Whale Watching at Bodega Bay Head

We found out through a brochure, that we could travel about 35-45 minutes to a point just a little further out to see past the town of Bodega Bay, called Bodega Bay Head. This point, jutting out into the sea, had an observation point on a bluff where you could stand and watching migrating grey whales and their calves swim through the bay....whoopee! Whale watching, and it's FREE!  On the way to the observation point high up on a bluff, we spotted these people digging...for clams? Oysters? Not sure which....I had no idea whatever they were digging for was so deep down!

We saw some cool birds at the water while the tide was out....

And beautiful flowers blooming on the sides of the cliffs...these grow all over the place on rocky shores and have pretty yellow, white and pink blooms, although you can't see the blooms here.

So we went, me, dressed in shorts and a short sleeve tee shirt and a lightwindbreaker, Eldy dressed in about the same, only he usually has on more layers. Layers are good when you are out on a bluff with a stiff wind blowing and sea spray coating everything you own--clothes, camera, and glasses. Our first clue that we were inappropriately dressed for the day's observations was a couple parked in a pair of lawn chairs on the bluff---she had on a snowmobile suit, wool cap and snowsuit hood pulled over her head so you could barely see her face. He had on Carhart's and a hooded sweatshirt and they both were wearing winter gloves and hiking boots. Did I mention that the coast temperatures that day were in the low fifties? The wind chill factor felt like the twenties, the wind was a GALE, or at least seemed like it!...Needless to say, we didn't last that long, but while we were there, for about an hour, the gal saw at least 7 or 8 sightings of grey whales! Either spouts or actual bodies....she was the epitome of excitement when she saw one--really screaming it aloud at each sighting. Sometimes we saw them with her, and some times we didn't. When I did see one with her, I jumped up and down excitedly like a little kid, screamed and yelled and we high-fived each other! Woo-hoo! Shortly thereafter, we decided to come back again the next day, better prepared....and we did!

Here's my better half, Eldo, dressed for whale watching the following day....we saw at least 7 or 8 whales or spouts in a very short period of time, about 20 minutes. The grey whales migrate with their young from January thru May through this spot and along various lookouts off Highway 101 along the coast. Unfortunately, the whales were at a distance, very rapidly surfacing and then diving, and we weren't able to get a photo...the sea spray was fierce again today with the winds blowing VERY hard again for the second day in a row. They were blowing so hard you couldn't stand up without being blown a couple of steps in any direction...It's a rugged outlook, but worth it to see the number of whales going by!

We met a volunteer, Bea Brunn, who has been giving information and manning the observation bluff at Bodega Bay Head for 24 years. She's originally from Norway, and the other park staff have given her the nickname "Whale Mother"....she was a very interesting lady and told me that she has definitely seen the effects of climate change on the number of whales passing through, and their migrating habits. She said a pod of "teenager" whales seems to have given up on the idea of migrating to Alaska and they stay to hang out in this area because of a possible lack of food in the northern latitudes......not sure if that was going to happen this year, but she's noticed that for the last couple of seasons.....

After we got done whale watching and were frozen to the bone, we stopped off at Bodega Bay at a little cafe called Spud Point Crab Company...they had the most delicious chowder I have ever eaten! And you can see, Eldo is one serious chowder eater! He loved it, too!  Tomorrow, the Alcatraz Tour!  See you in prison!......

The man is serious about his chowder!

San Francisco, Day 2

We are really in a wonderful spot for RVing, seeing California wine country AND seeing San Francisco...Twenty-five dollars a night at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa with full hookup, hop in the car and drive 25-35 min. to go see wineries, hop in the car and drive 45 min. to Larkspur to catch a ferry to San Francisco. The ferry parking is free, a one way fare is 8.00, then when you get to the Ferry Terminal, hop a cable car/street car/muni bus for 2.00 and ride all day long. Now, the TROLLEY cars, the open sided ones with the railings and no glass between you and the San Francisco air, are 5.00 each time you board one.

You see the coolest things in San Francisco. We spent some time at Fisherman's Wharf today (more about that tomorrow), then caught a cable car to Chinatown. Most people end up at the gates of Chinatown....the spot where all the hanging ribbons, flags and decorative stuff hangs on both sides of the street. That part of Chinatown is very traditional looking and what you see in photos all the time. The gateway/entryway to Chinatown is a great photo opp for any tourist. We didn't know the street intersection for that, so we just asked at the tourist bureau at Fisherman's Wharf about where to get off on the cable car and off we went.....we hopped off in what seemed to be the very heart of Chinatown, the streets Stockton and Pacific, where a bazillion Asian people do their grocery, meat, and fish shopping. As we were walking down the street, we didn't see anyone BUT Asian people! It was a strange feeling, almost like we were in Korea, Japan, or China, there were no other tourists in sight. It was like walking down Wall Street in China amidst throngs of Chinese people, stepping into a different world, which of course, it was. Talk about submersing yourself into a different culture! For a very brief period of time, we were in a different world, it was quite a culture shock for the moment but fascinating!

We watched shoppers haggle over prices of interesting looking vegetables and fruits we have never seen, raw fish, fish parts and really different types of seafood, ducks and other meats were in every tiny little nook, one little shop after another, strung together. It was extremely crowded on the streets, must have been a major shopping day, or maybe it's this way all the time. Not a word of English was being spoken anywhere, naturally....There were some beautiful buildings along the street blocks and there was so much to see....we really enjoyed our brief submersion into a different culture today!

We didn't explore beyond Stockton Street in Chinatown, but there's a lot more to see on another visit...we hopped back on a cable car, time to head home.

We'll see you at Fisherman's Wharf tomorrow...Wait till you see what we saw!

So Many Sights, So Little Time

some of the pretty sights along the shore on the ferry ride

I didn't show you all of our photos yesterday....So here are some more! I stand corrected in telling you that when you take the ferry, about a 30 minute ride from Larkspur to San Francisco, you land at the ferry terminal building. From there, THEN you take a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39. And that's where all the wonderful sights, smells, and sounds abound. And where you might get crushed by the crowd if it's a busy day...we went on a Thursday, and it was very nice, not crowded at all.

We saw my friend, Zoltar, at the Wharf. He really gets around! We've seen him three times now...I never ask him to tell my fortune, but I am a sucker for those penny machines that take a shiny penny, squash it flat and imprint a local scene on them. I've started collecting them on our travels. It costs .51 to make one. I think I'm going to drill little holes in the tops of them and make mini Christmas ornaments out of them to put on my little Christmas tree in the RV at holiday time.



I love this photo I took of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's not really golden, it's a very reddish orange...

"You know I luv ya, bro' "  "Yeah, yeah, I know"

We spent quite a bit of time yesterday at the Wharf...they have sea lions there, too. They were just basking in the sun on platforms...most of them look like they were dead they were sleeping so much. But a couple of frisky younger ones were going at it, playing hard and for what it looked like, doing some serious wrestling to see who was going to stay on the platform in that particular spot, and who was going to end up in the water. It was very entertaining to watch. The blacker one just kept pushing and shoving the tanner one until he fell off the platform, at least six or seven times. The tan one would just heave himself back up on the platform for more punishment.

As we continued walking around the Wharf, I heard people yelling, "FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE!" I rounded a corner and saw this guy....

If you look closely, you can see he is swallowing fire! Wish I had gotten a better angle! There is more live entertainment around the wharf--we saw a guy singing and playing some great blues and jammin' with a harmonica in his mouth at the same time and he had the neatest curlique mustache and beret.....cool!

And did I say I was a sucker for California strawberries? Yesiree, I surely am. I paid 9.95 a pound for a bunch of huge strawberries because I was too shocked at the checkout register to say, "Sorry, that's ridiculous price!" Luckily, I only had a few in the bag...So don't get suckered into buying expensive fruit the wharf like I did...I should have known better when there were NO prices posted anywhere for the fabulous looking fruit at this stand.    ("No comment" says E., wisely.)  Now you have seen our best photos for our first day in San Francisco. But wait till you see the drive we took on Highway 1 on the coast!  That's coming up tomorrow.....see you then!

Pick a Peck of Pickled Peppers in Petaluma, CA

We had gotten settled in the fairgrounds and so we decided to take a quick trip into Petaluma to see the town, at least part of it. I knew from reading some literature, that there was an heirloom seed store in town. I love gardening, I miss it, and I love looking at seed packages, the Burpee catalogs, and the Gardener Supply catalogs every spring. I'm a frustrated gardener as I couldn't grow anything for the last 7 years at my little homestead in Fremont, IN. The soil was compact as cement. If anybody had seen me trying to use my bulb hole digger by jumping up and down on it to try and get a hole to put some bulbs in, they would have laughed their heads off. I'm sure I looked pretty silly trying to make holes for some bulbs by my fence.  I did manage to get some ornamental grasses growing and some perennials in by the pole barn in all that time, but no vegetable garden or flowers in the main part of the yard. I had some chives and parsley growing in container pots in the RV for awhile last year, but they petered out. So, with spring here, and the gardener in me stirring as I read about the seed store, I knew it was on the to-do list. (Uh-oh! says Eldo. Does this mean more potted plants and dirt in the motorhome?) We'll see, honey...

As we pulled into the center of historic Petaluma, which looked very cool with kitschy boutiques and brightly painted storefronts, I saw the seed store in an old bank building on the corner. "STOP THE CAR! THERE IT IS!" I yelled (well, excitedly stated would be the better choice of words here) to my guy, Eldy, and he let me out right at the store front door while he tried to find a parking space. Oh, boy! A cool, old bank building built in 1926 houses the neatest seed store you can imagine--a seed store that features 99% (?) heirloom, difficult to find rare seeds for veggies and flowers....oo-o-o-o-h, so cool! And so here is what I saw......rows and rows of boxes of seeds of old, old varieties of every possible garden vegetable you could think of...I counted over 85 varieties of melons....cool garden tools, gardening quilts hanging on the walls, handmade soaps and gifts and really neat varieties of heirloom tomato seeds along with all the rest of the 1287 varieties of heirloom seeds....all housed in a beautiful bank lobby/hall with cool architecture. I bought some heirloom tomato seeds for my brother-in-law who's an amazing gardener and a great cook!

I thought the flower seeds packaging was beautiful! (I'm such a sucker for visual "eye candy"...)

I saw varieties of tomatoes I've seen in fancy restaurants, but most here I've never seen....

Browsing this store made me want to go home and make a fresh salad and maybe grow some stuff to make a fresh salad! (It's a good thing it wasn't a cheese store, says E.) It was just a really neat store to explore today...there are many more unique places to visit in Petaluma..we'll probably go another day...tomorrow is San Francisco and the FERRY! Woo-hoo!

Travelin' to Napa, CA?

After two weeks and two days at Park Sierra, we are ready to move a little further north. We've been waiting out the snowstorms and winds up north, and now it's time to head out. We've enjoyed our stay here very much, and we'll definitely stay here again. It's a very quiet park....we'll miss Yosemite...so much more to explore, and we'd like to find some campgrounds in the park that accept big rigs at Kings Canyon. We saw one such campground, Azalea, and there were two large coaches in there, a Newmar and another one. So we know it's possible, although it would be kind of tight maneuvering around the campground.

Petaluma Fairgrounds RV parking

RV lot gate

We checked out this morning, and headed out 145...on to highway 99, then thereabouts to 5, then to 12, then interstate 80 to 101. We were hoping to stop at Napa, a great town for seeing wineries, taking the ferry to San Francisco, and some other great things to see, but the campground we had chosen was full, darn it! Nappa Expo RV Park... Change of plans! On a little further, hopped on highway 101, and stopped in Petaluma. We had been in a steady rain with steady traffic all the way here, and Eldy was tired. We found the  Sonoma Marin Fairgrounds for 25.00 tonight, with 30 amp service and water, no sewer. Not really crazy about the "yard" we are staying in, it looks like a prison yard! It's also very muddy and full of very soft dirt. There were a few patches of pavement but the lot was overgrown and very poorly taken care of. It was a close call coming through the RV park gate as far as width of the motorhome.  But-- it seems very secure and so here we are......hopefully for just one night. We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully, a little break in the rain so we can do something!

Well, after one night in the "prison yard", we decided to move to another fairgrounds just a little ways up the road, in Santa Rosa, CA. We are NOW at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds RV Park for $12.50 the first night (Passport America), then 25.00 a night for the next two nights for 30 amp service, water AND sewer hookup. Once you get through the Passport discount, you can't switch over to AAA, or Good Sam's discount, one discount is all you get, but that's ok. Some of the other parks in the area are more pricey, so this is still under budget (30.00 a night) for us. The fairgrounds RV parking at the Sonoma Fairgrounds is MUCH nicer. It's not very busy at all right now. Thanks to Rick and Paulette for previous information about this park. We really like it! Here's our new site for the next couple of days, maybe longer.

We'll see you tomorrow.....

Pizza and Jazz--great combo!

There's nothing I love more than eating in an outdoor restaurant with live music and good food. Oakhurst, CA has a pizza place called the Pizza Factory, and every Thursday night starting in May thru September (?), they have a group called the Yosemite Jazz Band, a group that plays lots of jazz standards and favorites while you dine in or outside on the patio.

We really enjoyed some delicious pizza while listening to a group of guys some of whom are obviously not spring chickens, but they sure know how to swing it and play it! They really enjoy working together which was very obvious, and that made our dinner and the music  more enjoyable, too. We shared a table with another couple and got to talking about musical instruments, which Eldy used to make, and it was just very enjoyable all the way around! We also heard from a little half pint at break time, the daughter of the banjo player. She was only six years old, but she belted out "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" (or "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" ? fame) with such naturalness and gusto, that don't be surprised if you see her on America's Got Talent sometime in the future...Great hat, kiddo!

Great time, great entertainment (free--just tips appreciated) and a delight for a small town to offer this.....

It won't be long before we leave for the Northwest coast...Eldy is in planning mode....Sorry for the confusion on the blog for any repeats..since some of my posts disappeared, I reposted them so I can put them into book form!  See you later!

Coarsegold, CA

Delight-ful Treasures antique shop in Coarsegold

If you blink, you might pass Coarsegold's little shopping area on your way to Yosemite National Park. We didn't blink, so we stopped to see what was in town.  Some great little shops to see...a beautiful antique store called Delight-ful Treasures, (the owner's name was Delight Dugovic),  there were little clothing boutiques, a drive through coffee shop, a little ice cream sandwich shop, a small market and just some interesting little places to see. There was a little flea market going as well, but everybody had a very relaxed attitude about selling anything, as about half the little flea market shops were closed. If you want a little more excitement, you could go to the casino called Chukchansi on your way into town. That's an interesting looking casino. They have shrouds of netting over the entire casino at the top floors due to problems with swarming swallows building their mud nests in the eaves and nooks and crannies everywhere you look. The birds are a protected species, so they are making themselves at home at the casino. Despite their best efforts to discourage the nesting, the owners are losing the battle with the birds!

The proprietor taking a nap, no customers!

Spring is really here in Coarsegold. All the trees are blossoming, the bushes are budding and blooming. It's a beautiful drive from the SKP park to town...the day we went to town, more than half the stores were closed but we still enjoyed the wisteria vines that grew over archways, the cute sign by a little shop that expressed a little attitude, and the smallest floral shop I've ever seen.....There was a neat little thrift shop I stopped in to see and ended up buying a little woolen cap to use for felting for fifty cents.

Back to Yosemite tomorrow to see some more falls and maybe bike around a bit, we'll see....Thanks for all of you who enjoy the blog enough to follow us and thanks for the compliments we get sometimes for our photos and blog. We'd also like to thank those of you who may not be followers but read us from time to time and send us interesting comments and occasional advice! Thanks for being part of the blogging community in one way or another. We really appreciate everybody's interest...Sparky and Eldo

Coarsegold, CA-25 Miles from Yosemite!

Snow on the mountains in the Sierra Nevadas in the distance

We had a relatively easy drive today from Bakersfield to Coarsegold, CA. California 58 to California 99 to California 41, and the only thing difficult about it was some of the highway was in extremely rough condition...I hate that...When you stop, you have to SLO-O-O-OWLY open the fridge as everything has tumbled around inside and fallen everywhere but where it's supposed to be. I've resisted getting baskets to hold things--and the extension bars we used to use in the old RV don't fit the extremely wide double door residential fridge we have now. But I just may have to get something to hold things more securely!

our site at Park of the Sierras

We are staying at the Escapees (SKP) Park in Coarsegold, CA., Park of the Sierras. It is 26 miles from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. We are staying for a weekly rate of $96.00. WOW! Can't beat that unless you are boondocking somewhere. The SKP park is beautiful...rustic, natural, not as landscaped as the last Escapees Park in Aguanga...very hilly, but we didn't have any trouble getting into our site. It's beautiful here--spring is in full swing, all the trees are fresh with new leaves, the honeysuckle is in full bloom and it is all over the park. The trees are mature and huge. There are a ton of beautiful birds here as well. I might be doing some bird watching!

We're looking forward to spending some time here. We haven't had a chance to explore the town of Coarsegold, yet, but it looks interesting from a trip we took to the grocery store....next two days we will be checking out literature, doing research about the park, and deciding what plans to make.

dusk in the park

Eldy has already found out that some of Yosemite is closed off to visitors because of snow, and that you are required to have chains to be in some areas of the park. Chains? I haven't heard of those since my dad used to put them on our cars for Chicago area winters in the 50's! I guess out west they are a necessity still!

That's it for today...weather is supposed to be great this week...no rain, temps gradually climbing from the seventies to the high eighties. Perfect for hiking and exploring a great national park! See you tomorrow....

A Trip to Julian, CA

When you go to parks, sometimes the office gives you a sheet of ideas of things to do, places to go, and how far it is to them. Jojoba Hills Escapee Park does that....on the list was a trip to Julian, CA, about an hour's drive from the campground....the fact that there was a Dudley's Bakery in the town or nearby, caught my attention. (Dudley is my middle name and my mother's maiden name). Besides, it's a bakery! I do have a sweet tooth, so off we went.

Julian is a cute little town. The main street doesn't look like much from the outside, but step inside the store fronts and there are some amazing boutiques there. We didn't find the Dudley Bakery, (it was in another town a little ways away), but we did find some wonderful stores to browse in and shop...I stopped in a store called American Gardener on Main Street. Wonderful store! Things for the home and personal use, gardening stuff, soaps, a little bit of everything--it smelled delicious! Stopped in another store and it was like a general store...tons of stuff there and a big selection of Vera Bradley purses, a fabric purse designer with corporate headquarters in Fort Wayne, IN, my home state...just the place to buy a new one to replace my worn out old one! 

Eldy patiently waited for me to explore and then.....we discovered an old soda fountain store...I LOVE those old soda fountain counters and history behind them! Lots of fun in there...right next door is a small drug store with a "Candy Cave"...you walk downstairs into the cellar and bulk candy in buckets galore awaits you! How about some "psychedelic microbruisers" for $7.00 a pound? Whatever you could possibly want, they had it!
The name of the fountain drug store was "Miner's Diner". They had an old Big Boy (of the Big Boy Hamburger fame) in the window, and a soda fountain dating back to the early 1920's. We had a delicious shake there. The soda fountain was cool!

We'll see you on the road tomorrow.....on our way to stay in Bakersfield, CA in some orange groves!

Tough Travelin' Day!

We got an early start this morning, around 9:00, but ran into difficulties on I-10 westbound heading into Phoenix.  We heard there were traffic problems on EASTBOUND, but we thought we'd be ok westbound. Nope! No, siree! The westbound lanes became clogged and totally stopped as we got on the other side of Phoenix.  After an hour of stop and go traffic, a highway worker stopped his truck and got out to wave traffic off the highway completely. He said an officer had been shot and killed this morning on I-10....Nobody was moving on either side of the expressway for miles......We found out later that there had been a suicide jumper on the overpass, and another police officer motorcycle accident. Traffic was a mess and I-10 was shut down for much of the day in that area.

California border inspection station-got any contraband, Eldo?

Soon after we got past the accident scene and back on I-10, our new tire pressure monitoring system showed a red light flashing, but no beeping. It said the rear left inside tire on the motorhome was having problems. But, no beeping was occurring, so we kept going....the flashing indicator for that sensor was inconsistently showing something wrong with the rear left inside tire. A few miles farther, the red light was still flashing and all of a sudden the alarm went off and it showed 0.0 psi's....OMG! Tire blowout!!!!?????? We gotta stop now!  Where are the four way flashers? Heck if I know...we didn't familiarize ourselves with that detail until AFTER we got back into the coach when it was all said and done. NOW we know where they are and how to use them! We pulled over to the shoulder and Eldy got out to visually inspect the tire and check the pressure,  the shoulder is NOT a good place to look but we didn't want to be driving on the rim....the tire looked ok...the pressure on the manual tire gauge read 90 psi. Whew! We had tire pressure at least....scared us half to death!

Because the red light continued to flash, we pulled into the next rest stop which was just a few miles from the shoulder stop. We checked the tire pressure again...still 90 psi. Luckily, there was a truck repair service guy working on a semi right next to us.  We asked him to check our tire pressure for us...he said the pressure reading was about 80 psi, which is below our baseline pressure for a cold tire on the motorhome. He was kind enough to add air for us. In the meantime, I got on the phone and called the Tire Traker people. Darryl Lawrence, the owner, was extremely patient with me and talked me through switching around some tire sensors to see if it could be a bad sensor or a problem with the valve stems...when you put on a sensor, it pushes in the valve stem briefly while making a connection. After about 15 min. of talking us through different solutions and placements of tire pressure sensors, we concluded that the inside tire valve stem pins on both sides of the motor home are not making good contacts with the pressure sensors. When the sensors lose connectivity while on rough roads, (which can happen) sometimes the monitor reads that as, "Uh-oh! You don't have any tire pressure in that tire!" And that's what is happening, that's why the monitor said we had 0.0 psi's. Once we switched the sensors around the inside back and outside rear tires, the light went off and we went on our way....we're still going to need a tire shop to check those valve stems if we want to use our tire pressure monitoring system for all our tires. The system is monitoring the car tires great, so no problems there. It's a cool system, really! Tells you the temperature of the tires as well as the psi's on them. Valve stems can be tricky with a tire pressure monitoring system.....the company is doing a wonderful job of supporting us as we work through some of these issues, and we're very happy with them......they'll do whatever it takes to make things right, we can see that....

slides are in, we can still move around

As a result of the tire problem today, and increasing wind velocity--35-45 mph winds and bad dust blowing around, with the winds getting worse this afternoon, gusting to 55 mph, we decided to cut our trip short as far as our destination of Aguanga, CA. Instead we stopped at Indio, CA at the fairgrounds there...full hookup for 20.00 a night, great price for full hookup...interesting place...Arabic designs on their buildings, the buildings have the "mosque" look, and they are located on Arabica Street off highway 111. It's pretty quiet here, there is only one other motorhome in the fairgrounds, so hopefully Eldo will get a good night's sleep if the RV isn't rockin' and rollin' too much! We didn't put out our slides because of the wind, but we can still get back and forth in the living room and to the bathroom and bedroom.....see you in the morning.....

One of the buildings at the fairgrounds