South Knox and Mrs. Bubba's Western Road Trip

Greetings from San Rafael

After getting a late start, we made it a little further up the coast to San Rafael, with a brief stop in San Francisco. We didn't do much along the way except some sightseeing.

We made the mistake of jumping off to visit Santa Cruz, hoping to find a nice place for lunch. We also wanted to see the beach. What we found was a hideous amusement park with $10 parking. We never did see the beach. Mrs. Bubba thought we were in Myrtle Beach. On top of that, the devious Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce has engineered all the signs directing you to the ~~beach~~ amusement park and back to Highway 1 such that you must pass by every fast food joint, pizza place, and taco stand, every seedy hotel, every car lot, and every tattoo parlor. It went on and on and on and I thought we'd never get to the ~~beach~~ amusement park or back on the highway. We felt like rats trapped in a maze. I finally had to get out the GPS to figure out where the hell we were.

That adventure put us into San Francisco much later than I wanted in order to catch the light exactly right on the Golden Gate Bridge. By then we were both a little tired and grumpy, partly because of all the navigational misadventures (including trying to get over to the park at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge without a map handy) and not having anything to eat all day except an oatmeal cookie Mrs. Bubba got at Pier 39. We thought about selling our car and flying back. I guess we could UPS all our junk, but what about pupster? Guess we will be driving.

Speaking of pupster, for some reason the seals on the docks at Pier 39 freaked her out. She was trembling like she'd seen a ghost or something and wanted her Mommy to pick her up and carry her. I don't know if it was their barking or the smell or what, but she didn't like it one bit.

And to top it all off, I had left my camera settings at ISO 800 from the night before and took about half my photos yesterday before I noticed it. I got a couple of keepers, but you lose a lot of detail and add a lot of noise, so some of the earlier ones aren't very good.

Anyway, my car is dusty, my shoes are dusty, and my camera sensor was dusty from changing lenses so many times in the never ending wind. I did finally manage to clean the car windshield (it was like getting a new eyeglass prescription) and my camera sensor (no more Photoshopping out dust spots). And we finally got some food and a couple of drinks, and we had a good night's sleep. So things are looking up for a better day today as we head up to the wine country with a clean windshield, a clean sensor, and a fresh start. (After we go shopping for some clean, uh, clothes because we haven't yet stayed at a place with a laundromat.)

A few photos...