Gosh, where have you been? This stuff happened three days ago and you are just getting to see the photos now! Well, I have been busy, and not always with a good internet connection at the right time, OK?
Here is the pics of us approaching the Golden Gate bridge, and crossing for the toll of $5, only payable when traveling south. Not a bad deal when you consider it is only $2.50 each way for a round trip - and the Coquihalla is $20 for a round trip.





Just south of the bridge there are several long tunnels, where highway 1 leads under a golf course! It caused me some trouble last year as I was clearly 'on the road' according to Google Earth, but I was actually in regular city streets. The highway was there all right, but about 100 feet below my tires!

Drove by the San Fran Zoo, and this guy -Deputy Dog? - was on a pole in the sreet.



Then I was telling you about the surf rescue I saw underway in Pacifica - just a bit south of San Fran. A couple shots of the ship circling after it was over, and the one hovering on the far side of the wharf was when the whole deal was still going down.

And, some pics of the wharf when I found a spot to park and walked down. Dang it was cold. The locals had their fur lined sandals on, and their inusulated sunglasses.

Actually, the dust in the distance in this pic is sand blown up when the coast guard landed further down, presumably to off-load a patient?



Carrying on south down the coast, through Half Moon Bay, this was supposed to be a shot of a surfer walking down the sidewalk, but you can see what got in the way.


Then it was two nights on the shore at the lighthouse - the same one where I spent New Years last year - you can check it out in the blog archives.
Here's the link if you can't find it yourselves - it's at the verrrry bottom of the link below!
New Years lighthouse.
Or, for better sunset shots, as requested by M,S, and R, on the first post on this link.
December 30, 2006.

Harley said that if no one laughed, he would let you in on one of his exercise routines - one he calls "Laces". I hope the SPCA does not see this one and come after me.

Near Honeydew, California, on the drive in from Cape Mendocino.









Some times, you just have to be glad for the little things! Like buying gas in California. When using a credit card at the pump, you have to enter a zip code. But they don't accept canadian postal codes, then you have to go inside and pay for some gas -even though you don't know how much you may need, etc etc. But I found a Safeway gas station in Willits, Ca that let me pay at the pump and even get the Safeway discount! That's a first in recent California experience.

Was puttering down the 3 lane highway at around 100km/h just approaching the Golden Gate bridge, when a motorcycle passed me in the next lane - on ONE wheel. He was just doing a wheelie, but I was impressed by the speed and the distance he traveled on one wheel.

Lots of motorbikes out, convertibles with the tops down - it's T-shirt weather for sure. I tried to hold off for you folks at home stuck in the -25 with the wind, but I used the A/C for just a bit today.
It's not that hot, but in the truck if you have to have the windows up - it's too hot, sorry!

Did a good samaratin deed when I found a guy camped on the beach - with a dead battery in his car. I could have given him a boost, but the cables are well buried and it was easier to pull out the generator and give him a charge to get him started again.

Cruised through some of those redwood trees that were around when they released the Bible, on DVD. The size, and height, needless to say are awe inspiring.

Checked out a Cal State campground, but they wanted $20 for no services, and you had to pay for a shower on top of that. It's high when compared to Oregon where $18 gets you water, sewer, electricity, cable TV, and free showers. So I carried on to my 'normal' overnighting spot in Garberville.
Garberville is, well, how do you say - quaint! Nice little place, but it looks like more than a few 60's hippies have not left town since.

While in Willits, though, I found a nice spot to set up my satellite dish to watch Hockey Night in Canada, but alas, the Leafs had already finished beating the Wings when I got all set up. Watched the Nascar race instead, so it was not a lost cause.
There was a r/c airplane flying around the area at the time, but it was too dark for me to take off when I had the time.

Since it was warm and nice out in a shirt, I cranked the camper up a bit and cleaned some of the electrical contacts to make sure I had good power connections. Also oiled the jacks a bit. Nice change from having to pour boiling water on them at home to thaw them enough to load the camper.

Visited the Walmart in Ukiah for the night, but thank goodness I was not woken by the noisy lawnmower like I was last year!

I decided not to say 'whoa' in a tight spot, and did not want to be driving through San Francisco bay area on a work day and risk a rush hour fiasco, so got back on the road and made it across the bridge on a fine, sunny, warm day. All the beach parking lots were packed, and I witnessed a coast guard helicopter doing a surf rescue just off shore at Pacifica. I could not see who/what they were rescuing, but saw the rescue swimmer being lowered from the helicopter, and a gaggle of fire trucks/EMS units on the shore.

What am I doing sitting on the side of the road typing? I've got an ocean sunset to enjoy!

It was a cool and damp morning in Fortuna, but we Googled up a propane store to fill one of the tanks, and googled up an information store to fill our mind with information on the route we had in mind. Once we found out that it was very scenic (as was our guess - looking at it in Google Earth hereafter referred to as 'GE'), it was a bonus to find out that it was even paved! Since we had been to a gas store and a food store the day before, there was nothing to do but head out.
The road starts on the north end in a very historic Victorian town of Ferndale.
The road is indeed very winding and narrow, and the signs at the start had dire warnings about snow tires and chains!
It climbed about 2000' in the clouds, so I had to take GE and the info store's people's word that the scenery was nice. But there was no snow or anything in the snow family.
Eventually we came over the top and down to the coast in some very nice ranching country, and the weather cleared enough to see that there was indeed an ocean out there.
There was a cattle drive under way.
We found a nice ocean-front spot to camp just over the beach and settled in for the evening, but not before a good hike through the tide pools, watching the little sand crabs scramble and fall off the rocks as we approached!

Found a nice marker float off a net or trap of some sort. Will Google the number off it in the off chance that it will give clues as to it's origin.

I guess I should take this opportunity to apologize to the good folks of Chernoistochinsk, Sverdlovsk in the Russian Federation for not mentioning them in the list of exotic visitor origins. Oh ya, Deer Island, New Brunswick, too!!

This was the 7th night of the trip (I wonder if they know at home that I'm gone?) (Or if they would notice - if I didn't come back? :-)
What I was trying to say was that since there was no wi-fi for the second(?) time this trip, I was stuck in manual, analog mode in the morning, and my only wake-up call was watching the breakers crash on the rocks with the incoming tide - with my head still on the pillow! Gosh, sometimes you really have to rough it when you are traveling.
But the stars had appeared during the night, and the sun was shining brightly in the morning, exposing all the scenery to my bleary eyes. But a hot cup of coffee standing outside in the fresh sea air made it somewhat bearable.
Some deer appeared grazing on the hillside behind me, and an Alaskan air lines 747 cruised silently past just offshore.
I went for a long walk on the ever-narrowing beach and counted a number of different species, none of them species-at-risk.
I saw some Wilson's, a Spalding, and a 'whackit' - tennis balls. Bic, rossignol, and one unidentified - lighter. One Goodyear, and Modelo, Coors, and Bud light - beer cans. I also saw one grebe with an attitude, followed the tracks of what looked like a small cat, and some raccoon tracks.
You can really see the effects of global warming here (it was 8C overnight, if you are keeping track), because the ocean levels are really rising. Heck, some places I walked on dry sand last nite are completely covered in ocean this morning! Or maybe it's just the tides.
But by 11AM, I sensed that something was missing from this idyllic scene. Then I remembered! BREAKFAST!

For this entire side trip I have been using GE to great advantage! By maxing out the size of the buffer, you can save all the data on the hard drive for when you have no internet access. So, while in Fortuna, while walking about town or eating, I had the computer with Google Earth following the entire route, and saving all the terrain to memory. When actually on the road, I connect the GPS using the live-GPS feature and it shows my present location in high definition, and you can even tilt and rotate the view as you can when on line! So when driving, I knew when to expect every bend in the road, or river crossing, or potential viewpoint.
Almost like being at home with the big monitor - except for the sea air and the robins in the green grass.

Yesterday we made a short stop to check out the waterfront at Bandon, Oregon. The waves were crashing, the seagulls were tantalizing Harley, and the lighthouse was - lighting.

Gold Beach and Port Orford didn't have any good looking camp spots, but I had a look at the prop from the shipwreck of the Cottoneva in 1937.

We found the same spot as last year to spend the night in a high, quiet pull-off with a great ocean view.Today, we continued on south and crossed over the highest bridge in Oregon - 345 feet! I have been over it many times, but had never had the chance to stop for a look or a photo. So today I did!
I hope this one does not make anyone sick!
Soon after, we went through California 'customs' where they ask if you have any fruit.
And only 11 miles into California is one of the most notorious super-max prisons in the country,

. I recall watching a TV documentary on it not too long ago, then I spotted it on google earth as i was inspecting the route. Some of the worst gang members are kept here.

Pelican Bay State Prison

Going through Crescent City, I saw my first whale of the trip, but I'm not sure it will be a highlight. I saw a group of people on the beach and went to investigate and take some pictures. It appears that this immature sperm whale washed up on the beach late last week and some Marine biologists from Humboldt State University were cutting it up and taking samples, etc.




The rib cage, which was somewhat separate from the rest of the carcass.
I wanted to find out a bit more about it, so I googled a couple of stories on it.
The Daily Triplicate
The Eureka Reporter
It was just a few miles later that I realized I was not going to forget this whale for a while. Just walking around it on the beach had gotten enough on my shoes to choke a horse. We drove with the windows open for a while after that!

We made a brief stop at Patrick's Point to see if it was calm enough to fly my r/c helicopter, but there was a fresh sea breeze happening. Harley got a chance to pose, at least.


Spending tonight in Fortuna, just south of Eureka to check out a new coastal route that might work tomorrow!
Will be scanning it in Google Earth and seeking out some local knowledge of road conditions, etc.