On the way down to San Francisco I met up again with Susan, who showed me around the city on my original visit there. We visited Shasta Lake on the way down, and stopped to look at the impressive Shasta Dam, the biggest in the US when measured by concrete volume.
The documentary about the construction of the dam was very interesting. It showed a huge tower that had been used to suspend a cable to transport the huge buckets of concrete. When the dam was finished they cut the tower off at it’s base, as low as they could, but occasionally when the water level is low, the base of the structure can still be seen.
The water level is very low right now, as there has been very little rain recently, and the remains of the tower is clearly visible high above the water level.
In Fairfield, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, we met up with Cindy and Trevor again. Along with Steven, Cindy’s husband, they had walked across the Golden Gate Bridge with me over a month before. Cindy had suggested that I should call in there to visit the Jelly Belly factory on the way through, and this suggestion had been enthusiastically backed up by Susan.
So we met at the entrance to the factory, where we queued to go on the tour, and then spent quite some time tasting the incredible range of Jelly Belly flavours. There are some very unusual ones, and a great “menu” which gives suggestions for mixing the different flavours. For example, eating one Mango, one Crushed Pineapple and one Jalapeno Jelly Belly would give you a Mango Pineapple Salsa! Have a look on the Jelly Belly website for further informaton:-
www.JellyBelly.com
Before I left Vancouver, where I had a great internet connection at the house, I sent a few emails to San Francisco-based storage companies, and managed to find one who would be happy to store the RV for me, in return for a mention on the website.
I had talked to Scotty on the phone, and went to visit Bridge Storage, a family-run storage place in Richmond, just to the north of San Francisco. Their facility looked great, and they have very kindly offered to look after my RV for the next six months until I return in the summer.
And so today I have parked up the RV and have left it now in the safe hands of the team at Bridge Storage, and have a flight booked for first thing tomorrow to The Big Island in Hawaii.
I have also booked to go diving with manta rays on Friday night, and am very excited! For more details, see here:
Manta Ray Night Dive