Big Trees, Thick Fog, and More Cars

By now, we had covered over 8,000 miles. Our average speed was 52 MPH and our gas mileage was 29 MPG. Not bad for lookie-loos. Penny was enjoying the ride as much as we were, and was accustomed to our insistence of driving over mountains and around hairpin turns. I was getting used to that, too. But a girl has needs and when Penny lit up her desire for an oil change, we knew we needed to respond. For most cars, this would be a pretty simple task. Drive into your routine lube station, they put the car up on a rack, change the oil and done. For Penny, not quite so simple. Because of the weight of her engine behind the seat, Penny requires technicians who know what they’re doing. There have been horror stories of people putting mid-engine Corvettes up on racks without understanding the complexities, and having the cars fall, with significant damage. Penny needs experts. Our best bet would be San Francisco.

Cue the trusty internet! Our first call was to Stewart Chevrolet, in Colma, San Francisco, where we found Francis, the Service Manager. He assured us that his staff included Certified Corvette technicians to handle Penny’s needs and we made an appointment to bring Penny in that Friday. Thus resolved, we headed for the trees.

When I first planned this trip, I considered Sequoia National Park. Unfortunately, fires have been plaguing this area recently so we decided to drive through the Avenue of the Giants. This is a scenic highway drive in Northern California through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Probably not as vast as Sequoia, but a safer trip, and on the way to San Francisco. An added bonus is that there are several trees that are so big you can drive a car through them, so naturally Bob and Penny think that’s a great idea!

The Avenue of the Giants is a great drive. The road is well-paved, not too tortuous, and the trees are great. The sunlight filters through, casting colors and shadows everywhere. There are lots of places to pull over allowing faster drivers to get by so you can take your time and really get a look at these oldsters. Some of these trees are thought to have been alive for over 4,000 years! Our plan was to drive through part of the Avenue, spend the night in Miranda, and head to San Francisco the following day. And we learned that our first drive-through tree, the Shrine Tree, was on the way to Miranda.

The concept of a drive through tree is a pretty good metaphor for the conflict between commercialism and conservationism. It seems that no one really thought about how tunneling through trees would affect their health, and thanks to conservation efforts, there will be no new drive-through trees, so the remaining ones are tenaciously preserved. The three in California are owned privately, and there is a charge to drive through. The Shrine tree’s opening was actually thought to be created by fire centuries ago. It stands almost 100 ft tall, and is over 17 ft across. It is supported by cables, installed in 1942, to remain upright, and appears to be in decline. Penny had no trouble coming through the Shrine Tree, and we made our way to our cottage in Miranda for the night.

Our cottage was clean, comfortable, and had a great bed for a good night’s sleep. The town of Miranda is small, really just several shops, a good grocery store and restaurants along the roadway. The population is 605 souls. We got a few things at the grocery store and ate dinner at the Redwood Palace, which turned out to have pretty good food, and talked to another couple who looked like Leon Russell and Judy Collins. Maybe they were. We were too polite to ask. They had lived in the area for some time, and we talked trees, then headed back to the cottage and turned in for the night.

Next day we needed to get to San Francisco by 2 pm to get Penny her well-deserved oil change. But we were going right past the second of the drive-through trees, the Chandelier Tree, so we decided to stop. This tree was named because of the branches coming out from all sides of the tree. This tree is 276 feet tall with a 16 ft diameter. It too, is privately owned, costs $10 to drive through, and the opening was carved in the early 1930’s. The tree remains alive, with a healthy root system. Penny and Bob enjoyed the drive through this tree and we were off to San Francisco.

Bob and I have been to San Francisco in the past on business, loved the food, did a tour of Muir Woods, and were surprised that the weather was cold and foggy. This time was no exception. In fact, the drive into the city was great until we got close and then the eerie fog cover could be seen rolling over everything. Bob had been hoping to get a good picture of us coming over the bridge, but the visibility was poor. We found our way to Stewart Chevrolet easily and they were great. Changed Penny’s oil in a jiffy and handled a simple recall issue as well. One of the things Penny has started to do is to fold up the seat as we get in to start the car. I call it making the driver into a taco (with a nod to my niece, Christina), and Bob calls it Penny pinching. Apparently, this is a known glitch that we were told could be fixed, but it would take several hours to reprogram. We decided not to give up any more time and will just assume Penny wishes to hug us occasionally. With Penny all newly oiled, we headed to our San Francisco hotel.

This one was a crap shoot. San Francisco is a notoriously expensive city, and as we were planning the trip, we were horrified by the expense of the hotels here. Parking was especially awful. Sometimes $75.00 a night just to have Penny parked by a stranger in a lot or garage nowhere near the hotel. That was not acceptable. At one point we even thought we would cancel stopping in SF altogether, but Penny’s need for new oil changed that. The place I booked was called the Lombard Plaza Motel, in the Cow Hollow section of the city. I booked this thinking we might skip SF anyway. But the price was right, there was no charge for parking and Penny could be parked in the lot right outside the room. The night before we arrived at the Lombard Plaza, we looked at the reviews and got a little nervous. One review site gave it one star. But we decided to give it a chance.

One of our favorite movies is the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It is the story of a bunch of British retirees moving to a retirement home in India, run by a delightfully inexperienced but eager manager, played by Dev Patel. If you’ve never seen it, give it a try. When we went to check in, the manager was Jenish Patel, who was as charming and delightful a hotel manager as we have seen yet, and totally reminded us of the movie. In fact, we told him so. He proceeded to tell us that the name Patel was a common one among hotel managers in India. We liked Jenish so much, that we felt immediately at home. The room was basic, but clean, Penny was close and safely parked, the area seemed safe and well-traveled, and there were lots of great restaurants. Jenish made it a habit to give us gratis White Claws every time we passed his window, which was often, and recommended tourist sites and food which were spot on.

On our first evening, we headed out to find one of the restaurants Jenish had recommended, but on a whim, Bob stopped a random lady on the street, asked if she was local, and when she said yes, asked her where to eat. She pointed us to a restaurant one block away that turned out to have a terrific hamburger, and some awesome deviled eggs. This restaurant, the Balboa Café, required vaccination cards, and we were prepared. We retired to the hotel, where our only complaint was that apparently the try-outs for the world wrestling federation were going on in the room above us most of the night. The next day we elected for a bus tour of SF and enjoyed the 2-hour trip through all the sites. It was cold though and remained foggy throughout. We did notice that most of the locals were in shorts and even short sleeves, so I guess you get used to anything. While the thermometer told us it was in the low 60’s, it sure felt colder to us.

Upon our return, Jenish told us that there was a bit of a dust-up in the hotel the night before, involving drunkenness, excessive puking to the point that some hotel-goers slept in their cars, and a seasoned housekeeper threatening to quit, and we think that explained the noise from the night before. We got more White Claws out of it. Jenish was disappointed to hear that we didn’t take his advice on a restaurant, so we resolved to go to Blackwood, a local Thai restaurant that evening. And we were glad we did! We also got him a Starbuck’s card as a thank you for being our personal Best Marigold manager.

Next day, we packed up Penny, bid foggy SF adieu and headed for Sacramento, capital city of California. Our plan here was to visit the California Auto Museum. As always, Bob was in heaven and there were several car guys he was able to spend a few hours sharing and swapping car stories with. I amused myself walking through the museum and they had lots of beautifully restored old cars. Our hotel was within walking distance of Old Sacramento, so we went over for dinner. As it turned out, the main street through here is a magnet for automobiles to show off, much like the old street cruising, where cars drive past slowly, often playing their choice of music loudly, to show off their rides. We scored a table outside so we could watch the show and eat.

It was a great several days, and our next adventure takes us to another National Park: Yosemite. Here we will be staying at the Tenaya Lodge and taking a tour. Looking forward to seeing El Capitan!