{"id":4861,"date":"2011-02-10T21:07:31","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T21:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/?p=4861"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:33:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T13:33:29","slug":"day-208-you-might-find-this-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/expedition-updates\/day-208-you-might-find-this-interesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 208 : \u201cYou might find this interesting\u2026..\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaberville (Ca) to San Francisco (Ca)<\/p>\n

High Point : Driving over the Golden Gate bridge at 5.43pm and witnessing the most perfect sunset over San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Low Point : The travel sickness felt by all in the back of the \u201cRig\u201d \u00a0after 3 hours of gunning down the wonderfully winding Highway 1. Of course it could of also been the 2 foot club sandwich we ate at lunch.<\/p>\n

Rename of the day : Martha is currently holding her own when dwarfed by U.S Fire Engines twice her size but to help her sound more Macho and fitting with her surroundings we have currently renamed her from an engine to a \u201cRig\u201d. Also she now can be referred to as a \u201cRide\u201d as in \u201cThat\u2019s a sweet ride you\u2019ve got yourself there!\u201d<\/p>\n

Statement of the day (And potentially my life) : X-Pod (or Rob if you don\u2019t know his self given nick name) \u2026 \u201c Riding this road is like taking a drug\u2026 \u00a0and I\u2019m Addicted to it\u2026\u2026. But sometime in life you have to give up drugs\u2026.\u201d<\/strong> Enlightening stuff Rob.<\/p>\n

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Strange Conversation of the day: Ben trying to convince the guard at the entrance to the famous Redwood drive through tree in Leggett to let us in for free\u2026<\/p>\n

Ben \u201c You might find this interesting\u2026We are driving this Fire Engine around the World<\/strong>\u201d proceeded by 5 minutes of intense explanation of what we are doing as the guards face became more Blank.<\/p>\n

Ben \u201cSo can we see the tree for free?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guard \u201c No\u2026. I`ll lose my Job\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben \u201c Oh\u2026. How about if you just turned your back and we drive in\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guard \u201cNo\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben \u201c Ok\u2026.. How about a discount\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guard \u201cNo\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben \u201c Ermm \u2026 ok here\u2019s your 5 dollars then\u201d <\/strong>\u2026. Nice try Ben. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Authors comments<\/p>\n

Upon Waking up in Gaberville we were greeted by a thick fog that gave the small town a wonderfully mystic \u201cTwin Peaks\u201d feel. After ticking off the \u201cmust do in America\u201d list by staying in a small independent motel we arranged to have the all important crew breakfast in a local caf\u00e9 where we also hoped to run through the normal movie clich\u00e9s of having numerous \u201ccwoofee\u201d refills from the waitress while all sitting at the bar and eating eggs cooked over easy. \u00a0Luckily for us the girls from the Woodrose Caf\u00e9 in Gaberville were all so friendly and interested in what we were doing and after easily the most delicious breakfast of stage 7 they told us that breakfast was on the house to help us get ready for the long drive ahead (Thank you so much again Girls!). As always on FTFE it\u2019s the small things that people do to help us that provide some of our best memories.<\/p>\n

After leaving Gabberville we drove through the truly humbling Giant Redwood forests of Humboldt National Park on route to Leggett to see the famous original \u201cdrive through\u201d chandelier tree. Needless to say Martha didn\u2019t fit through the hole that was carved out in the 30`s but the tree was still massive enough to make her look truly tiny. Amazingly the Chandelier tree is still growing today despite having a tunnel carved through it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Route 1 was next on our list and for me personally it was a real cracker to drive! Windy enough to be challenging yet gorgeous enough to make it all worthwhile the route began climbing up and down through some high hills before opening up to what must be one of the prettiest coastal drives I`ve ever had the fortune to see. Around each turn bay after bay opened up magnificently for us and with each passing vista the waves crashing into the rocky, wild coastline seemed to get \u00a0bigger and more powerful! Then all of a sudden a golden stretch of sand would appear and run for as far as your eyes could see and the sea became as still as a mill pond.<\/p>\n

We had earlier made the decision as a group that we wanted to try to reach The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for sunset which meant that we didn\u2019t have the time to stay on winding route 1 all day. Instead we drove down the much more direct road of route 128 through the vineyards of northern California. The difference in the landscape was remarkable as we now sped past farmhouses and small communities that looked like almost deserted but for the occasional smoking chimney or barking Dog waiting at the white picket fence (another fantastic clich\u00e9!)<\/p>\n

We made good time to the entrance to The Golden Gate Bridge which gave us about 30 minutes to get out of Martha and take in the view of the whole San Francisco Bay area, bridge, city, boats, Alcatraz Island and of course the shimmering blue water of the bay itself. It really is a view that I don\u2019t think you would ever grow tired of seeing and we were treated to its \u201cGolden\u201d best as the sun was setting over the Pacific ocean and Lighting up the Bridge in a magnificent glowing red.<\/p>\n

Rob was luckily enough to get the million Dollar drive over the bridge at sunset and Steve chose a great song for the moment (Yes it was James!). All was perfect and not wanting to miss a thing I stuck my head out of the window on the left side of the Cab to do some filming as we past under the massive towers that dominate the bridge and skyline for miles around. Pulling my head back inside and taking a peak to the right you could see the sun balanced perfectly on the Pacific Ocean and shining with a light so pure that it made you think of nothing else but that moment there and then. I\u2019m sure I can speak for the rest of Stage 7 and say it was a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

We met Audrey on the South side of the Bridge along with some S.F Firefighters from station 10 where Rob had arranged for us to park Martha while we were in the city. They had turned up in a special commemorative Brown coloured Fire truck that was built in remembrance to the Fire Engines of 1906 when San Francisco had its great Earthquake and fires. It seems even for Steve and Amy following a fire engine never gets tiring and the excitement of being escorted through the city was the perfect end to a another magnificent day on the Road.<\/p>\n

Luckily for a very tired crew our accommodation had been sorted out for us by the amazing Ted and Sarah at The Green Tortoise Hostel www.greentortoise.net<\/a> and again we can\u2019t thank them enough for looking after us and making us feel so welcome!<\/p>\n

Is stage 7 really becoming the best stage of them all?<\/p>\n

James<\/p>\n

[flickr album=72157626042037044 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n

\"Make<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more blogs using”George’s World Blog Map”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Gaberville (Ca) to San Francisco (Ca) High Point : Driving over the Golden Gate bridge at 5.43pm and witnessing the most perfect sunset over San Francisco. Low Point : The travel sickness felt by all in the back of the \u201cRig\u201d \u00a0after 3 hours of gunning down the wonderfully winding Highway 1. Of course it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-7-vancouver-to-phoenix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4861"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5925,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861\/revisions\/5925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}