Monday, July 20, 2009

Katharine Lee Bates, wrote a poem in the 1800's that has since been put to music. We learned this going up Pike's Peak. She had gone up the mountain and wrote this poem: " Oh, beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!"
We all know the words and somehow this trip really brings that home.

We started out heading North towards the Pacific Ocean. On the way we stopped at Beringer's winery. It is what you would think of as an "old family winery". The typical big home with the vineyards all around. What a picture the site is. We did not take the tour. Instead we just went into the tasting room. Had a few tastes, and then we purchased some wine.

Leaving the winery, we wanted to get over to the coast and take the "1" north towards Ft. Bragg.



We drove thru a section of California redwoods, the small ones. The Giant Redwoods are a lot farther North than we were going today,The weather in Yountville when we left was mid 70's, when we got on the coast it was cold and foggy, we saw the temperature drop to the mid 40's and 50's. The coast highway is steep, rugged and no place to drive a motorhome. Glad this was a day trip in the car. Lunchtime found us at the Albion river gorge, we found a neat little restaurant at the bottom of the gorge. The restaurant had history of the area done up in scrapbooks for customers to look at while waiting for their lunch. The area at one time was a logging area. The lumber was being sent down to San Francisco to build the "Painted Ladies"? Well, that's just a guess but it was during that time frame that the mills where sending lumber to San Francisco.

Driving up the coast highway we found beautiful rugged areas and not many beaches. But we did find one beach in which Tom and Charley got out for a walk. Charley was on the black, stony Pacific beach scared of the waves and had a ball avoiding getting wet.

We stopped in the little village of Mendocino. It is well known for being an artist haven. Nancy shopped and had a great time. The photos for this village don't do it justice. Tom and Charley walked the boardwalk.

When we attempted to go over the mountains and head back to Yountville we found the terrain really difficult. Who says "tail of the dragon" is a great motorcycle ride? You haven't been on the roads between the coast and the middle of California? Lots of u-turns, ups and downs and you name it - we drove it. Nancy was really scared that we might go off the road in a few places. No Guardrails!!!!!

We arrived back at the campsite to have a lovely dinner and enjoy visiting with great new friends.