let the food cool down before I tried to put it in the fridge.  The cardboard was in the midst of disintegrating.  But that plastic bag held all those wonderful juices.  LONG LIVE PLASTIC BAGS!

GPS Brain Farts confirmed

 This is what happened to us in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I know it isn't only OUR GPS that has brain farts.  Other people seem to take it in stride.  I go batshit crazy when she farts!

September 15 Stinson Beach

 

Sunday, September 15 Stinson Beach

Zoom!  Zoom!  Zoom!  Look at how fast I am!  I still got it!

It is a bit windy this morning.  Some overcast and pretty cool.  Since Spouse’s legs fell off yesterday, he isn’t going on my walk with me.  I head to Shollenberger Park to try yet another of the trails.  I head right, then follow the trail around.  It is closed in about a mile, but I choose to walk it anyway, and I am glad I did.  It curves around the wetlands to the slough.  There is a bench and an observation deck.  Framed by the rolling hills, scullers row by enjoying their Sunday morning.  At least for now as it looks like they are rowing with the tide…  How they get back???  Hmmm

I get to the closure, then turn around to head back.  Only as I was leaving did I find out that on Sundays, if you wait at the closure, an escort will take you through construction area and you can complete the loop.  Oh well, I was good with retracing my steps as there is a line of tall bushes that are blocking the wind.

After breakfast at the Elks, we headed back to Point Reyes, with the intent of going south, since we did north the other day.  As we got close, we had to use the GPS…  How exasperating!  She does get us to the sign that actually says Stinson Beach (go left), yet she is saying go right…  Spouse FINALLY disregards her and goes left.  She says we have 45 miles.  Really?  Nothing like hearing these words coming from Spouse ‘I guess I should have gotten gas.’  Really???  This area is remote.  It’s not like there is a gas station on every corner… or ANY corner for that matter! And there are no corners here anyway!  He thinks we have enough to cruise around…  I sure hope so…

South on 1 we head.  It is a narrow, windy road that is forested with oaks, pines and some eucalyptus.  No traffic to speak of so we can enjoy it at our own pace.  The GPS bitch had us turn right in a weird spot, but since I saw a detour sign on the horizon, I assumed she knew what she was doing.  It was a short detour that took us around, then down by an ocean inlet.  I agreed with her til we got to the stop sign and she indicated she had no idea where we were.  We knew to turn right, and wouldn’t you know, she adjusted the miles we had to go from 36 down to 4.  I had no idea where she was planning on taking us.  It boggles my mind!  Although I still hear Spouse’s lament on gas, I feel a lot better now.  It is windy.  We follow the inlet around to Stinson Beach.  It is a tiny community with a few homes and shops.  The beach is WINDY!  There are WHITECAPS!  It is COLD!  A quick look was good enough for me. 

Continuing south on 1, we turn up the road to Mt. Tamalpais.  This is supposedly the highest mountain in Marin County.  We cannot get a reading on the GPS nor the phone as to where this will end up.  It is a narrow, windy mountain road, covered with pines with spectacular views.  As we climb (do we need gas?), we figure since we are limited on fuel, we better head back to 1.  We do climb just a little more, then turn around.  I think this winds around to the other side of the mountain and intersects with 1, but since we have the fuel issue, this is not the place to find out I am wrong!

Back to 1.  It is windy, with perilous cliffs that are not for people with a fear of heights (not us).  I am amazed at the crazy bicyclists riding this road.  There is no bike lane so cars have to move around them, or wait to get around them.  Some cars do wait, others go around them on a curve which is so dangerous!  We pass the road that would have taken us to Mt. Tamalpais…  Yes, it did go through.  Ultimately, we wound our way into civilization.  We were able to hop onto 101 back to Petaluma.  We were able to get fuel…

Tomorrow, we are heading to the Mendocino area.  We have no reservations.  We have no idea what is in store for us, so I will blog when I can.

Rudy has been doing zoomies!  He can run from one end to Artee to the other real fast!  He seems to be enjoying it!

September 14 Old Town Petaluma

 

Saturday, September 14  Old Town Petaluma

I kinda like it here.  I get to walk on grass.  There are birdies.  But there are also dogs.  I don’t like them.  I drag my human home when I see them.

Woke to overcast skies.  It is quite cool, and we are a bit slow to get going.  We waited just a bit for the sun to break through then headed back to Shollenberger Park.  Yesterday, we went left, today we went right and followed the trail around to a slough.  We once bounced around the bay area in our boat for a couple of weeks.  We didn’t quite make Petaluma as we didn’t time the tides right, but now we see it from this side.  It is great walking and would be great for bike riding, but so many parts of it are closed right now, it wouldn’t be worth unloading the bikes.

Back at Artee, we readied ourself for our day.  We are going to Old Town to check it out.  Old Town oozes character.  Many of the buildings were built in the 1920’s.  They have all sorts of architectural details, extensive moulding, and some pretty fancy artwork.  The old treasury building, which was also a Wells Fargo, is now a store selling fancy eyeglasses, as well as some art.  The ceilings are about 30 high, the old vault is there, but retail is its thing.  I was more interested in the buildings then the merchandise inside.  They are all mom and pop stores, no chains (outside of a Starbucks).  A few of the facades had been updated a little, but they still maintained the original charm and character.  Tons of consignment stores, antiques, tattoos and of course… food.  We ate at a Peruvian restaurant on the slough that was tres yummy.  Oops, I guess it was muy yummy…   Lots of action on a Saturday. 

We drove up and down some of the residential streets gawking at the homes.  Some were blah, but some were amazing.  Some beautiful Victorians and Craftsman homes, and some tiny post war homes all mixed together.  Then we walked around some more til Spouse’s legs fell off.  We had to come home then…