On the road - day number two.

21 July 2008.

Location: Ukiah, CA - Willits - Avenue of the Giants - Eureka - Coos Bay, OR.

Weather:
Ukiah - Cool and overcast.
Willits - Very foggy.
Eureka and Coos Bay - Sunny and a baking 87'F = 30'C.

We started the day with the breakfast of champions - cafe food and coffee from Starbucks. I had a slice of banana loaf which was unexpectedly sweet, and a chai latte. All the sugar got me on a high and I was jittery for the next 2-3 hours.

We drove a short way to Willits and stopped at a supermarket. I got some NZ Jazz apples for US$2.49 lb which comes to about NZ$7 for a kg - ouch. We also got some Rainier cherries which are yellow and orange-red and look a bit like tiny nectarines as far as colour goes. They are kind of sour so taste quite different from black cherries that I normally eat, but they were ok. I prefer sweet black cherries... mmm.

There was lots of fog as we were driving along the coast - weaving in and out along the coastline and going over hills was much more like being in NZ than the wide straight freeways we had been on. However, not being able to see the trees in the forest from the road due to fog was not!

We stopped at Fortuna for gas from a Chevron station (with Techron) and ended up staying to eat mexican food for lunch. I had a tostada which is a round, taco-like shell (although white intead of yellow) with the toppings piled up on it. Chicken, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole. Yum. I also tried root-beer from a soda fountain and can say that it tastes kinda like creaming soda but without the vanilla, and quite subtle really. I haven't tried it from a can or bottle yet so I'm not sure if the fountain affected the taste much.

We took a nice scenic drive through the Avenue of Giants, which is an alternative route through forests with massive sequoia redwood trees. It was impressive, with attractions such as the "Tree House", "One Log House", "the Grandfather Tree" and "Confusion Hill".

We finally stopped for a walk in the forests and ended up going for a 2 hour hike up and down a hill because the signposts were pretty confusing. The signs didn't say how long the tracks were, they said how far it was until the trail started. So "Rhodedendron trail - 1.2 mi" becomes a completely different matter. Fortunately we came back out along the same path we went in on so we didn't have to walk up the road to find the car!

We carried on to Coos Bay and stopped at a restaurant with German Food and Seafood for dinner. It was a bit of a challenge to find food that everyone would like. I had beef rouladen with spaetzle - schnitzel wrapped around something, with german pasta stuff. It was good. Everyone else had pizza which I think missed the point a bit, but at least they weren't hungry.

There was something happening in town that weekend so the Motel 6 we were going to stay in was full - and pretty much everywhere else in town too! It was 9pm at this time and a two hour drive to get to our next destination. We packed up in the car and headed off but found a motel not too far up the road. It was quite cheap with a slightly creepy looking motel-guy.

The room was clean enough and after watching back-to-back episodes of Animal Rescue we all dozed off.