San Fran is the Place To Be

Blurred world

Sleeping in without a set alarm, we both woke up late after last night’s long hours on the road.  When taking off a sleeping mask always, always, always take it off under the blankets or put your face into something to help your eyes adjust to the light.  I forgot about this and ripped off my mask and was instantly blinded by the brightest light I have ever seen. It could be described as a white light that caused instant, very intense pain.  My vision for the next 5 hours was blurred and I couldn’t see near or far.  Nothing was coming into focus and I couldn’t even see Chad’s face while he sat in the driver’s seat next to me.  For having 20/20 vision on the daily, this was terrifying. Decked out in sunglasses. I went into the gas station to clean up and had to rely on all of my other senses to make sure I used the correct bathroom.  I couldn’t believe my vision was that bad. Chad obviously had to drive and we spend the morning driving through groves of trees, hills and cattle pastures.  Chad had to describe them to me of course because I couldn’t make out any of the details except for the shapes.  Huge orange groves or other nut trees were everywhere for miles.  The day before had oil pumps dotting the landscape, with large oil tankers resting in the bay along the coast.  What a drastic change in scenery.  California was sure throwing us a few curve balls. Brunch time came around and we hopped out of the car for gas, ate a sad burger and I finished off the frozen yogurt.  Chad thought my eyes looked extremely dry and we picked up eye drops.  With multiple treatments throughout the day, my sight was restored.  Weird.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Craze

San Francisco was our destination for lunch and I had less than 10 minutes to decide where we were going to eat.  We paid for the bridge (we didn’t expect that) and drove into the impressive skyline.  There were tons of cars all going the same way and realized that the bridge was a double-decker.  There were cars leaving the city under us on another ramp.  We would have to come back and visit for sure, there was not enough time to spend in this city this time.

The reviews of a restaurant said we were going to eat the best Reuben ever, but when we got to the shop it was closed because of New Year’s Day.  We walked the strip of the section we were in looking for other food.  I loved the architecture and watching the chaos of buses, people and listening to all of the new city sounds.  There was a sign for Chinese food in front of a shop and it looked delicious!  Chad thought it was going to be lame American Chinese food; we were wrong.  This was literally the best Chinese food I have ever eaten. You the food is authentic when the only people in the restaurant are the people who come from that culture.  We hit the jack pot.  Ugh, ever since that meal I am extremely disappointed with any of the sweet and sour chicken I try.  This chicken we had in San Francisco was crunchy, had an obvious homemade orange chicken sauce and left a zing of citrus in your mouth.  Thank you Tai Chi Restaurant!  We highly recommend this place to anyone visiting the area.

Cliff Sleeping

Using the freecampsites.net website, we had found a free area to sleep that was apparently right on an ocean cliff next to Fort Bragg.  From San Francisco, the drive was about 3.5 hours and we left the city as the sun was going down.  To get to Fort Bragg, we traveled the scenic route for a little way on Highway 1 but once it was dark, we hopped onto Highway 101.  This saved us at least two hours of driving. We couldn’t see much of what we were passing so we paid more attention to our audio book.  As of now, we have finished the first Outlander book and had eagerly started the second book, Dragon Fly in Amber.  For those of you who want to know, the audio book length for Outlander is 32 hours and 43 minutes.  Chad and I have listened to every single word on that book so that means we have been driving in the car for a minimum of the book length. We didn’t have the book playing the entire time while driving into different states, but it’s still crazy to think that we sat and listened to over 32 hours of one book.  Now hooked on the story line, we began the second without a blink of an eye.  This book is 38 hours and 58 minutes long.  Our goal was to finish the book before we were home in Minnesota.

The sharp winding roads had led us through flat land which transitioned into thick, tall pine trees.  The rain had finally broken and it was pouring the majority of the way to the campsite.  While the temperature hovered around 33 and 32 degrees, Chad navigated through the slick turns, trying not to launch us off into the dark.  Our high beams were starting to catch glimpses of massive tree trunks and we realized the road was designed to move around them.  We were getting into red wood forest territory and I couldn’t wait to see the giant trees in the daylight.

We arrived at our location just before midnight and we settled into the best camping spot ever.  The rain had slowed to a cold drizzle and we could hear the angry waves crashing as we shut off the car.  It was very dark and looking out the windows we could see thousands of stars because there was no light pollution emanating from the large cities. I am not afraid of heights, but I am very afraid of falling.  I stayed in the car while Chad went investigate our new lawn and cliff in the front of our mobile car-house.  The black figure carried his flashlight only 15 yards away from the car, paused, and I saw the bobbing light returning quickly to the car.  Chad doesn’t get nervous often and he expressed that he was not going to explore this cliff in the dark because it was a sheer drop off.  I’m glad I stayed in the car. The large moon shone light onto the rocks and giant waves in front of us and we couldn’t wait to see the surrounding area in the sunlight.  By this time, it has been more than 2 weeks since we left home and we had only stayed in a few places with a roof over our heads. *Please take note of how long Chad's beard is getting* There has never been a large disagreement, negative energy or situations where it was impossible to be around each other.  I’m thankful I picked a good road trip buddy because otherwise this would have been unbearable.  The only downside I can think of would be me taking on some of Chad’s mannerisms, which I catch myself doing and scold myself.  There will be no conforming on any trip!