Alcatraz was a tour well worth taking. The audio tour made all of the difference - with prisoners and guards alike relating stories of their time 'on the rock'. Helen, Karen and I took the tour as Rob had already done it a few years back. He enjoyed his time in the city - visiting some of the sites that he remembered from his last visit while we were on the tour. The cable cars were fun - we took the Hyde St car down to Powell street. The steep inclines and declines made me absolutely sure that there was no way I would attempt to take the motor home into the city. I would stay on the motor ways and keep safe. Helen wanted to try and walk through Haight Ashbury - but I had to tell her that she was going to be disappointed this time - as I wasn't brave enough or stupid enough to try.
So our day ended - catching our shuttle back to the RV park - thoroughly enjoying ourselves and the day we had...
Wednesday arrives, we have decided to take the Golden Gate bridge north - go up to Earnest and Julio Gallo's place - then continue on to Reno - where we start phase 3 of the holiday with Helen and Rob. Good plan. Starts a bit off when we realise about 1/2 mile out of the park that we had forgotten to return the restroom key - and so lost our $5 deposit. On a scale of 1 to 10 - not life changing - but it should have been a clue.
After this auspicious beginning - we got onto the US101N on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge - I wasn't sure about it - but wanted to try. As bad luck would have it - because of some recent construction - the instructions were confusing and I missed some turns and ended up driving this RV straight downtown San Francisco. I quickly realised my mistake - but had no choice but to go forward, trying to keep calm, weaving my way through narrow streets and heavy traffic and following a GPS that I no longer had much faith in. For a time - things were OK - we were managing -then Karen mentioned how proud she was at how well I was doing. I said - we're not through this yet - and 5 seconds later - I clip a truck (which was double parked on this street) mirror - knock mine clean off and got stuck at a light - with a homeless man shouting at me that I hit this guys mirror and what was I going to do about it? Obviously - without a mirror I couldn't see what if any damage I did to his mirror - and with the traffic - it wasn't exactly like I could pull over. So there we are - driving through SF with the passenger side mirror dangling by its electrical cord and Rob - with his head and arm out of the window - trying to hold onto what is left of it and shouting to me - 'you can pull over to the right lane - no one is coming...
One would think that I have been punished enough - but no - it isn't over yet. My GPS decided to take me to the Golden Gate Bridge via the 3rd most steep inclined street in the City. It must have been at least a 30% incline - which was bad enough going up - but once I hit the top and looked at what I was facing going down - I knew that I had just blown the wad on this. We bottomed out at every cross street - Karen suggesting strongly that I turn left - although I still had to get down the hill so I wasn't quite sure what turning left would do, and me just focused on getting down with some of my brakes intact while Rob was half hanging out holding onto the mirror and dodging signs and other various objects which are closer to the lane than you actually realise. Helen was so quiet - I almost thought we had lost her at the top of the hill but found out later that while all of this is going on - she and Karen (who were sitting on the couch in the back) were desperately searching for the seat belts that were on the floor under the couch in case the police stopped us and checked.
We finally make it to the bottom of the street - turn onto a flat, fairly straight road with the Bridge visible in the distance letting us know that this nightmare will eventually end. I am still trying to negotiate with no mirror - Rob is my only connection with what is happening in the right hand side and Helen (ever the one to take advantage of whatever the situation) having Rob move onto the floor (with his arm still hanging out - trying to hold onto the mirror) so that she can get a great picture of the bridge through the open window - not once but 4 times!!! To try and really relay what actually happened is impossible - but hopefully you get the idea. 
We do make it across the bridge without any further incident - managed to pull into a Vista Point right after the bridge and Rob and I go out to check out what the situation is and come up with a plan to deal with it. Meanwhile - Helen and Karen start searching the Internet for the nearest RV service shop that maybe we can get to - to deal with the problem. Needless to say - we were all slightly fraught with nerves having just gone through what we all went through. Thank god - at this point - some of our luck started to change...
First thing - with Rob's help we were able to jury rig the mirror so that I could use it. I think that I could have probably made it all the way to Reno if necessary with the job of taking the stress off of it that Rob did. Helen was a champ and found a mobile repair group who agreed to fit us in if we could make it to Petaluma. Not exactly on the way to Reno - but what the heck - perhaps this wouldn't be a complete disaster after all. So off we drive to Petaluma - and once we get there - pull over to the shoulder of a very busy road. We then wait for another hour until the repair van shows up. The bad news is that we will need a complete new mirror - and his supplier doesn't have an 18" mirror - only a 13". The good news is that my repair guy has an idea for a possible way to repair it - can't guarantee that it will hold forever - but he is pretty confident in his plan. He explained it to me - it seemed pretty viable so I decided to go with it. 2 hours later - we have a mirror - one that I am pretty pleased with and have paid him for his trouble and were back on the road to Reno. It is now 3pm - we are still facing a 5 hour drive to Reno so off we go. Now I know that this blog is sort of dragging on - and I imagine that you all think that it is about all that could happen to someone in one day - but no - it is not. Mainly because most of you have never had Helen to contend with. She had this plan - stop at a WalMarts along the way - get some food so that when we get to Reno we can whip up a dinner - and get back on the road. What could go wrong with this plan - quick stop off, a little shopping and back on the road. Adds an extra 1/2 hour to our trip - tops!
So off we go - with Helen keeping her eyes peeled for a WalMarts. We get outside of Vacaville - and Helen spots a sign for WalMart - and says - get off at the next exit. I also see that sign - but found it a bit disconcerning that I couldn't see the store - just the sign. I do as instructed though - get off at the next exit and realise that we still have no idea where this WalMarts is. Can't even begin to guess which way to turn - and even the GPS doesn't acknowledge the store in the area. So we pull into a gas station and Rob goes and checks out where the store is. Comes back and says just go a few blocks and its there. Now - I know that most of you understand the size of a WalMarts - even the parking lot will get your attention. Here we are driving up and down this road - trying to do an 8 point turn to reverse our direction - and no WalMart in sight. Rob even used the binoculars to locate this store - to no avail. Finally - we manage to get on line - check the WalMart store locator and get an address for this store. Believe it or not - we had been passing it by but it was so well hidden - that it wasn't visible from the road. By the time we finally find this store and Helen and Rob are able to locate everything they wanted and we are back on the road - our 1/2 hour turns into 3 and I now discover another thing that I never want to do again - drive through the mountains like Donnor Pass in the dark! Oh well - so many things I have learn today - finally - at 11pm - we pull into the Reno RV park. More on this later. I have dragged on long enough with these two days...
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