We pulled into the Youth Apostles House in McLean before midnight and the road trip came to an end! Well, at least for now – Paul leaves for Atlanta and the Virginia Tech v. Alabama game before dawn on Saturday morning! But the main trip is over. We drove about 700 miles yesterday and put a total of 8,700 miles on the GOLF Cart in 27 days. Phew! Time for another oil change! What a great trip!
I love the Arch. I’ve visited it twice, and both times I burst out laughing when I stood beneath it. I can’t help it – it’s so audacious it cracks me up. Everyone knows what it looks like; you can probably conjure up an image in your mind’s eye right now. But what you can’t appreciate until you stand beneath it is just how huge it is. It’s big enough to straddle nearly every building in the city! It tops out at over 600’. Plus it tapers as it goes up, which creates the illusion that it’s even taller when you stand under it and look straight up. Add to that the fact that it’s covered in shiny stainless steel (who doesn’t love shiny stuff?), and that it’s triangular. When all that finally registers in my brain it causes spontaneous laughter – like the kind you get when you think the fireworks just had their big finish and suddenly they get even bigger! Love it!
And if that isn’t crazy enough, there’s an entire museum, including two movie theaters, in the underground space beneath the monument. Plus you can ride these whacky train-roller coaster-elevator cars up to the top and look out. The whole thing is remarkable. I still smile when I think about it.
City Museum perfectly captures that joyful feeling and amplifies it. Imagine a museum designed by a 12 year-old boy. It has absolutely no purpose! No seriously – there are no information boxes, wall text, or other descriptions; they don’t even give you a map when you enter! You just start wandering around and exploring. If the City Museum has a Mission Statement it probably goes like this: Help people have fun and leave the education to the other museums!
So what would a 12 year-old boy come up with? Well, he’d probably gut the building and build a series of interconnected caves that cover three floors and wrap around the building’s roof-to-floor atrium, with dark halls, dead-ends, passages that you have to craw through, and slides connecting the levels. If he put in a fish tank it would have cool stuff like turtles and catfish.
The caves are just the start. The interior stairways have industrial rollers for banisters (picture the end of the x-ray machine at the airport – they used those rollers your bags slide down, but put them sideways to act as banisters). Each is painted in different crazy patterns and colors. As you go up or down you run your hands along the banisters and they all spin creating fun, wild patterns (yes I did this, several times!). On one floor there’s an indoor skate park. Another floor is full of beautiful architectural relics and salvaged pieces. The closest thing to a teaching moment I saw was a wall showing different decorations used on masonry and door knobs ("these knobs have a 4-part pattern, these have a 5-part pattern," etc). There’s a man refurbishing a pipe organ encircled by a toy train large enough for kids to ride .
Hidden away in corners on most floors are snack bars or coffee counters. If you look you’ll also find old couches or tables and chairs scattered around. Basically, Moms and Dads can sit down and watch the madness from a safe distance (if they aren’t climbing through the caves or going down the slides!). On one floor we found a huge thrift shop. Old tuxedo jackets? Check. Old band uniforms? Check. Wedding dresses? Check.
And that’s only the inside. The coolest feature of the City Museum is the tricked-out, over-caffeinated, death-defying jungle gym outside. Again, think about this from the perspective of a 12 year-old: it includes not one but two (!) old fighter jets, plus a fire truck! All three suspended between one and three stories above ground. There are also gazebos, old construction cranes, and other whacky urban detritus, most of which is suspended above ground and connected by bridges and paths constructed with re-bar and wire fencing. Where an adult would put stairs they installed sliding boards – some descending two or three stories. It’s nuts. And yes or course I was on that thing like stink on a dog! My thinking was if this thing wasn’t safe someone would have died and it would have been shut down by now (perhaps flawed logic but it worked for me). It was a blast!
There’s also some stuff on the roof of the building but we didn’t make it up there. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if it included a trampoline and bungie cords – it’s that kind of place.
So, yes, I climbed all over that thing like a monkey, and no, I was not the only adult doing it. I did see one Dad get stuck in a stairway – not because of his girth but because he was too long to get out at the top (there are few straight lines here – remember, think like a 12 year-old)! I even skinned my elbow on one of the slides! Yeah baby! Did I learn anything? Nope. Do I care? As if. If you go to St. Louis, go to the City Museum. If possible, go on a weekday so you won’t have to share it with too many kids!
After the City Museum we made our way to the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis for Noon Mass. The cornerstone was laid about 100 years ago and the building was consecrated in 1926. It’s a beautiful sanctuary covered from floor to ceiling (literally) with mosaics. They are extraordinary! They include the Bible scenes you would expect to see in a Basilica (Resurrection, Pentecost, etc) but also include local history like Native Americans and the early explorers in the west. The mosaic behind the main altar includes two deer! It’s a beautiful sanctuary and worth a visit when you’re in STL.
After Mass we went to Sweetie Pie’s for an awesome lunch. It took a month, but Paul has finally turned me into a lover of local cuisine. We drove across the country and back without eating at McD’s, BK, or the usual suspects. It sounded crazy at the start, but I now see the brilliance of the plan. It was awesome – we ate well, had fun, and met some cool people!
I still owe you a description the fun we had in St. Louis, but I was having too much fun in Kentucky last night to pull out the laptop. Paul and I stopped in Alvaton, outside of Bowling Green, to visit with my sister and most of her family. We stayed with Rob, Leslie and Brock, who made us feel right at home and threw a big party for the gang last night. Mike and Steph and their boys Will and Benjamin (just four weeks old!) were here, as were my sister and brother-in-law Cindy and Max. I don’t get down to Kentucky as often as I’d like, so it was great fun to hang out.
Rob fixed up ribs on the grill last night and we also ordered some pizza as a supplement. Cindy brought over a chocolate pie and other sweet goodness. Then Rob unveiled his newest creation: grilled donuts. On man, he’s on to something there. They are currently in there frying up eggs and bacon to fuel our longest drive of the trip – back home via Blacksburg and dinner with the guys at Tech.
Sweet cheesy bananas that was a lot of food! The man is trying to kill me! Our first clue was when the waitress brought out the four trays of food and then four more empty trays for us to divide the food up among our party. Um, party of two.
But here’s the thing, it was incredibly good! I don’t even eat ribs and I loved these – I’d probably eat them for breakfast! The pork, in fact all of the animals we consumed, was tender and tasty – basically perfect. The sauces were a bit sweet but darned good. Even the deep fried corn on the cob was good. And oh man don’t get me started about the fried sweet potatoes. Any time fries come with brown sugar you know Chip is in his happy place.
This place is serious – we had to wait in line for ten minutes to order dinner…at 4:45! They only cook a certain amount of BBQ each night and regularly run out, so the locals know to get here early. As we were pulling up there was a guy in the parking lot taking pictures of the building and the smoker – Paul’s stunt double!
I can’t believe I just wrote several paragraphs about food – that’s Paul’s job! But that’s how much I enjoyed dinner. Pappy’s was a great place to eat, a wonderful to start our victory lap on the final leg of the trip, and just what we needed tonight.
Now we need to go walk it off! I’ve got the Arch over my right shoulder, the Mississippi River right in front of me, and St. Louis at my back. The guys in the car next to us are clearly headed to the Cardinals v. Brewers game – which is a good walk from here, but it’s a beautiful night and probably a cheaper parking lot so who can blame them? I promise to tell you all about it!
Quick shout out to John and Eun Young and the kids for a great meal last night (my first, but certainly not my last, Korean meal!) and for a really enjoyable visit. Thanks for making me feel so welcome – and for not making me use the hot sauce! Thanks to Jess for the great lunch. It sounds like an incredible ministry and we will keep you in our prayers.
Oh, and a quick PS from the Denver stop on the tour: we didn’t have time to visit the world’s first Chipotle restaurant, which is located in Denver near the University of Denver campus. Sorry Jimmy! Many of you will know understand the level of sacrifice that represents for me. Actually, Paul has opened my eyes to some great eats over the past month, so Chipotle can wait till we get home!
I didn't however forget about the meal that I had last night, I just forgot to take pictures of it. (Sorry) Eun Young made Korean lettuce wraps that had bean sprouts, rice pasta, kimchi, roasted garlic, and marinated bacon; which rocked the house. She had also made some Vietnamese summer rolls that were appropriately nicknamed Vietnamese burritos b/c of her conquest to place a lot of good stuff inside of them.
It was nice to get to spend another night with John, Eun Young, Donna, and the twins Anna and Jenna. I really hope I get to see more of them while their on this side of the pond. We also spent the morning at their house and then headed into Kansas City on the Missouri side to visit with my friend Jess who I met around the same time as Eric and Logan doing ministry at All Saints. Jess is volunteering with a new organization called A Simple House, which started a couple years ago in DC but has since branched out to Kansas City this past January. A Simple House serves project and Section 8 neighborhoods. That involves meeting people in their neighborhoods and in their homes, and it is focused on the parents instead of the children. Primarily through home visits by pairs of volunteers, and the visits usually include counseling, prayer, bible study, or delivering groceries. Check them out if you're interested as they're still a fairly budding outreach to the poor, but a great group from the people I got to meet today.
We're off to get a view of the city tonight from the Gateway Arch and then checkout the City Museum tomorrow morning before heading down to Bowling Green, KY to meet some of Chip's extended family.
We were only in Colorado for about 20 hours but for me the trip went back more than 20 years. Good fortune allowed Paul and I to route the trip so that I could visit with some very good friends in Colorado Springs and Lafayette, a suburb of Denver. It was entirely too brief, but it was great fun.
Jamie and I actually met over 30 years ago in junior high school. We were close friends through high school graduation and kept in touch through college, but had a hard time keeping in touch after school as both of us relocated several times. Through the wonders of social networking we reconnected last fall and got together for dinner in December when he was in DC for work. It was great to be back in touch then and I really enjoyed hearing about his family and career. Yesterday was the first time I met his kids, Chris and Cassie (12th and 8th grade, respectively, and both very nice, funny, smart, cool, grounded and overall great people!) and to catch up with Aly, his lovely wife. The kids were disappointed that I didn't have any scandalous stories of their father from high school - please! I can't remember what I had for breakfast! As Paul noted, they provided a wonderful late lunch for us. We were only able to stay for about two hours, but it was fun to catch up and I look forward to our next opportunity to do it again.
After that we drove north to visit Janine and Greg and their boys, Ethan and Caleb. They provided another wonderful meal and we had a few hours in the evening to try to catch up on the past few years – an impossible task but we covered a lot of ground in the short time we had. Janine and Greg and the boys visited the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone about a week before Paul and I this summer, and it was fun to compare notes. They were able to continue north to Glacier National Park – it was on the wish list for us but we didn’t have the time to go that far north. Hearing their stories I wish we’d made the time to see it while we were in Montana.
It was a wonderful visit with both families. Paul and I were so comfortable and sated from the meals and hospitality that we forgot to get pics of our hosts and their families! My bad! We regret that our schedule didn’t allow us more time to hang out with both families and to explore more of Colorado – next time we’ll take in the Air Force Academy, Pike’s Peak, the Denver and Boulder, and such. We did drive by Mile High Stadium (I know, there’s an “Investco” in the name somewhere – whatever) as they were setting off the fireworks during the National Anthem of the Sunday Night game. If there was a blimp shot on SNF you might have seen us (I had a brown shirt on). It wasn’t as cool as being inside for the game, but hey, it’s something.
Driving east across Kansas today gave me a little time to think (yeah just a little, ahem) about the past weekend and the wonderful families we were fortunate to visit in New Mexico and Colorado – and really since South Bend for me and since Alabama for Paul. These families and friends opened up their homes to us – booting kids so we could sleep on their beds, delaying their meals to fit our whacky schedule, and extending generous hospitality in the short time we were together. What wonderful living-breathing examples of community! It’s very inspiring to spend time with folks who are so dedicated to their children and each other, who reach out to friends, who choose to care for the environment, who think beyond themselves and consider the world in which they live. This also describes our other friends back home and around the country and of course our families. You can never get too much of that, and it never hurts to be reminded that there are plenty of good folks out there working hard and trying to do the right thing. We are very blessed!
Quick shout-out to Kansas for the awesome wind farm we passed on I-70 this afternoon. The thing was huge – literally went on for miles and miles. Some of the towers were right up against the highway giving us our closest view yet of those amazing towers and propellers. Hope they are generating energy and such, but for me they are cool looking even when they are standing still. One thought, though, would it kill you guys to try a few different colors? Seems to me you could generate just as much energy if they were different colors – the white thing is pretty much played. Just sayin’.
Oh, and one more thing, am I the only person that doesn’t watch the Food Network?
No, this is not a question about which Christmas color you prefer. It is
actually the official state question of New Mexico, and refers to which type
of chile you prefer. Red chile is prepared from, well, red chiles, which are
typically dried and then reconstituted with water before being cooked. Green
chiles, on the other hand, are picked fresh and then roasted, peeled,
chopped, and used for the basis of the delicious dish known as chile verde.
As green chiles must either be used or frozen shortly after being picked,
they most often feature as a regional specialty, frequently used in the
cuisine of New Mexico (where many such peppers are grown), but not that of Mexico. ~Happy Living Magazine
· We just surpassed 6,000 miles driven on the trip so far.
· Four Corners was a quick diversion. We did the typical “stand in four states” thing and waited in line to take the requisite picture. Then we drove the GOLF Cart all the way around the monument so we could legitimately claim it’s been in Utah. Sweet!
· The Navajo have something called “fry bread”. If the Navajo were Amish they would call it Funnel Cake. We approve.
· We continue to pray rosaries each day with your intentions and ours. Most recent rosaries have been for personal intentions. We also continue to pray for the Youth Apostles and Women Youth Apostles communities, the CLCs we serve, for our families and the families we’ve been blessed to stay with, and for vocations. Please let us know if you have an intention you’d like us to pray for.
· I love buttes! I realized driving through Arizona yesterday that they are one of my favorite landscape features, probably because there’s nothing like them on the east coast. I have way too many windshield shots of buttes, and continue to snap them when I see them! And so far New Mexico has not disappointed.
· The scenery in northern Arizona is dramatic and spectacular: first red cliffs and buttes, crazy cliffs and rock formations, then everything is yellow for a while. Flat as a pancake, then incredible formations pop up out of nowhere. The desert is remarkable in the variety of textures and colors and shapes in the landscape. It’s like nowhere else I’ve been and I understand why people are so captivated by this area.
· Having said that, I will be very happy to get back to the eastern half of the country and see green again! I’m craving me some deciduous trees! Oh, and some shade would be awesome!
· Beautiful scenery aside, I’m not sure how any one lives in northern Arizona. We drove for nearly an hour today with nothing around us but red rock – no topsoil, so no plants, bushes, or trees.
· I love air conditioning.
We just caught our last glance of the Grand Canyon and we’re heading northeast towards the Four Corners. We have several long drives left in the last week of our trip, and today is one of the longest. After we stand simultaneously in four different states for a moment and take a few pictures we’ll drive east to Los Alamos.
The weather is beautiful again this morning (we’re in the desert, so I guess that’s not unusual, but it’s been so long since we’ve seen rain that I think we’ve got dirt on the GOLF cart from Iowa). Last night we left the fly off the tent so we could see the stars. It was awesome! I was walking through the campground this morning and saw an 8-point buck munching on some bushes about 20 yards from a tent. Pretty cool stuff.
I have a confession to make: I have no idea what time it is. After the second week of the trip I had a tough time telling you what day it was, but I could still tell time. Now I’ve lost that, too. See, we thought Arizona was in the Mountain time zone, but all the clocks suggest they are on Pacific time. It’s probably just a daylight savings anomaly, but the effects of going through four time zones in two weeks are taking a toll on my brain!
In the past three days we’ve visited Yosemite, Death Valley, and the Grand Canyon. That’s a lot to absorb in a short amount of time, and I think Paul and I have run out of adjectives to try to describe what we’ve seen.
We’ve been so fortunate to see so many of the wonders of our land. And yet in some ways this last week of our trip is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most because we’re going to see so many great friends and have a chance to visit our families on the way home. I can’t think of a better way to wrap up this trip than to share it with friends and family.
I would like to have a quiet moment alone with those folks who always say, “Yes, but it’s a dry heat”. It was a very dry heat in Death Valley today, and yet, oddly enough, it was still hot. Crazy hot!
We rose from our campsite in Yosemite early this morning to get a jump on the day. The drive out of Yosemite was nearly as incredible as the afternoon spent touring yesterday. At one point we crossed through a pass with an elevation of over 9,000 feet! The views were spectacular, and the roads were nearly empty. It was great fun. Driving down the valley towards Bishop, California was also beautiful. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are rugged and tall and a sight to behold. Trees and even bushes were getting scarce. At one point, however, we saw a herd of elk grazing in a green field (it was only green because it was irrigated). That was cool!
We stopped in Bishop for breakfast, to gas up, and to visit a photography gallery recommended by my nephew, Rob. Rob used to live in Pasadena and spent most of his free time exploring the Sierra Nevada Mountains and California National Parks on his motorcycle. He suggested the route we took today, and it was excellent!
From Bishop we headed for Death Valley. We were already driving down a valley with rough looking brown mountains on both sides. We had to cross over the mountains to our left to get into DV. We passed a few strange looking cactus along the way, but other than that life was limited to some grass and small bushes – the stuff that tumbleweed comes from. Driving down the road towards DV we were buzzed by two fighter planes that came up from behind. Paul thought they were about 50’ or 100’ over our heads; it was hard for me to tell from my position under the front seat of the car (the first one startled me a bit, to say the least).
We arrived in the Panamint Valley but for a moment we thought we were in DV. The temperature was hot, but in the back of my head was I thinking, “this isn’t too bad”. We were Father Crowley Point, a bluff overlooking a desolate valley, thinking DV was below us. We took a bunch of pics, then drove down into the valley. We paused at the bottom of the valley to look at the map – there should be a road here! Then realized this was the Panamint Valley, and that we had to cross yet another set of mountains to get into DV. It was pretty hot down there.
Us being manly men and all, we decided to experience DV without air conditioning. From the time we entered the Panamint Valley until we passed the “thanks for visiting Death Valley” sign we had the windows down and the AC off. That was about three hours of blazing hot, scorching ouch.
We finally entered DV and stopped at Stovepipe Wells, currently a store, hotel and a campground, and one of the original tourist outposts in DV about 100 years ago. We were now at sea level – a more than 9,000 foot change from this morning! The thermometer on the shaded porch at the store read 115 degrees. Porches are about the only shade in DV, so the heat we were feeling was much worse than that. We quickly plotted out a course: south to Badwater and the Artist’s Palette, then west and out of there as quickly as possible.
Amazingly, we weren’t the only ones in DV in August! It obviously wasn’t as crowded as Yellowstone or Yosemite, but there were a surprising (to me, anyway) number of visitors there. We also have a hunch that we saw a few vehicles being test driven by car companies – I guess if you want to see the newest model of your pickup truck or minivan can take the heat this is the place to be.
There are no words to describe how hot it was in DV in late August. My head throbbed. The back of my shirt soaked through from sitting in the car, but after a minute of leaning forward it would be completely dry again because the air was so hot and dry. It was basically like sitting in an oven. Dry heat is still hot.
We saw Badwater, which is a salt water lake in the spring but basically a puddle in August. The former lakebed turns to baked mud in the summer, with salt deposits covering everything. This is the lowest point in DV and the lowest point on the Continent (and the hemisphere, I think): 282 feet below sea level. There is a sign mounted on the canyon wall behind the parking area showing you where sea level is! From there we drove through the Artist’s Palette, which is a road that takes you into the canyon and around colorful formations caused by the different mineral deposits in the rock. It’s probably really beautiful when your brains are cooking in your head. Paul enjoyed the windy, hilly drive, which was a sharp contrast to the ‘straight as the eye can see’ road on the valley floor. We also drove by the Devil’s Golf Course, where the terrain is supposedly so rough “only the devil could play golf there.” Or so it says on the website – from the car it just looked hot.
From there we were done and about to head out of DV towards Las Vegas. One last stop: I picked up a cheap combination thermometer/key chain at Mt. Rushmore so we could check the temperatures on our trip. This poor thing is useless. The morning we had ice on the tent it read in the mid-40s. Today is was reading 95 degrees in DV. We decided to put it on a rock on the valley floor for an hour and see what it said. On the way out of DV we checked it (after about an hour in the sun) and it read 110 degrees. Hot, but considerably below reality.
Seeing DV in August in awesome – if you’re only going to do it once you should get the full experience of the heat. And I promise you, unlike my nephew, I only plan on seeing it once!
We enjoyed a casual day in Sacramento today (Pete: for the record we drove through Olympia, Washington and Salem, Oregon on the way down here – those count, too!). It was good to keep the mileage down after three 300-mile days in a row. After a lazy morning I went to noon Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento (that’s the fifth Diocesan Cathedral on the trip: Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Seattle, and now Sacramento!). After Mass I walked a block over and looked at the California Capitol building. After that was a quick run along the Sacramento River past the historic portion of Sacramento – very cool, but I’ve reached “quaint fatigue” and can’t really handle any more historic downtowns for a while.
We also did a bunch of errands today: post office, shopping, laundry, etc. This afternoon we dropped everything and went to the California State Fair. It was a hoot! We ate junk food; walked among the cows, pigs, sheep and goats; watched a horse show, a hypnotist’s act, and some African acrobats; and heard Tonic warming up for tonight’s concert. We did not get on anything that turned us upside-down or spun us around. It was a great time, and a fun and simple excursion today.
Tomorrow I pick up Paul at the airport in the morning and we head down to Yosemite.
**Whoops! Two things from the fair I forgot to mention in the original post: the entertainment while we ate dinner was a squad (?) of belly dancers. No lie - see the pics. Also, in the Candy Building in the Expo area (yes, California has an entire building set aside to highlight achievements in candy - how awesome is that!?) they had a portrait of Schwartzenegger made out of Jelly Bellys. (We had hoped to tour the plant while we were here, but it was a bit out of driving range.)
In August, California is brown. They would like us to think it’s the Golden State, with golden hills, golden fields, and golden bears. We see brown, brown, and, well, we haven’t seen any bears yet but I doubt they are golden. California is a very brown place.
Leaving Blue Lakes it was foggy, thanks to the proximity to the coast. As we climbed into the mountains we climbed out of the fog and into the sun. The mountains near the coast were lush and green, covered mainly in evergreens. However, they quickly transitioned to brown hills and mountains, and the remainder of the day our views were filled with “golden” vistas. It’s fire season here in the west, and after driving here for several days it becomes obvious why all the signs in the national park warn of extreme fire danger.
Turns out there’s a bunch of mountains between Eureka and Redding, California. It took us over three hours (due, in part, to some serious construction on the mountains) to make the drive to Redding. It was beautiful, particularly when we were paralleling the Trinity River. However, we weren’t expecting several hours of mountains (our three previous passes through the mountains to the north during the zigzag tour of Oregon were much quicker) and at times it seemed they would never end.
We arrived in Redding around noon and headed to the Sundial Bridge, the last official stop on my Architectural Wonders tour. It’s a beautiful walking bridge crossing the Sacramento River in Redding, and yes, it’s also a working sundial.
After Redding we pointed south and drove to Sacramento. For two hours we drove through an amazing variety of agriculture – olive groves, fields of sunflowers, tomatoes, and other plants we couldn’t identify from the highway. Nothing grows here without irrigation, but with the addition of water this valley provides an abundance of food! It’s the tomato harvest here right now, and as we neared Sacramento we saw tractor-trailers on the highway filled with tomatoes heading for processing. More unusual still were the tomatoes lying on the shoulder of the road like litter – they had fallen from the open trailers in transit. For several miles the road was spotted with red!
We had a wonderful dinner with friends in Sacramento – more former co-workers from our days at the TV station in Harrisonburg. They were recently blessed with twin boys, so it was a fun night of juggling the boys while preparing and enjoying a wonderful dinner. The unusually pleasant weather allowed us to eat dinner in the back garden, surrounded by lemon and lime trees. It was a wonderful evening!
**Whoops! Forgot to mention in the original post that as we drove through the mountains in western California we passed through Willow Creek, home of the Bigfoot Museum. We saw the museum, but unfortunately the big guy did not make an appearance (he was probably at church).
We started the day in southern Oregon, and spent the first few hours checking out several small towns with quaint historic districts. The weather started out dismal, but very quickly cleared to a cloudless blue sky. The names of most of the small towns we saw are already a blur, but my favorite was probably Jacksonville. The traffic moved slowly enough that we got a few pictures of the restored downtown from the car.
The purpose of our lazy loop through Oregon was so that we could visit a few chocolate makers and a winery – time well spent! The wineries in southern Oregon are tucked into valleys surrounded by severe-looking hills – this time of year they are covered in dried out grass with a few scraggly trees. The bareness of the mountains is quite a contrast to the lush vineyards. While driving through these valleys we looked up and saw a group of skydivers that appeared to be circling endlessly in the updrafts from the mountains.
We eventually headed southwest and entered California at its extreme northwest tip in the Smith River National Recreation Area. The views along Route 199 were jaw-dropping! The river was clear blue and cut through a sharp valley. It was ‘two hands on the wheel’ (and ‘both eyes on the road’) driving, but it was a blast! Before long we entered Redwood country. We took plenty of pictures of the massive trees, but there’s probably no way to appreciate their size or beauty without seeing them. We slowly meandered through the forest towards the ocean; when we reached Crescent City we were greeted with a beautiful view of the ocean.
From there we drove down the coast on Route 101, at times passing through Redwood National Park. Alternating between views of the ocean and the trees, there was never a dull moment. At one overlook by the ocean we heard barking seals down below. A few moments with the binoculars and we spotted them – they were huge and had climbed a good distance up some very steep rocks. I wish we’d seen them make that climb! In the Redwood National Forest we came across a herd of Elk – they were less than 20 yards from the car!
We reached Eureka, California at sunset and hoped to the stay the night but there were no rooms to be found. We back-tracked north to Arcata, but had similar luck. Driving east about 5 miles we found the Blue Lake Casino and Hotel, which had rooms. Turns out, they’d only been open 2 months, so everything was nearly brand new and very nice. It was also half the price of a room in Eureka. So, we stayed in our first Indian Casino Hotel of the trip! And, if we return on our birthdays they will give us $5 in free chips – Bonus!
