Avenue of Giants

The one problem with staying in motels with bikers is that when they fire up their Harleys at 8:00 AM, while you are in a dead sleep, it scares the living shit out of you!!!!  On the positive side, it wasn't the alarm clock ringing for Phyllis at 5:30 am, or Gina at 6:30 am, so that we could get up and go to work.  Phyllis made coffee - yes we bring our full size coffee pot and our Community New Orleans Blend with us while we're on the road - and cooked us some grits in the microwave.  How we will live without our Community New Orleans Blend while we're backpacking in foreign countries has yet to be determined.  Apparently that will be another thing we learn to live without in pursuit of our dream.

Not far north of Garberville was the entrance to the Avenue of Giants in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  It's a 31 mile scenic drive through old growth redwoods and was exceptionally tranquil.  (see additional photos in the Picassa album on the right of the blog)

G- Lost Man Creek.
P- Lost Man Creek?  I sure hope they're not counting on us to stop and find him
or that poor bastard will stay lost.
G- Yeah. We lost the 2 we had and we're not looking for replacements

After the Avenue of Giants we visited an adorable Victorian town named Ferndale where we ate a picnic lunch.  There seem to be blackberry bushes growing wild all over this area, and people are stopped all along the road picking them.

Back on the road through Eureka, Ca and a quick drive past the Carson Mansion, we entered the coastal fog. 

G- Did you see that sign?  Coastal Access, Skunk Cabbage.
P- Skunk Cabbage?!  Lawd, cabbage farts smell bad enough, I can only imagine what skunk cabbage farts smell like.
G- I don't want to know.  Maybe when you eat it you get so loaded that when you fart, it just makes you giggle?

Our next detour was to the coastal town of Trinidad; not to be confused with Trinidad & Tobago.  It was an adorable seaside town and the first time the California coast started looking like the Oregon coast with large granite rocks out in the ocean. The town is a still functioning fishing village with a fishing pier and a functioning light house.
We ended this day in Crescent City, Ca. and had traveled 150 miles this day. Total miles traveled from San Francisco: 356.