On The Road at Last

Figuring Out the Tent Trailer

Friday, 5/11/12: we are on the road at last, beginning our cross-country adventure in our cute, canvas-topped Geo Tracker and towing our candy-apple red, tiny tent trailer! A stop in Davis to say good by to daughter, Katherine, and fiancee, Kemble, and we head out. It's a gorgeous, sunny day and we're quickly into a rural landscape of wheat fields and nut orchards, then onto a road cutting through Putah Creek Canyon's rising, rugged rock walls and along a winding road to Lake Berryessa and the Capell Valley, then climbing through the lush green hills and soon into vineyards as we come down to Lake Hennessey and across the upper Napa Valley into Rutherford and over the Napa River through St. Helena and Calistoga. Not stopping to wine taste or take a mud bath, we have our own "spa" on the road dipping into the snack sack our friend Julie timely trip-gifted to us, drinking Pellegrino and eating almonds, apples and my buddy Marcella's marvelous homemade venison jerky.

Our little Geo Tracker chugs up into the Coastal Range, and Highway 128 soon becomes a winding tunnel of over-arching trees through a valley of vineyards and vache (cows), and we climb higher into the the hills to the Alexander Valley with vineyard after vineyard. As we cross the now-placid Russian River, we pass buildings marked with the height the then-rushing river rose when it flooded in 2006. Now we're on Highway 101 towards Eureka before returning to 128 and west to Boonville, where locals speak their own unique language, through the Anderson Valley, then winding and climbing again before we cross into Mendocino County to the coast redwoods: second growth trees – tall and straight, marching like soldiers up and down the hillsides. They close in on both sides of our two-lane route: lofty, stately trees, the sunlight filtering through them onto the moist forest ferns below and the spring green ground cover with clover-shaped leaves.

As we emerge into the bright sun along the banks of the Navarro River, light glitters off its water as it flows into the shimmering Pacific Ocean where wind-whipped wavelets and white caps meet strange rock formations jutting from the sea. Those lovely, lonely sea vistas carry us along Highway 1 to Fort Bragg where we are greeted by signs heralding "Occupy Rally Ahead – Join Us" and a handful of Occupiers with signs "Honk if you are the 99%" - we do, and I am guiltily leaving my Occupy Stockton activities behind until Fall.

Our first camp site is at MacKerricher State Park on the coast above Fort Bragg, and we experiment with how best to raise the funky 50 year-old tent that folds out above our 4' x 7' mattress in the trailer bed and into a further 7' x 7' comfy, canvas cave. We furnish our limited-size suite with our two forest-green, folding camp chairs, our two narrow folding camp tables, and, wonder of wonders, a compact porta-potti for night time nature calls. Our petite palace is complete with the comforts of home once we hook up our two-burner propane cooktop and our laptop. But instead of cooking, Conrad drives back into Fort Bragg for provisions and returns with mouth-watering, fresh crab sandwiches. He couldn't resist a visit to get them from Mama Carine's restaurant where an elderly Mama, asleep in her chair, awoke to say she hadn't seen him in a long time, remembering Conrad from over thirty years ago when he was renovating a nearby motel.

The next morning we resume our travels along Highway 1 through sun and overcast, past odd rock formations in the surf, through tunnels of trees, and villages along the coast, then inland to Highway 101, climbing into redwood forests, blue skies and sunshine and winding along U-turns and S-turns through steep redwood covered slopes that spill away on both sides of the road with glimpses through the trees of redwood covered hills as far as we can see.

On the two-lane road enroute to Garberville, we pass through majestic old-growth redwoods in Richardson Grove, before returning to the freeway, and then detour for thirty-seven miles through "The Avenue of the Giants" with the convertible top of our Geo Tracker folded back so we can look up into the tall trees. Not the driver, I lie back and gaze up into the towering treetops, riding a magic carpet through the forest primeval hundreds of feet over our heads.  California - what a magnificently beautiful state!