Monday After The Fourth

After breakfast we managed to get the bikes and trailer out of the garage and pointed down the hill. The ride down Snake Road was much easier than the route the GPS picked when we climbed the hill. We said goodbye to Oakland and followed several highways north toward US-101. Fortunately it was a holiday, so traffic was light. We went through the Invoice Lane on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It will be interesting to see if they can read our license plates and send us an invoice for the toll.

US-101 starts out as a 6-lane freeway and narrows to two lanes farther north. Then it alternates between two and four lanes. The whole length of it, however, is bumpy. The bike bounces up and down and left and right, then the trailer bounces, all of which keeps me alert as I try to keep the rig on a steady line. Also, all vehicles towing trailers have a 55 mph speed limit.

We stopped for groceries and a bus stop lunch at a Safeway in Ukiah, CA.

There were just five campsites available at Richardson Grove State Park when we arrived. Site #19 in Huckleberry Campground was just right for us. (Who remembers Huckleberry Hound?) This quiet campground is in a redwood forest. The trees probably aren’t old growth, but they are impressively large.

The sites were well-separated. Because water in this area is in short supply, there was a charge for the showers. Tokens were two for a dollar and a token was good for 2-1/2 minutes of water. The faucet worked fine for me, but Beth said hers didn’t work properly and she couldn’t get any hot water. The facilities were dated and a little grungy. They definitely needed some attention.

There is a bear box for our food and everything just fits. We didn’t encounter any bears, but a skunk made its presence known to the campground about 1:30 in the morning.

Up next: another minor repair.