January 3, 2013
Mendocino to Fort Bragg, California: Fiscal Cliff Averted, Grampies Ride Again!
We left the Hotel Mendocino early, but not before taking some time to advise them on using some of their inflated revenues to buy a toilet that might actually flush. It was then an easy cruise back to the calmer financial climate of Fort Bragg. Here, our $54 motel has strong wifi, space for us and the bikes, refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave, and telephone. We can also already report that not only is the toilet in our room, but it works!
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Before leaving Mendocino we dropped over to what we had thought of as our favourite bakery. Some years ago, in the van, we stopped here and found some good quality baked goods, the first almost since Victoria. So we were eager to visit the bakery again, for nostalgia's sake. We found it, but something has changed - maybe it or maybe us. They still had a few good looking items, but $3.75 for a small pain au chocolat is out of line. We are just too tired of pricing in this town, so no sale. Outside the bakery we paused to answer some Usual Questions, and found the people, at least, to be very nice. As we stood there I looked up and noticed a statue poised high over the town. It was on a masonic temple and has an official description, but I could only see that the angel was probably getting ready to pick the maiden's pockets, having grabbed her by the hair. I really needed to get out of town! (p.s. the statue is carved from a single piece of redwood and dates from 1866).
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Here, we are cooking up our plan, which is basically to rent a car ($40 per day) and by-pass the Mendocino Coast and San Francisco (stopping, though, to visit one of our oldest friends there and our favorite sourdough bakery) and then re-alighting at a car drop-off, around Santa Cruz. From there we will just carry on. We know that the Mendocino Coast has a twin to the south in the form of the Big Sur Coast. However we will pay the rip-off prices there for a few nights, and get through it.
In doing our planning, we set out the 16 map sections (stages) that remain in our tour. These 16 are what is left from 34 segments of the total tour. Then the question was, if we are going to skip at least one segment, where is the logical point to jump back in. On the one hand, we don't want to jump from the frying pan back into the frying pan. On the other hand, if we skip too much, we are throwing away all the fun. The final answer is that by restarting at Santa Cruz we are missing five segments. That's 15% of the planned pedalling. It's a bit disappointing, but not too bad.
Anyway there will also be a "free bonus" short walking look at San Francisco, before on to Monterey Bay!
Update: After giving us some false positive information earlier in the day, both Enterprise and Hertz car rental proved too small in this town to set us up with a one way rental. However U-Haul specializes in one way, so we are now hooked up with a 14 foot truck! We have it for three days (but will only need two). Yes, it crossed our (my!) mind that we could sleep in there. That got vetoed early!
Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 1,482 km (920 miles)
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