days_unfolding

Despite getting to sleep early, we got a late start and didn't get out until 11:30. Then we had lunch. (The first picture is of a pretty little creek between the motel and the restaurant.)

Then we went to the Peanuts museum, which was down the street from the motel. It was larger than I expected. It had a introductory film loop which told a little about the life of Charles Schultz. It had an exhibit of Snoopy cartoons. (Apparently they pick different themes to exhibit at different times.) It had a room of cartoons that paid tribute to Peanuts. It had a wall with pictures that Charles Schulz painted for his daughter. It had Charles Schultz's office set up the way that it was when he was working. It had a theater that played different Peanuts movies; we saw the one in which Snoopy was getting married. It had a labyrinth in the shape of a giant Snoopy head. The second picture is of a picture of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football made from Peanuts cartoons.

The net result was that we stayed until closing at 5:00, and then spent some time in the gift shop. I had planned that we would go see downtown Santa Rosa, but I still had a two-hour drive ahead of me to Fort Bragg, so we decided to head out to Fort Bragg.

The trip up I-101 was uneventful and fun. You could see the land changing from grape fields to trees.

Then we took Hwy. 20 west from Willits to Fort Bragg. Well, I'm scared of heights, and that was the scariest mountain road that I've ever driven on. It was all hairpin turns and switchbacks with a dropoff on one side. It reminded me a little of the Hana road in Hawaii. There was a moment that I thought, "I can't do this." But it was quickly followed by the thought, "Well. the choices are driving out or walking out, and driving's faster." So I plodded along. I pulled over to let people pass me though. Boy, was I glad to see Fort Bragg!

I made a couple of decisions though because of Hwy. 20. First, I decided to spend an extra day in Fort Bragg so that I'd be well rested (and it would be light) for the trip back to San Jose from Fort Bragg (approximately 4 or 5 hours). I also decided to try going down Highway 1 and take a highway east from it to pick up I-101 between Santa Rosa and Petaluma.

We liked the motel better than the other one. It was right across Hwy. 1 from the ocean. The room had a little book of things that you can do in Fort Bragg. Again. there was another good coffee shop next door to the motel, and a gas station on the other side.

We made an early night of it because we needed to get up early the next day to catch a train through the redwoods.