On the Road again

So after 10 days in San Francisco, two days ago I started a road trip with a couple of girls that I connected with through couchsurfing.

The rest of my time in San Francisco was fantastic. I love this city. The weather has been perfect, and I've met some great people and seen some cool things and places.

Staying at Brian's house was awesome. It was totally chilled, and although it was 40 minutes from San Fran proper, it was a nice train ride and only $4 each way, so I was able to go into the city to enjoy it from his house. I met Brian when I was in Europe and we really clicked, and so it was great to know that 3 years on, we got on just as well (probably better because I got to know him in so much more depth).

Meeting up with Nina from Switzerland on Sunday, we made our way to the airport to pick up our rental car. After a good bit of selling from the woman who worked there, we were convinced to upgrade to a Hybrid car which would save us money on petrol on the long run.

We found our little blue Nissan Altima, and the first thing that we noticed was that there was no key! Working out how to open the door, we pressed the very aptly named Start button. Pressing it twice and hearing nothing, we were confused. How do we turn the car on? Putting it into gear, the car moved, and so silently (as this car makes no sound!) we moved out of the carpark and out of San Francisco.

The obligatory Golden Gate photo

Stopping at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge on the way out of town, we got to our location for the night, a little town called Point Reyes. As we hadn't picked up the car until 6.30pm it was 9pm by the time we arrived. We chilled out for a while in the lovely hostel there, and were ready to head out the next morning. We were told that we couldn't leave Point Reyes without going to the Bovine Bakery or getting a coffee and some fruit at Toby's. And so we did, and sat in the little tables outside, watching the world go by, and feeling like we were part of this tiny little community. In fact we enjoyed hanging out there so much, one and a half hours had passed before we realised, and we had to get on the road.

Now, the observant among you may realise that I mentioned two girls and have only mentioned one, Nina. The second girl, Uli, from Germany, we were't picking up until Eureka.

So onto Mendocino, a gorgeous little town with some beautiful views (although on the coast they all have beautiful views). Californian towns all seem to have a very big organic feel, and this one had its organic store in a reformed church! Very cool. We stopped there for a couple of hours, and then when we got on the road again, we realised that there was no way to make it to Eureka tonight.

My first dose of driving on the right side was a little scary for Nina at first, who had to keep yelling 'KEEP LEFT' as I kept veering to the very right of the road, but I seemed to get into the swing of things after a short time and started really enjoying driving on the coastal roads. Nina is a great driver, so she will drive into all the cities, and we'll share the rest.

Stopping at the tiny town of Westport, California, population 299, we were in for a treat. With only a pub, a general store and a small motel, we weren't expecting much, but it was getting late, and the room was relatively inexpensive. Greeted by 84 year old Otto, who ran the place by himself, we were convinced. Just the most gorgeous old man, and he convinced us more with cups of tea, home made cookies and stories about his late wife and his life (his wife was married seven times before him and apparently it was lucky number 8 as their marriage lasted 44 years before she passed away). We knew we had found an absolute character in Otto, and just meeting him brought a smile to my face. We wandered down to the completely empty beach to watch the sunset which was pretty cool.

Sunset in Westpot


The following morning after he made us coffee, and home made jelly with toast, we took a few photos, and after wanting to take Otto and the Westport Inn with us, we got back on the road.

With Otto and Nina at the Westport Inn

The first thing we did was a ridiculous tourist stop, which made me laugh so much, that we just had. In America, they have drive through everythings and so I as not surprised when, for a mere $5 per car, you could drive through a Redwood tree and take photos. I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, but it was cool in a super tacky way.

The >Drive thru tree.

Shortly following that I spied 'Hobbiton USA' and I yelled 'STOP' to which Nina did. Not having seen Lord of the Rings, she couldn't quite understand why the fascination, but I had to take photos. The attraction was closed, but this is what I found about it on Wikipedia:

Officially endorsed by the San Francisco Hobbit Club, Hobbiton, USA, is a steep hillside nature walk that winds past concrete recreations of scenes from Tolkien`s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Prerecorded explanations of these scenes are narrated by an unidentified Hobbit fan, who sounds like he`s spent the majority of his life playing Dungeons and Dragons and attending Science Fiction Conventions.

Hobbiton is in some disrepair, though the stolen Bilbo has been replaced, and we suggest you do the whole trail while you can."

It was shut, but I did get a photo of Gandalf on the hill. Nina wasn't interested anyway, but it would have been pretty funny to walk through.

The Pacific West Coastline is beautiful. After driving through the Avenue of the Giants (Redwoods trees, this time ones that you can't drive through) we finally made it to Eureka and met up with Uli, a German girl.

So, now we are three. It^s pouring with rain, and we are in a little town (although not so little as Westport) called Gold Beach. Tomorrow our adventure continues...