Apr 7-11 - Vallejo & San Francsco CA

The weather forecast every day was for some form of rain, but our drive down US 101 was dampened only near the end - as we got into Marin County, CA, it started pouring. Combine that with the fact that we'd programmed the trip routing software to avoid toll roads and bridges, and we spent a few anxious moments trying to find our way to Vallejo, which is on the east side of San Francisco Bay, about half-way to Sacramento. Very nice RV park we found at the last minute, and well located for sightseeing.

So, Fri 4/7 we drove south at a pretty brisk clip - we wanted to make the 350+ miles before the bay area rush hour. We almost made it - fortunately, the rush was in the direction we'd just come from. Never driven the RV in a driving rain in bumper-to-bumper traffic on wash-board roads across a bridge with "gusty winds" warnings before.

Sat 4/8 was predicted to be rainy and cool, so rather than head for Six Flags and roller coasters, we elected to take the 55-min Vallejo-SFO ferry ride to Fisherman's Wharf and spend the day touristing. Great day, no rain, temps in the high 60's, even some sunshine. Good day.

Sun 4/9 was also predicted to be rainy and cool. We voted for Six Flags Marine World anyway (10 mins from the RV park), and got there just as the park was opening at 10AM. Temps were in the high 40s, it sure looked like rain, and there were about 40 cars in the lot. At least twice, we were the only people on a roller coaster. Judy did 4 coasters, Al got onto just 3. The crowds picked up somewhat after lunch, it never did really rain, and it actually warmed up and gave us some sun by late afternoon. Good day.

Mon 4/10 was a work day - we finalized our income taxes, did some laundry, made a run to Camping World for some parts to repair a vent fan in the bathroom, and bought 12+ pounds of stuff at the Jelly Belly factory. Fixed the fan, ate some candy, booked our RV parks in Paso Robles, CA and Las Vegas, and made ready to pull out in the morning. OH - and we booked some very spendy tickets to see the Cirque du Soliel show "O" in Las Vegas Easter Sunday night - the only night we could get tickets. A busy and good day.

Click here to see a slideshow of about 1/3 of our pictures from this leg of the trip.

Tue 4/11 - We hit the road and headed south - next stop, Paso Robles, CA - Hearst Castle, Morro Bay, and about as far south in California as we'll go.

Stay tuned . . .