Homeward Bound! - Day 5

Well, this time I slept right through my alarm.  I was awakened kisses on my face and a room almost totally empty of all of our luggage except what I needed to get ready to go.  Chris had let me sleep in this time and had prepared everything for the days journey.  We had a quick breakfast and hit the road amazingly on time even though I slept in 20 minutes later.

Somebody is getting really excited.....I on the other hand felt like I still needed to wake up!

REALLY!?

Those poor riders.... I guess they will either brave it or be held up for quite some time at the hotel.

This is going to be a long, slow ride.  You know you have to be careful when pulling a trailer and the roads are slick like they are.

But inspite of the rain, guess where I am going today???

Now, I have been to the Redwoods before, but I don't believe I had been on the Avenue Of The Giants before.  This picture really doesn't do the size of these trees any justice.  We had to sit quite a ways back from these trees in order to get the whole thing. The fog hung so low that the trees looked as if they reached into the clouds.

I love canopy roads.....:-).  This road was going to take us forward for 25 miles.  Cool....:-)

I was surprised to find that there was a little town in the middle of all of this called Pepperwood.  The picture is not very clear, but it says that the population is...........(drum roll)........50.  Yep....50 souls live in this tiny town.  I suppose they are grandfathered in.

It's getting ready to get serious now, ya'll.  did you see the size of the trunk on that tree??

From time to time during our adventure, we would get these vistas that were thick with fog, but still beautiful.

And more tiny towns littled through the Redwoods.

and there it went....ha

But they do have a post office not far from the center of "town"....

As we rolled on down the road we caught a sight of this bridge.  I love bridges....:-).

And these!  \o/  \o/....Yay!

Somebody was ready to go, but I had to do two more things first......

 I had to stand right next to one of these giants and see if I could bend back far enough to see the top....ha

 And then I had to see if I could spot "Big Foot" or even one measly dinosaur!

sigh......:-(. Nope.  Not nairy a one.

We kept having problems with Ruby.  the straps were rubbing on her paint inspite of them being wrapped in bubble wrap, and she kept leaning into Raspberry!  Eventually, we had to reposition the straps and add more padding between the two bikes.

We came upon this interesting site, but it was closed.  Besides, they wanted too much money to simply drive through a tree!  I'll just stare at them....haha.  It's a lot cheaper!

I think he saw "Big Foot"!!

Big Foot had an "office" near by........

And apparently a store too!

With a few visitors that were posing outside.  I think this guy's name is Shrek.

And there is Mrs Big Foot......

No wonder I couldn't find him.  He was standing outside of his office....ha

It seems that the inhabitants of this little getaway like the sound of wind chimes.

Here is a closer look at them.  I'm glad that Chris was in the car as he can never seem to resist setting a bunch of them off at one time if we are in a store!

Now, I know I have seen these guys before.  But, I don't remember who they are.  Oh well.
time to keep moving.  Bye, bye!

The rain had slacked off for a while which was nice.  I was starting to feel like a drowned cat!

 And you know the sound of all of that water, day after day and can ware on a girl.......:-)

The rest area was very quiet and pretty.......:-)

Time was rolling on and it would soon be time to eat lunch....

So, we pulled along side a residential park that we came upon and had a bite to eat.  We were going to sit on the trailer, but a bubble bee seemed to feel that we were intruding somehow. We retreated to the car.

You have got to be kidding me!!

Shaken my head......and to think that some places are actually experiencing a drought!

I guess all of this water has the same affect on guys too......haha

It's ok, though.  We are still having a blast!

ok, time to go again.....:-)

Hey!!  I know what this is.....:-).  This my friends is the famous Golden Gate Bridge.  At let me tell you before you venture across....The toll is $7.00 for cars and $7.00 for each additional axle that you have.  It cost us..... (wait for it.....).......$21.00 to cross that thing!  They could have at least offered me a sandwhich for that price!  Unbelievable......

Well, we went over; both of us for the first time as part of our Big City Adventure-San francisco trip that we didn't get a chance to do when we last visited.

When I looked at the houses, I was convinced that we have graduated from caves, to ....well, more modern caves.  The houses are still built into the hill side and all manner of strangeness is here architecturally speaking.

This is where we will call home this evening.  And none too soon.  It was going to be a ten hour day because of all of the stops for Ruby and sight seeing.

It was after 5:00pm and we still needed to eat dinner and get water and coffee for the morning.
We saw this place and decided to stop here.

I decided to take some pictures while Chris searched for a hotel for us for the evening.

this was an interesting place that had a very large menu.  It was almost confusing....ha

and just a few feet away, there was a market where we were able to get the coffee and water we needed for the next day.

The prices of hotels in California are like those in British Columbia.  Keep dialing, baby!!  I know you can do it!  ha

Bingo!  He found one.....haha

So, we ordered dinner.  Chris ordered fried oysters......yikes!  I just can't.....and seafood soup.  It was ok, I guess.

I ordered lobster mac and cheese and coconut shrimp. I gave half my shrimp to Chris and it was just too much for me to eat.

Well, it was time to head for our hotel which was going to be another 20 miles away.  We saw this street sign along the way and had a good chuckle.  Some of our team members have this as their last name.....haha

Right on, Snells!  Right on!  haha

We made it!  Ten hours later and here we are.  San Jose, California; our home for the night.

Now, I knew the hotel had upgraded us for a few more of our points, but I had no idea what we were walking into.  I could get used to a brass sink as long as I don't have to polish it.....:-)

Nice living room too....I mean a full living room.....

Here is a shot from the other side of the room....

The bathroom was a bit weird, but nice non the less.  It was in three parts.  The shower was in one section.....and the sink and toilet in another section.

The bedroom was a good size too....

This is the other side of the bedroom

and at the other end of the bedroom was a very large jacuzzi tub complete with a waterfall type spigot.  don't let the picture fool you.  This was a very wide and long tub as well as deep.
It was like looking into a small swimming pool.

What's that?  I thought I heard it call my name!

So, I think I will!  Hopefully, I will wake up on time in the morning.....:-).

ZZZZZzzzzzzz........See you on the road!

Homeward Bound! - Day 4

The intention this morning was to leave at 7:30.  I woke up at 6:00am and starting preparing our coffee and repacking bags.  Chris was soooo tired that I decided to let him sleep to the last possible moment.  When I looked out the window, it looked like it had been raining cats and dogs!  Grants Pass was wet.......very, very wet.

It was easier to reload the car the same way we unloaded it the night before; through the window.  The car was directly outside.

After getting things passed out side to Chris, we were ready to go.

The sky opened up as soon as I stepped outside.  I ran to the car and we went to the front.

holy moly!  I was soaked.....

"CoolBreeze" got pretty soaked too after turning that key in!

Grants Pass has murals as do other small towns decorating their walls and telling the story of their history in different places.  To keep from shooting through wet windows, I often rolled the windows down taking the chance of the camera getting wet and ruined.

The hanging baskets were very pretty and were proudly displayed on their street lamps.

I don't know who painted this particular mural, but it was quite ugly to me.....Sorry if you are reading this and you painted it.

And bears!  Lots of bears every where......Look at the size of this guy.

I really like this one.....perhaps this was is cub and he was painting a picture of her......:-)

I don't know who this guy was, but somebody to the liberty to put a parking sign right under his feet.

Hey!  I know you!!  haha

This one was really cute.  I didn't notice the cat trying to steal the fish out of the boy's back pocket until Chris pointed it out to me on our second pass around the block.

This shop was closed, but I'll bet if they had known it was going to rain like it did, they would have simply put up a small awning and let the water fall from it...ha.  It would have had the same affect!

We finally left Grant's Pass and headed for Crescent City.  We crossed this bridge on the way in and out and I just loved the flowers.

I can only imagine how beautiful this would look in the Spring or Summer months.

This little guy was sitting on the side of the road on our way out......:-)

 
We arrived at Crescent City and saw this big blue whale thingee perched on a corner.

And then it happened again.....haha....  wow.

We just kept going up the coast.  It was apparent that things were not going to dry out any time soon.  The ocean was rough too.

We were greeted along the way by these two bears that were covered in gold paint.

Every time we passed another Redwood sign, it had a different name.  It appears that different sections of the huge park has different names.

 Chris wanted to take some pictures.  So, we stopped in the forest to do that.
It was wet.  Very wet.  ha

I decided to stay in the car and get some pictures.   I was trying to capture the magnificence of this tree and just couldn't do it with my camera.

Yep, that's him still taking pictures in the rain.

I just looked up through the sun roof and shot this one.....

We stopped in the visitor's center and picked up a magnet for the fridge back in Canada.  While in there, I saw a children't book entitled "Who Pooped In The Woods?"  -  haha...really?  Well, let me just say .....IT WASN'T ME! hahaha

We left the visitor's center and headed for Eureka......

There was a small herd of Elk grazing on the side of the road.  There were also signs posted not to approach them on foot as they were very dangerous.

It was time to eat!  We found this family restaurant and decided after making a couple of rounds  through the town to go inside and hope for the best.

I liked the name, anyway.....:-)

I ordered a grilled chicken with mushrooms and cheese sandwich with fries that I didn't finish.  The sandwich was good though.

the town of Fortuna was next on the list.  Chris met a lady back in the 80's that he kept a friendship with who he wanted to visit.  I had had the pleasure of meeting her on the phone, but never in person.  Today was to be the big day.....:-).

We found the home that she was staying at last.  The Emeritus at Sequoia Springs.  It is an assisted living place.  Betty had just moved there in the last year or two.  But we missed her by just a few days.  Betty suddenly passed away at the ripe, young age of 93.   She was a wonderful lady that loved and served God with all of her heart.  R.I.P Betty Sleep.

No pun intended, ya'll.  That was really her last name.

Oh well.  It was time to make it to our home for the evening and get some laundry done.  We arrived to see these poor souls pulling up and parking their bikes.
 

and this guy.....

And even though Rascal, Raspberry, and Ruby had a very wet day, at least we would be able to give them a little relief from the rain.  Chris covered them and we headed in to try to warm up and dry off from a very wet and long day.

It is good to be out of the rain.  Time to relax and see what tomorrow brings.....:-)

See you on the road!!