Oly Trip Day Two-A real cheesy time!

OK, it seems that where we spent the night after Day Two had funky wifi, so I couldn't add any thing. Sorry, I know that you were all waiting with baited breath tohear of our exploits. Here's Day Two, and if I'm lucky, we'll havc Pix!

So, we were up at the usual O'Dark-Thirty to get out of Santa Cruz, had it all packed and out the door of the lovely Capri Motel as the sun came up. Well, that's not quite true. It was getting lighter, but there was no sun. We were fated in fact to not see the sun until we turned inland late in the day.

We used the GPS to find a gas station and lo and behold, it led us to the better part of town. If all we'd seen of Santa Cruz was the area around the boardwalk, frankly, we wouldn't ahve thought much of the place. In the cool crepuscular light of dawn, we discovered the neat part of town. GREAT Victorian houses by the block load. Santa Cruz has a great collection of these great old places, and there is no clue that they exist in the beach area. Seriously, we were a bit worried about the place based on what we'd seen the previous evening. Pretty sketchy to say the least.

We headed out Mission and well, look at that, tiny little Misson Santa Cruz. Not one of the better known of what was California's first chain operation, but a neat little place none the less. There's an interesting looking down town that also looks worth exploring on a return visit.

Because Santa Cruz in on the upper end of Monterey Bay, and becasuse a river runs though the middle of town, the layout is, well, strange. THe Garmin showed it's worth navigating us around town. Strange cities is a major reason GPS can be a useful tool. The down side is that we wanted to head to Marin up Hwy 1 and "Sean" (I got 007's vouce from pigtones.com) wanted to send us via San Jose. No, I didn't want know the way to San Jose, not with an LA Kings Stanley Cup Champion flag flapping away from the luggage rack! Maybe on the way back. I don't want them laying in wait for the return trip. heeheehee

OK, so, we did figure out how to go toward Half Moon Bay and off into the drizzle we went. It was what the Irish would call a "Soft Day." At least the TR felt at home. This part of Hwy 1 was unknown to us, and I suspect that this is true of most SoCals. It's a really neat drive! Tight twisties and long sweepers, all right on the cliff edge. When you could see through the fog and mist, the scenery was great!

After a bit of this, we rolled into Half Moon Bay and were ready for breakfast. Taking a chance, we hit a place called "Joe's". Yeah, as in "Eat at..." No, not the Crab Shack Joe's, a fairly nice place that does Italian most of the time, but regular breakfast in the AM. Turned out to be a good choice. A few Old Local Guys were already there and the waitress called us all "Hon". Always a good sign. Fresh local strawberries on the waffles made it pretty much perfect.  The waitress even commented that this was the best place around. "The other places are too greasy," she said.

From there, it was up north on 1 to Frisco, through The City in rush hour with no drama (note to LA and too many other cities in SoCal: the lights were actually synchronized!) and across the Golden Gate. Off 101, we found Lucas Valley Road. Yes, THAT Lucas. Well, actually there could be TWO "That" Lucas guys, couldn't there? This was not the Prince of Darkness, it was the Prince of Flannel Shirts. George. This is a REALLY great road. Nice twisties and near Skywalker Ranch, is the famous redwood forest. Zooming through, I kept hoping I wouldn't hit an Ewok. The TR ran like one of those jet thingies from Return of the Jedi! Pretty cool I must say.

Up from there is the Marin French Cheese Company. They make Rouge et Noir camenbert. OOOHHHH GOOD! Steve Bedillion, NoCal vet of the Iron Bottom met us there to show us other neat places. The cheese was fantastic and they have a shop in the back that is a proper garage. No fancy GarageMahal, a proper garage where work gets done. The bad part was eight wheels for $20. We were loaded up at our first stop.

Next stop was the Nicasio Valley Organic Cheese Company for a taste of a variety of great stuff. We picked the San Geronimo, probably their most aged and strongest stuff. The others were good, but for us, too mild. That's not to say they were bad, they we very, very good, creamy, and tasty. The folks there were friendly and helpful. Ya gotta stop here too, it's maybe five miles from the other one.

From there, it was Pt. Reyes for Cow Girl Cheese, but sadly, they were closed. The Other Steve told us it was one of the best in the area. Gotta try and find it. From there, after getting gouged for gas in the midst of what seemed like a Game Preserve for Prius', we headed out. For a variety of reasons, we got seperated from Other Steve. We stuck with CA 1 the rest of the way, heading towards Ft. Bragg. This area is often refered to as the Lost Coast.

Why the Lost Coast? Two ideas. One, lost ships. This is a very rocky portion and clearly dangerous. The other is that nobody seems to go there. Other than Mendocino and Ft. Bragg, there just ain't much there. It's so remote, that this is about where the Russians stopped their settlements of California. RUSSIANS you ask? Yep. Not many know that the Russians (no, not the Soviets, much earlier), established several settlements along "our" part of the Pacific ocean. The best preserved part is Ft. Ross. Actually a recreation, it has the whole story of the Russinas in California. Pretty interesting stuff.

Above Ft. Bragg CA 1 twists over the Coast Range and ends at 101 in the middle of the Redwoods. In this area are such tourist musts as the Drive Thru Tree, Confusion Hill, and the Legend of Big Foot. If you can possibly make the time, stop at these places! Sadly, it was getting pretty late. We'd hoped to make at least Eureka, but we were pretty knackered.

Thankfully, we saw signs for Garberville, and there are a selection of motels there. The first one, a fairly swanky new looking Best Western was full. Good. Good, because we found the wonderfully funky Sherwood Forest Motel.

This was a very nice little place, obviously dating from the 40s or 50s at least, back to the time when the Redwood Highway went right though town. The other good thing was a good Italian place that was still open. Good burgers, good beer.

The next day was now going to be a REALLY long drive. We had to get to Olympia that day. Some 600 miles. ugh. I'll tell you about that in the next post.