Moving North from San Diego

We started north from San Diego,through Los Angeles and all that traffic. Our next stop was Santa Barbara ,Ca. Rancho Oso Campground. What the list of campgrounds doesn't list is what the roads to the campgrounds are like. This one even had Vera nervous. One lane, not one each direction, but only one lane on the side of a mountain. They had mirrors set at the turns so you could see oncoming traffic around the bend. Not that I could do anything about if someone was coming the other way.You can't back up when you are towing a car. The campground was nice. I needed a couple of days to get up the nerve to drive out. Really it was nice and had two pools and a hot tub.

Further north we stopped at Morgan Hill Campground. We were back to the center of the state. We had a winery at the entrance of the campground. We had a little tour and bought a bottle. We saw the first of many forest fires. There was a lot of smoke coming over the mountain. We got a chance to wash our jeep. Five thousand miles can get a car and motor home pretty dirty.
Finally, we made it to San Francisco. We stayed in Redwood city, about 20 miles south of downtown San Francisco. We have a niece who lives in Burlingame,a suburb of San Francisco. She was out of town for the first few days we were there. We went to China town and found a fortune cookie factory we visited 19 years ago. The next day we toured fisherman's wharf area. We got pictures of Vera with Forrest Gump (look alike) outside Bubba Gump Restaurant. It was cold there. They make a fortune selling jackets to tourists. We saw and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. We toured some old ships and ferries(In San Francisco we have to clarify, this is a kind of boat). When Trish,Vera's niece, got home she drove us to Muir Wood where the giant red woods are. They are awesome. We were guided by Trish all through the city. We went down the most crooked street, and the cable cars.
Lake Minden, just north of Sacramento was our next stop. The center of California was real hot. 100 degrees, or more. We tried kayaking again on the lake there. The smoke was getting a lot closer.
Further up the road we stayed at Redding Ca. We needed to visit one of Vera's nephews,Andrew. Vera hasn't seen him since 1977. I never meet him before. He has a restaurant,bar in Fall River Mills. Population 600 and surrounded with miles of trees. Oh by the way once again, or should I say still with the forest fires. They closed the highway, because the fire jumped the road.( A thirty six mile detour). We finally got back to the Bear Mountain RV Resort where we left the motor home while visiting Andrew.
There were eighty forest fires between central California and the coast ,where we were headed. Change of plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!