Day 140, Monday, November 2

Woke up to beautiful weather this morning. The view from my campsite is of coastal plains with the oceans and mountains beyond. Had to go down to the public pier in Point Arena for a shower. The surfers were out in force here riding waves into the rocky coast. From here rode South down hwy 1 through Bodega Bay (where I hit the deer) for the fifth time on the trip (two with Jeanette, once when I hit the deer, once when I went back to get the disabled bike with the tow company and today.). I didn’t even realize I’d passed the point of the collision until I was fully into the town of Bodega Bay. It’s amazing how different the place looked in the daytime compared to dusk when I hit the hapless deer. Continued up HWY 1 to Golden Gate Nat. Rec. Area where the road gets fantastically windy. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a line of women driving old P.O.S. beat down pickup trucks up the road at 20mph, blocking the view around every single corner and refusing to pull over onto any of the numerous pullouts…pullouts which bear signs in profusion telling just such idiot drivers to pull over and let other people by. Can’t win ‘em all.
When I pulled up to the lookout just South of the bridge to take pictures, I was thwarted by Mother Nature. As I was riding up and up to the point that I turned off the ignition, the bridge was lit up and glowing from the approaching sunset. However, by the time I got off and got out my camera, the sun had started to get obscured by clouds and only made a very brief appearance from behind the clouds before setting. After taking a few pictures of the Bridge and San Francisco, I proceeded on to Peter DiDonato’s house. I didn’t stay long at Peter’s though. While at the Golden Gate Bridge, I gave Kirsten a call to see if we could get together for dinner some time this weekend. As it turned out, tonight was the only night she had free in the next week and she offered to take me out for sushi dinner. How could I refuse? So, I ditched the trailer in Peter’s side yard and headed back down town to have dinner with her. I also wanted to get a picture for my blog. I’ve got to apologize to her for the picture posted here because it’s terrible of both of us. Still, I wanted to post it because she’s part of my trip.