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!