Drifters in Recreation Grove

Willits is one of the few places, like San Francisco, where Federal Highway 101 still goes right through town. Travelers from points south, like Santa Rosa, going to points north, like Eureka, all funnel through our main street with its four traffic signals. That's my theory of why we have so many young drifters, with their backpacks and dogs and skateboards, stopping to stay a while in the shelter of Recreation Grove, with its stage for sitting and sheltering from the rain. Sometimes more than a dozen will congregate here, especially in the colder months when residents aren't using it so much for events and parties.