The Blues Road: Murder in Mendocino

Murder at our hotel

Pictures on the hotel lobby wall

Mendocino is reputedly one of the most attractive towns on the Californian coast. This beautiful old town like many in this region started as a lumber mill town but soon became a wealthy haven for people moving out of hustle and bustle of San Francisco. It’s middle class, expensive and smart. The town is more reminiscent of those in Maine and the North Shore of Boston rather than California.

Mendocino is also known as the setting for many films and television programmes including my least favourite and loathed “Murder She Wrote” and you can imagine the consternation when we discovered that our hotel was the main setting.

Main Street, Mendocino

On the headland at Mendocino

“Murder She Wrote” is a sweet sickly way of popping people off in an American alternative to the UK’s “Midsomer Murders”. After all those deaths, I am surprised that there are any inhabitants left in this town. Just goes to prove that it’s not real and only make believe. Angela Lansbury is a paper version of the great detective miss Marples on whom she was loosely based and Agatha Christie must be turning in our grave.

Margaret Rutherford, one of the great Miss Marples

Back to the coast which now begins to take on a more manicured appearance. We are slowly coming closer to urban west cost but the tortuous winding road gives no hint of the cities to come. The spruce and redwoods have been replaced by graceful Monterey Pines. Everybody is surprised at how quiet and empty this part of California is. Very different to what we expect from the fun and sunshine state

The great deserted coast continues

We arrived at Point Arena with another anxious empty fuel tank and talked to 2 guys at the fuel station who wanted to discuss the statutory American ice-breaker, the price of gas. We commented on the emptiness of the roads. He told us that the reason was that no American wanted to drive on this road and that the next 50 miles to Bodega Bay was the worst and longest f*****g 49 mile journey in the world. Well, we all have different ways of seeing the world. We had also run out of screen wash and Martin was beginning to get anxious about the warning notice on the dashboard. It was so nice to see him leaving Port Arena with such a look of delight on his face as he pushed the button again and again with gay abandon. Clear windscreen: Clear mind!

We asked each other whether this journey was an adventure. Martin, who is really a closet adrenaline junkie, felt that it should include some physical action which pushes you to your limits. The other 3 car-seat potatoes disagreed and felt that a more ethereal experience, which challenges your grey-mater was equally adventuresome. We are on an adventure!

We didn’t want to miss Bodega Bay. This small town was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” The original short story, written by Daphne du Maurier was based in a small farming community in Cornwall. Jacqui and I have just read it for our book club. The original story is possibly an allegorical tale of nuclear war and destruction. Hitchcock was flushed with success after his immensely successful film Psycho and was looking for a sequel. He moved Cornwall to Bodega and called it Maine. The original settlement of Bodega is 2 miles from the port and has been boosted by its links with Hitchcock.

The Master with some friends

The main set was erected on the waterfront at Bodega Bay

This restaurant car park was the film lot for "The Birds"

The church in the film

The Bodega Town Casino

The great man at the village store

The country now turns to rolling grasslands and farms parched brown by the unusually dry summer. It’s quite a shock when we find ourselves on a four-lane freeway heading into San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. Few iconic structures define a city like this bridge. It suddenly looms in front of us, swallowing the busy Sunday evening traffic as it returns to the city after the weekend.