All Around Town

We wanted breakfast so we went over to the Midtown area of Palo Alto to Mikes restaurant. It's one of the two good breakfast places on out list. Jonie's on California avenue is the other. We all shared a nice everything omelette, pancakes and a pesto casserole. More than enough. We then walked around Midtown because they were having a festival. We really enjoyed the visit to a human society booth where they had about twenty extremely playful and cute kittens. We got a good dose and moved on.

I took Dawn's laptop in to get the display fixed. Half the screen is dead. Hope the extended warranty works. They seem to be paying off. Mine has had to be repaired twice.

I tried a couple of hobby shops looking for a new receiver for my RC plane. No luck so I'll get it through the Internet.
Dawn went over to the University to get her textbooks and she and Lou did a little cleaning of her apartment. While I replaced a broken window at the front of the house.

Dinner was at El Rincon, a restaurant across the street from where I worked in San Jose. I had chili relleno, Lou had a taco salad and Dawn a burrito. The place seems to have changed hands and tough good, it wasn't as good as before when I had lunch there most ever day. Darn!

Tomorrow, more things to be done on the growing list of things to do. I hope we can shorten the list so we can get on the road again.

Getting Into The Grove

Lou and Dawn were off early for a doctor's appointment.

When I finally got moving I responded to the pressures of watching TV and went out to lunch at Carl's Junior for a Pastrami Berger. Good sandwich, bad reason to go. Oh well, 50/50's not too bad.

I got a replacement small inverter for the satellite system. The existing one failed to maintain proper voltage, just like it's predecessor. I hope this isn't a regular occurrence. Fry's Electronics had a nice 400 watt for $39.

On way out of Fry's, I visited a construction site next door. I spoke with a worried engineer looking over the hole in the ground where a parking garage/swimming pool is being built. It will be two underground parking levels and a swimming pool on top, adjacent to a fitness center that's is about to open. There are few basements around here probably due to the water table being so high. However, this water is industrially contaminated and can't be pumped into the storm sewer. With their permits and treating, they can't get ahead of incoming water so they are stopped about three feet short of the depth the hole needs to be. Problems problems. I got so involved, I started to walk home, which I normally do. I had driven over. I only got a couple of blocks away before remembering. It would be embarrassing to be ready to leave the house and not have a car. It will happen.

Anyway, the inverter went in easily even though it was a slightly different configuration. This inverter is used to provide constant power from the batteries for the Datastorm satellite system. When the previous inverters failed, the power was changed to utility power or generator or the main inverter. This causes the system to loose connection when power transfers occur. The separate inverter allows uninterruptible power. See the Electrical System and the Satellite System articles for more information.

Next project, washing the RV and car. Seems like sea gulls and pelicans would be more polite. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive?

It is nice to be home. The yard is in good shape having survived the high temperatures while we were gone. Now I do have to get back in gear and do some more concrete work and other repairs.

Home Again

We left Manchester about 10am headed toward home. The drive along Highway one provided some interesting views of the coast.


We stopped for a while in Petaluma. We toured the museum in an old library. Quite nice.
Went to an interesting War museum/antique store. The basement has a nice war museum, there is also an lot of war souvenirs for sale as well. The first floor is a good antique store. It's located on Petaluma Ave a little north of Downtown Old Town. We had to drag Dawn away so I'm sure we'll be returning.

Traffic was nice going through San Francisco slightly before the evening rush hour. We were home a little before 6pm. Weather at home is a nice high 70's.

Manchester Beach SP

We explored further South today. We spent a good deal of time in Mendocino checking out all the shops and galleries.

There are a lot of these old water towers around the village. This one was converted into an art studio. We had a very nice lunch at Lu's Kitchen. It's difficult to find if you're looking for it since it's in the back yard of a music shop with only a small sign out front and no obvious way to get to the place. We looked out the window of the music shop and saw some exciting looking food. Obviously we were ready for lunch. We shared a nice burrito and a pesto quesadilla. It was all vegetarian but very good all the same.


We continued down Highway one to Manchester Beach State Park for the night. This park isn't too exciting but, like all the parks the last few days, has it's own character. The beach is quite a distance away and is difficult to get down to. There is a 15 foot buff that is constant along the whole beach. There are a couple of places where sand is piled up a ways and logs and notches cut into the bluff where it is possible to get up and down. We enjoyed a nice sunset.


Our campsite.

An interesting finding here. We saw a big building next to the park and what looked like a wooden water tower. Our curiosity required we check it out. The sign out front said Manchester Cable Station. I checked the web and found out it is the landing point for cables from Hawaii. This point is evidently the closest point to Hawaii from the west coast. Interesting.

Mackerricher State Park, Cleone, Ca

We moved South 15 miles to Cleone (3 miles North of Fort Bragg). We got a nice space in Mackerricher State Park. I'm barely able to get through the trees to the satellite here, but barely is enough.


The boardwalk around lake Cleone. Lake Cleone was located next to our campsite.


The beach with remnants from the old lumber mills that were here. Heavy surf at the beach.


A pair of squirrels enjy lunch. A pair of seals surface for air.

The fog broke here in Fort Bragg. We looked all around town and the hike out tothe beach at the park. They have nice boardwalks that lead out to places to overlook the seals on the rocks. They also have tide pools whick we'll try to see tomorrow morning.

Union Landing SB, Westport, Ca

Sunday:

Another leisurely morning (seems to be a habit). We were moving on the road a little before 10am. First stop was Costco. I found a loose lug nut on the right rear tire so I stopped by for them to tighten it. The tires are about 90 days new. We were out in about 10 minutes all fixed up. While we were there, we picked up a package of our friends, the blue shop towels that we use for everything.

Next stop was Loleta to restocked our cheese supply. Then we stopped in Fortuna at a video store that Dawn wanted to visit. We also went by Safeway in the same shopping center.

Next stop, Scotia. On our last visit here we picked up a bunch of ham ends at $.69/lbs at the market there. It was great ham for everything from beans, to sandwiches, to steaks. Much cheaper than lunch meat. They still had it. Evidently they get it from their deli. When it starts to curve, they must trow it in a pile for sale in the market. Hey, a bargain is a bargain.

We finally actually left town heading South on Highway 101 to Highway 1 and the coast. When we got down off the mountain we came across Union Landing State Beach. It's on a short bluff with the waves coming right up to the base of the bluff. The camp sites are at the top of the bluff and Highway 1 is right on the other side. This is a primitive campground with no trees. It's a bit foggy now but probably about 65 degrees. Really nice.



Our campsite is quite nice here at Union Landing SB. Right over a nice beach. Access to walk on the beach is a little challenging though.

Monday:

We decided to stay another night. It's really nice here, nice ocean view and quite (little traffic). Breakfast was one of Lou's omelets and sliced apple. Night before last, Lou was in a cooking mood and prepared a nice strudel for desert, some spaghetti and sausages, and an omelet. That took the chill off the night and left us with several breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Isn't the microwave wonderful!

Our neighbors left and there was a nice smoldering log left in their fire pit. That log along with our half burnt log from last night made a nice morning fire in no time. It's still foggy, visibility about 1/2 a mile, so the fire seemed nice. It isn't good for our solar generation though.


A nice buzzard (at least it looks like one). A bunch of sea birds on a rock off shore.


A centipede (or other caterpillar) on the road in camp. A bunny at our campsite.


An arch in the rocks below the bluffs near the campground. Some missing road on the old Highway 1 which is the road in the campground.

Tuesday:


We got up at went out to the beach for a walk.



It's a nice beach just below our campsite but only accessable at low tide. We found some interesting polished shells and glass. We also found two waterfalls, eack about 30 feet.

Redwood Acres Fairground, Eureka

We made our way on to Eureka to Redwood Acres Fairgrounds. We weren't able to register because the host left for the day so we picked a spot and headed to the other fairgrounds in Ferndale. We had stayed there on our previous two visits last month but, of course with the fair there, there wouldn't be any RV camping there.

We made it to the fair a little before 11.


There were some intersting entertainment groups. We watched this western dance troup and the Kitchenaires band. We didn't want to miss an opportunity to see the Kitchenaires. They play kitchen implement instruments modified with kazoos, washtub bases, washboards, pan lids etc. Always fun to see.


They play some mean kazoos and washtubs.

We enjoyed seeing the handiwork (quilts, furniture, crafts, art, photography, etc.)of all the participants.

We especially enjoyed the duck races. The master of cerimonies is Robert Duck (his real name). Dawn got to race a duck named "Lord of The Wings"

Duck races are over in a flash. You can't blink. They are motivated to get to the finish line and a little swim and a snack.

The animals are a favorite as well. This alpaca llama, named Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo, is so cute. They had a table of little bowls of water with fushia blossoms. Really colorful.