01-30-2020 South on Highway 1 Olema to Half Moon Bay

We woke to thick fog this morning, damp and gray. Yesterday was so beautiful and I so appreciated that our explorations of the Seashore hadn’t been dampened by rain or serious fog. I took Mattie out for a walk, noticing that all the puddles from the previous day were still just as wet. Coastal fog is incredibly beautiful when it is flying up the ravines and canyons, misty and magical. Not so much when it is lying like a cold wet blanket over everything.

The very best part of that fog, however, was that it lifted early. By the time we were ready to pull out of the campground at 8:30, the sun broke through. Olema Campground was quite nice, with sites well spaced. The huge puddles that we rolled through the day before as we entered had been reduced by workers with big pumps and hoses. I never checked out the bathroom, even though it was right next to our site, but a neighbor told us that to be sure to use the women’s room because the men’s side had no hot water. Not a problem for us, no men, and we rarely use camp bathrooms anyway.

The wonderfully informative ranger at the Point Reyes NS desk had told us about Stinson Beach, where dogs can run off-leash. With a short drive of 94 miles to our destination, there was plenty of time to give Mattie some good playtime. It is so much fun to watch that little dog on sand. She is getting to know the word “beach”, and gets very excited when we park and she realizes there is a beach nearby.

The walk was beautiful, long stretches of sand with the dog section to the north and the leash free section just a bit beyond. There were only a few dogs in the distance and they were walking away from us, so Mattie didn’t get any friends to play with at first. She was happy with sand, lots of sand. She runs like she did as a puppy, wildly happy, running in circles in the soft sand. Doesn’t matter if it is a beach or a desert sand dune, Mattie loves the sand.

We cut our walk short after half an hour or so knowing that the timing for crossing the Golden Gate Bridge might be important and we needed to get moving south. On the way back to the car, a woman appeared with 2 water dogs, and suddenly Mattie had some playmates. We were careful, and the woman was as well, saying one of the dogs was young and she was dog sitting. Everything was fine at first, but when Mattie started getting really excited, so did the other two dogs, and two against one was not a good idea. It took a minute to get everyone settled down, but I picked Mattie up by the halter. I do love that halter in an unsure situation. I can pick her up quickly, just like a little suitcase.

Back on Highway 1 heading south we followed the very narrow road through the tiny town of Stinson Beach, and continued down along the coast toward Mt Tamalpais, famous Bay Area peak. The road was even more winding and narrow than the first section of Highway 1 at the far north near Leggett. Mo and I have a new idea about those noisy rumble strips in the middle of the road. If we can hear them, we know that the MoHo isn’t hanging over the edge of the road on the right side, where the cliff side is dropping off to the ocean. There wasn’t much traffic at first, but as we continued toward Sausalito and down the east side of the mountain, traffic was heavier, and we had to stay off the rumble strip.

Once off the mountain, our route on-ramped Highway 101 and the gorgeous Golden Gate came into view. I was getting out money and credit card, planning to pay the fee at the toll booth as we crossed the bridge. Lo and behold, there was no toll booth! We had seen a sign at the beginning of the bridge with costs, but were never stopped. Not sure of the price, or how long it will take to get a bill from the state of California, but now it seems they read the license plates automatically. Sure makes for a lot less traffic congestion at the bridge.

Continuing south on Highway 1 through the most iconic part of San Francisco south of Golden Gate park brought back lots of memories. The stucco row houses are much the same as they have been for as long as I can remember. Most seemed well cared for and freshly painted along the busy 4 lane street. I didn’t manage to get photos, but we laughed about how everything can still look the same after so many years. There is a stop light at every block for 6 miles or so before once again we were on a freeway.

I had forgotten just how close the small coastal towns are to each other. It was easy for Mo to remember since she taught school in Pacifica and lived in Montara for more than 25 years. She had to drive Highway 1 over the famous Devils Slide every single day unless the road was closed, which it often was. If that happened, commuters were required to drive south to Half Moon Bay, and east over the mountains and back north to San Bruno and then back south to Pacifica. Not a fun commute! The problem of the constantly unstable slide was solved a few years ago with a magnificent bit of engineering, the Devil’s Slide tunnel.

Unsurprisingly, the fog was thick along the coast as we emerged from the tunnel. Mo laughed, saying she was used to it, and all you had to do was wait till afternoon and the sun would shine. Ugh. Not something I would have enjoyed at all.

We arrived at Half Moon Bay State Park, with reservations in the campground in hand. What we hadn’t realized when we made the reservation was that we were in a dry campsite, with no electric. Somehow we thought we were getting a full hook up site. There are hookup sites in the park, and we thought about moving, but decided it wasn’t necessary. We dumped the tanks, parked the car, and then drove a mile back to the gas station for fuel. The generator will not run if the MoHo fuel tank is below a quarter full, and we were too low for generator use.

By 2, we were right on time to call Mo’s friend Judy. Mo and Judy have been friends since years ago when Judy boarded her horse at Mo’s small ranch in Montera. We agreed to meet at Barbara’s Fish Trap, back north in Princeton. The food was wonderful, and visiting with Judy was delightful.

I somehow completely forgot to take photos until the very last minute. Judy came back home with us for a short visit and to meet Mattie and I suddenly remembered, Oh my, I forgot to take photos! As everyone was saying goodbye, I said, STOP! This one photo of Judy and Mo together was taken from the doorway of the MoHo as Judy was leaving. Whew.

We settled in for a few minutes, deciding that it might be a bit too late to go see Mo’s old ranch, but definitely not too late to drive back north to the Moss Beach Distillery. The history of this old restaurant is fascinating. Here is the story from the sign on the front of the establishment.

During Prohibition, the San Mateo Coast was an ideal spot for rum running, bootleggers, and “speakeasies”, establishments which sold illegal booze to thirsty clients. One of the most successful speakeasies of this era was “Frank,s Place” on the cliffs at Moss Beach. Built by Frank Torres in 1927, “Frank’s” became a popular night spot for silent film stars and politicians from the City. Mystery writer Dashell Hammett frequented the place and used it as a setting for one of his detective stories.

The restaurant, located on the cliffs above a secluded beach was in the perfect location to benefit from the clandestine activities of Canadian rum-runners. Under cover of darkness and fog, illegal whiskey was landed on the beach, dragged up a steep cliff and loaded into waiting vehicles for transport to San Francisco. Some of the booze always found its way into the garage eneath “Frank’s Place.” Frank Torres used his excellent political and social connections to operate a highly successful, if illegal, business. Unlike many of the speakeasies along the coast, “Franks Place” was never raided.

With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 Frank remained in the food service business as one of the most successful restaurateurs along the San Mateo coastline. Now called the Moss Beach Distillery, it also retains one of Frank’s former customers. It’s resident ghost, “The Blue Lady’ still haunts the premises, trying to recapture the romance and excitement of Frank’s speakeasy years. The story of the “blue Lady” was documented by the TV program “Unsolved Mysteries”, and has been seen by millions of people around the world.

Even on a week night, it was a jumping happy place, with several people braving the cool evening to drink and dine on the patio overlooking the sea. We opted for Irish Coffee’s inside at a table with a gorgeous view of the sunset over the Pacific. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Driving back south along Highway 1, the traffic coming toward us was bumper to bumper for miles. Mo said it was like that on the weekends when she lived in Montara, but rarely during the week. Later talking with another friend we plan to meet with for coffee tomorrow morning, we found out that commuters are working on the other side of the mountain and living along the coast. The traffic is awful all the time now. Mo said she surely didn’t miss that part of living in this lovely place.

Tomorrow we plan to visit with another old friend and check out Mo’s old ranch.

January 28 2020 Richardson Grove to Olema, California

When we planned our trip south this year, we decided that not only did we want to skip I-5, we wanted to travel the famous Highway 1, right along the coast. Looking back over our journals, I discovered that we have traveled this route in a motorhome 3 times prior to this one. I remember the first time we did it in the baby MoHo back in 2005 and I spent much of the time being carsick.

We woke to fog instead of rain, and were thrilled to see something that might actually be sunshine waiting above us. I decided to drive first, when I am most alert and energetic. I also remembered those curves that start right after turning west at Leggett and winding over the coast range toward the ocean. This section of Highway 1 may be the most narrow of its entire length. The good part is that while the road is winding and very narrow, there are few drop-offs on the shoulder, and the only issue to manage is making sure your mirror doesn’t hit the overhanging rocks on the passenger side of the road. Mo jumped more than once when she thought I was too close.

The sun came and went during that part of the trip, and by the time we reached the open ocean, the skies were opening enough to see the magnificent views. Mo took the wheel so I could take photos, and then I was the one jumping a bit when the cliffs looked entirely too close. There aren’t many pullouts along this section of highway and we were especially lucky that on this wintry day there was very little traffic.

We passed through Fort Bragg, a favorite hangout for many of my old California friends, and continued south past Mendocino toward Manchester Beach. Our friend Moira, from our days at the Klamath Falls apartments has relocated to work and live at the KOA campground there. Seemed like a good time to stop in for a visit, and we had called her before we left to make arrangements to meet.

Moira met us with a delicious lunch and after letting Mattie and Moira’s dog Muddy play a bit in the dog park at the campground, we cozied up in the MoHo to eat and visit. I completely lost track of my duties as photographer, and somehow the only photo I took of the entire visit was a bright red mushroom in the thick grass.

The road south of Manchester was another narrow winding stretch. There were many slides and sections of roadway that were being repaired with the road reduced to one lane in several places. With all the rains, we were lucky that the road was open all the way to our destination for the evening.

Even though the distance we traveled was seemingly short, we didn’t make it to our campground in Olema until just after dark. Setting up in the dark is something we try very hard to avoid. After all the rain, there were huge puddles to navigate, but once at our site it was relatively dry with bark strewn around to help with the mud.

We set up in record time, choosing to only plug in the electric. We had plenty of water and sewage space on board after only two days on the road. Dinner was a simple reheat of our great fish and chips supper from the previous day. We didn’t need much after our lovely lunch with Moira.

The next morning we woke to a thin fog that dissipated almost immediately, paving the way for gorgeous skies for our day sight seeing at the Point Reyes National Seashore.  I have to thank Nickie from Out and About for the story about their visit to Point Reyes.  Reading Nickie’s blog, I decided that Olema Campground was the perfect jump off place for our explorations.

There were only a few rigs parked, and none very close to us.  The campground is laid out in what seems a very random manner, but the small keyhole areas work well for creating nice space between campers.  We were looking forward to our two days to relax and to explore.