Day 13 |
December 30, 1997 | Outbound |
1,061 Miles Today: 113 Miles |
 |
KOA
San Francisco North/Petaluma Petaluma CA |
||
| Ended up at the KOA San Francisco in Petaluma. Woodalls describes it as being "in a rural farm setting." This turns out to mean that you can still hear the highway, but you can also smell the cow manure. | The duty manager in the office corrected me on this: "It isn't cow manure, it's the fertilizer which the farmers spread on the pasture" - still essentially cow manure, mutter mutter mutter… | ||
| Woke up to a blustery morning with high clouds and some blue. By the time the sun was up, it had clouded over and was getting cold. We went down to the bar of the Albion - it was high tide, hardly any beach to be seen. So we headed out at about 10.50am. | |||
 22 secs at 28.8 |
Went down Hwy 1 a few miles, then to Hwy 128 south east across the mountains. As soon as we started coming down the other side (around Navarro) we started seeing vineyards - and even more strip-logged hillsides turned to sheep pasture. (As S. pointed out, to be expected when north-facing mountains turn into south-facing hillsides.) A cluster of well-kept vineyards with expensive-looking cellars in the Anderson River valley. Then it became poorer again, most of the way to Cloverdale: lots of for sale sighs on derelict farm buildings. Mostly 35 acre lots for sale; wonder what that implies? Went past the Husch winery (the wine we had the evening of Day Eleven). Clicked over the 1,000 mile trip meter. | All the trees taken by those who loved the land for its assets; now a nude landscape, stripped bare by her suitors, even. | |
 24 secs at 28.8 |
|||
| Picture Collections Highway 128 Odometer Readings |
Got to Cloverdale around 12.30. I did the grocery shop while S. called the travel agent about flying back. The travel agent suggested calling Alaska, since the fare from the airline directly would be $65, versus $150 from him. The wonders of a good travel agent, looking for repeat business, not a quick buck! S.'s return flight on Thursday at 3.30 pm, two days from now. | AST Ambassador Travel Seattle (206) 623 0484 |
|
| Stopped in Santa Rosa to buy books and another black-page travel journal; this one is almost full. No black notebooks to be found - settled for a white-page one with a picture of a globe on a black cover). The Barnes & Noble was a dismal, badly lit place. Still, I bought two books on Greek history. | A R Burn The Penguin History of Greece Penguin Books 1985 Robert Morkot |
||
| Then a few miles south to Petaluma in heavy traffic. Found the KOA easily enough. It was getting dark and we decided to stay here and do a short jump South to Novato tomorrow. That gets us in striking distance of San Francisco airport. | We ended up staying in Petaluma, since the two were so close, and the sites cost about the same. | ||
| The campsite is big, tidy - and expensive! $30 for one night, water and electric only! Still, it's the Marriott of RV camping, I guess: you know what you'll be getting, and you pay not to be surprised. | |||
 |
The angular KOA graphics and all the K's (e.g. Kamping Kabins) remind S. uncomfortably of Nazi trappings - I wonder if they were started in the 30s? | I have to say that I presume that this doesn't represent the ideology of the current owners | |