September 22, 2009 – San Juan Bautista, CA

A grueling day; six hours of nearly nonstop dueling with slow, windey mountain roads, insane drivers in Marin County, ugly traffic in Oakland and San Jose, and a misbegotten rest stop in Berkeley, of all places.

We got off to a nice start, around ten, from Benbow, heading south through tourist attractions like Confusion Hill that we have yet to visit, making our way mostly down the “Old Road” 101, because there is no “New Road” 101 yet. This is the same highway that Don used to travel on his way to Oregon in the summers of 1945 and beyond. There is, for sure, great beauty in the scenery, but it isn’t what we call “Big Rig Friendly”. Slow going. The road flattened out around Ukiah, but it still wasn’t very fast. I felt the need to monitor our progress most of the way, and I was very upset with some of the ill-mannered drivers that Don had to put up with. I could drive better than some of them! The people in Marin County were particularly bad, cutting into our lane so close in front of use that we had to brake really hard to avoid running over them. Don won’t drive the rig through San Francisco, ‘cause he knows it too well, so we avoided it by driving over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to catch highway 80 down to the 880 south. He’d been driving for over four hours, and felt the need to stop and walk around a little bit, so he pulled off on a turnoff in Berkeley. Bad luck; there was no place there to pull over and stop. We wound up heading into downtown Berkeley, traipsing down San Pablo Avenue past all the BBQ joints until we could head back toward the freeway, where we found a pullout suitable for some walking around. I got out with the rest of the group, but refused to anoint this city with my leavings. When Don got his circulation back, we got aboard and headed south again.

Almost two hours later, we pulled into one of our favorite places, Betabel RV Park in San Juan Bautista. They are very dog-friendly here, and provide a very nice treat for their incoming canine guests. They provided me with a set of rules for People Owners, asking that I keep them on a leash and take them to designated walk areas, and that I insist that they take me inside the RV with them at night. Geri took me for a nice walk, and I saw a big herd of deer that got my interest; but not so interested that I wanted to get too close to them. There are lots of friendly people here, and we met some that have a Goldie who is even bigger than I am! A very friendly guy, of course. We got along well.

This is the last night of this adventure, and we will be pulling into our driveway tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be anxious to meet up with my old friends, particularly Alice and Cooper, two of the nicest Aussies I’ve ever met. I’ll be happy to go walking in my usual haunts, where I feel comfortable and safe enough to leave Don way behind me until he yells at me to wait for him. I’ll enjoy going out in the morning and retrieving a real newspaper, instead of a phony one. And I will love getting back into my old routine of walking, eating, napping, and playing. I love travelling, but I really like getting home again. I think Geri and Don feel the same way!