Mendo and Fort Bragg

Mendocino was lovely. The town is so picturesque and serene. The locals are very laid back and friendly. They all seem to have frizzy/curly hair. I think it may be because of a combination of carefree lifestyle, ocean air and windy weather. It’s just my opinion, which probably isn’t accurate at all. The whole town atmosphere is so relaxing. Alex and I could have probably spent more time there. We walked around the town and went into a few shops. One jewelry store we went to had some beautiful jewelry and I was tempted to buy something, but I refrained. I really don’t need to buy anything extra that I don’t need. We walked into a local Jam and Preserves shop where all the jams are made in Mendocino. The guy behind the counter was very inviting. He had every flavor of jam out for sampling. We tasted a few and they were delicious, but I wasn’t really looking to buy anything. Then I saw that they also made all kinds of different mustard's. We did need some mustard, so I thought it might be a good idea to get some. Then I found out how much it was….$10.50, for only a small jar. That is way too much, even if it is locally made. The guy behind the counter could see that I thought it cost too much. He then told us he was not from Mendocino and he came from the place where Johnny Appleseed was from and if we could guess the State he was from then we could have the mustard for free. I didn’t have a clue where Johnny Appleseed was from. I knew I probably had read about it at some point in my life, but it wasn’t coming to mind. After naming about four States he said we had one more guess and then the offer was off. Then Alex said “Massachusetts?” Yep, that was right and now we have a delicious jar of Mendocino mustard, free of charge and it’s the kind that has whole mustard seeds in it. It has a very strong flavor to it, so I think it will go a long way. If you put too much of it on your food then it over powers the rest of the food.

Of course the ocean scenery was beautiful. The sky was blue and the sun was shining bright. I think most of the northern pacific coast will look similar to Bodega and Mendocino coast. 

We were going to make our way to Eureka after leaving Mendocino with maybe a short stop in Fort Bragg, but we just decided to stay in Fort Bragg for the night. I love that Alex and I can be very flexible with our travel schedule. It really takes the stress out of time constraints when traveling. 

Fort Bragg is totally different than Mendocino. They are about 10 miles apart from each other and they have two totally different vibes. One of my travel books said that Fort Bragg is more of a “blue collar” coastal town and less touristy than Mendocino. It isn’t kept up as much when it comes to historical buildings. In Mendocino it seems like every building has just been freshly painted and in Fort Bragg every building seems to need a fresh coat of paint. For my Sacramento peeps, Mendocino is like the Fab Forties/East Sacramento and Fort Bragg is the Oak Park(minus the gangs and high violence) of the Northern Coast. I did get a few good pictures of downtown Fort Bragg that looked nice. 

We visited a Four Square church in Fort Bragg Sunday morning. We saw that they were going to have a potluck after the service so we had to go when we found that out. Free food is a definite must! It was a rather small church, maybe 50 to 60 people total. It looks like they are heavily involved in the community and they meet up with other local churches of different denominations for various activities. I thought that was really neat. I didn’t particularly agree with the pastor’s sermon, but the worship was awesome and the people there have a heart for the Lord and helping those in need. They didn’t announce the potluck after the service and I thought maybe they weren’t having it. People started leaving and Alex and I stood around for a while and then the Pastor invited us to the potluck. Score!  Most of the people in the dining hall were not in the church service and they looked homeless. We found out that the church potluck every week was for the homeless.  I thought that was awesome and again I thought of my sister, Elizabeth, and how much she would love to be a part of something like this.  I was really touched how this little church had such a big heart for the hurt and broken people of their community. It was a beautiful experience and the food was pretty good.

The Bus has been treating us pretty good so far since the oil incident. We have driven through some pretty scary and curvy roads. Alex is a good driver and he is extra cautious when taking tight corners.

After Fort Bragg we stopped by the Drive-thru tree park and stayed at an RV park in the Humboldt Redwood Forest. We drove through the Avenue of Giants and it was spectacular! 

After one week of traveling it hit me that this is my life right now. I mean, it seems so crazy to be living like this, traveling from place to place and living in a VW Bus. Before leaving on this adventure, I thought the idea of traveling all over was so adventurous and exhilarating. Don't get me wrong, I love what Alex and I are doing, but when I think about not having a home to go to that is stuck to the ground, it makes this whole trip seem so much more of a reality and an experience in life that is going to change Alex and I. It's been fun so far and I miss everyone in Sacramento.

Bodega Bay

Alex and I were in Bodega Bay yesterday and part of today. We are in Mendocino at the moment at a Bed and Breakfast. We won’t normally be staying at nice places like this, but I’ve lost 30lbs and it is my reward. 

Bodega Bay was beautiful. The weather was awesome and the scenery was amazing. We got to Bodega Bay at around 3:45pm on November 11^th and we stayed at a campground called Westside. It was a pretty tightly packed campground. Basically, just enough room to park our car and it had a small grassy area with a fire pit and picnic table. We took the last spot at the place; definitely was a blessing from the Lord. Since it gets dark so freaking early, it is hard to do much outdoor activities if we get to a place after 3pm because once we get settled in, the sun is already starting to go down, which is lame. We took a little walk when we got to the bay, but we didn’t start our walk until about 5:45pm and before we knew it, the sun had already gone down.  

This morning we got up early and were able to bike and hike to the beach. It was amazing! The winds were maybe 5mph and the sky was blue with just a dusting of clouds. After our hike we went to a little food stop and got the best clam chowder in all of Bodega Bay. I’m not kidding when I say it was the best. I normally don’t dig too much on clam chowder, but this was delectable and savory. My little sister, Elizabeth, would truly appreciate the flavors as much as I did. The chowder had huge chunks of clam and didn’t taste fishy at all. The fishiness of most clam chowders is what usually deters me from eating it. Once we were done filling our bellies we hopped into our bus and drove up hwy 1 to Mendocino.

Alex was driving the entire time and he was pretty nervous about the bus being able to make it because the road is so crazy, but we made it. We stopped at Pointe Arena Lighthouse for a bit and learned some history. It is the tallest light house in California and it was built in 1870, but after the 1906 earthquake it was rebuilt to what is standing today.  It was pretty neat. Seeing the lighthouse made me want to visit so many more around the USA.

Tomorrow we are going to Fort Bragg and we are going to visit their Indoor Water Park. I’m so excited. They supposedly keep the water temp at 85 degrees all year round. I guess we will just have to find out for ourselves.

Leaving Winters, and going to Napa and Petaluma

Okay. So, just when I finished writing my last blog entry Alex and I packed up our computers and left the coffee shop in Winters and as soon as we got into our bus, a fire dept truck rolled up behind us and asked us about the oil spill. Uh, oh...why didn't we leave the scene when Alex finished fixing the problem? Well, to make a long story short, The fire dept had to write all our info down, call the public safety team, close down two streets and clean up our hazardous oil spill. As everything was going on I said to Alex, "I think we over stayed our welcome in Winters." Winters is not a very large town, so to close down two streets is a pretty big deal. After everything was cleaned up we left town and proceeded to go to Lake Berryessa. We were planning on staying at a camp ground there, but as soon as we rolled up to the camp ground we knew there was no way we were going to stay. The gate was open to the camp, but there was no one in site. The road entrance to the camp sites was blocked by a huge truck, and the lake was not a pretty site. Before leaving Sacramento my sister-in-law told me that she and my brother had gone to Lake Berryessa the month before and it was not the greatest experience. So, she advised us not to go, but we took her advice lightly and decided to check it out for ourselves. I guess we should have listened.
We then decided to go to Napa, which turned out to be an excellent choice. We stayed at a lovely wilderness park on the outskirts of town. The park had free wifi, electrical hook-ups, hot showers and beautiful hiking trails; and we got a discount for having AAA. I was mainly excited about the hot showers, since I hadn't showered in two days. Strangely the shower water had a funky smell, describing it sounds a little gross, but it had a hint poo smell. I used lots of bodywash because I wasn't about to let myself smell worse than when I went into the shower. We went on a lovely hike and worked up a sweat. The camp was pretty quiet and the next day we left and went to Petaluma.
Petaluma is a very pretty town. We parked our van on the edge of town and rode our bikes to downtown Petaluma. We walked around and took some pics in a photo booth. Petaluma is filled with antique shops. Seriously, it seems like every other store is an antique store or coffee shop. I love antiques, but this was like overload. We are still in Petaluma as I'm writing this entry and it has been pretty relaxing and uneventful. We are going to take showers at the 24hr fitness here in town. We purposely kept our gym membership for that exact reason. Anyways, our next destination is Bodega Bay and then on to Mendocino. I'll post the pics we took in Napa and Petaluma on Facebook.

The joys of a VW bus

It wasn't too bad of a night sleeping in the bus last night. It wasn't as comfortable as our queen size bed that we used to have, but it did the trick. We were parked in front of a restaurant that had timed parking, so we had to move our bus by 845am if we didn't want a parking ticket. Across the street and down a little ways was a park that had a 48hr limit on parking. Alex started up the engine and drove about 100ft and then we hear this really weird noise coming from the engine. If you have ever seen the movie "Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang" then that is what it sounded like, minus the bang bang. So, you know that is not normal. Alex looks into the diver's side window and says "Oh no. This is not good. Oil is leaking everywhere." He turns off the engine and I just start praying. It's only the second day of our trip and we are having car problems? Are you serious? We had such a good day yesterday and now the first start of our day is not starting off too well. Alex figures out that the oil filter is leaking and we find the closest auto part store to buy some stuff to fix it. It wasn't too far of a walk, so that was good.
We get what we need to get and Alex begins fixing what he thinks needs fixing. I'm sitting at a park bench with my Experiencing God Day by Day book in my lap and I pray that God gives Alex the wisdom and guidance to fix what needs to be fixed. I open up the devotional book to November 9th. The title of the devotional was "New Strength"and the Bible verse was Isaiah 40:31 "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Seriously, that is exactly what I needed to read. God provides everything for me and I need to rely on him to give me strength. This car problem is not too big for the Lord to fix. After reading that verse and the rest of the devotional I felt a sense of peace. I knew no matter what happens the Lord will provide and take care of us.

Alex thinks he fixed the car problem for now. We lost a lot of oil and basically gave our van an entire new oil change. You can see in this photo some of the oil we lost.

Winters California

 Alex and I are keeping separate blogs and we aren’t going to read each other’s blog until we are done with our across country road trip. Crazy, right? I know. We may write about the exact same stuff, but we both will have different perspectives. So that could be quite interesting. If you are following both our posts then I’ll apologize right now if we sound redundant. 

Wow, where do I start…Alex and I left Sacramento on Monday November 8, 2010 for our across country road trip and we arrived in the town of Winters, CA. It’s about a 45min drive from Sacramento and it is a nice little quaint town. One person we met said this town is a little like Mayberry from the show Andy Griffith. Right away I felt a sense of community in Winters. We meandered around the town and saw a sign for a town “Mixer” and later we found out it was being hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and catered by Buckhorn Grill. The cost was five dollars for all you can eat appetizers and wine. Alex and I definitely had to check it out and there was nothing else to do that sounded interesting. I guess we may run into a lot of nothingness to do in small towns after the sun starts going down. Anyways, we went and surprisingly we met quite a few very friendly people, including the owner of Buckhorn Grill! We didn’t know at the time he was the owner of Buckhorn Grill, but as we were chatting with him we asked if he knew of any free wifi spots in the town and he said, “Well I’m the owner of Buckhorn so I can just give you the password to our wifi.” And he did. That was so cool!

We also met a couple who own a bar in town. They gave us a business card and the offer of two free beers. I don’t really like beer, it just tastes too gross, but we went and I had a few sips, I couldn’t drink very much of it because it tasted so gross, and all I could think about was the empty calories I was putting into my body. So, I had Alex finish it.

Everyone we have met so far has been so nice and welcoming. All the nervousness I felt before the trip has gone away. God has definitely blessed us on the first day of our travels and I pray that He continues to bless us. Please keep us in your prayers.