Day 9 - San Francisco here we come!

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Day 9 - Yosemite Lakes to San Francisco, Distance Travelled - 175 miles (mileage corrected)

A reasonably long distance travelled today but not such a long day as there was a lot of 'interstate miles' covered.

A lie in was in order after the long day in Yosemite, so we managed to brave the morning chill in the air till nearly 9-00. Itnwas then time to empty 'the tanks', unhitch the umbilical cords and we were on our way.

The first 35 miles were a repeat of our journey in to Yosemite 2 days ago but this time not so scary as a) I am getting the hang of driving the beast and b) the passenger seat was up against the rock wall for most of the trip down, rather than hanging her arse out over the drop below.

At Mocassin junction, this time we headed east across the plains, scanning the horizon as we went for any ambushes. In the main this was just boring motorway miles driving through massive plantations of citrus trees, vineyards, avocados and other crops.

Spirits were lifted as we crossed through the town of Oakdale when a Starbucks was spotted which meant two things....the first decent caffeine shot in 3 days for grumpy and the first decent free wifi in a similar time. Refreshed on caffeine, pastries and stories of the glorious Palace result over Charlton last night (as noone from home bothered to let me know!) we were back on the road for more motorway driving. Thankfully cruise control is a very handy thing on these long, straight boring roads across the American plains and my dodgy knee, ankle and numb bum got some relief from not having to be constantly on and off the accelerator and brake!

After crossing the plains on the 120, we were starting to travel on busier and busier roads, the 580 into San Francisco is another long 4-5 lane bone shaking concrete pathway and various items from the fridge anId overhead lockers shook themselves free on the journey in.

Just before you hit SF, there is one last small mountain range to cross, no single track roads here, the highway just blasts straight up and over it, but it's packed with wind turbines as far as the eye can see....campaigners would be up in arms in the UK if this happened there but there are literally miles and miles of spinning turbines in both directions.

After crossing the mountains you get your first view of SF across the water of San Francisco bay...although its not a great view at the moment as most of the downtown area is shrouded in sea mist and has been for 2 weeks apparently. We paid our toll and crossed the San Mateo bridge/causeway...another impressive feat of engineering that travels right across the bay. We did want to come in via the Golden Gate bridge but being a Saturday afternoon with a massive fun run as well as baseball and football games scheduled this weekend, decided to keep it simple and head direct for the next campground.

Today Mapquest was great and gave us turn by turn instructions through the complicated SF motorway system. The printouts give you accurate mileages in between turns and also junction numbers to count off so were getting quite good as a double act now....and virtually no map reading rows. We did have a quick detour on the way in to SF in search of a non existent service station, but being in an RV it was a quick pull in to a B and Q carpark (sorry Home Depot!) use your own on board 'facilities' and then drive out again, much to the confusion of the traffic warden on duty!

After only about 5 hours on the road (including several breaks) we arrived through the sea mist at the San Francisco RV resort. 'Resort' is probably a bit strong as it's essentially a large tarmacced car park but the facilities are good (shop, toilet, showers, wifi etc.) but it's biggest selling point is its location. Our van is parked about 30 feet from the sea front and in the direction where there is no mist has some fantastic views out to sea...we're hoping that the mist will clear in the next few days so we can see some of the northern views as well. Shops, restaurants and Maccy Ds are also nearby so we have no intention of cooking at all for the next few days.

Having checked in, 'hooked up' and connected wifi to all 18 on board devices we headed straight into San Francisco down town. It's about a 25 min cab ride, or a 5 min ride to the local BART (public transport underground/overground) train system. You can park the RV at the station for 2 dollars but we couldn't be faffed to unhook it all again so got a cab just to the station instead. After working out how the bizarre ticket machines worked (you put in too much money then decrease the amount by 5 cents each button push till the right value of the ticket you require is achieved) and making sure we were heading in the right direction (north to downtown not south to the airport) we were on our way.

We decided to stay central this afternoon as have tours and trips booked over the next few days. The train took us straight into the centre of town and the first thing we saw on exiting Powell Street station was a vintage trolley tram heading up one of the famous steep streets. The queue was big to ride on board but I'm sure we'll do it before we leave.

We wandered round aimlessly for the afternoon, and finished up in a French wine bar for a small refreshment! First impressions of central San Francisco in no particular order were..
1) an unexpected huge number of homeless and beggars on the street, worse than London or my old walk to Victoria every day
2) a very wide mix of people around....lots of punk hairstyles and dress sense all over the place, hair in any colour you can think of. We particularly like the 6 foot tall bloke in platform heels, a Russian overcoat and fur hat.
3) the streets quite dirty and rubbish strewn (similar to London)
4) too many posh shops (for me) I feel a credit card bashing coming on!

We've still got a lot more to do and see and we haven't been to the waterfront areas yet so will have to see how it goes....

In the evening, we went on into Chinatown for the evening which is much much bigger than London and is packed with shops, offices, housing and of course restaurants. Shas had spent most of the drive up studying the books and we settled on a very strange looking place called Hanans House for dinner. The place was packed with coach parties in both it's dining rooms but we were seated in a booth very quickly and served equally quickly. Food was absolutely superb and portions were huge, the waitress advised we had ordered too much and it became a mission to prove her wrong....a mission I only just failed, but it was difficult to get up from the table after trying so hard.

From there we choose to get a cab straight back to the RV park... 40 dollars but saved a lot of hassle waiting around on stations at either end. By the time we got back, the temperature had dropped...it's probably only UK normal temp here of around 15-20 degrees but after a week in 35 plus, you can feel it...so the hoodies and fleeces are out and the duvets that the RV company had supplied and we had chucked in the under floor storage had to be dug out for the night.

So a good start to our 3 days in San Francisco, chilly, misty but great locations and lots of tours and trips planned....

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Comments

[Mum]

It would be nice to have a map of your travels with a flashing light showing your progress like on long haul!!!!!! I keep having to get out my huge 2005 Times map of the World to follow your progress........still sounds like fun XXXX