Trudie and Carl's Trip to Duncan Mills & Cloverdale
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Friday, October 30, 2009 Three years ago, when we first joined Delta Shores and ROD, we stayed at Duncans Mills and absolutely loved it. I wished we had seen Duncan Mills first. Well, three years later we returned. I guess I didn't love it that much.
It is still very nice. We settled in to space C17, close to the club house, showers and hot tub. First stop was the river. Hattie went wild. She was so in her element.
Julie and Chris invited us over for dinner so we took our trusted GPS and headed to Windsor, California, a 25ish mile trip. The GPS told us to turn left on Duncan Street. It was an extremely narrow, windy road. It just didn't look right. We came to a fork in the road, to the right is said "dead end" and to the left it said "locked gate 1000' ahead" so I got out to direct Carl turning the car around. A man came out from his house and said there was a turn around at the gate and "your GPS is wrong". There is no way we should have gone on that street. We finally arrived at Julie and Chris's and had a nice meal. Tim also joined us. He gave me a autographed copy of his first Milk Man CD, Still Grindin'. I'm so proud of him. It's a rap CD and he's very good at it.
Saturday, October 31, 2009 I asked one of the Rangers if they had WiFi. Yes indeed, the kind you have to pay for. It was only $16 for a week, so I signed up. After breakfast we headed to Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve. Dogs on leash were allowed only on the paved road, so we stayed on the paved road. We had left over from Julie chicken sandwiches for lunch then Carl and I headed back to Guerneville to check out the craft fair and go to Safeway. Well, the craft fair was a total crap fair, just old junk. When we got back, we picked up Hattie and walked to a Halloween cemetery across the street. It must have been organized by the same people that put on the craft fair. Tried and true - we took Hattie to the river. After our tri-tip, spinach and salad dinner, Carl and I went to the hot tub. Nice.
Sunday, November 01, 2009 Yeah. Spring forward - Fall back. We got an extra hour of sleep, not that it makes any difference to us. Every morning Hattie jumps on the bed to wake me up to take her outside to go peepee, even if she just got back from a walk with Carl. Then, after our showers and my beautification, Hattie is rearing to go outside with me again. She does this like clockwork. She can tell when I'm done with my beauty regime; probably the sound of hair spray and clipping my ear rings on and paces to go outside. We drove towards Bodega Bay, stopping at Goat Rock. Dogs are not allowed on Goat Beach but are allowed at Blind Beach and they're right next to each other. Hattie loved Blind Beach. There is nothing blind about it either. There are huge caves, big rocks, small rocks, big sand and small sand, a variety of shapes and sizes. I took a small sample home, or actually, Carl did. We went into the town of Bodega Bay and picked up some salt water taffy at our favorite SWT store. Yesterday we picked up a you-bake pizza at Safeway, so that was our dinner. Very so-so. We suited up and headed to the hot tub around 8pm. Shucks, they close at 8pm on Sunday thru Thursday. We'll know better tomorrow.
Monday, November 2, 2009 We checked out Guerneville today, regular cute type shops, the usual stuff we don't need nor want. Whew! We shared a corned beef sandwich at a local café. We shared so we could get something at the espresso shop in Duncans Mills, although we never did. Oh well. We took Hattie to the beach for her swim and she loved it. We've been blessed with the most gorgeous weather, warm, sunny and water like glass. We checked out the shops at Duncans Mills. There are some things I want to buy for Christmas, but we both went without $$$. We'll go back. We went back to Blind beach to see the sunset. It was beautiful, almost as nice as the sunsets from Cynthia Court. This evening we made it to the hot tub before it closed.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 We took a ride to Jenner today, again another perfect day. We drove up to Fort Ross and back. The views were breathtaking. I have a doctor and a dentist appointment tomorrow so I drove home at 3:30, landing in Hayward at 5:30. There was nothing to eat at Cynthia Court!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 I could hardly sleep last night 'cause I was worried I wouldn't get up in time for my 9:30. I got up in time. After my appt with Dr. Wilson, I went home, did a few things, and Tammy from Dr. Soo Hoo was able to get me in early so I was out of Hayward by 1:30. I arrived at Duncan Mills at 3:30, greeted by a excited Hattie (and Carl). Carl and the pets had a nice, quite time without me. Hattie and Carl did their walks and swam at the river. Carl was able to call me a few times, so that was nice. I stopped at a produce stand in Fulton on my way back to DM, picking up some apples. We went to Safeway - cereal was on sale. Then we grabbed Hattie and headed to Blind Beach. We had the beach to ourselves. After our pulled pork dinner, we suited up and headed to the hot tubs. The evening was cool and the hot tub was hot.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 We woke to a wet campground. It rained all night. I took Hattie for her am walk and it smelled so good. We saw a could of young deer on their am walk. After breakfast and our walk to the river, Carl and I headed to the fruit stand in Fulton. Our first stop was the Korbel Champagne Winery. I bought a couple of cute dish towels for Christmas presents. Then we stopped at the Martinelli Winery and were hoping for apple cider, but no, just wine. We made it to the fruit stand then on to a hot dog lunch in Rio Nido. Our last stop on the trail was the stores at Duncans Mills. I bought a couple of pj sets for Heidi and Angie and a couple of paper models. Christmas shopping, ya know. Back at the RV I cut out my next couple of aprons. I took out me sewing machine, messed with it for a while and decided to sew them at a later date. Carl made tri-tip and artichokes for dinner. No hot tub tonight. It was closed, maybe because of the rain.
Friday, November 6, 2009 Well, boo hoo hoo. We have to check out today. It's been such a nice "trip". We want to go back soon. That's what we said last time, and it's been 3 years! I left in the Honda and Carl followed in the RV and we met at Russian River Resort for another week of "trip". We were greeted by Dave and Betty and settled in to spot C68. We took Hattie to the beach and she felt right at home.
Saturday, November 07, 2009 Humm?... My "s" doesn't want to work. Looks like the computer doctor for me. I just have to be mindful of my s's. After breakfast we headed to Walmart for some dish towel, my next project, and stuff. The stuff included new shoes for Carl. It must be that time of the decade. And then after lunch and a nap, we went to Rays for groceries. I called Carol and LeRoy and invited them to join us next weekend and then emailed them later with the particulars.
Sunday, November 08, 2009 Our outing today was to check out the reported big waves at the ocean. We drove Hwy 128, the windy one stopping in Boonsville for a cappuccino. We found an apple stand down the highway a bit and picked up a couple of pounds. When we got to Hwy 1 we stopped at Navarro Beach. It was a great spot, right where the Navarro River meets the ocean. The ocean waves were roaring. We let Hattie run on the beach, but did not let her chase sticks in the waves. She did get to chase a few in the river and dig big holes in the sand.
Monday, November 09, 2009 We left the pets in the RV and headed to the town of Sonoma, around 40 miles from here. Carl found a couple of farms in the area he wanted to check out, his quest for tomatoes. I told him tomatoes were out of season and to get over it. Wrong. It's the end of the season and we have a big variety of tomatoes to eat. Sonoma is full of wineries, one after another. Of, if only we drank. The touristy area was very nice, right by the Mission San Francisco Sonoma. We just walked around, tasted some cheese at the cheese factory and stopped at Jack in the Box for dinner. We planned on going to a Thai place in Cloverdale for dinner, so we wanted to keep our eating out budget in tact. Chris called while we were on the road. He is our designated house watcher. Well, we never did get to the Thai restaurant. Carl made tri-tip, spinach and mashed potatoes for dinner. Delish!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 We just hung around the camp today. We took Hattie to the river for a swim. We let her swim until she started to shiver. We went to the lodge to check my email and to make reservations for our upcoming trip to Alabama. Wish us luck. I vacuumed the RV today. It's always amazing to see how much pet hair I get. Kind of like at home. We invited Dave and Betty out to dinner while we are here and tonight was the night. They picked us up at 4:30ish and we headed to the ShoKaWa casino for the $4.95 prime rib dinner. The food was great and we had a nice time with them. They bend the 2 times a year rule with ROD and let us stay more often. We wanted them to know we appreciate it.
Wednesday, November 11 Another hang around the camp day. Carl and I worked on our itinerary for our Alabama trip. We got a little stumped, so we headed to Ukiah and bought the latest version of Maps and Trips. I installed it in Carl's laptop and we can now map out our trip. We went to Food Maxx while we were in Ukiah and took advantage of some sale items, so the fridge is full. BLT's were our dinner of choice this evening. Yumm.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 The campground is practically empty but for the 2nd time an RV parked right next to us. There is an entire section right across from us that is empty and they parked right next to us. But, on the bright side, both moved the next day. We picked up Julie and went to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant. I love it that we're so close. Heidi called. She passed her latest section from her Master's Program AND she got a job!
Friday, November 13, 2009 Today we ventured off to Hopland to check out the shops. We had lunch at the Bluebird Café, split a hamburger. It was huge. I found a cute cutting board with a map of the United States for Helen for Christmas. Very cute. The waste tanks are full. Being conservative with water, we can go a week between dumps. Carl took the RV to get propane and then to dump and I kept the pets at the picnic table.
Saturday, November 14, 2009 Today I ditched Carl and met Julie for lunch. We had lunch at her house then walked to the Windsor Town Green. There were lots of great little shops. This was the third time I saw Julie in two weeks, reminiscent of the old SF days. Carl and Hattie had a pleasant afternoon without me. They went for a walk/swim at the river until it became to cold for one of them.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 We decided to stay at camp today since we're leaving for home tomorrow. Hattie has and upset tummy, she's had it for a couple of days. We don't know if it was something she ate, a bee sting, drinking the river water, we just don't know. We cut out her table snacks. She got me up two or three times last night to go poop. And for Carl and then for me a couple more times. She's such a good girl. She bugs us until we take her outside. Carl left his glasses outside and a raven came along a swiped them right off the table. Or did he? We looked all over outside and inside the RV, retraced our steps back to the Lodge, never taking our eyes off the ground. The only thing Carl could come up with was the Raven factor. Then, on our way back to the RV, the glasses mysteriously appeared on Carl's shirt collar. How did the Raven do that? I think that's a big "nevermind".
Monday, November16, 2009 Well, today is our go-home day. We're trying to think of some reasons to stay, like today is the most beautiful day ever, but Carl has a doctor's appt tomorrow, I have Bonko on Friday, Little Theater on Sunday, and some banking to do so... we cleaned up and headed home. It was an easy drive, not much traffic. Now we have to plan for our next trip, Justin and Ashley's wedding in Alabama.
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