North Coast Travelogue, 3/27&28

Light rain pretty much all the way down to Novato.

Stopped at the One Log House for our first break. The big surprise was they don't offer sandwiches anymore. They replaced them with what seem to be some pre- made burritos they heat up in the microwave. I asked them why the change and they said the sandwiches were too much of a logistical hassle- keeping fresh stuff in stock, and all. Bummer.

I was hoping we'd make up for that disappointment by our dinner pick- up spot as I'd been under the impression a new Quiznos had started up in the same place as the old one in Cloverdale. Nope, no Quiznos. Just a sign saying to check out their web site for their other locations. Bummer. Now what are we going to have for dinner? I had my heart set on Quiznos. The thought of hassling with finding dinner in Novato wasn't really appealing to either of us.

Gas prices were all over the place all the way down there. I didn't write down any numbers but, suffice it to say, some places I normally see the lower prices seemed actually higher than others that run more the norm. Safeway in Willits seemed to be the cheapest at $3.70 (after the 3 cent discount).

Hardly any holdups going through the Santa Rosa/ Petaluma area except for the bottleneck at Rohner Park, although we went through that pretty quick. It was the folks trying to make it to the front of the line at the merge that caused the problem. I had my usual gap in front of me for at least a couple of miles before the merge to allow drivers to merge early. Only one car took advantage of it and that was pretty close to the merge spot.

I'd told myself after that I wouldn't let anyone in and closed up a little. Then, right at the merge some guy or gal ( I couldn't tell) started trying to slip in front of me. I went ahead and let her do it. He or she waved to me in thanks. I flipped her off. I wonder if she noticed?

Stayed in Room 203 at Novato Day's Inn after picking up some dinner stuff at Trader Joe's. First time we stayed that close to the freeway, and we could tell. Constant freeway sound, along with noisy neighbors in the rooms nearby. Didn't bother me as I was a bit ill, but Connie didn't enjoy it.

Got to UCSF around 10am on Monday, a bit later than I prefer as I worry about not finding a parking space but there were plenty of places to park. This was a first for me. Due to my illness, I could hardly walk so I spent most of my time sitting in the parking garage in my truck. It was actually quite comfortable and I got to study the dynamics of life in the parking garage.

You can't count on it day by day but the garage started getting busy a little before 11am and most- but not all- of the spaces ended up filling up. Around 2pm it seemed like more people were leaving than coming. Wish I could count on that as then we could show up later in the morning, but you just never know.

Got to see the parking enforcement folks ticket some chicks' huge pick up for parking wrong. Not sure what she did. Maybe she parked in a "Compact Only" spot, but I didn't see any signs. She'd tried to park behind me earlier on and had a hell of a time because her truck was just too big. She needs to find a smaller car to use for UCSF. That Ford F250 or 350 with the crew cab was too big to ever find a good spot with such limited choice.

Stopped at the Cloverdale Starbucks on the way home if only to take a pee. Boy are they a godsend. That's when I took a close look at the mall just a short distance to the north and noticed they had a Subway sandwich shop. I pointed it out to Connie and we decided to take a look at it after our bathroom break.

A small but diverse mall. A Ray's market, Subway, some Mexican food place and some other restaurant there, along with McDonald's just to the south. I guess that will be our place to pick up dinner to go next time down there. How come it took us so long to notice it?

Picked up a few burritos at the Willits Taco Bell, then gas at the Willits Safeway and northward we went.

When we left on Sunday I got the impression my truck was getting a lot better gas mileage than usual from the way the gas gauge was so slow in going down. Maybe it had something to do with the work I'd had done on the truck? Problem was, it had been so long since we'd gone to UCSF I couldn't recall where the needle would normally be at certain points. I figured I could tell for sure after filling up at Willits and driving to Eureka.

Nope, I guess it was normal mileage. Arriving at home the gas gauge showed about what it normally would have. Bummer, again. I was hoping for some good news. Well, at least my mileage wasn't worse than normal.