Day Sixty-Nine - Tales of the Exhausted Traveler

We got back into DFW yesterday afternoon.  The trip was really terrific.  But as usual, we didn't take the easy route on practically anything we did.  I haven't seen Jenny's pictures yet.  But I got some that I was pleased with. The food there turned out to be a lot more expensive than anyplace else we have been.  Even in Hawaii and Europe we never spent as much on meals.   Although the Rangers lost on Saturday, the game was great!  That ballpark is phenomenal.

On Thursday evening, our Wine Country tour guide, Andy, apparently felt that he had some things to make up for so he took us up the hill NE of the Golden Gate Bridge on Lower Conzelman Rd. where we were able to get some pictures from a very cool vantage point.  

This was taken from the hill on Lower Conzelman Rd. on Thursday evening as the fog was rolling in.

 

 Regardless of the mishaps on the Muir Woods / Wine Country tour, these photos more than make up for it all.  It really turned out to be a great day and I can't complain.  After all, it gave me stuff to write about.  Our day was supposed to have begun at 7:45 which is when we were told we would be picked up at our hotel.  At 8:25, we were finally picked up at our hotel.  Apparently all 26 people on the bus were told that they would be picked up at their individual hotels at the very same time.  Since the driver couldn't possibly be at 7 hotels at the same time, most of the people started the day with a little bit of a bad taste in their mouths.

We were the final hotel pick up.  So, we left from, the Hotel Carlton and headed to the Muir Woods.  The drive up to Muir Woods was sort of spectacular.  You wouldn't believe the number of cyclists making that climb.  We saw a huge doe coming out of the woods and straight toward the road on one of the hairpin turns.

As we arrived at Muir Woods, Andy told us that we would have about an hour and a half to spend there.  He suggested staying on the main trails and going up the trail as far as possible to at least bridge 3 and if we had time to bridge 4.  Jenny and I made it just a little past bridge 3 before we had to turn around to get back to the bus on time.  I would really have liked to get to bridge 4.  But there just wasn't time.

I think this picture was taken from bridge 2.

This photo was taken after we passed bridge 3 and as we turned around to head back to the bus.  I would like to have spent a few more hours in these woods and as it turned out, I could have.  But unfortunately, we didn't know that until it was too late to go back out on the trail.

Once we got back to the bus, I remarked to Jenny how amazing it was that everyone returned on time and we were right on schedule.  We backed out of our parking space and Andy smelled and saw smoke coming out from under the hood.  Some other bus driver along with Andy looked under the hood and said they thought the smoke was coming from the fan belt.  So, the decision was made that we should call the office, get another bus and wait for it to arrive.  Andy assured us that everything would be fine since we were only 20 minutes outside of the city and the bus would be here in 30 minutes.  So, he told us to get off the bus and walk around but be back in 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes we were told that it was going to be a little longer, but again, we should be back in 30 minutes.  These 30 minute intervals did not allow enough time to walk back into the woods.

This picture was taken about an hour and 45 minutes after we got off the bus.  We were still waiting on the replacement bus that never came.

Finally, after the first hour, everyone came back near the bus and we all sat around and talked while watching every vehicle that came down the mountainside to see if it was a replacement bus.  The replacement bus never came.  After a few hours a park ranger came by and looked under the hood with Andy.  They started the bus and decided that what they previously thought was a fan belt problem was really the dip stick which had not been pushed in all the way and was being hit by something which was creating friction and causing the problem.  So, I guess they pushed the dip stick in and we were back under way!

From there we went straight to Sonoma where Andy dropped us off on the square after giving us suggestions as to where we could eat lunch.  While we ate, he called wineries to rearrange our schedule.  He was able to get us to three wineries despite how late we were running.  It would have been nice to be able to relax and take a slower pace through the wineries.  But we dealt with what we got and it turned out fine.  We got back to San Francisco later than the tour normally returns, but it worked out fine for us.

As we drove back Andy played music from his IPhone and everyone sang along.  The people on the bus consisted of Jenny and myself, a group of six from Austin, a couple from Madrid, a couple from New Zealand, another from Australia, a mother and daughter from England, two girls from Kentucky, a girl who was traveling alone who was from Costa Rica but has just moved to Canada and a couple of other women, but I am not sure where they were from.  In other words it was a pretty international group.   But there are some songs that everybody knows the words to.  "My Girl" was the first of those songs.  Others consisted of "Dock of the Bay" and "When the Lights Go Down In the City" which apparently is San Francisco's theme song.  I had no idea.  But they even play it at the end of Giants games.

A final thought on this experience is that if you are ever in a group of international people and need some entertainment, I highly recommend finding a very sporting foreigner and teaching him or her to speak Texan.  The Austin contingent did this and it was a riot to see the confused look on the Australian's face as she repeatedly said "Shoot ya'll" with just the right accent.  \

Have a good day.  I'm going to go buy some Icy Hot to put on my calves.