And Away We Sat

 

There are three basic ways to get around the cities and towns located in this part of the San Francisco Bay Area:  The BART—Bay Area Rapid Transit electric train (below), car (most used)

and by bicycle/walking on the Contra Costa bike path.  Although the bike path is very busy with both work and exercise related activities, the most used method of transportation is cars.

We didn’t use any of these means of transportation on our explorations today.  Of course, we let the eagle spread his wings.  Unfortunately, he didn’t do much soaring during our 4 hour trip.  We were delayed this morning, so we didn’t get started until after lunch, which landed us in increasing traffic and temperatures. Except for the Interstates, all roads lead through the cities and town that sit in the valleys among the hills.  Our trip took us through Clayton, Pittsburg, Antioch, Walnut Creek, and Concord.   Our goal was to find a place to park the rv if we get it out of the repair shop before we are scheduled to leave the area.  We checked out the Antioch fairgrounds—full 30-amp hookups, pretty safe, and the Walnut Creek Elks— three spots, with water and electric only.  Antioch was 30 minutes, 15 miles, from the kids in medium traffic since we could skirt the edge of most of Pittsburg.  Walnut Creek, 9 miles, took 45 minutes of stop and start heavy traffic because we had to go right through the middle of town.  By the time we got home we were hot and cranky [well Louise was cranky] from sitting in traffic in the hot sun.

A very small part of the trip took us through the hills where the air was a bit cooler,

the traffic lighter,

and the scenery beautiful.

We did see some interesting things along the way:

a palm tree with its head cocked and arms akimbo,

a brilliant splash of color,

crepe myrtle bushes trimmed to look like trees,

and a communications tower disguised as a tree

Passing John Muir hospital, we waved to Matt and Beth (both nurses there).  The last time we were here, that whole front part was under construction. 

My plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to sleep past 6:30.  We’ll see how that works out!

Louise and Duane