Left Monterey.  Stopped in Prunedale at the farm supply store to buy Dave a new pair of jeans. He’s lost weight since we’ve started our road adventure and needs a pair of jeans that don’t rely on his suspenders to stay up.  Then we stopped in Castroville for an order of deep fried artichoke hearts (yum!). Next stop was at the Beverly’s fabric store in Soquel for fabric and elastic.  I’m going to make a skirt to cover the bottom of the new kitchen shelf in the van.  It will hide the pots and pans under the shelf plus provide some protection from dust on the pans.  I’m thinking I can do this with just hand sewing.  Hope it works out.

We drove thru Santa Cruz, then north on Hwy 1, toward Half Moon Bay.  We have always loved this area, but it’s low on easy camping spots.  As the sun began to turn the clouds pink, we were north of San Francisco.  We pulled over in Olema outside the Visitors Center and made sandwiches for dinner.  Then drove on thru the twilight beside the Tomales Bay at low tide and found a stealth parking spot at Point Reyes Station outside an apartment complex.

In the morning, we drove on to Tomales and stopped at a great bakery for coffee.  Dave had a delish blueberry muffin and I had an astonishingly thick slice of apple/pecan bread.  I have to find a recipe!! So good!  We drove around the streets of Tomales and found a nice community park with restrooms and trash cans.  Parked there a while and Dave walked around the park picking up trash.

Drove thru Petaluma and up to Ukiah on Hwy 101, then turned west toward the coast again.  Ukiah seemed to have more than its share of meth-head types walking around, so moved thru there quickly.

Our planned destination was Hendy Woods State Park, which has two groves of original growth redwood trees.  We’ve been there before, and while the campground is nothing special, the hiking trails to the groves are really nice.  Unfortunately, the price to camp there had skyrocketed.  It was $40 per night, no showers, and a $2 discount for seniors.  We thought that was too much, so continued down the road, then turned north at Hwy 1 again.  Drove thru Mendocino.  Thought about stopping there, but it was Friday evening, and the town was parked up with visitors and had signs against RV parking, so we moved along.  That town is crowded with high end hotels and B and Bs.  They don’t take kindly to people sleeping there without paying for a room.

It was just about 8 miles further up the coast to Fort Bragg, a working man’s town.  We scoped out a stealth parking spot, then went to a Rite Aid parking lot, made sandwiches, hung out, and set up the van for sleeping.  At Zoey’s house I had used the sewing machine to make some simple panels for the windows in the high top.  They attach with Velcro and do a wonderful job of blocking out street lights and other external light when we want to stealth camp.  So, I hung up the curtains, and when we were ready to go to sleep, we drove over to our  previously chosen stealth spot and went to bed.  Had a good night’s sleep.  It rained quietly all night and was still raining in the morning.  Supposed to rain thru Tuesday.

After coffee at Headlands Coffeehouse in Fort Bragg, we headed back south on Hwy 1.  If a coffee place doesn’t have “Cortado” on their menu, then Dave tries to describe to the barista how to make a Cortado.  Sometimes this works out, but today his description yielded an ICED espresso and a little side container of oat milk!!!!!  Dave had never had an iced coffee before (set in his ways), but he graciously did not say anything to the barista, who was a nice kid who was trying very hard.  Note—-he drank the coffee!

Still raining steadily.  We pulled off at an ocean beach parking lot south of Mendocino and settled down for some cozy time in the van.  Here on the beach, the wind is blowing the rain around and the sea gulls are all hunkered down in a group on the sand. The occasional group of pelicans flies by, but they are struggling a little with the wind.  When they get tired, they settle down and float on the water.  Another high top van parked here for a while and a small box truck with solar panels on the roof pulled in after us and seems to plan on staying a while as well.  The park ranger pulled in and looked at us all then drove on.  This lot is marked “no camping," except another sign says $45 one night limit and there is a state park kiosk across the road, so I'm a little confused about their meaning.   Some people in cars get out with umbrellas and head for the beach.  I’m afraid they will sacrifice their umbrellas to the wind.  Later if we get a break in the rain, we will head over to walk in the sand as well.  I have my rain boots ready.

Dave made coffee inside the van—first inside cooking!  We used a small gas canister so no need to hook up the outside gas tank.  (If we hooked that up, it would look like we were camping.). Ceiling fan is open to protect us from carbon monoxide poisoning.  Later on we will heat up chili for a warm meal of chili, Fritos, and chopped salad.

This beach, called Van Damme Beach, has a huge collection of kelp washed up.  Most of it is red, which I don’t remember seeing before.  Our rain boots got messy walking around in the sand, so we washed them off by wading in parking lot puddles.