Oct. 17 and 18th, Sunday and Monday

Sunday was a quiet day; we walked the main streets of Fort Bragg with somewhat overcast skies, then returned to Caspar Beach and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Monday we were up and out of Caspar Beach by 8:15am on route to San Francisco.  We decided to return to Highway 101 by the same Highway #20 that we used on the way into Fort Bragg.  We had numerous people tell us not to travel Highway 128, so we decided to listen.  It was good that we went back into Fort Bragg as gas was only $2.99 pg, so we filled up and I followed the 31 miles back to Willits on Hwy 101.  Himself said it was a hard drive!  There are hills, valleys, u-turns, switchbacks and blind spots because the sun was in your face!  We made it though and are now settled into the Marin RV Park just 10 miles from downtown San Francisco!  www.marinrvpark.com  Thanks Carol & Larry for the recommendation.

We walked over to the Ferry terminal this afternoon and have been planning our tomorrow...so many things to do…..so many things to see …..just what to do!!??

And that is for tomorrow!

Hugs

R&B

Oct. 15, 16 Friday and Saturday

Friday we drove from Garberville along the 101 to Highway 20 out to the coast.  We are now in Caspar Beach RV Park, Point Cabrillo coastal road just outside Mendocino, CA.  Highway 20 had a lot of twists, turns and hills.  So we had to take off the car and I followed behind the motorhome.  We blew a gasket and lost the grease once more, but were able to do the repairs at the Park.  http://www.casparbeachrvpark.com/  It’s not quite a pretty as the pictures on their website.

Saturday started out overcast and we only had a bit of sun, but we drove north on Highway 1 up to Rockport, back through Westport, MacKerricher State Park seal sighting there, then back through Fort Bragg and south to Albion junction of Highway 128.  On the return trip we stopped at the Point Cabrillo Light Station and saw more seals.  They are lazy critters! This Highway #1 is a notoriously difficult road to travel, loaded with switch back turns and steep hills, we were happy to be in the car.  The Hwy #1 south to the 128 is also full of wild twists and turns, so we will not be towing the car till we get back to Highway 101.

We are here till Monday morning when we will travel to San Francisco!

Hugs

R&B

Pacific Coast View

Pelican's on a large rock outside Westport, CA

Can you see five seals?

October 14th, Thursday

Avenue of the Giants

Departed Eureka in sun and enjoyed the drive direct to Garberville, about 65 miles, got set up in Benbow Valley RV & Golf and started our back tracking drive on the “Avenue of the Giants”.  Wonderful 2 hour drive with a ½ hour hike to see a tree 370’ tall, but fallen. You would have thought it would have brought the entire forest down with it, but it didn’t!

Temp today was a sunshiny 83, so we returned to the park and went for a swim in the heated outdoor pool, did a soak in the outdoor hot tub and just enjoyed the wonderful weather.  Returned home, showered, had supper and sat outside for the evening.

It’s a travel south day tomorrow, that’s all “the passenger” knows at this time.

Hugs

R&B

Benbow Valley RV & Golf Resort, Garberville, CA

October 13th, Wednesday

We had a terrible, sleepless night!  There was no wind, so the fog horn was all we heard all night long, every 5 seconds, all night long!  So we knew we would have to move on.  We are now settled into yet another Shoreline RV Park in Eureka, CA. (However it is not shoreline at all) We had thought about dry camping on route, but, we were not impressed with the Clam Beach County Park so moved on quickly.

This afternoon we travelled out the peninsula to the Samoa Dunes, then to Woodley Island walked along the embarcadero to the Table Bluff Lighthouse.  Then to Eureka’s old downtown, walked the boardwalk and some of the shopping district, stopped for a milk shake and just enjoyed the 75 degree sunshine weather.   

Tomorrow is a travel day, destination Benbow Valley RV & Golf Course in Garberville which is at the end of the "Avenue of the Giants" on old route 101 out of Eureka through the Humboldt County in Northern California.

Hugs

R&B

Woodley Island beside the Table Bluff Lighthouse, it's some 20' tall

October 12, Tuesday – 42 days on the road!

Stout Grove Redwood Forest, Crescent City, CA

You can click or double click pictures to increase the size! just incase you didn't already know!

Stout Grove Redwood Forest, Crescent City, CA

Our location http://www.crescentcity.org/shoreline/SlineRV.html

Sun drenched day with a temp of 68 – you can guess that we are very happy!

We went to the Stout Grove Redwood Forest.  It’s about an 8 mile drive through the forest with lots of big old Redwood Trees, some over 3000 years old!   They grow 311’ tall with a root base of only 10-13’ down, but roots spread 60-80’ straight out!  We walked the loop trail, only a ½ mile as my poor feet have not recovered from yesterday’s long walk.

We returned to Crescent City and found a McDonald’s!  Who would believe that I would hunt down a McDonald’s!  We are hooked on their Chicken snack wraps and the Iced Latté vanilla flavoured coffee. We then decided it was so nice, went over to visit the seals again then returned to Shoreline RV, B-7 waterfront resort, put our chairs up on the berm and enjoyed the afternoon weather.  We fed the squirrels, but soon we were over run with a dozen hungry critters.  We watched the pelicans diving for fish and watched the tide go out.  It was very relaxing and just the road break we needed.

We’re going to stay one more night as the weather forecast is great!

Hugs

R&B

Baby Seal in Crescent City Harbour, he was looking for us to feed him!

those are our chairs on top of the berm, and this is the view from the motorhome front window!

October 11, Monday

We awoke to sunshine and had sunshine all day.  Was a great trip south along 101into California, with several stops for ocean rock pictures. 
We are settled into the Shoreline RV Campground in Crescent City, California!!!  We made it and we are in California till at least February 15ish!  We had a wonderful afternoon walk about the city, out to the lighthouse and back around into the harbour with the seals/sea lions resting on the docks.  They are such majestic animals, so different from the over populated east coast seals!

Anyway, our location tonight and maybe two more nights is on the waterfront of Crescent City Harbour, CA we watched the sunset this evening and have enjoyed the ¼ moon over the harbour.  T’is a lovely place!

Tomorrow is an explore day, but just to let you know, we have poor internet at our waterfront resort!  Will send pictures in a day or two!

Great to talk to you Ruth on Thanksgiving Day and to you Kerry before the phone died!  Sorry about that!

Good to talk to you Shirley H, enjoy Elliot Lake.

Carol P and Shirley K tried Skype but no answer!

Love to All,

Hugs

R&B

October 10, 2010 10/10/10 Thanksgiving Sunday

Surfwood Rv and Campground 75381 Us Highway 101 Reedsport, OR 97467 this is our location for one more night.

Rain and it rained all night long and through till noon!  We thought if we want to see the Sea Lion Caves, some 30 miles back Highway 101 then we better get going.  It was well worth the drive as we saw Sea Lions and Seals.  You arrive, purchased your ticket, walk a pathway to an elevator in the side of the mountain that takes you down about 125’ and lets you out just feet from a man made opening into a natural cave. The seals and sea lions only use it during December and January but when we walked along and travelled up a staircase to an opening, we were looking out at maybe a 100 seals and sea lions all trying to get up a steep cliff to a rock shelf just outside the reach of the giant waves bashing the shore line at high tide. We were very impressed and it was hard to leave.

We slowly worked our way back in sunshine to Florence, ducking in and out of little roadways that took us to the beaches.  Oregon Dunes National Recreations Area runs from Florence to North Bend and into Coos Bay.  We travelled onto Winchester Bay, North Bend, Coos Bay, and Charleston and to the Sunset Bay State Park.  Beautiful coastal road, with many photo opportunities along our way!  We didn’t get home till 6:30, got a roast on the BBQ and had a great late supper.

Tested my abilities tonight by trying to post a video of the seals and sea lions, but failed and can only assume the file is too large… Sorry they are great videos!

Tomorrow it’s maybe Crescent City, California which is 160 miles south?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hugs

R&B

Man made opening to a natural cave used by seals during the winter

Black dots in the white water are seals trying or playing at getting up on the rock shelf - the rest of the herd are the brown dots on shore.

Sunset Bay south of Charleston, OR