Wednesday morning we left Lemon Cove and the Central Valley and made our way to San Francisco and the bay area. As you would expect traffic was heavy and sometimes slow. The best route to Petaluma, where our campground is located, was on I-580 crossing the bay via the Richmond Bridge. Seems all bridges in the bay area are toll and neither of our two automatic toll transponders worked for the bridge. We went thru the cash lane and had a shock when the attendant said $20. Because we were towing our car he considered us to be four axles. What a rip off! The Golden Gate bridge has photo toll via license plates and we expect to receive a few bills from that bridge. One of the reasons traffic is so congested in the bay area is a significant portion of the traffic must use one of the seven main bay bridges. We are 35 miles north of the Golden Gate bridge and yet CA 101, the highway that crosses the bridge, will back up during busy times. You lean to allow plenty of time to reach your destination and throw the calculated times by Google Maps and your GPS out the window. Brings to mind the old saying, "nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live here".
They say California is broke and the roads indicate the state is way behind on maintenance. Some of the worst roads we have traveled on are here in California. When they do patch the roads they just pile up the asphalt to form a bump and you get stretches of road that are like driving on a wash board. Besides the roads, another political hot button here is water. Driving up I-5 thru the Central Valley you see all manner of signs relating to the water shortage. California is a huge agricultural state with vast fields of crops but two thirds of the state appear to be desert. All thru the Central Valley you will see canals carrying water and every field has a means of irrigation. The recent drought years have resulted in water rationing and the farmers are not happy.
After traveling all day we are tired and decide to remain in the campground after we arrive in Petaluma.
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