Corte Madera

We stayed last night in the Samuel P Taylor state park, camped under giant redwoods. The racoons visited us about 6 am, and nearly got the bear box open where our food and kitchen stuff was stored. I got up and put a big rock against the doors, then went back to bed. No sooner was I back in bed than the damn thing started molesting the bag on the bike we keep our lunch and snacks in. The bag was empty but had an old candy wrapper in it. I got up again, the racoon left and didn't come back. Later that morning, Candy was dumping a bag of garbage in the dumpster a short distance away, and got a shock when she opened the lid and a racoon looked up at her. She called me over and told me to open it. I did and jumped a little when I saw the masked bandit. I found a piece of wood fencing behind the dumpster, stuck it in and the racoon climbed out. The park host, living just a few yards away, came out and told us she has to do the same thing just about every day. They can get in, but they can't get out, unless the dumpster is full.

We had a great ride from the park through the small towns of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, and Kentfield. Lot's of looks, waves, smiles, honks, thumbs up. Every group of kids we passed stopped what they were doing to watch us go by, some shouting, "Cool bike!" Once, a couple of kids ran over to us and helped us up a hill by pushing on the trailer. Wish we could have had them every time we had a hill to climb.

Tomorrow, we are going to ride over to a nearby storage unit, store our trike and other gear, get a shuttle or maybe a limo to take us over to the Oakland airport, where we will get another room, so that we can board our flight early Friday morning.

Marin County. What can I say about Marin County? It certainly seems trendy and status concious. BMW's, Volvo's, Range Rovers, the occasional Porsche or Mercedes. So many of these brands on the street it would seem they would lose their snob appeal. But the community also seems to be involved and concerned around their enviroment, from what I can tell. Doing a little research on the internet, I found that Marin County is working hard to get people out of their cars and onto bicycles or walking. They already have a pretty good start, as there were good bike lanes most of the way from Samuel P Taylor State Park to our motel. Having good, marked bike routes, lanes, and shoulders is the key to enjoying riding and getting more people doing it. Marin County is on the right track.

Ron.