Birthday Road Trip

Between the CoViD-19 chaos and the parking heater work this spring, I totally forgot to post about a road trip Boo and I took down to the north side of the San Francisco Bay. Today's post covers it.

Why Feb?

another winter day in Portland

After last year's once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii for my birthday, Boo and I kind of wanted to get out of the endless gloom of the Pacific Northwest. For those who don't live here, rainy season starts around Columbus Day (mid October), and with the return of "standard time" our daylight at the end of the work day disappears rather early. By winter solstice, sunset is arriving around 430PM. When you add the gloom from the clouds, it really is pretty much dark all the time from US Thanksgiving (25-Nov) until after MLK Jr Day (third Monday in January). By the time my birthday comes around (around George Washington's: 22-Feb), it's gotta-get-outta-the-rainy-dark time. Some years, we can avoid this by going to Timberline and getting above the clouds to play in the snow throughout the winter. Not so much these last few years.

Why Fly?
With that context, Boo and I started talking to my sister in January about a trip down to visit. My sister had come up to visit my aging folks. Boo and I had looked at flights, but were waffling because of the costs. So, when we asked about the third weekend in Feb, my sister asked "you gonna fly or drive?". Well... we hadn't even thought about driving. Part of why we wanted a trip was for some deeper connecting. We both had been working a lot, and not seeing each other much. So, 12 hours each way in a car together sounded much better than airport parking, security check-points, etc though it would shorten the trip by 6 hours each way. Still, when we looked at the cost, it cost about half to rent a nearly brand-new SUV. So, we chose to drive. Ironically, for the 3 months after this trip, Boo and I were locked down together. Funny. We got 24 hours together in a car and then 3 weeks later we were in lock-down, getting all kinds of time together. Honestly, it was absolutely wonderful. I sincerely hope you like your spouse as much as I like mine. 3 months woulda felt like 90 days in the hole if we didn't.

Najeeb

I made a reservation with a car rental place (Dollar) for a Jeep, and made a plan to take the train from downtown Portland after work out to the airport to collect it, and drive it home. We intended to pack-up and leave at night, like we usually do with Hapy, figuring a vagabond sleep somewhere along the way. The train to the airport is easy (just jump the Red line), though I was surprised to see how much garbage there is along the train lines on the east side. I used to live over there, and I cannot believe how far-gone it has become with liter. By the time I got out to the airport district, I was quite disappointed, and clearly distracted because once I got to the airport, I jacked up the car rental plan and ended up shuttled to an off-site rental company.... the wrong one. Neat. The one I ended up at (Budget) gave me the same rate and a nicer SUV, a Ford Edge. Fortunately,  the original reservation did not charge me anything. When I arrived at home, Boo was puzzled by the not-Jeep I arrived in. And then she named our rental Najeeb, since it sort sounds like "Not Jeep".

Seven Feathers

We packed up for a weekend away plus the foam pad from Hapy so we could take a nap somewhere along the way. We learned after the fact that the spot we chose is the usual stop for my sister and her husband when they are on their way back south from visiting Portland: Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino. Offhand, you're probably thinking what I thought when we started to pull over: "yeah... casino parking lot? This won't be good." Actually, while there is the hotel, and they offer cabins and an RV campground, there is a rest area just south and above the hotel. This area does not have a ton of those big bright lights, but there are enough to provide safety. There are real bathrooms and a drinking water filling spigot. They are actually set up for long-drive nappers like us. There were a few of us there, and though it was super cold, we were left unbothered. We awoke to daybreak after parking shortly after 2AM, so we were still a little sleepy as we pulled back onto I-5 south. Boo pulled together some fruit and granola for road-breakfast, combined with canned coffee to help power us through. The drive the night before had been pleasant and the road ahead all the way to just north of Sacramento was as well.

I have been on this section of I-5 very few times. The last was in 2009 when I drove with GratefulEd and Mayhem in Belle the 73 RIviera to catch The Dead at Shoreline. On that trip, we drove overnight, so I didn't really see a whole lot of the landscape in California. This time, it was mid-day, and I was the pilot, so I could really take it in. I did not realize just how much produce is generated along the Sacramento River between Lake Shasta and Sacramento. There were times when there were fruit trees as far as you could see in all directions, only interrupted by small honeybee boxes and the occasional road. And then, there would be a line running east-west where the fruit trees would stop and some other thing would start. And then, just like with the trees, that new thing would go in all directions. We stopped in Redding for In-n-Out Burger. Honestly, it wasn't as great as I remember. Given the option, I'll take Burgerville for a fast-food burger, but ultimately the best burgers are made on a home BBQ. Anyway, It was warm enough in Redding to sit outside and eat in the sun. In fact, we were in T-shirts by the time we were done eating. Crazy weather for February. My sister routed us to her place by way of American Canyon Highway. I only mention it because after nearly 12 hours of driving, this turn-off provided our first glimpse of the ocean. Yeay!

Vallejo

Vallejo Ferry Terminal

We arrived at my sister's place in Vallejo by mid-afternoon. We visited long enough for a drink and then drove over to a reclaimed dump turned park along the bay called Glass Beach for a walk before sunset. This is a fascinating wetlands impacted by tides, influencing various ponds throughout the area. Water moves from pond to pond through large pipes, and no matter what time of day you go, water is moving one way or the other. Waterfowl and sea-water critters of all kinds are back in the area after years of now-cleaned heavy pollution. This is a true environmental victory for Vallejo.

We visited downtown Vallejo on our last full day of our stay. It is a quaint downtown, with a great coffee place (Moschetti Cafe) with welcoming servers and patrons. We walked over to the ferry terminal, which was bustling with folks for a weekend, before driving over to Albany to collect some treasures from the local spice shop as well as Kathmandu (an import-export shop).

Mare Island and Muir Woods

Muir Woods

After Glass Beach, we had dinner at my sister's place and talked about what we wanted to do while in the San Francisco area. We just wanted to see them, but maybe see some of what they liked, or had meant to see but hadn't yet. They recalled taking me to one of the worst neighborhoods in Boston because I had read about the influence of the society on the planning that was happening there. So, this really wasn't much of a surprise. We agreed that Muir Woods was definitely worthy, but they wanted to show us an urban curiosity: Mare Island as well.

Mare Island

Mare Island is an effectively abandoned ship yard. Empty building after empty building for many square blocks. There are theories about what's in those empty buildings, ranging from homeless camps and underground raves to storage for the movie industry. We spotted one legitimate business, but only a handful of cars and less than a handful of people. For an area that is served by the ferry in and out of downtown San Francisco, the Portlander in me is puzzled by how so much viable residential / loft-living could be left vacant and decaying. If I were a young, up-and-coming techno-geek, that's where I'd want to live.

Muir Woods is the complete opposite of Mare Island. Where Mare Island has cracked concrete, Muir Woods has carefully defined foot paths. Mare Island has tall decaying buildings, Muir Woods has Redwood trees. I need not go on. Muir Woods was fairly crowded, but we were able to navigate a few trails, get our hike on and see some amazing woods. Boo and I really appreciated the way the keepers of the Woods had constructed the retaining walls along the ravines to both perform the needed function, but do so in such a subtle way that the walls sort of disappeared into the landscape.

Which Way is Out?

Muir Woods Cathedral

We left Muir Woods by a different route than we took on the way in. The road is super narrow, and the drop-off rather severe. So, thinking there had to be another way, we kept going. We found ourselves at Muir Beach. Muir Beach is as beautiful as Muir Woods, in it's way. Just south of the sand are sweeping hills covered in wild flowers. Apparently, this is part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. We walked the sand, and enjoyed the sunset before heading back towards civilization; we thought. We actually went the wrong way on Highway 1, discovering our error when we hit Stinson Beach. We could have gone up and over Mt. Tamaipais down a narrow switch-back filled road in the approaching dark. We decided instead to keep going and turned east at Olema, heading through Tocaloma and Lagunitas before eventually touching down in San Rafael. We hit Phil's place (Terrapin Crossroads) for a late dinner.

Homing
After 3 days of driving and walking, that last night we settled for pizza at my sister's place. We still stayed up late, talking until we were all too tired to talk, but still not really wanting the visit to end. After one too many long conversational pauses one of us said something about being tired, and that was just enough to drive the rest of us in that direction. We woke late-ish, enjoyed some coffee and light breakfast. My sister had to work, so that was enough impetus to get me and Boo on our way home as well. The morning news had a story about some new illness that had sprung up in China and the first case had been found in the greater San Francisco area. This was the first we had heard about this, and didn't think much of it. We were sad to leave, but glad we were heading home.

Mt Shasta

The drive home was one long straight shot. Boo took the wheel for the first stretch, handing it back over to me around Mt Shasta. It was about then that the rain started, and for the next few hundred miles, it was a less pleasant squint of a drive. The rains let up around Eugene where we met up with  T for dinner. Boo took the wheel again for that last leg from Eugene back home. I called Budget for an extension, and while I was assured that the daily rate would be an extension of the rate I had been paying, that was not the case when I returned the car. With that one day extension, the math for driving versus flying would have been nullified. Lesson learned: reserve for longer and return it early.

Anyway, it was a great trip. In light of what happened in the days and weeks that followed, Boo and I were grateful that we chose to not fly through San Francisco airport (read: CoViD fear). As to car stuff, I continue to sand and hammer on the Zed. As my last post said, you're never really ready for paint, but when you have a car that has been dinged and danged on pretty much every body panel, it goes beyond simple prep. Anyway, I am approaching the end of the hammering and expect to get into the skim-coating of the Bondo here fairly soon. Once I actually reach that point, I'll post something.

Thanks, as always, for following along--