Day Fiftyfive
Day Fiftyfive

Humboldt Redwood State Park, CA to Reedsport, OR
August 6th, 2004

High Point of the Day....
Low Point of the Day......
Brian - Lost Coast lunch
Theresa - Getting to the Oregon coast
Brian & Theresa - Realizing too late that we were not the only ones on the Oregon Coast
Miles Traveled Today
Total Miles Traveled
Miles Theresa Drove
Weather
338
13724
338 (4653 total)
Overcast and rainy, in the high 60's
Price of Gas 
(average per gallon)
Wildlife
Night's Lodging
Where this Page was Uploaded
2.28
Cows, elk, seagulls
The Harbor Inn
Salem, OR

Daily Didactic
We woke in the midst of some very tall trees in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The redwoods of Northern California are every bit as impressive as anything we have seen, and we are a little spoiled in that we have driven through them quite a few times any more. Our favorite piece of pavement in the redwoods is the Avenue Of The Giants, and thanks to "happenstance" and reggae we ended up sleeping in the middle of the 30 mile stretch of road last night. After gathering ourselves, we tooled on down to the southern end of the road and looked in vain for the "Auto Tour Information" that our campground supplied map said we should find. It seems the reference material we were expecting to find may have been incorporated into road signs and pullout displays, but someone should tell the California Parks map staff. In the long run, it was really not necessary, we've never had it before and instead followed a familiar pattern of pulling off at turnouts where things "looked cool". It goes without saying that the trees are bewilderingly large and great fun to stand next to.

Determined not to end up on the Oregon coast in the dark, late at night, looking for a place to sleep (as happened to us last time) we headed with deliberation toward the California/Oregon border. We stopped, as we have everytime we have ever passed through the northern California town of Eureka, at the Lost Coast Brewery for an awesome lunch and slowed down long enough at the Trees Of Mystery for the enormous Paul Bunyan to sing to Theresa. We rolled into Oregon in the early evening. It was around here that we lost focus and, enjoying the scenery and not thinking things through, found ourselves a few hours later in the dark looking for a place to sleep. It was a beautiful friday night, in the middle of the summer, on the Oregon Coast, on a very popular stretch of the road. This, of course, lead to a series of state campgrounds and RV parks with "no vacancy" signs. Eventually, in the small town of Reedsport, Theresa pulled out the common sense and we got a cheap motel room for the evening. Transfixed by the television, we called it a sensible end to the day.


Daily Pictures (Slide Show)

The bus with the big trees A sense of scale
The Avenue Of The Giants Looking up
Theresa, descending from a photo op Brian, turning over a piece of dead wood
The Travel-Log in the Avenue Of The Giants visitor center An ambitious and impressive mural in Eureka
A mixed message, really Our favorite place to grab a bite to eat in Northern California
Northern California coastline The not so effective ''outside the window, back in'' shot
Elk in Elk's Meadow A boyhood favorite of Brian's
The fifty foot animatron is singing ''Theresa's on my foot, Theresa's on my foot...''. Honestly. Oregon welcomes us
Oregon coast at dusk A drawbridge south of Coos Bay
Sunset, more or less, at Sunset Bay



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