DAY 74-77 ~ CALIFORNIA AND HOME!

We continue driving down the coast into California.  We make a short 2-night stop in Arcata to break-up the long distance to Cotati.

After 250 miles and 6 hours we arrive at Mad River Rapids RV Park.  Mad River (the river) does run from the Pacific Ocean several miles north of Arcata and continues down 299.  But that highway is now closed due to the tragic fires going on along that highway and in Redding.  This RV park is okay, but it is full of permanent residents and a lot of them are loud teenagers.  So, it is not as relaxing as we hoped it would be.

ARCATA
Arcata is the first city ever to have a city-zoned "Marijuana Innovation" area.

Arcata is a small town that is stuck in the 60’s and 70’s.  Lots of hippie stores selling tie die, long flowing skirts, flower shirts, incense, etc.  There is even a record shop with lots of record albums.  There are lots of veggie restaurants too.  We had lunch at the Big Blue Café off the center square.  We found this place several years ago and always eat there when we visit.  

After lunch we walked the square and checked out the shops.  Found a few nice art galleries.  

The park square in the middle of town was full of homeless and lots of loud teenagers walking around.  Humboldt State University is in town, but school is not in session now.  So these young people are locals.  We did not stay long.  Did not feel safe.  As we were leaving there was a commotion going on at the edge of the park.  There were police and a young man sitting on the sidewalk with a bloody face and was yelling or crying.  Time to go.

However, a ‘must see’ in Arcata is the Holly Yashi store and factory. Their head quarters is in Arcata and at this store you can see the latest designs and watch their jewelry being made.  Of course, I couldn’t leave the store without purchasing a few things.

  

Also, a fun event happening in town is “finding Waldo”.  If a store has a Waldo sticker on the window, then there is a hidden Waldo inside the store.  Lots of fun for the kids. We found two Waldo’s and it was not easy.

Did you find Waldo?

Tomorrow is HOME SWEET HOME!

COTATI

It was smooth sailing to reach home.  As we drove through Mendocino County we saw two areas of smoke in the hills.  Later we found out that those two fires (Ranch Fire and River Fire) had just started.  It was smokey for the rest of our trip home.
  
After 237 miles and five hours we safely arrived home.  Hello Cotati!

  

Our second trip to Alaska was wonderful.  We visited a lot of the same places and explored new ones.  What surprised us the most is that we had no flat tires this time.  Nine years ago we ended up replacing all four tires on the trailer. 

  

However the paved roads through Alaska and The Yukon were horrible.  Lots of pot holes but mostly the road was buckled with waves and dips.  It was slow going traveling the roads in Alaska.  We had to slow way down as we approached each dip and we were double hit, first with the car and then the trailer.  With each wave and dip we were thrown about the car.  Dave did all the driving, but I was not even able to read, or play games on my tablet or relax as I spent my time "bracing for impact".  Road maintenance would tag the really bad parts of these roads with little red flags.  So with each sighting of these red flags, we slowed down and "braced for impact". 

  

The buckling of the roads is caused by the freeze in winter time.  Ice gets under the road and pushes it up and about.  It is too costly to keep repaving the roads so it is left alone until it gets really bad.  Driving the dirt and gravel roads was much smoother as they are graded all the time and kept smooth. In fact I wish all the roads in Alaska were unpaved.

  

For 77 days we traveled a total of 11,432 miles.    

Below is a summery of our journey:

1.    Traveled for 77 days

2.    We traveled a total of 11,432 miles; 7,502 miles towing the trailer,  3,930 miles in the Ford sightseeing 

3.  Visited 7 US states: California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.

4.    Visited 3 Canadian province’s:  Alberta, British Columbia and The Yukon

5.    Visited  25  cities, towns, villages in the US

6.    Visited  19  cities, towns, villages in Canada

7.    Visited  7  National Parks, Monuments, etc

8.    Visited  3  Botanical gardens

9.     Visited  2  Zoos,

10.   Visited  1 Aquariums

11.   Visited  6 Museums

12.   Visited  28 Other Attractions

13.  Attended  9 Events

14.   Experienced 2 crisis: (1) Near collision with stopped car on highway.   (2) Helene (cat) had to have remaining eye removed.  She had a spat with Crystal and had her eye punctured.  Could not be saved.

15.   Experienced  1  happy moment: The joy of finding painted rocks.  

16.    Best attraction:  Anchorage Museum at Rasmunson Center, Chihly Glass and Garden (Seattle, WA), Denali NP, Alaska

17.   Worst attraction:  Alaska Wild Berry Park, Anchorage

18.   Favorite place:  Anchorage, Alaska

19.   Least favorite place:  Arcata, CA

20.   Best RV Park: Toad River Lodge, Toad River, British Columbia; West Glacier KOA, Montana;

21.  Worst RV Park: Sikanni River Campground, Fort Nelson, BC – Rated 1 (total yuck!)

   

During all of our travels I search for heart shaped rocks.  Below is a pic of my find during this trip:

Also, since I found my first painted rock in Dawson City, British Columbia; I fell in love with the idea of painting rocks and hiding them during our travels.  During this trip I bought supplies and gathered river rocks (lots of them all over Alaska), painted 20 rocks and hid them (in plain sight) during the rest of our trip (but kept two of them).  I also hid the 6 painted rocks that I found on this trip.  One of these found rocks was from 'Rohnert Park Rocks"!

Check out my 'group' Traveling Turtles Peace Rocks on Facebook. #joturtle
  

We really enjoyed our journey and adventure this year, but there is no place like home sweet home!

  

Stay tuned for our next Trailer Tripping planned for 2020. 

This is just a rough plan.  This trip is 4 months and covers all the National Parks in the US. We will make some changes and skip National Parks that we have recently visited. See you in two years!

DAY 67 – 74 ~ PACIFIC NORTHWEST

There was a very long line at the border.  It took us a least 30 minutes to reach the gate.  It was smooth going.  The agent asked only a few questions and then waved us on.  We will be spending the next eight days driving through Washington and Oregon.  Our first stop will be a four day stay at Gig Harbor where we will relax and visit with our good friends, Bonnie & Mike Melchior.

DAY 67 – 70 ~ GIG HARBOR, WASHINGTON

After 206 miles and 5 hours we arrived at Gig Harbor RV Park. This is the only RV park in the Gig Harbor area so we have to stay here every time we visit. Their sites are all styles and sizes and it has been a struggle to get a level site that is not on the upper level with a steep hill and the WiFi is never any good.  We did get a site on the lower level, but it was out in the open with direct sun.  And it was extremely hot all four days. Oh well, it’s only 4 days.

We visited with the Melchior’s and had a good time catching up, talking family, some politics, and eating some great meals and lots of wine.  Bonnie was my roommate many years ago when I first moved out on my own.  Her brother is married to my cousin so that also makes us family.

  

There was an art show going on the weekend we were there so we spent some time wandering through and checking out the great talent.  We go to a lot of arts and crafts fairs and this time we got to see a lot of new talent.  There was even a booth where kids could paint rocks.  This is a new fad that I hope goes far and wide.

  

SEATTLE

On Monday, we spent the day in Seattle.  It was only a 35-mile drive, but the traffic was terrible (worse than San Francisco).  So, it took us over an hour to get there.  We spent our time at the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. 

  

This area was really busy, lots of tourists seeing the sights.  We found a parking place nearby ($25) and walked through the area to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.

See the tree to the left of the big rock?  That is a Chestnut tree.  It grew from a cutting from the Chestnut tree that inspired Ann Frank as she viewed it from the window of her hiding place.  It was dedicated to the City of Seattle in 2016.

 The below sign expains these solar flowers.  I could hear them sing as I walked under them.

Below is one of my painted turtle rocks that I hid (in plain sight) at the base of one of the solar flowers.

On our way to the Chihuly museum we came upon a camera crew shooting a scene for Grey's Anatomy.  Meredith was walking to a bench and sat down to talk to someone I didn’t recognize.  Of course, I got my phone out to shoot pictures, but there was a burly, hairy guy walking around demanding “no pictures”.  He was coming right to me. So, we continued walking $#@.

  

The below picture is the bench where Meredith sat at.  This was taken when we were returning to our car at the end of the day.  Everyone had packed up and left the area.  We saw a few trucks still around cleaning up.

The green bench is to the left near the trees.

  

Chihuly Garden and Glass is our favorite place to visit in this area.  We visit it every time we stay in Gig Harbor.  This is a permanent display of Dale Chihuly's works of glass inside and in a garden setting.  It’s the same exhibit we saw when Chihuly was at the De Young in San Francisco.  I never get tired of seeing it.  There are photographers through out the museum who take your pictures that you can download to your e-mail. We had several pictures taken.  Not good quality, but what do you expect for free.

We ate lunch in the Collections Café where Dale Chihuly's collections of stuff are on display inside the tables we eat at; such as vintage trailers, shaving brushes, clown toys, etc.  And the food is great.

Space Needle is right next to this glass museum, so we bought a combo ticket and visited the needle after lunch.  After a rather long line we finally got on the elevator to go to the top.  Then we had to wade through crowds of people and wait for a space to free up next to the window.  There is an outside area that wraps around most of the top of the needle.  For some reason, that part was not so crowded.  It was a nice visit and this will last us for the next 20 years.  This place also had those wandering photographers, so we had a few pictures taken.

On our way back to Gig Harbor, we stopped in Tacoma at a Trader Joes; finally, our TJ’s fix.  Stocked up on our favorite things for the rest of the trip.

  

On our last day in Gig Harbor we relaxed, checked out some cute shops downtown and went to a movie; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.  Despite the reviews, we thought it was a great movie.  Based on the ending, there will be more movies in this series.  We spent our last evening with the Melchiors.  Before we left, I hid one of my turtle rocks on the front porch.  It took them four days to discover it.   I'm impressed.  Thought it would take longer.  Who enters and exits their front door anymore.  It's always through the garage.

  

Next, we head to the coast to Highway 101 and on to Oregon!  Seven days to HOME!

DAY 71-74 ~ OREGON

We will be spending four days traveling the Oregon Coast, with a two night stop in Seaside and a two night stop in Florence.  We left the hot temps behind us as we headed for the coast and drove into fog and mist.  Time to bring out the table top heaters again.

 

SEASIDE & CANNON BEACH

After 173 miles and four hours we arrived at Circle Creek RV Park.  This is a very nice park with paved roads and grassy sites with mature cypress trees.  Our site was very spacious backed up onto the Necanicum River.  We were told that the Elk come in and graze on the meadow on the other side of the river, but we never saw any.

There is not much to the town of Seaside.  We wanted to stay in Cannon Beach, but the place is very popular we could not get reservations in any RV Parks. 

We spent the next day visiting and exploring the small resort town of Cannon Beach.  Cannon beach is home to Oregon’s most famous landmark; Haystack Rock which rises 235 feet from the edge of the shoreline.  At low tide, you can walk right up to the rock and explore the diverse sea life in its tide pools.  It’s also home to a wide range of seabirds including the Tufted Puffins.  Haystack Rock is protected as part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. 

On this day we could not get near the place, even to take a picture.  The town was so crowded, we could not get a parking place that was walking distance.

We did find a parking place in town. So, we walked a very crowded but colorful area full of flower boxes and hanging baskets of beautiful flowers and visited the art galleries, boutiques and cute shops.  The sun finally broke through the morning fog and it turned into a beautiful sunny day.

"A Delicate Balance"

Tomorrow we continue down the coast to our next destination.

Before we got on the road we re-hid the "Rohnert Park Rocks" rock that I had found in Gig Harbor.  Hid it on a tree stump at our RV site in Circle Creek RV Park. 

On our way to Florence, as we drove through Tillamook, we stopped to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  A must see for cheese samples and the best ice cream.  Wow, what a face-lift this place has had.  Total remodeling and it looks so much better.  But it also holds a bigger crowd.  The lines to the cheese sampling and the ice cream were way too long.  So, we had to skip both this time.  Had a quick lunch though.  Triple grilled cheese sandwich with a cup of tomato soup.  Yummmm.

FLORENCE

After 170 miles and 4 hours we arrive in Woahink Lake RV Park.  This place was crowed with campers with dune buggies.  Right behind the RV park is 2 miles of sand dunes and then the Pacific Ocean.  We are next to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  There is a small road (dune buggy size) at the back of the park that leads right onto the dunes.  Last time we stayed here, we walked it but only made it a few yards.  Have you tried walking in deep sand?  After 5 minutes I was exhausted.  So we turned back.  This time we didn’t even try to walk it.  I have to wait for my next life when I am much younger.

The Port of Siuslaw and Bay Street in Florence is like Cannon Beach. Lots of cute shops, boutiques, art galleries and lots of places to eat.  At the Port of Siuslaw is a pier with booths set up selling local crafts.  I don’t know if they do this every Saturday, or we came at the right time where there was an art show going on.  I saw no signs, so maybe it is a weekly thing.  We checked out the crafts and saw lots of nice things.  We supported the local artists by buying a few items.

 Hid one of my turtle rocks (below). It was gone when we left the pier.

  
Then we strolled Bay Street.  Lots of color in this area.

 Nice place to eat.  Good food! 

 This is a wonderful book store.  Lots of used books!  Great selection!

 I discovered a good author from the RV parks book exchange.  I was able to exchange for 3 of his books at different parks.  Now I want to read all of his books.  This bookstore had such a big selection of James Patterson.  Checked out some of my other favorite authors' and they all had a big selection here. WOW!

This is from an 2016 art project to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the Florence Events Center.  There are 20 "Dancing with the Sea Lions" fiberglass statues in Florence and other coastal towns.  We found 2 of them. 

The above is called "Green-eyed Sue", below is "Umi No Nami".

 Click on the above pic to enlarge and read

The bridge was built during the Great Depression from 1934 to 1936.

Tomorrow we drive into California.  One more stop before home!