Day 10 |
December 27, 1997 | Outbound Trip Home Page |
922 Miles Today: 209 Miles |
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Green Acres Fort Bragg CA |
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 14 secs at 28.8 |
A miserable end to a long day - pulled out to let traffic pass in the darkness, clipped a traffic sign I didn't see and knocked out the side door light. A rather obvious piece of damage, for insurance purposes. This as we were only four miles from Fort Bragg, our stop for the night. | The Cruse America folks rather kindly let this pass when they got the rig back. | |
| Left at 9.50 am this morning; arrived Fort Bragg 5.50 pm, in the dark. A big RV park seemingly full of permanents - hard to tell at night. Until the dreadful last two hours of twisty roads in the darkness, a fascinating day's driving. The environment's becoming steadily drier, and big forest has mostly receded; the stretch between Eureka and Leggett is mostly monoculture cedar. | The office was deserted, and stayed deserted; I put the $15 through the letter box | ||
| This rather fragmentary day started inconclusively. Drove through Orick, and alas didn't stop to get to know it well. Selling lots of wooden sculpture by the roadside. Different from the stuff we saw in front of people's houses and shops; more inanely grinning bears and farm animals here. Seems the locals don't have a very high opinion of the passing trade's taste. | |||
 14 secs at 28.8 |
Oh, the bears! - I got a great photo of one of the four golden bears on the Klamath River Bridge just as we left. Bears everywhere, including one (26 secs at 28.8) at the gate of the Klamath site we left today. | ||
| Were hoping to buy supplies in Eureka, but the "Bayshore Mall" there turned out to be a slightly downscale version of Bellevue Square: Sears, Penney's and froofy boutiques, but no grocers or bookstores. Did get a really great latte though; surprise. Our first decent coffee in days. | |||
| The Eureka coast is flat and industrial - lots of sawmills. | |||
| Stopped to shop for groceries in Garberville, and stayed for lunch. | Welcome to Humboldt County, California - Home of topically applied pepper spray used to subdue non-violent protesters. | ||
Garberville
Hippies 22 sec at 28.8 |
Hippie culture is alive and well and living in northern California! The rather nice café where we had lunch contained: a white-bearded and be-sandled old hippie; a couple of 30-something women chatting over arugula salad, one with daisies sewn down the side of her jeans, and rainbows on the pockets; a young woman boring (I hope!) her boyfriend with an endless tale of a friend's unfortunate romantic complications; and behind the counter, vacant 25 year-old college graduettes with pretty faces and perfect teeth. | Would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Continued as we headed south; lots of weird people in Santa Rosa, too. | |
| Picture list Albion Bridge |
At Leggett we had a choice: stay on Hwy 101 and head inland, or turn west onto Hwy 1 and follow the coast. Picked Hwy 1, but it turned out to be really twisty and narrow; it took us (well, S.) an hour to do the 22 miles across the Coastal Ranges to the coast. We almost turned back, but decided to press on; scenic, but hard driving. It didn't get much easier after that - lots of switchbacks on the narrow coast road. Spectacular scenery, but the same spectacular coastline as the previous 300 miles… This is what got us here in the dark and the patio light clipped, dammit; hadn't expected it to take so long. | ||
| Feeling fat and overfed - eating just to do something, I think. Don't have television to fill the void and think for me. | |||