The Road to San Francisco Led Through Novato

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The evening was young, and rather than stay another night in Sacramento, we decided to take our 28th Wedding Anniversary celebration trip to Northern California towards San Francisco. We figured Sunday Night driving was preferable over Monday Morning Rush Hour.

Deep in the country the evening sun dipped below the green hill-studded horizon. The freeway towards Oakland zig-zagged between grassy slopes, westward for the most part. To avoid the cities we caught another freeway towards San Rafael, a city that sits north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not sure how far north from The City we were, but aware the closer one gets to San Francisco the higher the cost of a stay at a hotel reaches, we climbed aboard Highway 101 South. The first hotel was $129 a night. The next jumped to $250, with a promise of a discount all the way down to $199.99.

Oh, joy.

When one considers the primary purpose of a hotel room is a bed and a bathroom with a shower, it seems a waste to pay more than a minimum amount when they all offer at least those two items. On a matter of principle, I tend to like to pay less.

Following a conversation with one of the hotel clerks, we were advised we were about ten minutes north of the Golden Gate.

After a third disappointment of a price I really didn't want to pay, a discussion with the clerk of the Travel Lodge relinquished a list of a few hotels in the area. After calling a number of them, one a little under $100 turned out to be a little bit north of us.

The drive to the hotel led us to the end of a road away from pretty much everything. The hotel was out by itself and nowhere near any food establishment, so we decided after dumping off our belongings in the room to seek out some fast food. After the great lunch at the River City Brewing Company, another sit-down restaurant was not in the cards.

My wife, for whatever reason, was craving the Golden Arches, so off we searched. According to the folks at the hotel, one of the hamburger establishments was right up the road. However, if it was, it was in hiding.

The adventure of trying to find one of these places took longer than we wanted, and we lost a couple hours in the search. We got to know the town of Novato real well, though.

Unlike other cities, the arches were well hidden, not prominently displayed, and not necessarily right off the freeway. The first one we were told was at De Long and Redwood, but after searching to no avail, we learned later it was actually further west down De Long, and around the corner. The other was off a road named Ignacio.

I was wanting Subway, myself.

After munching down on a Big Mac, fries, and some chicken nuggets with bar-b-que sauce, the completion of the evening was nice. We awoke later in the morning than the day before, just in time for the 6:00 AM opening of the hotel breakfast room. A bowl of cereal and a hard boiled egg was enough to get me set, and then it was time to head towards San Francisco.

Traffic approaching the Golden Gate Bridge reminded us it was rush hour. We were not deterred, even by the $6.00 toll to cross the bridge.

San Francisco was fun, and we saw things we never had the chance to check out before. . . Little did we know the trip out of there, down the 101, was going to get incredibly crazy. . .

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary