Northern California

Our first stop was the Amphora winery, a recommendation of my cousin Andy.  Just north of Napa, and we were welcomed by Stacy and Jim, meeting owner Rick later.  Excellent taste treats!

 

Rick, the owner

Then up the 101 as far as Willits.  A beautiful rainbow on the way...

 Then over toward the coast on Highway 20, and an overnight stay again in a pullout.  Lots of rain brought out the forest smells.

A short jaunt to Mendocino, an artistic little community on the coast.  A beautiful walk around town and down to the headlands.

 Our new fascination...this gallery is in Fort Bragg.

 Then up the coast to Eureka.  Had a couple rounds in Dave's Bar, a really warm and friendly little neighborhood watering hole.  Bartender Steve and new friend Gary.

I also talked with a friendly young guy that took the stool next to me...  turns out his parents are about my age...  I asked his name, and with a little grin he replied, "Pueo."  It means owl in Hawaiian...  his mom saw an owl when she was carrying him in utero...  last name?  Dube... pronounced as doobie.    Really.  Ah, the children of hippies.  We had a great time there.






But then... trying to spend a night in Eureka before heading on up the coast.  Went to the Walmart parking lot, as we have done many times before.  First of all, we were rousted out by a security guard who said that we couldn't stay there because this Walmart is a part of the mall, and we're not allowed to stay in their lot.  Hmmmm, ok.  He told us to go around the back toward McDonald's by a bunch of semis.  Ok.  So we did.  Then around midnight, there was a huge machine running by our camper!  I looked out and it was this big zambonie type sweeper, making huge figure eights.  He ran by our camper at least 5 times.  I stepped out and asked him what was going on...  He said it was his job, he was sweeping up excess gravel.  Hmmmm, why do the same area over and over, when the parking lot was huge???  So he went to another part of the lot...   Then around 1:00 in the morning we were rousted out by a policeman saying that we were not allowed to park there, and that he was surprised that our bikes had not been stolen by now.   Hmmmm........

Well, all three of them were nice, but the message was pretty clear to me.  After staying overnight in many Walmart lots, several roadside rest areas or pullouts, and even just parked on a city street in a couple of towns, with no one bothering us, here in Eureka we got the message three times in the space of a few hours.  "Down the road, Jack!"  Got it.  At 1:30 AM we went down the road and relocated by Toni's Cafe in Arcata.