two vegans and a woof: Santa Cruz/Bay Area/Good bye hearse

The next day we drove into Santa Cruz. I was really excited- since from what I've heard everyone loves Santa Cruz. Its close to the velodrome in San Jose- but much cheaper than living in San Francisco. We pull up, find a coffee shop to hang out at and use some internet...walk on over...and find out from a helpful person that no dogs are allowed. No, not just at the coffee shop- but onthe street/side walk. All of down town Santa Cruz is labeled as a no dog zone. We found coffee shop that had a nice back patio to use. Two cops who were there drinking coffee told Cook that it was only that main road. But later we saw more signs on other streets that said no dogs allowed...so it seems like the sort of situation where if we wanted to go out anywhere w/ the dog, it would be jut a matter of time before we got a ticket for it. And we like walking to do errands, and taking the pups...seems like we'd be really frustrated stuck in a town where dogs were only allowed in the neighborhoods.

So we drove on to Palo Alto- where I've been told Id really like. Maybe just because there is goo biking near by- because Palo Alto was prett crappy. Justlots of nice houses, new fancy cars, and gourment places to eat. Not exactly the kind of area its normal to walk around in jeans...

So...we drove on to San Francisco- which might work out. Its at least big enough that given time we should be able to find everything we like (we did right away find a bar that lets dogs inside...) Down side is how expensive it is... when we're done biking we'll jut have to take some time to figure something out. Hopefully someting month to month so when we figure out exactly where we want to stay in the city- or if we want to stay in Santa Cruz anyway. There are some nice cheap little houses within 20 min of Santa Cruz that are out in the montians...

Nothing that exciting I guess to say... except that the hearse does NOT do well with the hills in SF. Oh- and jusst as wegot into SF on the highway- we started loosing ignition again- which eventually blew our new muffler- awesome. We had to re connect/tape the wires at the ballast resistor which had come loose.

We made a stop then in Berkeley to check it out. We were expecting a granola-crunchy-coop filled town- but the down town looks a lot like Arlington or Ballston. There is a really really awesome bike coop there- called the Missing Link. There is a dog park there thats been around since 86- which is an amazingly long time for a dog park next to peoples houses in a neighborhood-we stopped by since I knew Surly would want to run.. Since it was a Saturday it was pretty packed- but Surly did really well with the other pups there. She doesn't play/wrestle with other dogs, but chases and herds them around. Her only main problem now (off leash) with other dogs is if another pup starts a scuffle she has to go try and get involved.

From Berkeley we went to Sacramento where we found a relatively cheap storage place for the hearse. It took some impressive driving by Cook- but he managed to back it into the unit. And from there- we're now hearse-less in a silly minivan. Once we get to Bellingham we can ditch it and start biking back down!