Ukiah and Fort Bragg

Friday, August 14th – Today, we drove to the Elks Lodge in Ukiah. As soon as we got there, I just leveled the rig, plugged in to power, romped Gizmo and took off in the car to do company business. We headed north to Willits and then west on Highway 20 to Fort Bragg. The road was curvy but beautiful. When we hit the coast, we headed for the RV park just south of town. It was another rustic park and the sites were all set in amongst the trees. Pretty!

After checking out the park, we headed for town to check out the Skunk Train and the town. The harbor was a real “working harbor” and is the only harbor between San Francisco and the Arcata/Eureka area. Ten percent of the entire commercial salmon catch is landed at Fort Bragg.

Fort Bragg Harbor

After checking out the town, we drove south on Highway 1 to Highway 128 which heads back to Highway 101. This portion of 1 is an easy, very beautiful drive. We crossed several beautiful bridges, all of which had great looking beaches as they met the Pacific Ocean. There were lots of “beachers” that were walking, tidepooling, sunbathing and “etc.erring”. The drive back to 101 was especially beautiful as we went through the Navarro Redwoods State Park. The redwoods were so dense in a couple of spots that there was no sunlight on the road. There were several camping areas full of tent campers. If I ever got back into tent camping…very doubtful…this is one spot I would hit…absolutely!

When we got to Boonville, we saw an interesting barn. I had to turn around and go back to take a picture.

A Peace Barn! (click on photo to enlarge it)

We then headed back to Ukiah to update our paperwork and plan out the next few days. We have decided that, subject to change, we will stay here another day to visit WalMart and do laundry and go to Garberville on Sunday. Our tentative plan is to spend two days in Garberville and then head east to Red Bluff and Redding to visit Don (my old CHP partner) and Pat Baker and probably kill a week or so reminiscing over old times. Don is already planning some fishing trips and a trip up to their cabin in Old Station, east of Redding and north of Mount Lassen.

Oops…breakfast break! WOW! Claudia just fixed some hot flour tortilla breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese, green peppers, onion, bacon, salsa and sour cream with a really sweet cantaloupe on the side. Boy are they good! Gizmo is going crazy with the aroma. Me too! Giz just got a bite of cantaloupe. He loved it and wanted more. Go figure.

We got the laundry done and got a few things at WalMart. Claudia had some running around to do so I stayed home to get into trouble. Since we are “camping”, I decided to make a pineapple upside-down cake. So here I sit as the cake bakes, typing on my computer and drinking a cool beverage I got from the refrigerator while two air conditioning units keep the “camper” cool and the television keeps me occupied with my favorite hunting shows courtesy of the satellite TV antenna. After the cake was done, I did the dishes to impress Claudia when she returned. I had to do them by hand as we don’t have a dishwasher here in the rig. Maybe someday. Ah, camping is difficult, but one must make do with what one has!

Claudia came back all pumped up. She found a foot and nail place…whatever you gals call them…and got a manicure and pedicure with a hot rock massage and some other foo-foo stuff and then got a complimentary five-minute neck and back massage that was “wonderful”. She was happy so I was happy! She also went to Lucky’s for some food. Outside was a charcoal firepit and a guy barbecuing tri-tips. One called her name so she brought it home too. We just finished barbecue tri-tip sandwiches covered with Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. As I said, camping is difficult, but one must make do with what one has! I think it’s time for a nap!