Wow. It will be difficult to sum up the totality of how fun the rally was. Again, it strikes me as weird how much I love hanging out with Altoistes. It was the same last summer. Some people I’ve chatted with a lot on the Facebook group, some not at all. Some people are exactly how I pictured them when I meet them in real life, some are completely different. All are truly fabulous, fun people to hang out with and we have many wonderful memories from the event.
To backtrack, when we left Bullard’s Beach on Thursday, Richard got a head start and biked right from the campground. I got to be lazy and ended up hitching up and pulling out around noon. He headed north and took scenic side roads, including a stretch called “Seven Devils”. We could keep track of each other’s progress closely enough that I was able to catch up to him and pull Dory over for a midday coffee break around 1. He opted to continue on bike even though he was fighting a significant head wind. I drove on to Jessie Honeyman and when I arrived, there was an Alto in front of me getting registered, and Lissa behind me. Heading into C loop, I saw Altos all over the place. Our final count was 15 Altos in the campground and we think there were 54 Altoistes in all.
Our first night we didn’t have any rally specific events planned, but we ended up standing around chatting with new friends for hours. Friday we biked into Florence, about a 4 mile trip, and had lunch at a great little place called the Nature’s Corner Cafe. They had all kinds of gluten free baked goods and hard to find organic items, so we felt right at home. We went around town a little bit and headed back to the park. That out and back was plenty of a bike ride for me and I decided that I didn’t want to bike groceries back with me after all. So we went back with the car. 
I received some pretty sweet gifts that make me very happy. Somehow, people have come to associate me with Dory. I know. Shocking. So I got a Dory balloon, Dory paper towels, and a tiny Dory action figure. Tiny Dory already has been affixed inside the trailer. The paper towels took me a while to figure out because they were inside a plastic bag and left at our site. It wasn’t until I took them out that I noticed the theme. Altoistes are funny!
Friday evening began official rally events with a meet and greet held at a site I reserved specifically as a gathering spot. Lissa brought a very handy screen tent and we all brought appetizers to share. Many drinks were shared and a keg full of local IPA arrived on the scene in time to make it a perfect evening. My feet hurt by the end of the night because of the hours I spent joyfully talking with so many people. We fell into bed quite exhausted and thoroughly happy.
Saturday was Alto tour day. Apparently, the park started to panic when unregistered people started showing up to join the tour. They heard “Facebook group” and thought somehow all of Facebook was going to show up and expect to be able to park in the campground. Richard spent a lot of time on the phone with the park rangers smoothing things out. He was really awesome about that. Meanwhile, I got the tour started. For those who had placed orders or those thinking about it, these events are an excellent way to be able to see all of the different models in person. 
For owners, it’s amazing how every Alto is completely different and everyone seems to have come up with some clever storage trick, or some cute decorative touch, and you are guaranteed to learn something new. I mostly guided foot traffic along the loop and Richard spent his time allaying the fears of the rangers or finding like minded folks to talk with about batteries. We eventually wrapped up the tour around noon and people went their separate ways for the afternoon. Richard disappeared for a couple of hours and it didn’t take me much guess work to figure out where he went. We have new friends and a new really good idea for how to add a spare battery to our system for times we want to boondock longer than two days. He and another Alto owner definitely hit it off and even if we don’t end up opening a “coffee plus” cafe together, I suspect we will keep in touch. 
Our other fun project on Saturday was to try out our new portable grey water dump tank. You can actually tow the thing to the dump site. It looks a little odd, but it definitely got the job done. We have dubbed it the “least yucky way of dealing with between site move dumping”. So it’s a keeper.
Saturday evening we met up at the group picnic area for a pot luck. Lissa’s husband, Jim, impressed everyone with their huge grill. Another Altoiste impressed everyone with his cool solar scope and we got to look at the sun, sunspots and all! Plus, several of us got to do our best at inflating those Lamzac chairs. I’m happy to report that I am no longer the only person I know to have fallen out of one of those. Someone got one to be fairly well inflated, but she had to really run for it. It worked, but that’s a bit too much work for a chair if you ask me. The only downside on the evening was that the rangers sort of kicked us out a little after 8pm. Many of us continued the party back in the campground, but it would have been nice to have been able to stay in the picnic area at least until sunset.
And that brings us to Sunday. We had a shared breakfast together and a fun Oregon trivia contest before calling it a rally and saying, “until next time.” Next year’s gathering will be on the East coast, but I doubt we will make that one. The year after is as yet unclaimed, but something in the Colorado area has come up as an idea. We would for sure go to that one. In the afternoon, we went into town to do laundry and then went on a hike back to the lake.
As a final note of awesomeness, Lissa etched our “633” manufacture number onto one of our windows. We are giddy in love with that. For a non Altoiste, I would need to explain the meaning of that number. For an owner, or soon to be owner, the number holds a sort of magical significance. It’s like a unique little identifier that reminds you Safari Condo is, after all, still a family owned business making each unit by hand with great care. It’s cool to have early numbers and it’s cool to have fun numbers, like 747. But no number is cooler than your own. Ours is 633.
In all, this was even more fun than we thought it would be, and we had pretty high expectations. We are tired from all the fun and late nights, in a good way, and I’ve learned a thing or two about tequila, as well as a few other things I won’t put into print.
Awesome time. Great memories, new friends, deeper bonds with already friends, fun times all around! Yay
I have to digress here for a moment. We have been sort of reliving the bicycle journey from Portland we did eleven years ago. Today we crossed a spot that brought back some vivid memories. When we planned the trip, it was my brilliant idea to “just hop over” to Ashland on our way south. How ridiculous an idea that was, I would discover later. Today reminded me of it. We were (fairly) happily (despite lots of saddle issues for me) going along at a nice clip down the coast until we hit Gold Beach. From there, we turned inland to a town called “Agness”. Our plan was to go from Agness to Galice in one day and that would get us over the coastal range and lined up with Ashland. That day, we honestly thought we might die. There are so few inhabited spots in the Oregon mountains around that area, and most of the “roads” are unmarked logging routes. On paper, you can see all kinds of little lines that appear to get you from one point to another. What you have to remember on a bicycle is that those miles can be unpaved, partly paved, and go up and down relentlessly until you are too exhausted to backtrack. Getting lost out there is no joke and we were being stupid. 
We got to Agness ok (Except I spent probably five of the last 35 miles yelling at Richard because it was only supposed to be 30 miles and we’d already put in 60. He wisely kept just ahead of me so I had to keep peddling in order to properly yell at him. Fun times.) We got terrible information from the woman running the only lodging joint in town. “All new and paved,” she said. “After the first climb, it’s all downhill,” she said. Spoiler alert: it was not. And we thought we were lost for easily half the day. There were NO people out there, no GPS, no marked roads, darkness falling….. We ended up finally on the steepest gravel road you can imagine, with a sheer deathy plummet of God knows how many feet to the raging Rogue River below. I estimate a million feet. Fun note: later we discovered the brakes on my rear wheel were not closed. FINALLY, with darkness falling, and as I was death gripping my brakes down the curvy descent, a woman in a pickup truck drove past. I flagged her down, asked if we were close to Galice, she said yes, and I began alternately sobbing and apologizing for sobbing. It was close to 9pm I remember and we’d run out of food and water a while back. The happy ending is that we got to the only food place in Galice close enough to 9 that they made us the best damn cheeseburgers in the history of food, plus pie. Another fun fact: a couple of years later, a family got stuck on that road in the winter and the dad died going for help. Anyway, the whole point to this story is that we passed the sign saying “Agness 35 miles” today, and we are both experiencing post traumatic flashbacks.
Back to the present, today was lovely! We dawdled getting out of Jedediah Smith because we didn’t want to leave. It is so beautiful there. But, leave we did, and Richard biked the stretch of 199 from the park to 101. We met up at the Crescent City KOA, which looked fairly nice, by the way. From there, we meandered our way up the coast. Every bit of road between Arcata and Gold Beach was new to us, since we had decided on our previous trip that, rather than enjoy the stunning, highly populated Oregon coast, we would risk death in order to see a show I do not remember. Sorry…
Bullard’s Beach campground is pretty nice for a state park. The sites are very private, due to strategically groomed vegetation and decent site size. They have a lot of big rig sites, but you can’t really tell because they’re all sort of tucked away and hidden. There is a nice three mile walk to the Bandon Lighthouse and beach. We were tired and it was windy, so we drove out there after dinner. We were thinking of biking it, but decided to turn in early-ish and watch “Game of Thrones”. Yes, we’re doing this. We’re on episode 2. I think I already know a bunch of the spoilers, so I’m not worried about knowing that they all die. Lissa and family are right next to us and they enjoyed a beautiful walk on the beach at sunset.
We give this park a rating of 11. It’s got the beautiful, spacious sites. It’s got the proximity to extraordinary scenery. It’s got nice facilities. Plus, there is a national park visitor center right in the campground and Richard loves visitor centers. Bonus point for good cell service. 11.
All was well from then on and we got to Jedediah Smith campground around 3. We got set up in our site, but were not able to be next to our buddies. They got themselves situated in the upper loops and we tootled around the campground on our bikes and went to the visitor center. There, we learned of a “must do” hike to Stout Grove. We agree, yes. This is a must do. You get to take this little walking bridge across the river and then you find yourself in the most amazing old growth forest you can imagine. It is right out of “Avatar” and the trees are indescribably huge. The forest floor is blanketed with lush ferns, and maples fill in the spaces between redwoods. It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful, romantic spot and Richard proposed to me just because he felt he should. I told him I’d think about it, but I’d have to check with my current husband to see if he was cool with that.
We continued along the River Trail until eventually we ran into a “road” where a couple of cars had parked at a small staging area. Wondering what this road might lead to, we discovered this was in fact the way Apple Maps had been routing us. A dirt road. Kinda glad we didn’t feel so confident in our towing abilities that we just said “screw it” and went for it.
A hundred and fifty or so miles on paper turns out to be really quite different than reality when those miles are nearly all traveled along Highway 1. Stunning? Check. Worth doing at least once? Yes, probably. Relaxing? Not so much. Listen, this is a gorgeous drive to be sure, but it made for a long day and my shoulders were knotted by the time we converged with 101 in Leggett. Once upon a time, Richard and I biked this route, going south from Portland to home, so I figured I had a fairly accurate picture of every inch of the thing. That was a long time ago though, and we weren’t worried about hitting the brakes around corners going both uphill and downhill. Actually, I still can’t quite believe I did that. Every time we saw bicycle tourers, especially couples, I would remark, “I bet the woman is so mad at the guy right now.” Perhaps I am projecting.
With about two hours left of twisting, rolling, road left to go, I decided I needed a break. So we pulled over at Westport-Union Landing State Beach. There are a couple of campgrounds way out on a cliffy point with amazing views, but today was insanely windy, so everyone looked like they were cold and getting fairly well sand blasted. Richard was nervous about even raising the roof in that wind, but I wanted a reflection shot of the ocean in Dory’s windows. 
There was a road running along the very edge of the cliff that had a huge chunk missing due to having plummeted into the ocean. Note to self: maybe not stay at that campground. Richard notes that there would be great solar there. So noted.
Highway 1 merges with 101 at Leggett and becomes a whole different experience. It is completely manageable at that point and the tight turns are 30mph max instead of 15. Plus, it is mostly a divided highway so people can pass you without having to use turnouts. Even so, I was ready for stopping and dinner, in that order, by the time we got to Garbersville. In addition to finding a great bar & grill place, we had LTE service, so we could bask in internet connectivity once again. We are unabashedly addicted to connectivity. That was a great dinner.
We pulled in to the Giant Redwoods RV Park a little after 7 and got set up. And gave some more tours. We do give a lot of tours while traveling. It’s all part of the Alto experience. Tomorrow we get a “rest day”, in that we are staying in the same place for two nights and don’t have to hitch up.
This is one spectacular stretch of road, especially the part between Myers Flat and the northernmost point. The redwoods are huge and go on and on. The visitors center near Weott has tons of pictures of what the area looked like during the 1964 flood and there are high water markers here and there showing depths at least thirty feet above the road. And the road is quite a bit higher than the river. That must have been some flood.
At last we get to start our summer rally trip!! Last summer, the Altoistes Facebook group got together for what we dubbed our first annual rally at Kelley’s Island State Park. We agreed at that time to keep the tradition going, but to try to alternate broad locations so as many people as possible could attend. So I volunteered a couple of West Coast people and agreed to help organize the next one. Our designated meeting spot will be on the central Oregon coast and that means we got to plan a fun two week excursion to get up there and back. First stop: Salt Point State Park.
There was a lot of traffic getting out of the Bay Area, but once we got off 37, it was smooth sailing. We stopped for coffee, lunch, and a couple of BBQ oysters on the road and that was fun. The place is called Bodega Bay Oysters and they made pretty good garlic and butter oysters fresh on their grill, right to order.
To get to the campground, it was about a four hour drive, including traffic and road construction stops. Gerstle Cove is a nice little campground close to the shore. Sites are reservable, but non specific, so they let you choose a spot when you get there. We found a nice one with lots of room on either side, but they all seemed about equal in terms of privacy and views. We set up and took a hike down to the Salt Point Visitor Center and hiking trail. That was beautiful.
Happy Doryversary! And also Happy 23rd Anniversary! Our celebration weekend happened to coincide nicely with the release of “Finding Dory” and because I know someone who works at Pixar, I was able to score a very cool promotional decal for Dory. By the way, if you have not yet seen the movie, do it. It is not only very entertaining, but as with most Pixar movies, also quite poignant.
During our last outing, we suffered the traumatic loss of our 12v espresso machine, so you can imagine what the focus has been at home for the past two weeks. Richard has been online and on the phone with a number of different experts, some Italian, some just nerdy. The various consultations resulted in the purchase of a nice new soldering iron and several small electronic components. Upon inspection of the inner workings, it was pretty clear where the smell and smoke were coming from. One of the little circuit boards had a dark black spot directly underneath a square black thingy, apparently called a MOSFET, that does something important. This charring was likely the result of having clipped the alligator clamps onto the wrong terminals of the standalone battery momentarily before Richard was awake enough to notice (to say I’m sure glad it was not me who did that would be an understatement). He was able to fairly easily order a replacement thingy and painstakingly went through the process of removing solder and replacing resistors, until it seemed right. He tested it out before we left and all appears to be well. Still, we did also purchase a Handpresso as our emergency backup plan.
The sites are not reservable by number, so you just take whatever is available when you get there. We spent a fair amount of time trying to find a site that would work and then maneuver around in it to get as level as we could get. This was not easy and ultimately required some unauthorized uses for things like chocks and step ladders in order to at least bring the downhill side high enough that we wouldn’t feel tippy. 
We did use the caravan mover in an attempt to find the best angle, and there were no hookups in the park, so we kind of gave up and settled for “close”. Close was ok and we really did enjoy looking out over the whole Bay Area right from our site. Richard made a delicious Shuttle Chef meal of Caribbean Chicken and I had a couple of Laughing Glass margaritas. The sunset was spectacular and seeing the lights come out after dark was amazing.
Saturday we went on a hike around the summit. You can see everything from up there, even SF and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. We could see where our house would be and all of the highways we’re used to driving. Very fun, but also hot. So then we went back and napped, spent hanging out together time, and periodically talked about air conditioning. On Sunday morning it really was starting to heat up (like low 90s), so we packed up and started rolling by about 10. There is no dump on the mountain, but we discovered that the RV storage place not too far from us will let you use their dump for $25. This is good to know. This is also the place we would have had to pay $230/mo to store Dory had she not fit into our garage. I can’t say enough about what a difference it makes to have her at home for packing, organizing, and playing in, at all times. I don’t think there’s another option out there like the Alto. Safari Condo really did an exceptional job with this.
But I digress. We went to Brannan Island this weekend, despite the 100 degree forecast. We originally had reservations for a waterfront, non electric, site. I chickened out and changed at the last minute and there was luckily one site left with hookups. I could tell by the map that it was going to be in “Big Rig Land”, but … 100 degrees. So I took it and I have no regrets.
Brannan Island was hopping with weekend party goers and boaters and there is a nicely accessible boating dock. There is a lot of construction on the bridge to get there however, which causes loooooong backups on Highway 160, so be aware of that.
Richard went on his bike ride (that he is classifying as a “must do”). It’s called the Delta Loop, off of Highway 12. Highly recommended on a bicycle, and very flat. I spent Saturday cleaning Dory, putting up little cargo netting iPhone holders, and experimenting with my new inflatable 
I leapt right in without reading the 9-step line drawing directions, because duh, and started attempting to swoosh. Huh. So I looked more closely at the line drawing instructions. They seemed to be depicting a guy in motion, so I tried running. Ok, that was funny, I hope no one saw that. There is also a line drawing of a curvy arrow, indicating “don’t do this”. I’m not sure what that means. Maybe don’t try to spin around the way I was. Or don’t make wavy motions while you are running. In any case, the best I ever got was a floppy, barely filled, limp tube (don’t go there). However, if I rolled the closed end enough times, it did in fact force some amount of air into the back, thus allowing for an approximation of what I saw on the video.
Richard arrived back from his ride right about then and I decided to take a little spin around the campground and catalogue potential future sites. It’s a nice campground and there are many sites with views of the delta river. The loop with hookups is, of course, not as nice, in that the sites are close together and there are huge RVs next to you. The awning is handy in these situations. The site we would have gotten was ok, but didn’t have actual water views.
We hung out in air conditioned Dory, but after it cooled down I decided to try the chair again. This time Richard was inside to witness. Things went about the same as they had previously, only this time, I could hear laughter coming from inside Dory. He occasionally opened the window to let me know he was hysterically laughing. But I would not be daunted. I do not have a strategy for getting into this chair yet, but I’m sure there’s got to be one. Richard tried it too and did not fall out as spectacularly as I did, but he did tip way over from side to side before getting stable. I highly recommend these for party games. I’m not so sure about the chair part.
Sunday we had to go out on a morning coffee hunt. This was what we did in our bicycle touring days and not needing to do this was our prime joy factor in having trailer espresso. But we found a place in nearby Rio Vista that had caffeinated hot milk that they were calling a latte and it was ok and we got enough of a fix to keep going. We headed back, packed up, chatted with RV neighbors and gave a tour, then headed home. Richard had an espresso first thing when we pulled in.
Ok, we are bad at staying home. We were not planning to go out on Memorial Day weekend. We had a commitment Saturday and figured everything would be too crowded, too much traffic, etc., so we had planned to stay home. But see, last weekend we were also home. So… we made it as far as Thursday night and I couldn’t take it. I jumped online just to, you know, see, look around at local campgrounds. There must have been a cancellation at Half Moon Bay State Park because this place is notoriously difficult to reserve. I was only looking for Sunday night, they had a spot, BOOM.
We’re getting used to the bike South along Highway 1 routine. The only variable this time was the traffic on Highway 1. Richard and I literally arrived at the same time at our site. It’s odd though how much I don’t care about traffic when I’m towing Dory. I crank the tunes and enjoy the view. I even kind of appreciate the fact that I don’t have to speed along or worry about slowing down people behind me. And boy howdy, it was crowded when I pulled into the park! They had a designated ranger standing there turning people around, explaining over and over that there was no parking. When I was able to produce a reservation number, she had me pull off to the side so I could get checked in and I was very glad to not be among those who seemed like they came all the way there to see if maybe there was space.
The afternoon was lazy; quick walk on the beach under overcast skies, nap, then grill for dinner. I had worked on a little project during the week where I attached netting under the flip out tables on the Weber Q. I was wanting some way of holding things like BBQ tools, trash bag, paper towels, but since I’m on a camping spending lockdown, I had to get creative. I must say, I am highly pleased with the results. 
I am also highly pleased with the tiny plastic bottles of Jose Cuervo I got to give a bit more kick to the Laughing Glass margarita mix. In fact, overall, two margaritas into the evening, I’d say I’m pretty pleased with most everything. Camping is fun.
The drive home Monday was uneventful for us, but appeared to be approaching fist fight level for the tons of people backed up in cars trying to fight for parking spaces near the beach. We saw two cars really looking ready to ram each other as we rather quickly pulled around and headed the opposite direction. As we went East, there was an endless line of cars trying to head West. We pulled over in a nice scenic view place on Skyline Blvd. and had lunch, gave a tour to a couple of motorcyclists, and toodled on home. Not much traffic, home by 3. I suspect it’s a different story out on the highways right now.
Thar be whales!! This was our first repeat visit to a campground and though we left on Friday the 13th, and got site #13, it turned out to be one of our luckiest excursions. I honestly had no idea this was whale migration season, but we saw more whales by accident than we ever would have if we’d planned a dedicated whale watching weekend.
I was really happy to have gotten the site I did because this is, despite its very swank appearance, still a KOA. The sites are close together and it is fairly packed with big rigs. However, the sites around the ends of the loops are quite nice and offer some privacy and views on the ocean side. Last time I was here, I had no clue how to back Dory, so I didn’t even try. I just unhooked in front of the site and used the Caravan Mover to get her in. 
This time, I had far more confidence and slid her in nicely on the first try, even without Richard standing behind me on walkie talkie (but I did totally use the rear view camera). When I got out to scope out the site however, I noticed right away that the scenery out the door side was kind of crap. It would have looked directly at our neighbors. Plus our picnic table and sitting area was on the driver’s side (which is not usually the case). So…. out came the Caravan Mover remote control! I spun Dory a full half turn so she could face a nice grassy area, and so I could set up the awning next to the picnic table. That feature seriously rocks.
Richard rolled in after I’d gotten all set up and settled, and he was more than a little giddy being able to pull in from a long bike ride to a happily waiting Dory. I had a margarita, stared at the ocean, and did nothing much in particular.
Saturday was an action packed day. First, we biked over to Pigeon Point Lighthouse, about four easy miles each way. I said we should head over to see a whale, but I wasn’t really serious about that. It turned out to be whale central! The state park person came out to the viewing deck to alert all the tourists that there was a whale approaching close by and sure enough! Not only did we see the telltale spouts of water, but we also got to see a couple of very big Grey Whales break the surface of the water over and over as they slowly made their way around the point. That was cool! And it was only the beginning! We saw several more like that, coming pretty close to the lookout point. They seemed to be traveling in pairs and the state park person explained that mothers and their calves migrate last so they have lots of time to nurse the babies before heading North to Alaska. She also said the Grey Whales are the ones who tend to hug the shore with their babies in order to keep them away from Orcas. So cool.
After lunching and watching this for a while, we headed back toward the campground and stopped at Ano Nuevo Beach on our way. Even from there, we could see spouting and breaching out in the water. We decided to head back to Dory and hike the trail to the beach and Franklin Point Lookout. It was a gorgeous day for beach going, but Richard was primarily motivated by the fact that he has this mapping app now,specifically because we’d gotten “lost” the last time we took that trail. 
Suffice to say, we did not get even close to lost this time around. Down a sandy trail and out at Franklin Point, there is a viewing bench where you can take in the glorious views of the coast. And yet again, we saw seriously dozens of whales. I lost count of how many we saw in all. The place was lousy with ‘em! Spouts were going off somewhere out on the horizon nearly any time you looked, and several more passed by very close. Talk about fortuitous timing!
An exhausted, beached seal was exactly what I was when we got back to Dory. That was a lot for me in one day, so we both napped before dinner. Tri tip sandwiches with roasted red peppers on French bread, all heated on the grill, went perfectly with ice cold beer.
We drove back toward home, but stopped for leftover sandwiches at Pomponio State Beach on our way. A very nice state park person was there and we watched her patiently engage in long conversations with the couple of cars in front of us. When we got up to the kiosk, Richard asked, “Do people not like to pay?” She said, “Oh boy. I have heard it all.” Apparently people complain to her about it all the time and go on about paying taxes and blah blah blah. We thanked her for taking care of our state parks, happily paid the $8 day pass for the privilege of conveniently parking at a well kept, spectacular beach, and offered her an espresso. Richard came out a few minutes later with a Cafe Dory special espresso on a little saucer, with tiny spoon, and a packet of sugar. She seemed very happy and took a picture of it. I appreciate state park employees very much and we toyed briefly with the idea of selling everything and going up and down the coast, bringing espresso to the people in the kiosks.
New favorite place! We will definitely be coming back here, but will need to plan for the rather long and windy drive to and from. This would be perfect for long weekends and we haven’t even started to explore the area. How can one have been born and raised in CA and not know about Clear Lake?
As you continue north, you will enter the area of Lake County that was devastated by a huge wildfire in 2015. Some structures are new and clearly rebuilt, but some grim apocalyptic remnants remain. The vastness of the destruction takes one’s breath straight away. My thoughts were on a fellow Altoiste family who lost their home in Hidden Valley Lake. Very sad.
We pulled in around 3 and had plenty of time to walk over to the visitor center and do a little hike up to an outlook spot. What a gorgeous area! Our site was right by a raised boardwalk trail along a little slough. Some of the sites in the campground are right on the lake and that will be what I go for when I book our next outing. There were some mosquitos, not bad, but enough for Richard to really appreciate being “indoory in Dory” by the end of the day. He said that phrase a lot.
To head home, we decided to try cutting over to 101 via Highway 175, which also proved to be very windy and much more narrow. The number of miles spent being twisty was less going this way, but it may have made up for it by being so much tighter and a bit deathy in places. During the daylight hours, going super slow, this was all fine. At night, when tired, coming at the end of a 4 hour drive, I’m thinking not so much. Both drives took about the same amount of time, though we did hit traffic once we got to 37. One possible plan would be to get to somewhere close-ish, like Cloverdale, on a Friday night, and then drive to the lake Saturday morning. Shall consider.
