|
|
|
“Distance travelled today - 211 miles” |
Today we drove from Sacramento, across the wine valleys to the Pacific coast. The scenery changed so much on the way it was quite amazing. We went from arid flatland near Sacramento right through redwood forests and to coastline the other side. We decided to have the top up on the car after yesterday’s chargrilling, so looked distinctly less cool but probably for the best as we would not look so amazing being a lovely shade of cerise instead!
As we drove towards the winelands I got to practise my racing driver skills with the really winding hilly roads – who says all roads in the US are straight – today I think I only drove about 5 miles in a straight line!) My initial view of the Napa Valley is that we spent 65 miles looking for a petrol station. Things were beginning to look slightly desperate as we drove through tiny habitation after tiny habitation without any store or petrol station in sight. Finally we were rescued by St Helena (which incidentally has a glut of petrol stations – at least 3 to be precise). St Helena was a really pretty little town so we stopped and had a little look around which was cool. We then continued along the road passing many vineyards which were extremely tempting! We were entertained by some more Christian radio stations – today we were treated to bible stories as well, before settling on some country to accompany our journey. Today’s favourite track started with the lines ‘I’m a little boy with glasses, the one they call a geek’. Top class.
We then began the drive through Mendocino valley and found our first redwoods, although they were baby ones compared to the ones we will be encountering soon. They were still pretty amazing though. Mendocino county has voted not to have any mobile phones so my mobile has no reception again here. Is quite strange! Once we emerged from the other side of the redwoods we hit the coast. And fog. And the cold. It’s just like being in Devon here! It’s very pretty but is absolutely freezing in comparison to the temperatures that we have been used to over the past few days. The fog is really strange as it just seems to hug the coastline – you can see the blue sky inland but where we are it is really cloudy.
We have set up camp in our hotel in Fort Bragg and it has wireless internet – yay! But laptop, true to form in being in the middle of nowhere does not want to charge again – damn thing! When checking in I was greeted by the sight of a moustached gentleman in a black cowboy hat, black jeans and cowboy boots who only had four fingers on one hand. He insisted on staring at Charlie and me for the entire time which we were in the same room which was slightly disconcerting. Needless to say, we shall be ensuring that the door to our room is deadlocked this evening!
Hopefully tomorrow will be sunnier as we continue to drive up the coast – fingers crossed!
Distance travelled today – 211 miles.
Bearwatch – 0.
previous travel blog entryComments or Questions for the Author
Murphsmum says:
... not THE four-fingered, black-hatted cowboy!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's an old boyfriend of mine. I wondered where he'd gotten to! Can you take him to the nearest airport and put him on a plane to Stanstead immediately, if not sooner. Thanks. The trouble with him is that most people think he's being rude - with him having just the one digit, and he gets into fights. BE CAREFUL! Vxx
JimDa says:
Hi there. Sorry to miss a few days; I was in sunny cumbria and yes it was sunny. It is a beautiful place on that sort of day, but there just not enough of them. I was amazed that 86mph did not put you in a boot camp!! Well done for smiling so successfully as I think blokes would not have done so well. Any chance of piccies of you as well as the scenery? Maybe on an e-mail rather than 'public'. Can do? Anyway stay safe and keep the info coming. Jimx