GPS takes us to the men's colony

August 25, 2013

Another travel day, drove down the 101 to San Luis Obispo. We had reservations at the SLO Army Base FamCamp. It was a beautiful day, although a little on the warm side, but things were going well until we were within about 3 miles of the base.

We were of course following the instructions of our GPS, which I think needs to be taken in for a complete overhaul!!  We are driving down the road, I have the written instructions in my hand that say we should take a left in a couple of miles. The GPS pops up with “turn right in 450’” so Phil turns right. I look to my left and there is a sign that says ‘California Men’s Penal Colony’, meanwhile the GPS has said that we need to take a left turn and Phil does so. Now we are at the end of this road and there is a barricade across the road and we are frantically looking for some way to turn this 56’ of truck and trailer around and get the heck out of there. We found a lot big enough to turn it around…at last…and we are just about out of there and up pops the security guard!! He wants to know what we are doing and why we are there, so we explain the whole GPS thing and he says it happens all the time and tells us how to get to the base. So embarrassing!!

An afternoon with family

August 24, 2013

We went over to Ken and Corie’s this afternoon so Phil could help Ken sign up for Ancestry and teach him how to use it. Phil also took all of his books and pictures so Ken could see them. They sat on the couch all day going over this stuff.

Corie was having a group of her “horse friends” over, so I helped her get ready for that, then crashed her party and sat outside with them while they talked about horses and riding. It was so much fun for this horse wanna be person!!

A Trip to the Coast and Dinner with Family

August 23, 2013

Today we took a road trip over the coastal range to the ocean at Half Moon Bay. The road over the mountains is a beautiful drive, for the most part, two lanes, through small towns with small farming businesses and a little “Hippyism” thrown in. Right now the pumpkins are coming on and some of them are really huge! This is reported to be the pumpkin growing capital of the world!

By the time we got the coast at Half Moon Bay the temperature was down in the 60’s, the coolest temperatures we have had in weeks!! We drove up to the point of the bay, right next to the campground we stayed at back in the fall of 2005 with Phil’s twin Joyce and her husband. That trip was Joyce’s last; she died in Jan of 2006. Today, Phil put some of Joyce’s and Barbara’s (our daughter) ashes in the bay,

as he has done at many of the places we have been in the last 7-8 years. From the Rocks we drove down to Pescadaro where there is a little market/deli/bakery that we found when we were there with Joyce. Phil loves their seafood soup sauce and their bakery items are to die for!! So, we did a little shopping and a little indulging, then started the return trip home.

Rather than retrace our steps, Phil decided to take the road east out of town (which wasn’t on the map) and just see how far we could get. This was a very narrow windy, twisty road that jackknifed back on itself with some of the sharpest turns I have ever seen…over and over again. At one point we had three pink lines on the GPS.

It was a beautiful drive though and there were some really spectacular homes up there! This narrow little road eventually joined Highway 84 that took us through “Horse Country” with even more spectacular homes with acreage and horses to match!!!

Tonight we got to meet the Thompson half of Phil’s family, the reason for our stop here. Ken and his wife Corie are wonderful people who made us feel at home, welcoming us as family right away. Ken has had some really tough health problems with cancer, bone marrow transplants and bone reconstruction in his foot, but he is a fighter and so positive! He is also a Calculus teacher and has been really busy getting ready for the upcoming school year. Corie is “horse people”, she gives riding lessons in a special program for disabled kids and the Wounded Warrior program. She is the proud owner of a Clydesdale named ‘Bo’, I got to see a picture, but didn’t have time to meet him in person, so maybe next time.

Ken and Corie took us to dinner, we had a lovely evening and sat and talked for about 3 hours.

John Muir National Historic Site

August 22, 2013

Today we drove back across the Dumbarton Bridge and retraced our tracks through Oakland (frightening even without the trailer!) and beyond to visit the John Muir National Historic Site.  On the hill above the visitor’s center is his house,

overlooking the waterways of the San Francisco area. John Muir was the “Father” of some of the National Parks in California such as Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks. Muir Woods on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge was named for John Muir.

On the return trip, we stopped at Coast Guard Island so we could get a base sticker for the truck and went to the exchange where Phil picked up a few trinkets. Afterwards we went over to the Island of Alameda for dinner at Ole’s Waffle House, which was established in 1927 and still has some of the same booths and counter seating areas. We had the waffles and they were really good!!

Galt to Redwood City

August 21, 2013

Today we traveled, heading west to Redwood City, which is just south of San Francisco. This meant we had to pull the trailer through the wilds of the Oakland interstate system,

no small feat!!

We are in the area to visit with Phil’s cousin Ken Thompson, who Phil hasn’t seen in 27 years!!  Ken is a Calculus teacher, so while he is preparing for the start of the school year, we are on our own for a couple of days.

We are camped tonight in a Mobile Home park that has been added onto to include a really nice section for RV’s. The park overlooks the San Francisco National Wildlife Refuge which is mostly marsh lands and salt flats, so it is a kind of quiet refuge, even though the interstate system is just a stone’s throw away.