After sending Anthony off to baseball practice and enjoying a leisurly brunch with Kelly and Julianna, I finally hit the road at 11:30 this morning. It was a beautiful sunny day except for San Francisco, which was typically cold snd overcast. I covered 428 miles on Hwy 101 today, which doesn't sound like much until you realize that the first 100 miles took me over 3 hours due to excessive traffic through S.F., road work throughout Marin County and traffic from the Indy car races in Sonoma. But then again, this trip is all about the journey and there really is no defrinitive destination. After Santa Rosa, it was mostly smooth sailing. Hwy 101 has been beautifully repaved from Mendocino County to the OR border. Besides glassy smooth asphalt, even the corners are crowned perfectly. This is a good use of our "Stimulus" dollars. Riding up the Redwood Highway through long sweeping twisties and majectic forests was truly a pleasure. For the most part I set the cruise control at 70 and just took in the gorgeous scenery.
Besides the beautiful scenery, there were 2 notable items that I saw today: (1) Indian casinos every 20 miles or so. It's been awhile since I toured this route, but I don't remember this many casinos. The big ones generally have a "Rancheria" suffix, but I saw one casino in Eurika that looked like a Squaw and Pa outfit, no bigger than a fast food joint. And (2) Road Kill - 4 deer and hundreds of unidentifiable flatened woodland creatures and birds.
Shortly after stopping for gas in Willits I smelled the distinctive essence of Mendocino County's top cash crop for at least 5 miles. I was sure there must be a big burn in progress until I passed Cheech and Chong driving a beat-up old powder blue Mercedes.
Today I also experienced the intereting phenomenon that happens when a driver enters a temporary passing lane on a 2-lane highway. For inexplicable reasons it seems that drivers become Mario Andretti when they enter a passing lane. Today Mario was driving a Ford Fiesta and he held his line in the fast lane so I drafted him and dipped into the slow lane to slingshot past him at about 110. I had a similar experience with Danika driving a truck dragging a horse trailer. I bet the horses were terrified.
Anyway, I arrived safely in Crescent City and enjoyed a Mexican meal and a Dos Equis. It's now time to relax and get some shut-eye.
Love the Mario and Danika references...and of, of course, Cheech and Chong. I think they played teh Hard Rock last month (really).
ReplyDelete