Late nights and early mornings do not mix well. Especially when the battery in your smoke detector keeps beeping all morning when you're trying to sleep in...
Needless to say - out of bed at 7 - packed up by 8 - eat breakfast and on the road by 9.
We hugged our friends goodbye and put the rubber on the road doing 80mph headed north through Oakland.
We stopped at a Starbucks for 15 minutes to get some caffeine in us. I quickly Video Messaged my mom in Saskatchewan and caught her up to her elbows in cookie dough! Had a quick catch-up and then back on the highway.
We bypassed the Oracle again and kept east of San Fran but still went over a couple amazing bridges. I love bridges - they absolutely fascinate me! I only wish I had more time to observe them alas when you're the driver and doing 80mph you don't get much time to do so.
By noon we needed something to eat and a rather emergent bathroom break - or should I say Restroom. No one has a clue what you are talking about when you ask for a bathroom here.
Fuel prices were ridiculously high at $3.29-$3.50 but we managed to find one at $2.59 and filled up with premium for $2.79 to give the van a treat.
We popped over to Panda Express for a couple plates of Chinese food and back on the Interstate with Krista now at the helm. It was great to examine the countryside for awhile as we zipped alongside the Napa Valley near Sonoma. Such beautiful areas to see...
We finally arrived at the turnoff to the Redwood forests and the Avenue of the Giants. We pulled off the freeway and after 5-10 minutes we began driving through 200ft tall trees that were 1-3 metres in width! It was AMAZING! Such memories of first seeing these giant trees on television as a kid 40 years ago and then in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back ! The further we drove, the larger they got! We parked and walked around taking photos and videos of all the trees! 🌲 They are unfathomably tall! We walked beside ones that had fallen and some were over 200ft tall!
We hopped back into the van and went in search of the TALLEST TREE! We turned off the highway onto quite simply the worst 4 mile road in the whole world. Potholes and insanely rough ride for 20 minutes before we found the park we had to hike in from. After walking across a river on A FALLEN TREE 200ft long and 5 feet thick! We weaved through hiking paths until we FOUND IT!! Hundreds of feet tall and a circumference of 53 FEET! I had to give it a hug and have my picture taken. It was a beast!! The fallen trees in the area were just as massive - it was one of the coolest places I've ever been on earth.
I could have stayed hours longer but he family was giving me the "Dad! They're just TREES!" look and speech so off we went. The sun was setting hard and it was getting dark super fast and the road was obviously just as crappy going back to the highway as getting there. At last we arrived on the highway and sped like demons all the way to Eureka California. As we entered from the south side, we had two kids that insisted that we go to Taco Bell for supper. Upon entering the restaurant but we determined this was not our best idea as the place hadn't been cleaned in forever and the clientele was a little shaky at best. We ordered taco salads and lemonade and eight rather quickly as we were starving and needed to get back on the road.
I could have stayed hours longer but he family was giving me the "Dad! They're just TREES!" look and speech so off we went. The sun was setting hard and it was getting dark super fast and the road was obviously just as crappy going back to the highway as getting there. At last we arrived on the highway and sped like demons all the way to Eureka California. As we entered from the south side, we had two kids that insisted that we go to Taco Bell for supper. Upon entering the restaurant but we determined this was not our best idea as the place hadn't been cleaned in forever and the clientele was a little shaky at best. We ordered taco salads and lemonade and eight rather quickly as we were starving and needed to get back on the road.
Gas at Costco is $.25 cheaper a gallon so of course we had to go there but our card expired and I wasn't about to spend $120 US to renew my membership so I had to beg for a code and then none of my credit cards will work because in the United States they only use Visa and MasterCard at Costco. Thankfully I had a visa that I was going to cancel and we fuelled up and were on our way.
We drove another 15 minutes to a smaller town with a very cheap motel six with paperthin walls but reasonably good Wi-Fi and after an hour we called it a night. Another amazing day in California and can't wait for tomorrow!
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