On the Road again...

---

(Mt. Gilead Bible Conference Center)

We got here shortly after noon, but man oh man, that’s not the whole story. We left TMC Wednesday morning, as did Dave and Wanda, who are headed to SD for the summer. Wayne and Lois left later Wednesday to head home until January. Peter and Marlene were going to spend a couple more days in Santa Clarita, and then go home until January. Kyle and Carolyn are going to spend a couple more weeks at TMC, working and touring, and then they, too, are finished until January.

We traveled Highway 1, which turned into a tight winding road way too soon. On one tight curve, a line of cars was coming toward us, and the one in the lead was hugging the center line. We had the choice to hit the car or hug the wall, and sure enough, the side of the bus scraped against the rock wall, and tore a gash in two of the cargo doors. When it was happening, I was afraid the Jeep was also going to get slapped into the wall, but we made it around the curve. The damage was done to the doors only, and not a speck above them, which would have been so much more complicated to repair. I’ll post pictures of it. It was a long day after that. Plus, the wind was blowing like never before in history.

We spent Thursday and Friday in Gilroy, CA….Garlic Capital of the World. (Where was I when they took that vote?!) It’s a very pretty little town, just south San Jose. They have a huge Outlet Mall there, and that took up a good bit of our time!

Saturday morning when we started out for Mt. Gilead, we were both really tense. We’ve never been afraid of driving the motor home, not even the first time we drove it, but today we were both nervous. And the highways (not Highway 1!) were so busy, and were either creeping along, or were speeding along. It was a very long day. Keep in mind that we also had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, but it turned out that that wasn’t even a challenge.

Oh, yeah ~~ we were driving down the highway Wednesday when we saw cars stopped on both side of the road, with people out moving around. As we got closer we could see about 75 sea lions lying around on a sandbar. We thought they were dead, because there were a few people out there walking amongst them, and they didn’t move, except for an occasional slap of a tail. We mentioned it to someone at church Sunday, and they told us that the sea lions lay around in the sun, and that they aren’t bothered by people moving around them. I can’t tell you how relieved I was!

Mt. Gilead is situated in the Redwood trees….so different from where we were! It has been like that every time we’ve changed sites! And it is not 94 degrees! But I’ll write more about the camp after we’ve had a chance to look around. For now, just let me say that we're very[/b glad to be here!

---

Photos

OUCH.
This happened when we had to turn too sharply. You can see that there is no damage above the bar. Right above the bar you can see the vent for the dryer, the fridge, and the furnace. That would have been horrible to repair.

What can I say?
Bob says the good thing is that when he opens the rear door, it also opens the one in front of it, so you get two doors with only one action! God was certainly with us on this one.

I’m not kidding
look down this cliff.
What were we thinking when we picked Highway 1 to travel? For Pete’s sake
.

Does this give you a clue how hard the wind was blowing?
Look at the color change in the water.

Into a different California look.
FYI: Governor Arnold (I don’t think anyone can spell his last name, so they don’t use it often) pronounces California with a long e sound as the second syllable. We’ve heard it mentioned several times that now the school kids are pronouncing the state name as Calyfornia, and people are upset by that.

Dead?
No, they were just sleeping
or sunbathing. But it scared us.

We'd heard that this was a toll bridge.
Nope.

Golden Gate Bridge
The Bridge is painted International Orange; their thought was it will blend with the surrounding. It wasn’t as big as I expected, nor as long. The Astoria Bridge in Washington/Oregon is way more intimidating.

Not bad at all.
I’m sure during rush hours it’s a different story, but we were relieved that this wouldn’t be an event.

Alcatraz from the bridge.
Again, I expected this to be bigger. You’ll get more pix later, because we’ll do a tour there, but I had to include this look.

Comments

[Lisa]

I didnt know you went across this bridge! i thought it was gorgeous. I love these pics- I miss CA!!