Having packed everything up Sunday we didn't have much to do to get ready to depart Monday morning, just get ourselves ready, make some coffee for the road and head off. We planned to stay at the Benbow RV Resort just south of Garberville. Before leaving the Petaluma KOA we had checked the weather forecast for Garberville (20% chance of rain), Fortuna (10% chance of rain) and Arcata (5% chance of rain) so decided we could keep going if it was raining in Garberville. So, what the heck does "20% chance of rain" (or even 5%) mean anyway? Does it mean they expect it to rain .2*24=4.8 hours that day??? Who knows??? Well, we found out that it can also mean "pissing down rain all darn day"!!! About a half hour north of Petaluma it started and did not stop... we drove past Benbow and Garberville in the rain, past Fortuna in the rain and arrived in Arcata in the rain.... and it rained all night!!! We don't begrudge these folks the rain because they really need it but it could have waited one more day! Anyway, we had a nice dinner at Mazzotti's on the plaza in Arcata.
Tuesday morning we awoke to...no rain... yeah! Since we had driven much farther than we had planned yesterday, today's run was real short as we plan to stay in Crescent City for a couple of nights. Crescent City is only a couple of hours north of Arcata. Along the way there were a couple of construction sites where the traffic was limited to one lane so we had to stop and wait. At one of these, Kris looked out the window into the bush and exclaimed "... whow, look at that slug!". Here's this slug sitting on a large leaf about 15 feet away from the car...
... we could only wonder how it got there, the leaf being on the end of a tall skinny stalk.
Entering Crescent City we decided to try a different restaurant (we always stop at the Chart Room on the wharf as there is lots of space to park with the trailer) so stopped just north of the entrance to the Chart Room and went into the Fishermans Restaurant where we had a very substantial sized and tasty lunch even though we both ordered smaller portions.
Later at the KOA we wandered around in the Redwood forest part of the campground where Brian just had to climb a big old stump that he had climbed years before. Still managed to get up onto it quite easily but it was a bit of a bugger getting down off it...
We also came across another slug making his way across the trail. It was a bit of a foot race...
While doing laundry we struck up a conversation with a fellow (Jeff) who asked if we happened to have stayed at the Bandon KOA just before Labor Day last year. Yes, that might have been us... he said he thought so as he recalled his wife had chatted with us (people from BC in a wee trailer just like ours) at that time. Cool... this also reminded us that we forgot to mention last week while at Petaluma we met two other couples who were from places we stayed at last year on our trip back east. One couple was from Harrisonburg Virginia and the other from Franklin North Carolina. We had good chats about their current adventures out west etc etc.
Wednesday we did a day trip north up US 199 to Cave Junction, Oregon. This is where Marcy Tilton's Art Barn is and since Kris had a $50 certificate to use, there was more fabric shopping to be done. A good time for Brian to catch some zzz's while waiting. It is a beautiful drive through the Jedediah Smith forest along the way. On the way back we turned off the South Fork road and after a few miles the narrow road turned to gravel as we entered Stout Grove an absolutely beautiful place to get out of the car and hike around the trails in the grove. Way cool!
... and of course, more slugs, this one of the spotted variety...
We were under the impression that the Smith River is the only undamed river in California (Wikipedia seems to indicate otherwise) and that the water is so clear you can see nearly 60 feet underwater. The river looked like it had numerous great spots for swimming (in warmer temperatures than today). Leaving the grove parking lot we continued on the gravel road and eventually ended up back in Crescent City. It was still only mid afternoon so we drove out to the Battery Point Lighthouse where we were lucky enough to catch a tour. Sweet...
Outside the lighthouse they had a real cool display (maybe even art work) of fishing floats...
Afterwards we stopped at the local Safeway and picked up some nice Red Snapper filets and veggies for dinner.
Back at the KOA, we encountered a couple (John and Betsy) from Tennessee who are on a 3 month (and getting longer) grand adventure around the western states in a trailer not much bigger than ours. They are not sure when they will return home. We exchanged a few travel ideas, had a nice chat. Maybe we'll run into them again another time.
Thursday we headed north across the border into Oregon where we stopped for lunch at Griff's on the Dock in Port Orford (this place just never gets old... great food, this time we had a Shrimp Louis and a Crab Louie, both delicious), then headed on to the KOA where we'll chill for a couple of nights. Arriving at the KOA we found the white kitty still in charge and requiring many pets...
... man that thing can put on a good purr! Anyway we got set up and rested then later drove back into Port Orford to have a seat in RedFish. Remember in week 1 we extolled the virtues of this place (in particular the view) and on this evening with the sun shining "just right", the view down the coast was even better...
We tried out the shrimp lollipops (good but a bit chewy) and the crab cakes (excellent) to go along with our wine and the view. All in all very nice.
Friday, after a nice leisurely morning around the trailer, we drove into Bandon (about 14 or so miles) where we wandered along the dock and through the weekly farmer's market. On the dock fishermen were cleaning and fileting relatively large halibut making for a rather anxious flock of seagulls (although it didn't look like anything other than the odd bit was available to them). Further down on the dock a fellow had his fishing rod out so we asked him what he expected to catch. He said he was crabbing. With a fishing rod??? He reeled in his line to show us his crab snare. Interesting! He was able to cast out further than others using a crab net and it looked like an interesting gizmo. Upon further reading (to find the link above) it seems like this is not a particularly good way to crab and appears to be illegal in British Columbia so we won't be buying one to try out. The farmer's market seemed to be more like a craft market but it might be a bit early in the season for much fresh produce and the like. We stopped for lunch at Tony's Crab Shack on the beautiful Bandon Boardwalk where a grilled salmon and Crab Louie salad were served up for lunch. Wow! It's no wonder this place rates 4.5 out of 5 stars from 110 reviews on TripAdvisor.com.
Walking back to the car we came across an interesting looking place called the Washed Ashore - Ocean Awareness Through Art Project.... hmmm... we went in and found a fascinating collection of art works made entirely out of trash (mostly plastic) that has washed ashore in the Bandon area. This is mind boggling stuff!!!! These folks are doing a terrific job of bringing awareness of not only the amount of ocean litter but the affect it has on sea life, both above (birds) and under the water (all manner of fish, whales, etc etc. They appear to focus a lot of their effort on reaching children by having fun workshops and exhibits. Very interesting indeed!
After browsing a bit in the local bookstore we drove out up to the Wool Company where yet another knitting project was born. On the way out of town we picked up a bag of fresh shrimp and the necessary fixings to make a nice shrimp salad for dinner.
We've run the course on the first four seasons of the Breaking Bad video series we have so will have to wait until we can find season five on that one. In the meantime Friday evening served as the starting point for watching the series Homeland. Watched the pilot and one episode... looks to be pretty good.
Saturday morning we bid adieu to the folks at the Bandon KOA. This KOA opened in 1969 with the current owners taking over in 1987. This is another one of our favorites and we have stayed here many times over the years going as far back as 1975 when we first visited in our old Austin Mini and our two person Sierra Designs tent. Seems like we have always liked things on the smallish side what with the wee trailer we have today!
Leaving Bandon we headed north aiming for Lincoln City. We stopped in Yachats for an excellent lunch on the patio overlooking the beach at Ona Restaurant. Nice. We arrived in Lincoln City a bit late in the afternoon so decided to stop at the glass blowing place (remember from week 1 when we stopped for a "blow your own glass" experience) to pick up our wares. We were more than delighted with the results...
Since they had an opening right then and there, Brian decided to have another go and made another heart for which we had to go back on Sunday to pick up...
We decided to try the Premier RV Resort on the main drag, US 101, this time. We scored a spot back away from the highway so it was a bit quieter. Nice facility and close to many amenities. After getting settled in we tried the internet but it looks like Tengo was having issues as it just hung on the logon attempt. After a few tries we gave up for now and wandered up the road to sit in the Fathoms lounge at the Inn at Spanish Head where we had a great view out over the ocean and even managed to spot a couple of whales while we sipped wine and munched a couple of appetizers... how sweet is that!
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