Thursday, September 25, 2014

Homeward Bound! - Day 5

Well, this time I slept right through my alarm.  I was awakened kisses on my face and a room almost totally empty of all of our luggage except what I needed to get ready to go.  Chris had let me sleep in this time and had prepared everything for the days journey.  We had a quick breakfast and hit the road amazingly on time even though I slept in 20 minutes later.

Somebody is getting really excited.....I on the other hand felt like I still needed to wake up!


REALLY!?

Those poor riders.... I guess they will either brave it or be held up for quite some time at the hotel.


This is going to be a long, slow ride.  You know you have to be careful when pulling a trailer and the roads are slick like they are.


But inspite of the rain, guess where I am going today???



Now, I have been to the Redwoods before, but I don't believe I had been on the Avenue Of The Giants before.  This picture really doesn't do the size of these trees any justice.  We had to sit quite a ways back from these trees in order to get the whole thing. The fog hung so low that the trees looked as if they reached into the clouds.



I love canopy roads.....:-).  This road was going to take us forward for 25 miles.  Cool....:-)


I was surprised to find that there was a little town in the middle of all of this called Pepperwood.  The picture is not very clear, but it says that the population is...........(drum roll)........50.  Yep....50 souls live in this tiny town.  I suppose they are grandfathered in.


It's getting ready to get serious now, ya'll.  did you see the size of the trunk on that tree??


From time to time during our adventure, we would get these vistas that were thick with fog, but still beautiful.


And more tiny towns littled through the Redwoods.


and there it went....ha


But they do have a post office not far from the center of "town"....


As we rolled on down the road we caught a sight of this bridge.  I love bridges....:-).


And these!  \o/  \o/....Yay!


Somebody was ready to go, but I had to do two more things first......


 I had to stand right next to one of these giants and see if I could bend back far enough to see the top....ha


 And then I had to see if I could spot "Big Foot" or even one measly dinosaur!

sigh......:-(. Nope.  Not nairy a one.


We kept having problems with Ruby.  the straps were rubbing on her paint inspite of them being wrapped in bubble wrap, and she kept leaning into Raspberry!  Eventually, we had to reposition the straps and add more padding between the two bikes.


We came upon this interesting site, but it was closed.  Besides, they wanted too much money to simply drive through a tree!  I'll just stare at them....haha.  It's a lot cheaper!


I think he saw "Big Foot"!!


Big Foot had an "office" near by........


And apparently a store too!


With a few visitors that were posing outside.  I think this guy's name is Shrek.


And there is Mrs Big Foot......


No wonder I couldn't find him.  He was standing outside of his office....ha


It seems that the inhabitants of this little getaway like the sound of wind chimes.


Here is a closer look at them.  I'm glad that Chris was in the car as he can never seem to resist setting a bunch of them off at one time if we are in a store!


Now, I know I have seen these guys before.  But, I don't remember who they are.  Oh well.
time to keep moving.  Bye, bye!


The rain had slacked off for a while which was nice.  I was starting to feel like a drowned cat!


 And you know the sound of all of that water, day after day and can ware on a girl.......:-)


The rest area was very quiet and pretty.......:-)



Time was rolling on and it would soon be time to eat lunch....


So, we pulled along side a residential park that we came upon and had a bite to eat.  We were going to sit on the trailer, but a bubble bee seemed to feel that we were intruding somehow. We retreated to the car.


You have got to be kidding me!!


Shaken my head......and to think that some places are actually experiencing a drought!


I guess all of this water has the same affect on guys too......haha


It's ok, though.  We are still having a blast!


ok, time to go again.....:-)



Hey!!  I know what this is.....:-).  This my friends is the famous Golden Gate Bridge.  At let me tell you before you venture across....The toll is $7.00 for cars and $7.00 for each additional axle that you have.  It cost us..... (wait for it.....).......$21.00 to cross that thing!  They could have at least offered me a sandwhich for that price!  Unbelievable......



Well, we went over; both of us for the first time as part of our Big City Adventure-San francisco trip that we didn't get a chance to do when we last visited.


When I looked at the houses, I was convinced that we have graduated from caves, to ....well, more modern caves.  The houses are still built into the hill side and all manner of strangeness is here architecturally speaking.


This is where we will call home this evening.  And none too soon.  It was going to be a ten hour day because of all of the stops for Ruby and sight seeing.


It was after 5:00pm and we still needed to eat dinner and get water and coffee for the morning.
We saw this place and decided to stop here.


I decided to take some pictures while Chris searched for a hotel for us for the evening.


this was an interesting place that had a very large menu.  It was almost confusing....ha


and just a few feet away, there was a market where we were able to get the coffee and water we needed for the next day.


The prices of hotels in California are like those in British Columbia.  Keep dialing, baby!!  I know you can do it!  ha



Bingo!  He found one.....haha


So, we ordered dinner.  Chris ordered fried oysters......yikes!  I just can't.....and seafood soup.  It was ok, I guess.


I ordered lobster mac and cheese and coconut shrimp. I gave half my shrimp to Chris and it was just too much for me to eat.


Well, it was time to head for our hotel which was going to be another 20 miles away.  We saw this street sign along the way and had a good chuckle.  Some of our team members have this as their last name.....haha


Right on, Snells!  Right on!  haha


We made it!  Ten hours later and here we are.  San Jose, California; our home for the night.


Now, I knew the hotel had upgraded us for a few more of our points, but I had no idea what we were walking into.  I could get used to a brass sink as long as I don't have to polish it.....:-)


Nice living room too....I mean a full living room.....


Here is a shot from the other side of the room....


The bathroom was a bit weird, but nice non the less.  It was in three parts.  The shower was in one section.....and the sink and toilet in another section.



The bedroom was a good size too....


This is the other side of the bedroom


and at the other end of the bedroom was a very large jacuzzi tub complete with a waterfall type spigot.  don't let the picture fool you.  This was a very wide and long tub as well as deep.
It was like looking into a small swimming pool.


What's that?  I thought I heard it call my name!

So, I think I will!  Hopefully, I will wake up on time in the morning.....:-).


ZZZZZzzzzzzz........See you on the road!