#413 Olema Campground

We were glad to leave just after the fourth because everywhere we have been since Bryce Canyon has been way too hot to suit us. We got a little relief up in Ketchum and Stanley but it was still almost 90. Olema would be 70 degrees and we just didn't know how to act so we were thrilled to be on the way.

It was just about a two-hour drive and at some point, you got off of all the big highway and you found yourself on a secondary road that went on for quite some time like maybe 45 minutes on an old country road. Happily sooner or later you get there and it was so good to be there.

We pulled in and tried to get out of the way over to the left and I went in to talk to the folks in the office. We had a reservation but they were willing to give us any site that was available and that's kind of cool of them. They gave me a list of all of the sites that could be had for three nights and I tried to pick the one that suited us and it also had to be Bert approved. We tried to pick one where he will be happy because when Bert's not happy we're not happy.

I've said this before but when we pick a place that suits Bert it's really the best site in the park anyway. Some of them were very congested, some of them were this and that but we saw one that was kind of off by itself at the end of a row and there was some tall grass and some wilderness nearby. It seemed perfect and we made it ours and told the lady at the office and settled in.

All we needed to do for the rest of the day was just breathe because it had been a long tough trip and we were just happy to be where it was cool again maybe the high was 75 which was quite refreshing.

The next day we decided to go down towards San Francisco as tourists. As we left out south on 1 we took the first right and explored the area down by Point Reyes. https://www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm

It was a wiggly road, fun in a car not but not a big rig. After about 10 miles you can see water in the distance but you have to park and hike a few miles to get to the shore. This time we just stayed in the truck and said that sure is pretty and turned around and went on towards San Francisco. On the way back to Hwy 1 I took a bunny trail road and it dead-ended at an interesting-looking Hostel. There were lots of cars so I guess they were booked. A sign said you must have a reservation so I guess you can’t just stumble up there spur of the minute.

More than once I had thought about driving the RV down this stretch of Highway 1 and following the coastline. Boy, I'm glad we did it in the truck first because it was a spooky road in even our truck. If we had been pulling the rig down this wiggly little road it would have been horrifying where in a truck it was just interesting, meaning no guardrails so you’re on your own. We arrived at a place where we had actually slept overnight a few years back. It was a parking lot where people catch the bus and or park and ride to go to San Francisco. We thought it made more sense to park the truck here and take public transportation in town but we parked and we were kind of sharing a bench with this homeless-looking dude and he was harmless but it just started giving me the creeps about what we were jumping into. We asked one of the bus drivers who came through and they said no you'll be standing here for another half an hour and a little by little I realized that maybe just drive on into town and get it over with.

When you look at certain blogs and such it says certain parts of San Francisco are pretty slimy and unfortunately there are thousands of homeless people just all over the place. Who knows why. It's kind of unpleasant for tourism and I know it sounds stuck up but it's just pretty bad. If we could avoid some of these areas we might want to park elsewhere. We went to and through a place called the Presidio which is a naval base but never quite saw a parking place that suited us. We eventually found parking down by the docks Pier 23 which is a pretty famous stretch of seafood restaurants and it's about what we did the last time we were in San Francisco. I enjoyed it all the same.

When we were looking for a parking place there was a situation it kind of spooked me. It was about six or eight guys buzzing around really fast on speed bike motorcycles bikes they were really driving aggressively and I couldn't help but think they were a motorcycle gang showing their stuff. For people like us it kind of creeps us out so we just wanted to avoid that scene. We found a place to park near a restaurant that had favorable reviews and we parked and walked it was only a block. We had a nice meal and everything's gonna be overpriced so you try to tune that part out but it was very delicious. We walked on down towards the docks which is kind of a historical thing to do. You can see Alcatraz over there a few seals here and there. I will downplay it now because I've had time to stop being a baby but there was a situation where some guy was just playing music there on the street you know I guess you throw in a dollar in and he plays more music. I think they were playing My Girl so I said India let's dance and she was a little embarrassed so that could have been a small thing but I made it into a 10 and I pouted about it for about three days and thought I was just gonna die. I think she was just embarrassed and feeling all awkward at the time so enough time is gone by now to where I realized that kind of might have overdid it a bit again. I was just hurt. I thought it should be me and you against the world and we may be older and people might giggle but what do we care. I think she said what if someone puts us on youtube and it's embarrassing. I said we shouldn’t care what people think. It just made me mad and hurt.

I wished we were there earlier in the day because we could have gone to a cool art museum and I hope we get there one of these days but that was San Francisco and we headed back. We took the 101 this time for sure. We got fueled up in San Rafael and loved not having to worry about how hot it was anymore. Bert enjoyed playing in an area where it was kind of grown-up and wilderness. It's had a large area of waist-high tall grass and he spent quite a bit of time over there.

It was a nice visit and that would be Olema.

Address: 10155 CA-1, Olema, CA 94950

Phone: (800) 655-2267