I ended up spending a pleasant morning chatting with Margaret before heading out. My plan was to get back to the Monterey Bay area early enough for a walk around Fort Ord's new mountainbike trails. She texted Eric and arranged a quick lunch at the base's Burger King at 11:30am. He got there right on time and we enjoyed a private talk for 30 minutes before he had to get back to work and I had to get on the road. This gave me enough time for the 1300-mile drive back to Arizona.
He has 2.5 years of active duty left. He's unsure if he's going to stay in, or get out and finish his college degree. He's thinking of going to school in either Tempe or Tuscon. He's not happy being an HVAC mechanic, since he wanted to join the Air Force as a Chinese linguist working in intelligence. His dream sheet has Germany but he doubts he'll get it. (I was a Russian linguist with the Army). Whatever he decides to do, I will support him. I did warn him that wherever he goes after his service is over, I will continue to road trip to visit him. I enjoy coming to California as much as I enjoyed flying to see my daughter in Virginia Beach. (Her husband is getting out of the Navy in May and they are moving back to Northwest Indiana).
I was driving through Fairfield to get back on I-80 when Eric texted at 12:49. "Have you departed for Monterey?"
"Still in town, why?"
"OK. Someone rammed into the Starbucks on base. Just making sure you weren't inside ordering. They smashed right through the counter."
The weird part was that I did consider stopping there for another cappuccino for my long drive back to Monterey, but opted to save time and skip the java. Later Eric added that it was an elderly woman who lost control of her car and broke through the wall. Six people were critically injured. I normally sit in corners where the outlets are and would not have been injured directly, but I'm sure fallen debris would have gotten me. Eric was sent there to assess HVAC damage. This incident made me realize that we all need to stop whatever we are doing and thank our lucky stars for our fortunes.
https://fox40.com/2019/03/21/6-injured-after-car-crashes-into-starbucks-on-travis-afb/
Traffic was much smoother going south on I-80/US101 with few and short "slow downs." There is also no $6 toll going this way. The bottleneck between San Jose and Gilroy is unavoidable. That is where the highway goes from three to two lanes and traffic always backs up. There were two regional parks in the Pendleton area; I will explore those next time.
I made it to Fort Ord by 3:30pm. The old army fort is now deactivated, with most of the land going to neighboring towns of Marina and Seaside, with property to the University of California Monterey Bay and the Bureau of Land Management. Most of the tank trails are now open to the public, but there are some areas still closed off for HAZMAT removal when the fort closed in 1994. What is taking so long?!
I found a parking area off Gigling Road on Ord's southern side. Other mountain bikers were parked here, so that told me this was a safe area to hike and bike in. I ended up walking six miles in sandy predune habitat, up and down over rolling hills with just sporadic abandoned wooden shacks in the area. The trails close a half hour before sunset, but there were still plenty of people out enjoying an after-work ride.
The BLM is still working on marking the trails. Posts have already been installed at major intersections. Trails with posts at crossings are open for use. Closed-off trails are signed closed. Once I figured this out, it was easy walking, down old dunes, wide paths, or under the shade of a Spanish-moss covered live oak. I finished the loop by the old Silas B Hays Army Community building where Erin was born back in 1986. The hospital is now a gated-in DoD building.
I finished the hike at sunset, driving toward Monterey via "Obama Way" (Broadway) in Seaside. The walk tired me out and I was ready for two more beers at the Alvarado Brewing company in town. I really like this place! I didn't eat here this time, but discovered an outdoor dog-friendly patio on the west side of the building. I kept Zeke in the car because the place was too crowded. I got my credit card back and can now be relieved.
It's my last day in Monterey. Tomorrow I will begin my return drive to Arizona. I will stop at the Los Padres Dam in Carmel Valley on my way there. I hiked there with Sadie years ago, but turned around when the trail was washed out. The Carmel river experiences frequent flooding in that area.
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