2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 10

We all went to the Rancho San Antonio Park this afternoon. It was a nice place, but Uncle Steve had told the girls that we were going to see some animals there and when we got there it turned out that seeing the animals involved a walk of over a mile each way... Considering the girls hadn't had naps and it was pretty hot out, they were getting tired before we even made it one way. So we stopped by a creek for a while and it was an enjoyable walk, regardless.

We went back to Steve and April's where the girls had a lot of fun jumping into a kiddie pool. We put Steve's dog M&M into a room so we could bring Tiggy out into the yard. He really enjoyed that, though it did get a little hot for him outside. I've never seen a cat pant before. (Not to be confused with cat pants, which I have seen before.) April hosed him down. He actually didn't mind too much... Weird cat. We got him some water to drink and he was fine. We all ate some yummy Costco pizza (good deal, that) and hugged each other goodbye. We had a great time there and always enjoy catching up with them and we really appreciate their love and 'ospitality.

We filled up the tank ($3.69 this time... the same place that was $3.59 the other day) and drove up to Petaluma to the KOA there. I should mention that this tour is being partially sponsored by KOA. They are awesome and have the most kid-friendly chain of campgrounds that I'm aware of, and we're always happy to stay there when we can.

I decided to take the San Francisco route up to Petaluma, which crosses the Golden Gate Bridge. That drive was cool for a while, and we enjoyed driving up Fillmore until we got to the corner of Fillmore and Broadway... Now, I've been to San Francisco once before, but that was 20 years ago and I was driving in my friend's Chevy Nova, not in a 24 foot motorhome. Though I remembered San Fran as being a rather hilly city, I had forgotten the real extent of that until sitting in the middle of that intersection, looking forward down Fillmore and left down Broadway... emphasis on DOWN... knowing I needed to go one of those directions to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. Roseann and I were gasping... it seriously looked to be about a 25-30% grade, with a stop sign at the bottom.

I was getting beeped at by some cars behind me and let loose with an expletive that I've been carefully avoiding for some years now. Thankfully, it wasn't loud enough for anyone but Roseann to hear. But anyway, we made a decision to take the forward route (which we later learned from a pitch grade map of the city was the slightly worse grade of the two choices... we should have downloaded that map beforehand, eh?). I went into first gear and held on the brake... things were falling off our table and Roseann thought she heard the brakes making a high-pitched squeal, but that was actually me, not the brakes. There was a point about 2/3 down when I felt like we were actually going to make it, but before that, I gotta tell ya, it was sheer terror. After we made it down, I grabbed Roseann's hand and told her that I loved her, and then realized I probably should have said that before we started down the hill.

So yeah, we were shaken but laughing about it shortly after. Otherwise, it was a nice drive and we got a lot of friendly beeps, waves and peace signs from pedestrians and passing cars, presumably for having colorful cartoons on our vehicle.

Steve and April with the girls at Rancho San Antonio Park


The bus with the KOA logo...