Jan 7
Made it! Palm Springs!!
Actually, Palm Desert. We had to break into our campsite. There was 2 steel gates closing off the place, but I noticed that one was unlocked. We opened it and it was just right for Dahlia to slip through.
Charlie, we may need your legal advise in the morning. 😃
We pulled into an unused site, hoping that nobody would come later on in the evening to claim it. I will be at the office at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning trying to explain myself out of this predicament.
What a great camping location. We were here a few years ago. It has a wonderful pool, hot tub, gymnasium, club house and even of putting course and tennis courts.
The only trouble this year is we don't have a real motorhome. Everyone else here is big class A's and class B units, and here we are with Dahlia. Oh well, I guess we will see if Crocker-luck is still holding for us.
We Jan 6
We left the Little town of Garberville about 11 o'clock in the morning. It's one of the small towns located on a steelhead river. Fishing is an important part of their activities.
It is amazing in the USA. We have come across numerous towns where steelhead fishing is important. However in Canada ( specifically BC) with our 2 main steelhead rivers of the Thompson River and Bella Coola; we have almost fished them out for that species. It does not say much for our fisheries management in Canada.
From Garberville we made a quick stop at Richardsons grove. This was a wonderful spot on the highway where the road was so narrow you could almost touch the enormous redwoods with your rearview mirror. One of the places we stopped at was very interesting carvers shop with many dozens of carvings ranging from Eagles, bears, to Wales to Bigfoot characters. It was tucked into and enormous stand on the roadside.
From there we merged into a massive Vineyard region. The first town was Ukiah. This area reminded this somewhat of the Napa Valley but was much bigger. Some of the vineyards were equally as stately as in Napa. The Vineyard area ended in the town of Hopland. It was a quaint little town at the end of this region but we couldn't find any hop fields!
Next we were back on the ocean at Point Reyes national seashore. This is a very unique location being right on the San Andreas fault that runs right through the park in a straight line where the ocean actually creeps into it for half the distance of the fault.
Our final interesting area was called Muir Woods National Monument, about an hour south of Point Reyes. We were amazed at the number of cars parked in this spot. It was a Friday afternoon and yet they were hundreds of cars in the parking lot
It was here that representatives from countries around the world met in May 1945. The World War II had not yet wrapped up but it was Roosevelt's dream to create our United Nations based in New York that would replace the old league of Nations which had failed to prevent World War II. Also many decisions were made at this conference that resulted in ending world war two
Sadly Roosevelt passed away a couple of months before this world changing gathering. However the conference went on at Muir Woods and in October 1945 the current United Nations that we know commenced operations based in New York.
Sadly it was too late in the day for us to take a hike through the Famous redwood forests but we will definitely return.
lot.
Lucked out again. Drove from Lincoln city in Oregon along the coast to just north of Crescent city in California.
The road was damp with much snow on the side. The hotel desk clerk was surprised that we had come from the north on highway 101. Only an hour or so back the road had been closed indefinitely because of a major car pile-up! Conditions had cooled just enough to turn the road into a skating rink. We actually were delayed for one hour because of a two car accident just a short distance from where we decided to spend the night.
Jan 5
On to Crescent City. This is truly an ideal like and beautiful seaside village. It is located in Southern Oregon right on the coast.
A beautiful beach side park, and lighthouse make a stroll in this area truly a treat.
Only a few miles from town is a famous grove of California redwoods. The location is called Stout grove. You drive on a one lane road that meanders around enormous redwoods, some of which are 15 to 20 feet across at the base. Many of them are over 100 feet in height. The temperature here was slightly cool but still nice for a stroll among the trees. Their size dwarfs anything I've ever seen in my life--even at Cathedral Grove in Vancouver Island.
Even though the weather temperature in the day was reasonably nice, the night times saw up to 3 inches of snow drop in several locations as the temperature dropped well below freezing.
Because of the depth of snow we could not drive into the sand dune parks. At one of these parks I decided to take a stroll down to the Sandune's. From the car you could not see them because of the trees. I did not realize that the walk was at least 2 miles in 3 to 4 inches of snow. Eventually I was blocked off by a small lake that prevented me from proceeding, and I never did see the dunes or the ocean.
In spite of the inconvenience of Harvey and Wendy having to pick us up, it was very fortuitous that it should go at this time. All the parts were in Langley and after the weekend the parts would be ordered and repair should be completed on Tuesday.
Crocker-luck held out and we thank our lucky stars that we did not have this happen in El Salvador!!
It was great catching up with Harvey and Wendy. The next day they drove us into Vancouver and we were at Sam and Jean's. We had an enjoyable and laid-back New Year's Eve at Sam's. The snow that evening knocked out the power for quite a number of hours but we had a truly great time.
