Day 17.......a touch of Mexican.

After a day off yesterday we were back add it early on Tuesday. Actually "early" is relative in that at the beginning of the trip we were riding by 730 am and now we are lucky to get out by 9 am.  Notice anything different?  Yes!  Greg is back on his own bike!  It's going to be a great day. 

To start the day, we were less than 100 miles from San Francisco but for some idiotic reason we decided we wanted more "scenery" and took a right turn at Santa Rosa and headed for HWY 1 so we can ride along the coast. After 900 miles we are "feeling it" with mother nature and want to see beautiful landscapes. Go figure. 

In general, it was a nice ride getting in 70 miles and over 3500 feet of climb.  One of the "lights" (not sure if it was a high or low) was we were stopped by a police officer while riding on HWY 101. He turned on his loud speaker and actually gave us the "PULL OVER AND STOP" Greg was really nervous because he thought it was the Eureka Police still looking for the stolen bike. As it turned out, HWY 101 had turned into a freeway and no mon motorized vehicles were allowed past Mendocino County.  

He actually did us a favor because it forced us to look at other routes and we found an awesome route that went through the Dry Creek Valley vineyards. I was amazed at the number wineries (there were 35!). It broke my heart having to ride past ALL of that wine without tasting even ONE!

This sign lists all the wineries on the area (so much wine, so little time!)

While Greg and I were riding through beautiful wine country, Cheryl and Krissie were creating a different kind of memory. Cheryl has been doing a tremendous job driving the RV on this trip but is learning everyday. Today's lesson?  Ensure plenty of turning radius when entering a parking lot. Apparently she got stuck half way in a parking lot and caused a little bit of a traffic "disturbance." Cheryl hasn't seen this much attention since she made the front page of the retirement home newsletter in Fossil Oregon.  But she has learned not to panic and worry about being called out on the Santa Rosa Sky View traffic report and eventually got back on the main road and out of trouble. Well done!

We finally reached historic HWY 1 and decided to stay at Bodega Bay for the night. We have all the fix-ins for an excellent meal on the RV but we have been craving seafood all trip and we saw what we thought was a seafood restaurant within walking distance of the RV park. Silly us for thinking seafood when the sign read "Seafood Restaurant." as we got closer we saw some fine print that read "with a touch of mexican." Turned out it was a "Mexican Restaurant" with "with a touch of seafood."  Nevertheless, we had a very good meal.  The highlight was getting the picture right on the first take. Krissie's butt looks fine, Greg isn't talking and Cheryl is in proper position. Great job team!

We finished the night off with some cards and a little dancing (don't even ask). I'm not sure what the rest of the RV park thought but what the hell. We only have a couple days left on the trip and we're going to enjoy every minute. 

So the latest plan is to only go for 50 tomorrow and actually cross the bridge on Thursday morning (subject to change of course). We are so close we can smell it (then again, that might be the touch of Mexican).