Eureka?

Martha and Tyler have moved to Eureka and I want to visit them in their new habitat. This was my plan for early August, but she is such a busy bee that the plan isn’t happening until the third week of August.

July in Reno was really hot, but August has been quite unexpectedly pleasant, both in temperature and in the quality stuff going on. August in Reno usually sucks, but I’ve had a nice month and done fun things. The week of Hot August Nights was not as annoying as it sometimes is. The only downer other than my own sloth in not going to the gym has been the smoke from the Forestville Fire choking up the evenings for the last 6 days. [8/31 – about the time they got the Forestville fire under control, the much bigger and more awful Yosemite Fire flared up – from Facebook and news reports, the Reno air has been thick and crappy for most of the time I’ve been gone – dislike!]

Monday (Aug 19)

Anyway, today, Monday 8/19 was the day I finally get going.  I will be sleeping tonight in the Santa Rosa Mercedes Service Department parking lot (where I am writing this), so I can be first in line to get my 40K Sprinter service Tuesday morning. Today’s simple plan is to get there and go to sleep. Between waiting at home for the condo dudes to look at my leaky roof (sigh..), packing and eating and more dawdling, I arrived at the parking lot around 9pm. So far so good. It’s a much better experience than I had last summer at Rocklin Mercedes. It’s quiet and dark and cool and pleasant.  Rocklin was noisy and bright and uncomfortably hot and muggy most of the night.  It seems that I drive about 10,000 miles/year, since I got that 30K service about two weeks from this time last year!

Tuesday

Now my nightowl sleeping schedule catches up with me.  Try as I would, I could not get to sleep till 3:30AM, and now it is 6:45AM and time to get up (EEEK!), because the place is buzzing with activity already! I was pretty stuporous, but found the place to be pretty user-friendly. Coffee and wifi and comfortable chairs. Best of all, the service guy seemed interesting in helping me save money rather than helping me spend it! They even gave me a loaner Mercedes to drive to breakfast!

I’m out by 1:30, a mere $460 poorer, a pittance by Mercedes service standards! We are postponing the the $570 transmission service until the 50K service next summer. I replenish my fancy food supplies at the Trader Joe’s across 101, and I’m on my way to Harbin Hot Springs.

Harbin was very enjoyable, nearly perfect until my last moments there … (see below).  It was really hot, so I drove to a quiet shaded place to read and nap till the sun got lower. I moved to a shaded parking place in my usual row of spots and set myself up for the night.  The pools were very crowded. The main soaking pool was pretty much full, all the space on the edges was taken and there were even a couple of folks just standing around in the middle, no place to lean and trying to avoid the usual twirling couple doing that annoying soaking meditation (?) they sell. Stayed there a short while, tried the super hot pool, couldn’t handle it past mid-thigh on this hot day, On the other hand, the cold plunge was quite congenial today!

Back to camp and out again for dance time! The last couple of dances I have been kind of low energy and I haven’t really gotten the buzz out of the dance that I like, but tonight I was perky and had a real good time. Was it the music or was it me? Who knows? The night was just perfect. I went back to the pools and splashed around the lap pool for a while (the soaking pool was again full to capacity), then back to my parking place to eat and to bed.

Wednesday

I had decided I didn’t care about making it to breakfast, so I spent a pleasant morning in the van till the sun popped over the hill and burned me out so to speak. Then off to the main building for a cafe americano and a goodie and some quality hanging around time.

My sign-in paper said I turn into a pumpkin at 3:27pm, so I read till almost then and headed down the hill to the van. I had a Harbin Parking Ticket on my windshield! Of all the nonsensical things! I didn’t know were was such a concept as a Harbin parking ticket, and I was not pleased.

I had every intention of paying the stupid ticket at the stupid gate as instructed, but there were 4-5 people lined up to register so I kept driving rather than spending 20-40 minutes of the rest of my day waiting in line to deal with something I didn’t particularly agree with anyway. I guess we’ll find out what the ramifications of a Harbin Parking Ticket are the next time I go.

Grilled chicken sando and a small sundae at the Lower Lake Foster’s Ice Cream and I’m fueled up and ready to go! I get that grilled chicken sando on almost every trip through here, and I think it is really good. I circumnavigate the eastern and northern edges of Clear Lake. The eastern side is just annoying traffic, but the northern side is quite scenic and interesting. Yelp lied to me about there being almost no services up there, so based on it’s misinformation I stopped and got a boring BMT sub at the Subway because I thought it was my last chance for food before the campground. Not true!!! There were two or three likely looking deli/markets five miles on down the road, where Route 20 joins with the road from the more developed west side of the lake. Oh well…

Tonight’s destination is Bushay Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers campground on little ole Lake Mendocino, a quiet reservoir a little southeast of where SR 20 meets US 101. Bless their hearts the Army Corps honors the Senior Pass, so the $20 site is $10 – woo!
There were only something like 5-8 sites taken out of the 80 or so available, so it was very quiet and pleasant. I liked it a lot. Heads up to any of you who driving 101 and wanting to camp in the Ukiah vicinity, this place is a hidden gem!

Thursday

Up at the crack of 11(!). I did not feel particularly tired last night, nor did I stay up particularly late, but I slept about three hours longer that I thought I would. Maybe relaxing at Harbin really wears me out – go figure! I’m waking up at the official checkout time of 11AM, so I did not dawdle around in this beautiful quiet setting under the live oaks as I would’ve liked. Onward to Eureka!

Willets is about 40 miles away, so that will be breakfast. It was clogged with traffic because of the 101 bypass that Caltrans is building. I settled on a place that had kind of a 50’s modern, old lady vibe to it, but was not hugely pleased with it once inside. They were not serving breakfast and they did not take credit cards and they did not have wifi. Nice enough place, but I’ll try another place next time through, and with Martha in Eureka now, there WILL be a next time!

The drive northward is beautiful, but I was mostly interest in just making it to Eureka. But 101 is kind of a tough drive – very busy, alternating between 2 and 4 lanes, curvy, hilly, populated. After an hour I noticed that I was becoming a little too intense and risk-taking in my driving. Pushing my luck to pass a logging truck as the passing lane ended was the last straw. So I decided to get off 101 and drive the always restful Avenue of the Giants to chill myself out. That worked charmingly!

Got to Eureka around 5-ish.  Tyler must have been bored, because he was sitting on the porch waiting for me. We started playing IMMEDIATELY and went on till dark. He basically ran my old ass ragged for the next two days until he got used to me being around and settled down. Very tiring, but nice to be wanted!

Friday – Friday

Eureka is a nice town! Small and isolated, but it has my kind of weather, namely wet and cool. Every day I was there it was 60’s in the daytime and 50’s at night. Most days it’s foggy in the morning and/or evening and clear in the middle of the day. Chad knows the area very well, and took us to a couple of great beaches.

Saturday

Eight days with the family, time to go! Martha left last night to return to Marin.  Without the women and children Chad and I felt compelled to do some guy stuff. We hit the town for a little beer drinking and hanging out with a nearly full complement of Hennesseys. Martha doesn’t drink, so Chad doesn’t drink, even when Martha’s not around!  Remarkable … and quite handy from my p.o.v., a house full of designated drivers!

I depart around 1pm. With my newfound knowledge of the area I take the back road to Arcata, a very pretty drive past farms and tidal marshes and Tyler’s new school. I will however take the Indianola Cutoff next time, to avoid the speed bumps and 25 mph through Bayside. It was relaxing when Chad was driving us to brunch, but annoying today when I’m driving and just want to get on with it.

Again I cruise past all the interesting stuff on the way to Crescent City – picturesque towns, Roosevelt elk herds, driftwood laden beaches – I just bomb past it all. I’ve driven this road a few times lately, and each time I don’t feel like I have time to stop and explore. I will do it justice one of these days.

It is a very pretty day but busy day. The campgrounds were noticeably full, as you would expect on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. My Crescent City dining experience was as always, a FAIL. The Italian place Katie recommended was closed. I rushed to get there before the 3pm closing time, actually did barely make it, but jokes on me, they were closed for the holiday anyway. So I went to Safeway, got my roast beef sub for tonight, then walked across the parking lot to ole reliable McDonalds for an ole reliable fish sandwich and a bit of wifi. Follow Route 199 up the beautiful Smith River. First, pretty large campground – FULL. Second, smaller campground, every site reserved – FULL. Third and final campground, where I stayed last year – FULL. Ugh. So I regrouped, studied my maps, and braced myself for a long evening of looking for a place to stop, then … I had a perfect place 4 minutes later.

• got back on 199,
• crossed Patrick Creek.
• Noticed a paved road to the left going up the east side of the creek. Took it!
• Two miles up was a level, used spot. Turned out to be  a dude in the best stop, but a little upstream was a pretty darned nice spot, which worked out great!

Sunday

What an extremely pleasant little discovery! The creek in sight from the van, 20 feet away. I could hear it burbling all night. Hung out reading till noon-ish, then off to Oregon!

The road hangs on the steep walls of Smith River Canyon for another twenty miles, then right about the state line the countryside opens up into standard Oregon backwoods. There is not much in the way of civilization until Cave Junction, which has a variety of unsavory looking restaurants. I passed through here last year (heading BACK to the van place, sigh). Again, no place here tempted me stop, so I press on to Grants Pass. If this was the last town before 200 miles of desert I sure I would’ve made do, but since it’s 30 miles from better choices it’s just not compelling.

Last year I lucked into the Taprock, which I think is a real nifty place. It’s right on the river. In fact, it’s right above the piers where they load tourists for the Rogue River excursion boats. It’s got wifi and a deck and good food!

I killed about two hours here, because all I have to do for the rest of the day is drive 30 more miles to Ashland. I do most of it on Route 99 rather than I-5. For a long stretch, the roads parallel the Rogue River on either side, so I got to see a long stretch of enticing riverfront houses and campgrounds and such.

I was more ready for the weirdness that is Jackson Wellspring this time. I chose to camp in the parking lot rather than the crowded and creepy camping area. Good choice!

Monday

It was not an ideal time to visit. Last night the pools were very crowded, and this morning … the pools were closed! Yep, turns out Jackson Wellspring closes its pools every Monday, and the fact that this Monday is Labor Day is no different. Pretty annoying.

I drove into town had breakfast at the Breadboard again, enjoyed it again, then when back to Jackson to soak up their wifi for a while, outside the locked doors of the pool area.

I drove up to Medford and over to Klamath Falls, looking forward to the good ole Daily Bagel, but it too was closed for the holiday. Holidays are a sucky time to travel.

Wildlife Refuge Auto Tour was not closed! Although it is kind of a slow time of the year for birds. Lotta grebes and coots and that’s about it. Got to Lava Beds campground a little before dark.

Tuesday

Check out the Visitors Center and the cave tour in the morning, park under the only shady tree on the whole road and fix a little breakfast, and off I go.

I really love the opportunity to stop at the general store in Adin. The drive-in 200 yards down the road has more option, but the general store always calls to me. I got biscuits and gravy, because that’s the only thing you can get. very good!

Camping at a new place tonight – North Eagle Lake Campground – a BLM site at, duh, the north end of Eagle Lake. I’ve scouted it before, but never stayed. It seemed kind of harsh on a hot summer day, but in the evening on a nice fall night it is a real pleasant place. I snag a site where the van is shaded but nearby is a wide view of the north end of the lake.

Wednesday

This really is nice spot this time of the year. It’s hard to leave. But I do. 40 minutes to Susanville. Greasy breakfast at Harts, where there is always exactly one really cute waitress, then the hour or so drive to Reno, and my trip is over!