San Francisco to Fort Bragg, California
Wednesday, April 23 - San Francisco to Fort Bragg
After waking up relatively early (for us), we ginned around and packed and loaded Taz and the trailer, finished getting our riding gear on, took the morning selfie (Barbara went solo this morning), checked out of the motel, and began negotiating the morning San Francisco area traffic.
One of our biggest concerns in planning this trip was how we would handle the big city traffic, but we found that should have been one of our least concerns. It turns out that riding Taz through Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco was less nerve-wracking and safer than riding the loop around Tyler, Texas...go figure!
Anyway, with each of us keeping one eye on the GPS and the other on the road, we got through stretches of I-280 and I-38 and then onto the 101 for a bit of an urban ride until we reached the Golden Gate Bridge.
We stopped in Healdsburg and asked a couple of gentlemen at an automotive repair shop where we could find a good place to eat. They suggested a donut shop down around the town square. It sounded a little funky to us, but we rode down to the shop's location and found that they had a full menu for both breakfast and lunch. We enjoyed our sandwiches and the negotiated our way through the town (not as easy as one would think) until we found the entrance to the 101 and continued to Willits, where we took a short break before turning off on CA 20 for the 33 mile drive to Fort Bragg.
Now, we are from a part of the country where drivers equate their speed with the amount of time it takes to get somewhere. A 33-mile drive almost anywhere in Texas takes about 30 minutes. That does not hold true in California, particularly when one is not on one of the major highways.
We knew we were in trouble when we had gone about a half mile on CA 20 and saw the first warning sign for a hairpin curve marked for 20 mph. It didn't get any better after that. It took us nearly a half hour to ride the first eleven miles, with constant hairpin and S curves and maximum speeds of 20-25 mph. All in all, it took nearly 80 minutes of riding brakes and constant down and up shifting before we got through the mountain ranges that separated 101 from CA 1.
We included Fort Bragg on our itinerary because granddaughter Jayce had been here before and said we just had to come see the town and the glass beaches.
So, after unloading all our gear and getting set up in the room, we set out to find the glass beaches (which happened to be right across the highway from us).
We parked Taz next to one of the dunes and began exploring.
The glass beaches are so named because they have beautiful smooth pieces of glass rather than seashells on them. Years ago, residents of the area dumped their trash over the cliffs and onto the seashore. When the trash piles got too large, they were burned. Over the years, the action of the waves and the friction between the sand and the broken glass wore the glass into smooth shapes and deposited them throughout the three sites that now comprise the glass beaches. We didn't find glass on the beach across from our motel, but we sure saw some beautiful sights.
We parked Taz in the lot and walked upstairs to the restaurant and found great service and menu offerings. I opted for bay shrimp and rock cod, sauteed in lime juice and olive oil and tossed with the house specialty pico di gallo and served with fresh tortilla strips, while Barbara had clam chowder in a bread bowl that had been rubbed with butter and freshly minced garlic.
While we enjoyed our meal, we also enjoyed the great view surrounding the wharf.
When we were finished with our meal, we climbed back onto Taz and rode back to the motel to settle in for a night of rest and relaxation.
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Thursday, April 24 - Fort Bragg and Mendocino
Pete Lyall, a friend and Sigma Chi brother from college days at Eastern New Mexico University, has given us lots of suggestions about what to see and do on the California part of our adventure. When Pete heard we were going to be in Fort Bragg, he said we needed to ride the short distance south to Mendocino. Mendocino was the site for the opening shots of the TV show, Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury. Since we both liked that show, we thought we'd just ride on down and check it out.
So, after breakfast at the motel, we went back across the highway to check out the glass beaches one last time (it was raining, so we didn't get to check very long), and then rode south to Mendocino to see what it was all about.
Before we got to Mendocino we stopped at a turnoff to shoot some photos and found a couple of tourists from Sweden doing the same thing (except that they had rented a car.) We visited a few minutes and then they went on their way while we continued to take shots of the area.
From there, we drove on through Mendocino to another scenic area before returning to the town center to shop-look and take what photos we could through the rain.
The weather continued to worsen, so we rode back to Fort Bragg where I dropped Barbara off at the Safeway store while I went to gas up Taz. Then we grabbed a couple of hotdogs at a specialty shop on the main drag and returned to our room to ride out the weather and get some quality relaxation before repacking all our gear and getting ready to roll again tomorrow.
And, just a note in closing this edition of the journal/blog...several Facebook friends said that they didn't know that there was a Fort Bragg other than the military base in North Carolina. Interestingly enough, both Fort Bragg, California, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are named after the same officer, Braxton, Bragg. The difference is that the city in California was never a formal military base. Instead, it began as a military garrison that was posted on the Mendocino Indian Reservation, and was named by the lieutenant who founded the garrison in honor of his commanding officer, then Captain Braxton Bragg, later to become a Confederate general. When the reservation was discontinued in 1866, the land was opened for public sale, but the name of Fort Bragg was kept when the city was founded.
"California is where you can't run any farther without getting wet." - Neil Morgan, San Diego journalist
From a very rainy and wet Fort Bragg, California.
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
