Day 17: Driving Down the 101 (Part 2)

I started writing this vacation blog for 3 reasons:

1. Reading past travel journals is always fun for me.
2. It helps in retelling the same story over and over.
3. My memory for relevant events (such as the answer to the question of "What did you do for 30 days?") is nearly non existent.

After reading the original post for this day, the third reason above was plainly obvious. Not only was it short and very boring, but it missed nearly every event that went on during the day:

Cliff Climbing in the Morning

Now, I don't want to make this sound like I was solo climbing shear vertical surfaces. These were simply some sandy cliffs that were on the edge of the beach, but they were sandy and steep enough to give me a good hour long workout. Climbing is always a blast because it gives me a reason to travel on all fours like my primitive cousins. Also, most people are too lazy to climb, so I don't have to listen to the other idiot tourists debate the quality of Wendy's over McDonald's while I try to relax.

More Massive Trees

These redwoods are huge. Luckily, every town has a salesman that is trying to attract tourists, so there are places to stop where you can drive through a tree, see a full house made of a tree, eat next to a tree, or set a tree on fire. I only got to experience one of these, with somewhat unappealing results...

Being a Good Samaritan Doesn't Always Pay

There are some things in life you just don't see very often, but when you do, you know something is wrong. Sometimes it is a person with a blue face or a car turned upside down. I never even considered this sight though: Stoners running as fast as their legs would take them with no frisbees to be seen floating through the air. The reason became clear almost immediately: There was a redwood tree stump on fire and their stuff was very near by.

Being the good, upstanding guy that I am (and still a little bitter from the fires that canceled my trip to Yosemite) I decided to stop and try to dump a few bottles worth of water on the flames. After a minute or two of pouring and refilling in a nearby brook, firefighters showed up to save the day and sent us all on our way. Luckily, karma decided to give me a good kick in the crotch while I was trying (poorly, mind you) to be a hero. Another good Samaritan decided that he should park next to my car. Unfortunately, his definition of "next to" was "where the Saab's bumper used to be before he hit it".

What can I say - if this is the worst auto trouble I have this trip, I am a lucky man. No one was hurt, the damage was minor, and the forest is not on fire. I really can't ask for much more.

Finding a Campground

Up until this point, finding a campground has been pretty easy. I've been sleeping hundreds of miles away from anything remotely resembling civilization, so I've had my choice of places to set up my blue floral tent (thanks for that one mom - the girls really dig it). Unfortunately once you get near San Francisco, the campgrounds become more sparse and a little more work is required. One little hint though - always check for campgrounds in the town 10 miles away before you try to drive 2 hours out of the way. Usually you just waste two hours of your life (as I did) although the driving is beautiful.

Ultimately I ended up using GOOG-411 to find the Cloverdale, CA KOA. It was a bit more expensive, but I did get a powered site with running water, free internet and an attendant that gave me a tour of the place on a golf cart in the middle of the night. Don't think that going over a 3 foot drop that you don't see in one of those babies isn't a good time.

So despite a car accident and a two hour detour, it was a nice, relaxing day of driving.


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Up next - Silicon Valley (think processors, not implants)

Day 16: Driving Down the 101 (Part 1)

Throughout my recent travels I've started to become a bit of a campground aficionado. Just by hearing the name of the place or seeing a highway sign, I can usually tell if it's worth stopping or not. For example, anything with "RV Park" in the title is a trailer park that has a few extra spots open. Family campgrounds (or "Kampgrounds" - which target either Germans or poorly educated schoolchildren) usually have a pool and arcade. State parks often have pay showers and limited amenities, but are very well maintained.

During these travels I've also noticed that the setting of the sun brings an onslaught of slightly disturbing sounds. These sounds are very distinctive and fall into a couple buckets:

• The fighting couple (as previously seen on COPS)
  
• The drunk 20 something cross country bicyclists
  
• The drunk 50 somethings celebrating the one week each year when they stay up after 9pm
  
• Kids - crying, screaming, making gun sounds, teasing, etc
  
• The over amorous couple

Now, most of those I can tolerate and drown out with my iPod. The over amorous couple is probably the most disturbing since I usually know what they look like, and such hideous beasts should never be allowed to take part in activities that may result in even uglier offspring (except for myself of course).

Luckily, the Emerald Forest campground had four of the five groups and provided the added benefit of situating them in sites immediately adjacent to mine. This resulted in a real life Venn diagram centered around my campsite. Luckily, with a WiFi connection, YouTube and headphones I was able to get to coax myself to sleep.

Up until this point, the day was much better than the combination of screaming children, drunken foreigners and mating mutants (reminding me that, yes, I am still very single) to which I fell asleep.

After a long, dark drive through the hills of Oregon the previous evening, I had ended up at Honeyman State Park, which is in an area known for its' sand dunes. Most people attack these dunes with four wheelers or dirt bike, but I decided to take to the sand by foot. A word of warning - this is probably the most intense workout I've ever had. For every foot and a half that you step forward you slide back a foot and into the sand another 6 inches. This path took me over 20 minutes to create, but only about 30 seconds to go down the other side of the hill.




Of course, such effort usually leads to a great reward. The image of trees springing from the dunes leads to a combination of awe and confusion that images can't capture (but I'll try to show you anyway).

This inspired me to get artsy and stage some candid photos, which I've titled "Contemplation in Yellow". This is part of my "Chad is a Tool" line which will be available at finer drug and convenience stores everywhere in time for Christmas.


After washing the sand from my mouth, hair, shoes, crevices, etc, I hopped in my car for a quick 11 hour drive to Yosemite. Unfortunately, the wildfires there have intensified, and I make it a point not to visit places where there is a decent chance of burning to death. Instead, I altered my course for a rambling 2 day drive down the historic route 101. This is a hair pinned path down the California coast that dwarfs you by redwoods on one side while allowing you to see the ocean 500 feet below you on the other.

Overall - a nice, relaxed day of driving, stopping and picture taking.

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I'm bummed that I missed Yosemite and the hiking that it offers, but Redwood National Park was a great drive with amazing views. Luckily there were plenty of cozy places to pull over and contemplate the day...


Next - Route 101 - Day 2