As long as I remember, my Annie has told me about this place, where here dad once had a store. And Stan told me just after we married, that I would love this place, and like a number of things he told me, he was right.We had thought about driving here by the first day, but that would have been unwise. The road from Williams is a highway that twists and turns a bit, but staying in Williams was a good way to do the trip.
The highway from Williams to the coast twisted and turned through the mountains on the way to the coast and Fort Bragg. We stopped there just long enough for some pictures, and since we were also worried about the charge on our new digital camera, we wanted to find a place to buy a battery. No one had anything like that, no digital cameras and no batteries. At that point, I was willing to buy another camera that would allow me to use a simpler alternative than having to use a charger. But other than a Kodak model, which was a bad camera at least four years ago, there was nothing. One drug store, however, did charge what we had for our camera for close to an hour, which actually worked out well.
But then we took a bunch of pictures of the seashore just outside of Fort Bragg, and the charge was down again. There was nothing to do, because there were no options to find something in any of the stores, but before our next road trip, I will have an extra camera--either a Sony or a Nikon that accepts disposable or rechargeable batteries.
Willits posed a challenge. The opportunity to find another In-N-Out Burger was not going to happen, and after making a couple of turns through town, we chose a place that appeared to have a number of customers.
The Italian food there was incredible, and they also had a few Middle Eastern/Greek things as well--stuffed grape leaves and stuffed peppers with an American twist. These were those tiny round spicy peppers. They stuffed them with a type of meat and cheese. Jack, like both of us, also loved the spaghetti.
And on the way to the car, there was even a bit of after dinner magic, which though a bit strange was fun. A man with a ZZ Top beard sat on his dirt bike and played his violin.
Only being in Northern California once for two days is not enough time to set a lasting impression, but some things were interesting. I find it amazing that there are young people who think they are hippies. That culture died a long time ago, and some of them, if not a strong majority, are now a part of the establishment they once hated.
So I find these shops where they sell dragons and statues of Merlin the Magician, which I don't really remember from the 60's, and the fact that I can remember means that I wasn't really a hippy either. The unfortunate thing that I feel no one learned was that drugs are not a path to enlightenment. Having watched some incredible talent swept away from tragic addiction makes me amazed that another generation, even if it's only a small group, would ever attempt the same stupidity. Nineteenth century writers tried it with opium and other things. It didn't work for them either.
There are also red necks. It's one of the few forms of bigotry I have, because there are some of them I really hate, mostly marauding pick-up drivers who feel they own the road. For the most part, I can live with hippies and rednecks as long as they allow me to live my life my own way.
But I will say this, I have never met people who were so "layback" as those I met on this trip.
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