Red Lion Eureka

so the drive down 101 was beautiful, we drove through the heart of the national park and took a hike to what used to be the tallest tree in America, now just a 26 ft in diameter stump.
Fortuna had the same air crescent city had, but we needed to stop after a long day of driving up and down the forest, with all of it's twists and turns. We bolted out of this one asap!!!

... who's family own a cider factory - not alcholic cider, so just apple juice really, but the best apple juice I have ever tasted! Drew gave us a tour of the cider works which was really cool. After our tour, and some free cider/cookies, we all then went to the only bar in Fortuna called the Playroom, it looked like a barroom brawl would break out any minute and my vodka/orange came with about 5 shots of vodka and a splash of orange!!

The next day after a very good ...

... made our way to the motel.

The next morning we were off to Klamath Falls in Oregon. Adrian and I decided that we really wanted to see Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. With only a short period of time allocated we went directly to the centerpiece of the state park, Stout Memorial Grove. It was our favourite place for viewing the large trees. We wished we had more time to view the area but were looking forward to Crater Lake National Park.

... but as you will see from one of the picks, the I5 wasn't quite so quiet. We had plenty of company for about half our journey, which was to involve up to 6 hours driving. We went around Salem and down through to Grants Pass for lunch at about 2.00 pm. Found a Dairy Queen (Ev!) and had a very light lunch finished off by a small (but in this country there is nothing small) Strawberry Cheesequake blizzard, that Ev introduced us to whilst in 100 Mile. Two ...

Well, our mechanic in West Sacramento didn't exude confidence when he recommended a complete 'soft overhaul' of the transmission... and then to replace any parts he found in need of repair. That, and his 3-5 day estimate sounded a bit disconcerning. Plus, the thought of being stranded in Sacramento for that long really sounded aweful. So we made the decision to drive up to Redding, a couple hours north and ...

... out I wasn't welcome anywhere. Lotsa driving for not much this day but we did see a bunch of elk. I always like that cuz it gets my juices flowing. :) And, on the way back we stopped at some wood carving places in a little town called Orick. They had some pretty good stuff. I almost got in trouble though cuz I almost lifted my leg on Sasquatch. Whew! that one was a close call! We stopped at a few ...

... growing good grapes. He hopes to have his first crop this fall and I'm sure he'll make very good wine. We spent three days enjoying his and his super companion Gail's hospitality... Mick is a great cook so we enjoyed both his wine and the food both he and Gail prepared. Monday afternoon we did a tour of the area and stopped at a large winery which was very, very nice. We also stopped at a dam in Roseburg and watched the salmon moving up ...

The scenery remained stunning but was less rugged & more majestic in its bigness of the road hugging huge headlands & sweeping across big gorges with snow capped mountains in the background.







Soon after crossing the border we came into ...

... for the municipal library - I wondered whether it was a long-distance cyclist thing - but I was unable to help. After wishing them good luck in their quests I set off into the gloom. As I pedalled south I felt substantially less hardcore. A few miles beyond Crescent City I entered Redwoods National Park. Slender poles of grooved red-brown timber soared upwards on either side while an evergreen canopy blotted out the light and vehicle headlights illuminated a rusty blanket ...

... our destination for the night, is another one of these little American towns that seems to exist solely for tourists. You can acquire wooden knick-knacks, taste wine, eat Thai food or fresh fish or cabernet sorbet, or visit the world's smallest hand-fan museum; all this around the town's leafy central plaza. But all the houses we pass seem to be bed and breakfast establishments, converted hotels, or wineries.