Eureka! I Have Found It!

Don't look at me... that's what it means!

(I couldn't post last night, but I wrote the story then...)

I'm in Eureka tonight. You know, I find it amazing (and a little disconcerting) that I've driven over 750 miles FROM MY HOUSE and I'm still not out of this damned state! Go figure...







I drove through the redwoods today... Part of them at least. Tis a beautiful place. Once you leave .. oh.. Santa Rosa, Northern California on 101 has some passable beauty, going from oak trees in meadows (dry as a bone) to the redwoods and finally the coast. I remember being in a state park years ago and waking to snow... Snow in the redwoods is a wondrous thing, as the trees are so dense it snows in "places', and not all over at first. I didn't want to be stuck there, so I crawled to the main highway thinking it would be a better place to drive..

Not bloody likely...

It was very heavy snow (well, it seemed that way to this Southern California kid), and there was NO one on the highway except for a few cars who were having great difficulty.. fortunately, I read and travel a lot, and know how to drive in the snow, which is more than I can say for the state policeman who spun out on the bridge (BRIDGES FREEZE FIRST) and almost hit me... I came out of it at Eureka, and have a lovely story about a trucker and a day watching football and a really nice dinner. I didn't spend the night (although he asked quite nicely) as I have READ Stephen King, and then spent the coldest night I have ever spent

I passed by some large gathering somewhere in the hills... one of the people I met last night told me about the set up, and today I saw the results.. it must have been a quarter of a mile long (or more), and was some ‘hippie’ sun gathering or something. There were so many cars and tents and dancing and whatever . I took a picture from the window as I was driving (without looking, of course)... it turned out pretty well...






Then I stopped at one of my favorite places.. the Bigfoot gifty shop that is right on the redwood highway. It’s one of the few places that isn’t a 4 lane freeway, and I think it’s mostly because of this place, which has been here for years... They have carvings made with chain saws, and redwood seedlings and gifts and all kinds of touristy crap... I love it!







And now I sit in my campground, which used to be loaded with tall trees. They were all gone when I got here; replaced with all kinds of little ones. Seems in December of 2005, they got lots of rain and then really heavy winds and about 100 of them blew down! They had to remove the rest of them. Apparently, it’s what happens when you plant non native trees who ain’t accustomed to the weather...