Santa Rosa, California

Today was a wonderful day--or turned out to be.
Janet Penley and Carlene both called when I was whining about my aching leg and a couple of other maladies, considering taking the fast track home.

But after getting through the unbelievable traffic in Marin County, I drove on to Santa Rosa to the B&B I'd booked for tonight and tomorrow night.

The owner of the house is Bonnie--a mother of four and grandmother of seven.  Two other renters are here--and also two of her sons.  Four of us sat at her kitchen table and she made us grilled cheese sandwiches and they told me all the places I should see in this area.  (I'll report back after I see them.)

This is such a great place to stay that I wish I'd booked more than two nights--but she has someone else coming on Friday after I vacate my bed: a nice trundle bed in a cozy room.

The Mini is finally back together again--with a new part, the name of which I can't spell that keeps the oil from leaking.  Three days of Mini care, it should be perky for the rest of the trip.

After dinner and conversation here, I feel recharged and ready to continue, achey leg or not--but first i have to edit my last post!  Carlene pointed out that I had reported that the distance between El Cerrito and San Antonio was 17.400 miles--I'd added a zero that would make the distance hard to cover in three days!  (It is actually 1740.)

Bonnie, the hostess here, and Jen, her month-long boarder (a new teacher in Santa Rosa) have whet my appetite to see the orchards and aspens in northern California and I can hardly wait to see this area in the daylight.

I'm also close to Indian Springs--where for $20 a day, you can soak in pools and mud bathe--sounds like a place similar to Ojo Caliente in New Mexico.  Also about half an hour from the beach--and the drive there and back is through vineyards.

I've learned this about myself: I am not a city girl.  I am not a mass transit traveler.  And I have--I hope--done my last in-city tourist trap things like I did in San Francisco.  I would like to go back to San Francisco again, but next time skipping Fisherman's Wharf and cable cars and finding the treasures off the beaten path.