October 16, 2018

We last pulled into Fortuna, CA on October 10th for two nights.  As normal we try to travel around 200 miles then enjoy the destination for around two days.  This allows for rest and recovery as well as lets us take in a taste of the area.  Fortuna is known for its many antique shops.  We can't do that because in order to add to the Land Yacht you need to get rid of something to preserve space.  The lost coast where they weren't able to build a highway due to extremes in geology was near by.  Also the giant Redwoods were everywhere here.

The next segment on October 12th we traveled to Santa Rosa around 50 miles north of San Francisco.  We stayed at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds due to the extreme prices for the RV parks in the area.  This was fairly tight camping with neighbors close and the Monster trucks roaring nightly.  This area had a security guard at night due to recent urban problems.  We really don't enjoy this area much any more due to the overpopulation, traffic, crime, and congestion.

Our main mission during this two day rest was to fight our way into our first In and Out burger experience in California.  This is usually well worth the adventure.  After around nine years spent at Travis Air Force Base we know  the area well.  What was new was the extent of the fire damage that took out much of the town and jumped highway 101in 2017.  The recovery continues.

With the Land Yacht we absolutely hate hanging out in the overpopulated areas.  We plan to traverse the areas on Sunday mornings in order to avoid the extreme traffic.  This was the case with San Francisco.  The Golden Gate Bridge was typically tight for us for staying in the lane.  We had to depend on the bumps for the lane dividers on the left in order to insure clearance on the right.  My mirrors wouldn't show the edge of the bridge on the right due to the lack of a fog line.  Scary stuff!

There are no active toll booths any more.  Our cost was $21.00 due to $7.00 for the first 2 axles and $7.00 for each extra.  Due to the lack of mail service on the road there is likely to be some late fees added by the time we get the bill.  This happened in Virginia a few years back.

Even on Sunday there was too much traffic through San Francisco as we headed south.  Miss Kate was certainly glad to make it through the city without incident.  Our goal was to make it down to King City.

There we stayed at an excellent county park with reasonable prices called San Lorenzo.  This was also included a local historical museum of agriculture equipment.  Some were from the 1920s nearly 100 years ago.  We traveled to the San Antonio mission which was near an Army base 20 miles out of town.  Unfortunately it was closed on mondays.

The town in the middle of California was mainly Hispanic.  The local grocery stores only listed the products in Spanish.  We were observed as foreigners as we traveled through town.  The majority of the radio stations were broadcasting in Spanish.

The town was clean, well maintained, and we felt safe.  Our radio broke in the RV.  The replacements were considered obsolete.  Who needs a CD changer anymore!  Were able to get a new sound system installed in a timely manner cheaply.

From there we traveled south to Vandenburg, Air Force Base today.  The family camp comes 1st come and 1st served.  We will be able to save some money here as long as we follow the rules.

Next Sunday we hope to sneak through northern Las Angeles to Fontana to get needed RV repairs for the land yacht.  We are both excited to get back to the real America outside of the urban jungles!

Thanks for reading.