Monday came around too soon.  We had to pack up and head out to our next site.  We had to cut this trip short to get Roxie to some MD appointments so she could continue with her back surgery in a bit over a week.  When trying to think of a destination I thought of somewhere we had visited before but didn’t stay.  The one drawback is that the day was going to be 240 miles to get there.  A bit of a long day for us.  We started earlier than we normally did, 9am.

We decided to go back down the coast and maybe get a few ocean shots.  Here is one:

It was nice and cool there, too bad we couldn’t stay.  We followed the Ford Nav unit again for directions.  It took us back the same route toward Petaluma and then it got a bit exciting.  It took us down a very rural street just to connect to another that took off of the road earlier?  Why?  That was just a precursor to our fun in Petaluma.

I needed to get some diesel and put some air in the tires of the trailer.  We got on 101S north of Petaluma and Gas Buddy showed a station at the next exit.  I took it but went the wrong way (W).  I got turned around to go east over the freeway but got stuck in an unmarked on ramp that took me NORTH on 101.  No!  I don’t want to go this way.  We had to go almost 3 miles before we could turn around.  I paused a bit after the exit and before heading back SOUTH on 101.  I used this to find a different station.

The next station was easier to get to.  It had diesel and air!  Well, almost.  I fueled up and had to do some interesting positioning to get the trailer next to the air pump.  Previously I had asked the attendant if their air pump was working and he said it was.  It wasn’t.  They apologized and we pulled out.  I then started looking for a tire shop.  We drove by a few but there was no way to get the trailer in there.  We drove around some downtown, narrow streets and finally found a station that had an air pump.

More fun ensued there.  There was only one angle for me to get to the air pump.  I came in one exit, had to drive by the store, then back into the pump.  Easy peasy.  Except there were people going in and out, parking here and there, plus there was the slowest propane truck there filling the stations tank.  Roxie eventually got out and asked people not to park where I had to drive through.  It took us about 10-15 minutes of waiting until we could get the tires aired up.

Next task was lunch.  We really like to eat at local eateries and we tried to this time but were thwarted each time by trying to find a parking spot (50′ long) for us.  We gave up and headed down the road and ate at the Carneros Deli.  It was very good.

We headed to Vallejo and down through Benicia, Walnut Creek, Livermore and eventually to I5 southbound.  Yes leaving the nice cool weather.  Where were we heading?

Mercey Hot Springs.  We visited them, along with some Airstreamers, during our Valentine’s Day trip.

We really like hot springs of any kind so this seemed like a natural.  It was nice to coming on a Monday as they weren’t busy at all.  The only bad part was it was SOOO windy.  There was a wind warning all the time we were there and gusts were up to 40mph!

The hot springs has a warm swimming pool.  The main attraction are the tubs.  Essentially plastered, concrete tubs.  There is a hot and cold hose where you can adjust the temperature.  We never used the cold.  At night the wind would calm down and it was much more enjoyable.  In the dark, in a hot water tub, looking up at the numerous stars in the sky.  It was very nice and relaxing.

They have 2 Airstreams that you can rent on site but we took one of the full hookup spots.  The full hookups were technically $15/night but that was on top of the per person daily charge.  They say the location is off grid and they use solar and a generator to provide electricity.  Therefore they don’t want usage of any electric heaters or air conditioners.  However microwave use was OK.

Here are some pictures of our spot:

We didn’t want to leave but knew life was waiting, just for a bit.