Fort Bragg to San Francisco to San Jose to Pacifica to Oakland to Redwood City to Berkley to San Francisco to Fort Bragg... 570 miles driving.
Blake and I were staying in Fort Bragg, California, waiting for the next move. A week into switching between camping spots and motels our friend, Beth, was heading out of town to see family and asked us to take her to the San Francisco airport and keep her car until we picked her back up a week later. So 2 am on a foggy night in the northern California town we packed up our tent and gear, locked up Pearl, the Honda Ruckus I had, and packed into Beth's Jeep for the four hour drive south to the big city. The road out of Mendocino County was narrow, windy, and surrounded by huge red wood trees. Just as the sun was peaking over the horizon we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. Blake and I sent Beth off and headed back into the city. It was too early to check into the hostel we had found so we parked in the Albertons parking lot, blew up the air mattress in the back of the car and tried to shut our eyes for a while. After the failed attempt of a nap we headed to the Green Tortoise Hostel in downtown San Francisco and checked in.
One of the problems we ran into in the larger cities during the summer was that the campsites, hostels, and motels were sold out because of events. The week we were in SF there was a huge music festical going on in Golden Gate Park and everything was either sold out or over-priced. Because of this we had to move around every night and scavanger for a place to stay. Once we checked out of the hostel we headed south to San Jose. I wanted to check out the Winchester Estates I heard about from a friend in Santa Fe, NM. The tour was incredible and informative but it was long and we were beat by the time we got out. From San Jose we headed to Pacifica to find the last room in town at a motel. The next day I cleaned out Beth's Jeep and we headed into Oakland. I still to this day feel like we should not have been there. Not just because I am a born and raised Broncos fan, but also because we had no idea where the "good" and "bad" neighborhoods were. I'm pretty sure we picked a "bad" motel to stay in for the night and that's because it was the cheapest we could find. We were in this hideous room with bright pink walls (yes, all four of them) and no air-conditioning. It was too hot to go outside so we just got food and watched Harry Potter in our hotel room.
We were able to go back to the Wharf on the last day and celebrate Blake's 24th birthday (even though he was sick, again.) We had a picnic in Ghiradelli Park, fed the birds, and people watched. I stood in the long line at Ghiradelli's for a well-worth-it chocolate covered strawberry and got my mom some chocolates and sent them her way for her birthday.We were waiting for Beth's plane to land and head back to Fort Bragg. It ended up being another long crazy night because she thought she was landing in Sacramento so we headed over the Bay Bridge again towards Sacramento but then her flight was changed and she ended up coming into the San Francisco airport so we headed back over the bridge, to the airport, picked her up at 1am and then headed straight up north for the four hour drive back to FB.
Dream Big, Ride Far!
