My month in California

 My take on California

I learned after I'd been here for about a week that I wasn't even remotely ready to make the most of my month here - or even to use my limited time well.  For some reason, I decided to stay at the Needles campground for only 2 nights - just enough time to visit the Mojave National Preserve.  And from there I kept moving, seeing more things and finding more places that didn't have good wifi access.  I wasn't able to finish my posts for Arizona until the 9th, and couldn't start posting about California until well after that.

Between all the moving around and seeing new sights and not having finished my last state and being surprised by this new one, I became what you might call disoriented.  And all that filtered into my impression of my month here.

California's land

northern California

southern California

I tried to position these 2 maps so you could maybe see where they overlap.  They were one behind the other on the page so I couldn't piece them together to make it easier to see.  And anyway, these were so big I had to stand on a stool and raise the camera up to try to fit all of each piece into the frame, so I'd never have been able to fit in the whole map.

As you may be able to see (the map shows as being faint because it was faint - I darkened it but was starting from pale markings), I missed the entire southern piece of the state, from San Diego across to Arizona and all the way up the coast to Los Angeles.  That's a big chunk of the state to miss, and I really didn't want to miss it.  I just ran short of time and gasoline money.  It didn't occur to me before I started (as I said, I was completely unprepared to travel in this state), but I should have planned to spend 2 months here instead of 1.  I knew intellectually that CA is our 3rd largest state, but it just doesn't look that way to me on maps so, emotionally, I didn't think it'd be all that big.  It is.  It's really big.

And regarding the land itself, the biggest surprise for me was that so much of the state is covered with mountains.  I've tended to think of CA as being the fairly flat part that's along the southern route (I-10) that I used to drive to and from Texas - the desert part.  Mostly I'd get over to the coast and be distracted by the ocean-view scenery from noticing that my drive included a lot of hills.  A few times I drove up the middle of the state on what was US-99 but is now I-5.  At the time I saw that area too as being fairly flat; it is CA's farm country, after all.

But after my travels in other parts of the US, I can now see even the I-5 area as being merely a valley between nearby mountain ranges.  So yeah, it's flat in comparison, but it's mountain-valley flat, not desert-flat, if you see what I mean.  All over the state, from Palm Springs to Cascade City, I drove in high hills and mountains.  And I didn't expect that at all.

CA has the same range of countryside that Texas does - from deserts to oceans to mountains; from the Mojave (driest desert in North America) to near rain forests (coastal redwoods); from tiny towns to major population centers (3 of the 10 largest cities in the US).

CA's farmland produces more sales value of agricultural products (crops and livestock) than any other US state.  I honestly find this hard to believe and checked again online, but as of 2019 ag receipts, it's true.  Maybe it's because CA produces products that are higher-end market value, like pistachios and almonds and artichokes, than - say - Iowa's corn.  But as far as I can tell, without irrigation, CA's ag industry would literally bite the dust.  Remember Chinatown?  The 1974 movie about shenanigans with the water supply intended for orange groves?  As far as I can tell, things have only gotten more complicated in the last 50 years.

And speaking of water supply, given the multi-state problems with parceling out the reduced flow in the Colorado River, I don't know how the City of Los Angeles thinks it'll be able to keep supporting its continuing growth (a 2.8% increase in 2020 over 2010).  Given the vastly differing needs and resources between the various areas of the state, CA's decision-makers are dealing with a situation that's nearly impossible to resolve.

California's people

As you might imagine from what I said about the land, the people who live in CA can be quite different from each other.  Much as it is in Texas, in similarly large CA very different people with very different aims in life all live in this same state.  I guess I'd have to say that, in general, the people I met were pleasant - even helpful.  But I also found more rudeness - or at least grumpiness - than I expected to find here.  More, in fact, than I've found in most other states.  

I don't know why that was, and I didn't see any kind of pattern.  The month of March is a sort of off-season for tourism here, so I can't just chalk it up to being tired of tourists.  And I don't think it was a reaction to me wearing a mask, because many local people were wearing masks still, in stores and shops and even outdoors.

Tourism is one of the main driving forces in CA's economy, and it took a serious hit during the height of the pandemic.  It's coming back now, and I'd've thought those facts would mean I'd see happy, welcoming faces.  Maybe that's why I'm so surprised that I often didn't.  A shame.  It tends to color my view of the state.

And by the way, the people I talked to were split in their views of the desirability of living in CA.  Some loved it and were quite content, while others didn't care for it at all and were thinking of moving elsewhere.  That didn't seem to be a function of political preferences; it was more about the number of people.  And there are a lot of people here: CA ranks #1 in the US for number of residents.

Driving in California

CA's current license plate

Pictured above is a front plate; the back plate has a year sticker in the upper right corner.  These plates have been official since 2011.  But I still saw a lot of the old black-with-gold-letters plates, and have just learned that those have been issued beginning in 1963 and are still valid.  But these white ones are what I saw the most often.

I found CA's drivers to be a mixed bag.  Lots of times people let me merge in front of them or waited to let me pull out of a parking lot into a street.  But also lots of times, people cut me off or zoomed up to get ahead of me (somewhat dangerously).  I never knew what to expect from another driver.  

What I found most odd was that most of the politeness was from city drivers, while most of the rudeness was from drivers in rural areas.  I honestly would have expected it to be the other way around.

Besides the drivers, what I noticed most about driving in CA was how the state (or local government) didn't seem interested in helping me figure out how to get where I was going.  In towns, this meant a lack of street signs or a lack of legible and easily findable street signs.  On highways, this meant I might see plenty of signs telling me how many miles I was from such-and-such but a dearth of signs telling me where to turn or what name/number a highway had.  That's mostly why I got lost so often here - nobody (no signs) wanted to tell me where I was or how to get somewhere else.

No discussion of driving in CA would be complete without a mention of the price of gasoline.  Yes, I know the price is high throughout the country (with much of the blame, in my mind, on Putin's stupid desire to recreate the Russian Empire).  But CA has the highest gas tax in the US, and once you tack that onto the high gas prices - and factor in rising inflation - you get some seriously expensive gasoline.  And this is hitting me in the 3rd largest state.  That means a lot of miles.  I found I was becoming reluctant to drive sometimes, just because it was going to cost me so much money.  And I guess in some ways, this trip is all about driving, which gave me a mild dilemma.

What I wanted to see that I missed

A lengthy list.  Very lengthy.  In addition, of course, to all those places I mentioned in my daily posts.  

For instance, the entire San Diego area.  I wanted to visit the San Diego zoo and especially to see the pandas.  Also San Diego de Alcala, the oldest of the Spanish missions built in CA; this one was founded in 1769.  I missed going farther south and seeing the border with Mexico, to compare it to what I saw in Texas.

I completely missed Stockton and Modesto, and only had a brief drive-through in Fresno - all major areas in central CA.

Both the Nixon and Reagan Presidential Libraries are in CA, and though I wasn't exactly a fan of either president, I still wanted to visit their libraries.  I thought I might learn something about their presidencies that would help me understand how they became the people they seemed.  The Nixon library is in Yorba Linda, and the Reagan library is in Simi Valley - both places that I drove very near.  But because I was so not ready for this state, I didn't realize they were there until I'd already passed by, and I just didn't have either the time (only a month) or the money (gas prices over $5.50) to go back.

In the Los Angeles area, I missed such well known places as Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach; Irvine, San Juan Capistrano, Anaheim (does anybody else remember Jan & Dean's 1964 song Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review, and Timing Association?).

I passed through Auburn on my way out of the state, but I'd wanted to stop because it's home to one of the West's oldest volunteer firefighting organizations - established in 1852.  The Old Town's Firehouse has a bell that rings at 8:00, 12:00 noon, and 5:00.  I have several relatives in my mom's family who were long-time volunteer firefighters, so I'm interested.

Spring was definitely showing up in southern CA, but farther north - and especially in the high mountains - winter was just barely receding.  This meant a lot of roads I might have taken in the summer weren't even open yet when I got there - in Sequoia National Park, for instance.  But I felt definitely lucky that the fires that have so plagued CA in recent years still left enormous stands of coastal redwoods and interior sequoias untouched.  And I felt even luckier not to encounter any fires myself, as I did in Colorado last year.  California's trees are the true source of beauty in the state, and with the continuing drought and reduced snow pack, climate change could do a real number on CA's economy.

My conclusion

While I've sometimes begun traveling in a state I hadn't prepared for, and it took me several days to get myself oriented there, my experience in CA was orders of magnitude beyond that.  It wasn't fair either to me or to what California had to offer for me to have tried to do my visit in only 1 month, and to have failed to plan ahead any more than I did.  In my defense, I was still a little disoriented after my interrupted "month" in Arizona and was still trying to complete the AZ blog posts as late as the 2nd week of March - meaning my head was still at least partly back in Arizona and not here in California.

Even trying to take all that into account, I have mixed feelings about my month here.  I liked very much seeing what I was able to see and would be happy to do a 2nd month here picking up on all the things I missed.  On the other hand, I really did meet enough grouchy people that it's hard for me to feel as positive about them as I do about the scenic wonders here.  In counterbalance to that were the really great visits I had with my cousin Gail and her family and my friend Morgan and his family.  But even there - I hadn't planned for and had to miss seeing my cousin Elaine in Los Angeles.

It's a little muddling to my head, and it's not helped by the fact that I'm already halfway into my month in Nevada and only just now finishing my CA posts.  I cannot for the life of me understand why I had such a hard time getting decent internet service throughout the state of California.  All kinds of places where you'd think connectivity would be a given.  Nope.  Neither my hotspot nor the various campgrounds' systems could receive consistent signals.  I'm not one of those who can't put my phone down (mainly because it's a flip phone that receives nothing but calls), but I still found it very disorienting after a while not to know what was going on in the world and not even able to figure out directions to places.

I guess this conclusion isn't very conclusive, but maybe that's a good illustration of my feelings about this state.

California - Day 32 - Sacramento, to NV

Reno KOA at Boomtown, Verdi

Friday, 1 April 2022

today's route

I'd been trying to fit Sacramento into an itinerary for weeks, thinking I could go north from Merced after Yosemite, or east from Petaluma.  My problem was campground affordability and availability, or the lack thereof, and the longer-than-obvious driving distances that didn't make Sacramento on the way to anywhere else.  But the idea of leaving the state without seeing the state's capitol wasn't an option, which is how it got cobbled onto today's route.  That's also the main reason I'm calling today Day 32 of my month in California.  After all, I spent 4 months on Texas, the 2nd largest US state, so surely California, the 3rd largest, should get an extra day.  So off to Sacramento we went.

We left before 8:00 this morning (though an hour after sunrise) because I figured the 3½ hours Google said today's drive would take was optimistic.  It was - it took almost 6 hours.

The drive south from Oroville took me past a tree nursery and many large orchards.  The signs I saw told me many were family-owned.  I passed a Mariani plant, and in case you can't remember why this sounds familiar, their website shows their logo, which you've seen - and possibly bought - in grocery stores all over.   https://mariani.com

We came to Marysville, pop. 12,844, which sits at 41' elevation.  That seems impossible to me considering not only how far inland it is but also that it's in the middle of mountains.  But that seems to be about true.  Anyway, there I passed the Bok Kai Temple, the original of which was built in 1854 when Chinese first arrived to work in the mines.  It's been moved and rebuilt in the years since but is apparently still a popular place of worship.  Here's a website that has photos and a minimal explanation of the religion (which apparently isn't one of the major ones like - say - Buddhism).   http://www.bokkaitemple.com  Marysville also has a large pond/small lake in the middle of town, complete with an island and resident geese.

Near the town of Plumas Lake, I saw more than 100 bee boxes.  But there were no orchards or other obvious agricultural activity nearby, so I wondered if there might be clover in the field the boxes were sitting next to.  I mean, bees gotta eat, right?

I saw a small area of high grass surrounded by a fence, and the area was full of sheep.  Guessing they were for lawn mowing purposes.

Sacramento didn't have a highway sign, but online it says the city sits at 394' and had a 2020 population of 524,943.  I'd hoped that since today was Friday, maybe the area around the capitol wouldn't be jam packed and we could stop and take a walk.  I was wrong all the way around.  

The capitol, the legislature and the supreme court are all built on the same 2-block-sized chunk of land.  Lots of grass and trees and so forth.  I drove all the way around these buildings and did find a couple of sort-of parking spaces, but I would have had to use an app to use the parking meters, and apps aren't something I have.  And the spaces were iffy for me anyway because of maybe not being able to get out of them once I'd gotten into them.  

I finally stopped in a place where the signs said I wasn't even supposed to stop, let alone park, and there was a cop standing nearby so I couldn't fudge it.  But I stopped anyway and took this photo of the capitol.

California State Capitol

It took them 14 years to build this capitol, finishing in 1874.  It's in the neoclassical style, based on the US Capitol.  The dome is 210' high and is topped with a finial of gold leaf.

detail from state capitol roof

This is an enlargement of the figure you can see to the left of the peaked entry roof, and there's another one on the right side, out of view in my photo.  Being a lover of horses and humane treatment of animals, I can't say I care much for a statue that shows one of them being mauled, even if it's by a bear (the official state animal is the California grizzly bear).

It's a very attractive area and I guess my own fault I haven't embraced recent technology enough to be able to park there.

We drove farther along through town, and I found a lot of parking without meters on a block that was all a parking lot with a small building at the side.  This whole set up had some green plants around the edge, so a good place to walk the dogs.  This smallish brick building next to the parking lot was labeled for Blue Diamond Growers, and across the street was the Blue Diamond almond plant, with a nut and gift shop (according to the sign), all with very attractive landscaping.

Another sign told me to go 1 block down the street to find the California Almond Growers Exchange Historic Site.  I didn't but I looked it up instead and learned that the group was founded in 1910 and run as a co-op for almond marketing.  As time went on it acquired the world's first nut-cracking machine.  Here's a link if you want a little more information.   https://www.hmdb.org/CA-Almond-Growers-Building 

I started wondering why CA's nickname is The Golden State.  I've always assumed it was because of the gold rush and indeed, I found a place online that said yes, after the Gold Rush it was in fact called the Golden State.  But I found another place that said the state didn't officially adopt this nickname until 1968 and, by then, they had a long list of reasons why: (1) the Gold Rush (in 1848); (2) gold is the official state mineral (since 1965); (3) the yellowish-orange California poppy is the official state flower (since 1903); (4) the internationally-known Golden Gate Bridge (built 1930).  If these really were the reasons, then my next question is, what took them so long?  Anyway, I guess I got my answer about the nickname.

From town, the road started climbing right away, as I was heading into the mountains.  Sacramento sits below 400'; Newcastle, not far up the road, sits at 1,000'; Weimer, about the same distance farther on, sits at 2,251'.  And we kept climbing.

We drove through the Tahoe National Forest in a continual steep climb, and started seeing snow on the ground.  I came to several summits with an elevation of 6,000' and could see I was up high on those snow-topped mountains.  It was really pretty up there, with rushing mountain streams between snow-covered bark through evergreens.  There are ski areas up there.

Then I came to Donner Summit, elev. 7,239'  Yes, those Donners.  This is where they actually came through.  At more than 7,000'.  In late October.  With a party that was predominantly women and children, and very few in the party had any pioneering experience.  I'm no longer wondering how they ended up stuck.  The Wikipedia page makes it sound like their trip was one long continuing error in judgment after another, resulting in tragedy.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Donner-Party

I crossed the Pacific Crest Trail again.

A Corvette had the license plate: 4XELR8N.

The Donner Summit was the high point on the road and highway signs told me to expect: "6% Grade Next 5 Miles" and "S-Curves" and "Slippery Road".  Not a reassuring combination.

There was a beautiful lake below, which I learned was originally named Truckee Lake but is now Donner Lake.  The town of Truckee sits at 6,050' elevation.

And then I was in Nevada (see Nevada Day 1 for that).

California - Day 31 - through Redding to Oroville

Oroville/Feather Falls Casino KOA, Oroville

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Before leaving the Mt. Shasta campground, I finished the blog post for Day 14.  I'd written all of it yesterday afternoon, but the internet connection was so incredibly slow I couldn't insert the photos.  For some reason, speed wasn't a problem this morning, so I got that one done.  Now only 14 more to do to be caught up.

today's route

Google wanted me to go directly to the interstate from the campground, but I chose to drive through Mt. Shasta all the way to the end of the town.  (Not being related to James James Morrison Morrison - or his mother for that matter.)

What I saw once I passed the main business area was a nice little town with Mt. Shasta itself visible from just about everywhere in town.  The mountain is about 15 miles away, and since it's over 14,000' high, you can imagine that it's not able to hide.  It really is beautiful.

Just past Dunsmuir, I saw the highway exit for the Pacific Crest Trail.   In fact, I crossed it several times today and realized I saw it at other points as I drove through California.  I'll be seeing it again in Oregon and Washington.

I saw another of those bear signs - just a picture of a momma and her cub with no words.  But you know how many words they say a picture's worth.

I saw a CA license plate that read: BEAMZG - which I assume is Be Amazing.

I passed a large area where there was burned ground instead of forest - the result of one of CA's devastating wildfires.  This one was from the Delta fire in 2018 that burned more than 63,000 acres.  Given how many fires CA's had in recent years, and how much land they burned, I'm surprised I haven't seen more areas like this.

I passed a large lake to the east, which turned out to be Lake Shasta.  It's the result of the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River - this dam being the 9th tallest in the US.  Pretty lake.

A sign told trucks to watch out for "sharp curves, steep grades next 1½ miles."  I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and roads like this are a problem.

I got to Redding (pop. 93,611) and stopped off at a Target, which is the chain where I'd bought my first space heater.  This one didn't have any (though the staff thought they did), but I did find latex and non-latex gloves which I haven't been able to find until today.  I use them for dumping my waste tanks and cleaning my bathroom, so they're an essential in this household.

I had to fight with Google but I got a route through town and saw a nice old downtown area and several pleasant parks.  Snow-topped mountains to the east.  It seemed a pleasant place, though I learned that it has unusually high temperatures in the summer - it got up to 126° in 2020.  The 2018 Carr Fire destroyed a good part of Shasta County (Redding is the county seat), burning 1,100 buildings and killing 6 people.

On the drive today I saw several signs and heard several mentions on the radio about the State Of Jefferson.  That's it - just the name.  So I looked it up and learned that this is a proposal to have chunks of southern Oregon and northern California break off from their states to form a 51st state.  This is only one of several such proposals around the country, and I feel certain that none of them is likely to succeed.  But it seems to be strongly under discussion in this area, so if you're interested, here's the Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Jefferson-proposed-Pacific-state

I started seeing mountains on both sides of the road that had snow on them.  As I drove south I started thinking I was seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains rather than the Cascades, and finally looked it up.  Although I didn't bother to find out exactly where one stops and the other starts, I did learn that the Cascade Mountain Range forms the northern portion and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range forms the southern portion of the stretch of mountains that runs from the Mojave Desert into British Columbia.  The Sierra Nevadas include Mt. Whitney (in CA), the tallest mountain in the Lower 48; Yosemite National Park (also in CA); and Lake Tahoe (in both CA and NV).  So a variety of geographic stars.

Near Red Bluff I started seeing huge orchards.  The leaves were only just starting to come out but I thought they might be pecans until I saw a sign saying "Sunsweet - 100 Years."

In fact, I saw a variety of orchards with trees of different heights (I think I saw their natural heights, not that some were younger or something) and different amounts of leaves having appeared.

Not far from Chico, I almost ran into oncoming cars from lack of sleep.  I've just got to get this problem solved.  

Obviously needing to take a break, I ended up stopping on the street in Chico and walked around some office buildings with lots of flowers and bushes, not having found a park.  Turns out Chico is home of Bidwell Park, one of the world's largest urban parks, but I never saw it.  Chico's 2020 population was 101,475, a substantial increase over 2010's 86,187.  They must be doing something right to attract so many new folks.  I thought it looked like a pleasant town.

As I drove on down the road, I passed lots of horses and cows, lots more orchards, and found quite a few bugs hitting the windshield.  I haven't been seeing many bugs anywhere else so far this year, but they seem to be happy in this area, since there were so many of them.

I've seen several billboards saying, "Wide Open Spaces - Courtesy of Your Local Cattlemen."

And then on to tonight's campground, which is a KOA attached to a casino.  The campground was very pleasant, though with maybe too much pavement (i.e. the whole campground), and although I had a little trouble finding places for us to walk, it was still a nice change from dirt-only campgrounds.

California - Days 28 through 30 - Mt. Shasta City

Mt. Shasta City KOA, Mt. Shasta

Monday, 28 through Wednesday, 30 March 2022

I kept fairly busy during these 3 days.  I finished 6 blog posts, catching me up to Day 13.  Woo-hoo!  Now only 2 weeks behind, instead of 3 weeks.  Doing this work was harder than you might think, because the internet connection was very slow.  When it takes several minutes to upload to the blog a photo that's already on the computer because I took it myself - well, it gets discouraging.

My water pump finally stopped working completely, so the only water I have in the RV is what comes in when the hose is hooked up to campground water (or what I've saved in jugs, just in case).  

Further, my heater stopped being reliable.  I could only get it to come on now and then, and I could detect no pattern to tell me when it would or wouldn't work.  Nighttime temps were getting down into the 30's, with a prediction for freezing on Wednesday night, so heat was imperative.  On Tuesday morning, I finally turned on the engine (not the generator but the truck's engine) so I could turn on the heater in the cab.  My poor puppies were huddled in front of the vents for the hour I ran it.

I was getting increasingly worried about the state of my tires - I'm sure at least 2 of them need to be replaced.  And I think it's past time for an oil change, but the last time I had one, they didn't have those little stickers they put in the windshield to remind you when the next one is due, so I really had no idea.  Of course, that just gave me something else to worry about.

And Extra Space Storage, where I have everything stored that I didn't want to cart around on this trip (like my mother's piano), told me I needed to get my annual payment to them by Friday because it's due on Monday.  (Don't understand that; the post office still delivers mail on Saturdays and Mondays, and neither is a holiday, but I didn't argue.)

I finally called my poor brother and asked if he'd mind if I whined for a while, and he very generously let me do it.  I felt much better after dumping this stuff out, and David had a brilliant suggestion, which was to buy another space heater to replace the one I've been using that died a month or 2 ago.  I felt like I was one of the Peterkin family getting advice from the Lady from Philadelphia, and very lucky to have it.

So on Tuesday we left the campground for a long list of errands.  First on the list was to stop at Shastice city park that was just a little over a mile from the campground.  I like to take the dogs new places because I think they must get really bored when we're in the same campground for days, sniffing the same places all the time.

We went next to the post office in Mt. Shasta and I paid an extra $9 to send the check to Extra Space Storage where it would likely (though not guaranteed) arrive on Friday.  (Spoiler alert: it got there on Thursday.  Let's hear it for the US Postal Service!)

Then we stopped at a hardware store where I did indeed find a space heater that I hoped would keep my kids warm.  The clerk who helped me said they'd never had that model returned, so I took a chance.

The hardware store was right next to a local grocery store, where I got some supplies.  And that was right next to a Chase bank, where I replenished my supply of $100 bills.  I use those to buy gasoline (sometimes getting a cash discount) and CA's high gas prices had thoroughly depleted my stock alarmingly fast.

From there I went down the street (Mt. Shasta has 3,223 residents (2020 census) so its business area is compact) to the CVS to get my blood pressure meds refilled.  That CVS was in a building that I'm sure was originally a gas station - maybe from the 1950s or 60s, from the look of it - and inside it was nothing more than a place to pick up prescriptions.  None of the sundries that take up most of the square footage of a usual CVS.  I found it refreshing.

I'd intended to stop at a garage to see about the oil change and tires and even/maybe the water pump.  But I'd already called the one the campground folks recommended and they'd said they didn't do any kind of work on an RV, though I was welcome to bring it by and they'd take a look at it.  But I decided why bother if the chances were nearly 100% they were just going to look and say yep, we can't do it.

Instead I went on to another park, this one called Mt. Shasta City Park.  Its claim to fame is that the headwaters of the Sacramento River are here and easily accessible, so I thought that'd be a good place for the dogs and me to go.  I still do think that but I changed my mind once we got there.  Even though it was a Tuesday, I saw quite a few people heading that direction from the parking area - almost all of them with dogs.  Not a situation I could trust my dogs with, so instead we walked around the area near the parking and the adjacent senior center.  Too bad but there it is.  If you're curious about this headwaters business, I found something online that does a good job with both pictures and description.   https://californiathroughmylens.com/headwaters-sacramento-river

One thing I saw there was a demonstration in the forest by local forestry experts showing folks how to reduce fire hazards around their homes.  You know, cutting back the brush and overhanging tree limbs and so forth.  They showed one area where nothing had been done and another area next to it that had been thinned out.  The thinned area wasn't bare or unsightly, but more like the difference before and after you've gotten a haircut.

One night I ordered a pizza from a local place - Say Cheese Pizza.  Actually, I think they might be the only pizza place in town.  They were really expensive - especially when I added in a tip for the delivery person - but that pizza had more pepperoni on it than I've ever seen on a pepperoni pizza.  It was great.  So I ordered the pizza and watched Soapdish, one of my favorite dumb movies, and had Halloween in March again.  I think I did this last year, and it was a good idea.

This campground was built on a hill so we had to climb almost everywhere we walked.  Not that that's a bad idea, but neither Gracie nor I has a strong set of lungs, or legs, or stamina.  In fact, we're both falling apart, but something like this is good for us.  It's in a large mixed grove of trees, mostly redwoods but also other species, and it's really very pleasant.  

The dog park was a decent size and one time we were joined by another dog & owner.  That other dog was bigger than mine but still very young, and Dexter had a great time playing with her.  Gracie tried but she just couldn't keep up.

The trees in this photo are planted inside the dog park and my guess is some kind of eucalyptus.  There was an unusual odor in their vicinity - and I'll confess I can't remember what eucalyptus smells like, but this smell made me think of them so maybe?  I looked eucalyptus up online and the best answer I got was a maybe.  Still, they smelled nice and Gracie liked to lie in their shade.

All in all, though I still have several major things to worry about that I couldn't take care of here, this was a restful stop for us.

California - Day 27 - to Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta City KOA, Mt. Shasta

Sunday, 27 March 2022

I forgot to say in any of the last several posts that I've been occasionally seeing a small dark squirrel in the various campgrounds.  I looked it up and can't tell for sure what kind of squirrel it is.  They don't have any brown on them, which rules out the Eastern Gray Squirrel, the Fox Squirrel and the Red Squirrel.  That just leaves the Western Gray Squirrel, which is the largest of the squirrel species in the US, and the Black Squirrel, which are supposed to be fairly rare because they're a genetic mutation.  The squirrels I've been seeing aren't black - I saw those back East - they're definitely a dark gray and they've all been small.  So I've doubtless discovered a new squirrel species.

today's route

When I first planned this part of my itinerary, I thought the map showed me I could get from Crescent City to Mt. Shasta while still staying in CA.  But when I actually sat down to figure out a route, I found the only way I could do that was to go all the way back almost to Eureka before I could head east.  That route would take many hours extra, plus be a difficult winding road, as I know from driving it the other day.  So I decided to bite the bullet and break my self-imposed rule about not leaving a state once I've started my month there.  I still had to go all the way north to Grants Pass, OR, before I could go south - 80 miles north and 112 miles south.  Presumably the lack of roads is due to the many mountains between the 2 towns - the Cascade Mountain Range in the east and the Klamath Mountains in the west, to be exact.

I found heading north that I had not yet left behind those winding roads through the redwoods, mainly because I was still driving through redwoods.  The road paralleled the Smith River, so it wound around tight curves with huge trees growing right at the road's edge.  I passed a warning sign that read, "Narrow Winding Road Next 6 Miles."  It was soon followed by another sign saying, "Road Narrows."  And it did get even narrower than it had been.  And this was US-199 I was driving on, not some little state or local road.  It took me an hour to drive 28 miles.

That got me to Collier Tunnel, which I hadn't known was there and which was a half-mile long.  Just on the other side was a rest area, which I needed by then.  There I saw this sign:

Something about this inscription struck me as odd so I looked it up and learned that the tunnel was built at the strong urging of the state legislator it was named for.  Although the tunnel isn't particularly long and only made the drive shorter by 3 miles, it lopped off 128 turns and 5 switchbacks that were on the old route.  (I told you the road was winding.)  So I too am happy to celebrate Mr. Collier's activities.

Three miles further on, I learned that Oregon Welcomes Me.  Because I'll have my month in Oregon in May, I won't say anything much about what I saw there today except for 2 notes.  One is that gasoline here was $4.75, even in small towns (a dollar less than in CA); the other is that in the farming town of Kerby, I saw signs advertising "CRON" and "SWEET CRON."  (Good thing for that 2nd sign because I wasn't sure what "cron" was.)

Ashland, OR, isn't far from the border, and it sits at 5,013'.  Yreka, CA, is not much further from the border on the other side, and it sits at 2,589'.  That meant the road did some serious dropping.  Just past Ashland I saw a sign saying, "Warning - Long Steep Downgrade Ahead."  And another one saying, "6% Grade for the Next 7 Miles."  So I downshifted and did my best to stay out of everybody else's way on the way down.

Just past the Welcome To California sign, all traffic had to stop at one of the state's agricultural inspection stations.  They asked me if I was carrying any fresh fruits or vegetables, and I said yes, but I'd bought them in CA.  I'd've gone on to explain about having come from Cascade City but what I'd already said was enough, apparently.  If they'd really pushed it, I could have produced receipts for what I had, but I guess being an older white female puts me in the reliable category for them.

I started having serious trouble staying awake and was lucky that the road was no longer narrow and winding.  I just haven't been sleeping well lately, and that can make driving dangerous.  I drink coffee all morning and then switch to Diet Coke to get more caffeine.  And if NPR is either not available or not stimulating enough, I'll put on Buddy Holly or something else vigorous and sing along to wake up.  All of that usually works enough to get me over the hump.  The sleepiness period only lasts for a few hours.

I started being able to see Mt. Shasta while I was still many miles from Mt. Shasta City, which is built near the mountain's base.  Here's one I took from a rest area.

Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta, 14,179' tall, is a still-active volcano that shares characteristics of Mt. St. Helens in WA, that erupted in 1980 and produced a cloud of ash that spread as far as the central US.  Yeah, that's Mt. Shasta's relative.  I assumed it wouldn't decide to erupt during the next 4 days and drove on, but I noted that the USGS rates it as a "very high-threat volcano."  If you're curious about the mountain (it actually has 4 cones, not just 1), here's the Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Mount-Shasta

It's really beautiful, though, isn't it?

Past the town of Weed (named for an early white settler), the highway became part of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, one of only 42 in the US designated as an All American Road.  From Mt. Shasta City, the byway runs east to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  And from Mt. Shasta City, the byway runs north into Oregon to Crater Lake National Park, which was created when Mt. Mazama (another relative of Mt. Shasta) erupted and collapsed.  That's a place I want to visit when I'm in OR.

I saw indications all the way to town that this road had recently been icy and chains had been required.  I was glad I'd left this part of the state until last; if I'd come here early in the month, I might not have been able to get here.

And then on into Mt. Shasta City and the campground.  Once again I was too tired to drive around the town, and anyway the dogs were ready for a walk.  Actually, they're always ready.

California - Days 25 & 26 - in the redwoods

Crescent City/Redwoods KOA, Crescent City

Friday, 25 and Saturday, 26 March 2022

My first impression of this campground was that it was a dump, and definitely not the level of facility I'd expect for a KOA.  That was my second impression too.  But I gradually realized it seemed that way because nothing was paved - or even graveled - so when it rains, the ground gets muddy everywhere.  It's fine in good weather - which we had one of the days I was there.  But the dogs and I tracked so much mud into the RV it took me days to get it all out.  

The fact is that this area functions as a rain forest, much like Juneau, AK, where I used to live.  That means it's got gorgeous scenery and yucky living conditions (the latter creates the former).  This campground is built in the middle of a redwood grove with a small cleared area for RVs and thick trees for small campers and people in tents.  It really was beautiful, but the trees blotted out a lot of the sun.  Between that and the cloudy times, it was grey often enough while we were here that I came to find it depressing.  That, after all, is why I left Juneau - and Seattle for that matter - in the first place.

But lest you think I'm exaggerating by saying so often that it was scenic, here are some photos I took.

Ferns beside a small stream

Ferns and big trees

I wanted to show how big these
tree trunks were.

These are the trees that belong to
the trunks at left.  They really are
big - and these are relatively
young trees.

Note how that tree contorted itself to get enough light
to grow next to the tree that once grew on that enormous
tree stump.  For reference, that's a cabin at far right.

The other side of those same trees.

The trunks of these trees are big and their
root systems are even bigger.  That's a
cabin on the left for size comparison.

The same fallen tree.  Note, for size, the
 Airstream not far away.  Note too the new
tree growing within those old roots.

I took this while standing up, not lying
on the ground as it might seem.
They're just this tall.

The tree that once lived here was more than 6' across.
This is an old grove of redwoods.

This is what redwood needles/leaves
look like - sort of feathery.  Perfect,
I guess, for lapping up coastal fog.

And one more of beautiful trees and ferns.

Near the office at this campground is an enclosure with chickens on one side and goats on the other.  Great for little kids, I guess, and the staff told me the chickens lay a lot of eggs, but they really limited where I could walk the dogs.  Dexter could just about handle the chickens running around and scratching and making chicken noises, but the goats got him all excited so we had to steer clear.

Just about the only place for us to walk here were the paths leading to the campsites hidden among the trees.  Which was fine except they didn't look anything like what was printed on the campground map and I kept getting lost, going down roads that weren't on the map and discounting as not real paths the ones that were.  I went down one road that turned out to be seriously muddy, only to find at the other end that there was a sign saying don't go down this road - it's dangerous.  There was nothing at all like that where we came in and I don't know what was dangerous.  The mud?  Strange place.

But it was peaceful, thanks to the forest.

When we got here, I was 3 weeks behind in posting to my blog.  This was partly due to moving around a lot, but it was mostly due to not having been able to get a reliable internet connection most of these last weeks.  Crazy not to get an internet connection in California, of all places.  I mean, this is the state where Silicon Valley is, for heaven's sake.  But over and over I found the various campgrounds had weak to nonexistent signals and my own hotspot could only get an intermittent connection.  

Anyway, I wrote 3 posts while I was here, but I could see the catch-up process was formidable.  It'll get done, though, because I don't want to forget what I saw here.

California - Day 24 - Redwood Highway to Crescent City

Crescent City/Redwoods KOA, Crescent City

Thursday, 24 March 2022

On our early walk around last night's campground in Benbow, I think we surprised some raccoons - at least, they're my guess.  Dext got really excited about a critter he could smell but we couldn't see (he couldn't either), and on our later walk I saw that trash had been pulled out of a trash can and strewn all around the ground.  

It doesn't feel to me like we're particularly out in the country, but from an animal's point of view, I guess we are.

today's route

Because last night's campground was almost on top of the town of Garberville (pop. 818), I drove through just to get an idea of what was here.  I passed the Eel River Cafe and through its windows could see an old-fashioned small-town cafe.  It looked wonderful and I was really sorry I'd already had breakfast or I'd've stopped just to enjoy the ambiance.  Local gas stations were selling gas for $5.99/gallon.

The road followed the Eel River for many miles, and between the river and the mountains in the neighborhood the road was even more twisty than it looks on the map above.

At the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, I pulled off the highway into the park.  I just drove a short distance there but can tell you it's got some pretty gorgeous trees.

I started seeing signs for Avenue of the Giants Scenic Alternative.  It turns out to be a 31-mile drive through this state park and includes several attractions, such as a couple of drive-through trees and the Founders Tree, which was for a while designated the World's Tallest Known Tree at 346.1'.  Others have since remeasured and come up with different figures and think it was incorrectly measured in the first place.

California doesn't despair, however, because it can still claim having the world's tallest tree - the Hyperion, at 380.81'.  It's in the Redwood National Park (where I'll be going later today).  In fact, California brags about its trifecta: the world's tallest tree (Hyperion), the world's largest tree (General Sherman), and the world's oldest tree (Methuselah).  Not that the state can take actual credit for growing these trees, but it's still definitely something to brag about.

Anyway, about that "scenic alternative" bit - I'm sure it's a wonderful drive but I have to say that the main route, which I took, wasn't exactly a blight.  I saw huge evergreens, mostly redwoods, growing alongside the lovely Eel River (must have been named because of its twists and turns, not its appearance which is really pretty).  It's been designated a Wild and Scenic River by both the state and federal governments.  The Eel River, by the way, is the 3rd largest watershed entirely in CA and flows for 196 miles.  Its very size makes it even more remarkable to me to still be so untamed.

Low clouds covered the tops of trees on the hills/mountains for much of the drive, but it contributed to the picturesqueness, rather than being a hazard.  The road included a 7% grade (there really were a lot of hills).  And I started thinking that every bridge in the state must have been designated a memorial to someone.  And CA has a lot of bridges.

I passed small (Alton, with 275 residents) and large (Fortuna, with 12,516) towns and then came into Eureka.  With 25,936 residents, it's easily the largest town in the area - in fact, the largest coastal city between San Francisco, CA, and Portland, OR.  The gas wasn't cheaper, though - I had to fork over $5.99 because I needed the fuel and hadn't found anyplace at all cheaper all day.

I drove through Old Town Eureka, an area of 154 buildings from, mainly, the Victorian era, and the whole neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It's a very attractive area, as you might imagine, right along the waterfront, also as you might imagine in those original towns.

College of the Redwoods is here, as well as a branch of Cal State Polytechnic Univ.  Eureka's an attractive town, with a boardwalk along its waterfront, where a company offers harbor cruises.  I saw a large marina including some commercial fishing boats, and stacks of hundreds of crab pots.  The local high school is Home of the Loggers - meaning, I guess, that many people value the area's trees for something besides scenic beauty.

We stopped here for lunch and for a walk, and I drove around town a bit.  Despite the price of gas, I liked it here.

Leaving town the road ran at sea level, right alongside the sea, which is how I know.  And farther along the road at Arcata, pop. 15,700, the highway continued at water level.  This is the home of Humboldt State University.  Here are 2 views of some of that well-known coastal California beauty.

Famed US-101 is called the Redwood Highway along here, and it's hard to beat the scenery.

I heard on the radio that the Yurok Tribe is releasing several California Condors into the wild in the Redwood State and National Forests.  They were put on the endangered list in 1967 and, in 1987, became officially extinct when the last wild birds were captured.  Except that's not as sad a story as it might seem because by capturing them, rather than waiting until they'd all died out, scientists have been allowed to try to continue the species.  And those efforts are bearing fruit right now, as the Yuroks, who consider these birds sacred, are putting them back out into the wild in hopes they can be reestablished.  I do indeed wish them well.

A road sign warned me of "sharp curves next 3 miles - reduce speed" right before I came to a 6% grade.  Not a great combination.

Several times today I passed signs saying I was entering or leaving a Tsunami Hazard Zone.  I wondered about this and looked it up and learned that tsunamis aren't common in CA but have been known to cause multiple deaths.  Consequently, the state has designated these inundation areas with maps to help people get to safe areas in the event of danger.  And I have to say there's certainly a good chunk of the state's population that's living near the ocean.

The Redwood National and State Parks include 1 national park and 3 state parks that are cooperatively managed.  I couldn't usually tell from the signs which one I was in, which is why I can't say where I drove today, except that I was in the .  There are several drives into these parks, and I chose one that was about 10 miles long.  I tried to take photos but was hampered both by the size of the trees and by the bright sunshine that kept hogging the picture.

These 2 photos are of the same tree, with the
top one being higher up than the lower one,
which is a photo of the base of the tree.
Maybe you can tell how huge these things are.

There's nothing to show how huge
these trees really are - but
they're certainly beautiful.

Note both the relative sizes of car vs. trees,
and that the one tree is growing right at
the roadside.

The park service was thoughtful enough to provide places to pull off the road fairly often, each one fairly close to especially large trees, which is the only reason I was able to get these photos.  The road certainly didn't have a shoulder or any other possible place to pull over, so I was glad of these.

A sign told me elk frequently crossed the road in this area.  But maybe not right now?  I didn't see any, at any rate.

Moving down US-101, we came to the town of Klamath (pop. 600+), which touts its "Tour Thru Tree."  I didn't bother but I suppose others do.  This town, by the way, is part of the Yurok Indian Reservation.  The Klamath River, which the town is sited on, seems to have plenty of water in it, so maybe the drought isn't as bad in this part of the state as in the interior/farm country.

A sign told me Welcome to Del Norte County - The Redwood Gate to the Golden State.  You might be able to see on the route map above that the Redwood National Park continues for a long way up the coast, and then moves inland near Crescent City with separate redwood state parks.  That park ranger back at Kings Canyon National Park told me the coastal redwoods thrived on coastal fog/mist, and I guess that's what I'm seeing.  

And sure enough, the sun disappeared and the clouds came back down.  But it was nice having the bright sun while I was in the redwoods, even if it made picture-taking harder.

Crescent City, pop. 6,673 in 2020 (down by almost 1,000 from 2010), lies at 44' elevation.  It seems to be a pleasant enough place, but by now I was pretty tired and went straight to the campground.

California - Day 23 - in the Benbow campground

Benbow KOA, Benbow
Wednesday, 23 March 2022

This campground seems to be part of a place that bills itself as a resort.  I'm guessing that designation is based on having a golf course sharing a property line with the campground.  The main part of the facility was a quaint-looking hotel, the Benbow Historic Inn, a short walk away from both the golf course and campground by means of a walkway through a tunnel under the highway (strange experience).

The inn claims its "historic" title both because of its age - built in 1926 - and because of the luminaries who once stayed here.  Those include Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Basil Rathbone, Alan Ladd, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Joan Fontaine.  I'm guessing nobody like that was there when we were, based on the lack of fancy cars or anything suggesting bodyguards or entourages or reporters.  But still, it looked like a pleasant place to stay, even if they don't keep horses stabled there for guests to ride like they used to.

I did some chores and walked the dogs often.  The weather fluctuated but was mostly pretty nice and peaceful.

California - Day 22 - northern California country

Benbow KOA, Garberville

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

When the dogs and I were out for our just-about-to-leave walk this morning, Dexter pointed out 3 deer to Gracie and me.  I tried to avoid bothering them by taking us back the way we'd come, but one of the deer ran away, which prompted the others to do the same.  They were grazing on a big grassy area near the office in the campground.

today's route

You can see on the map that I drove through the interior of the state, mostly on US-101 with some side trips into towns along the way.  Google told me the drive would take less than 3 hours, but it took me 5 instead.

I drove first through Cloverdale, pop. 8,996, elev. 331'.  Seemed like a nice little country town with gasoline at $6.45/gallon - about the highest I've seen, and I hoped that wasn't what to expect in other towns here in northern CA.

On the highway, I saw a sign saying: Experience Mendocino County - Wilderness   Waves   Wineries.  Which is actually a pretty good summary of what the county has to offer.

I crossed the Russian River, which runs through both Mendocino and Sonoma Counties.

I saw a few llamas mixed in with a small herd of cows - and thought I was imagining things at first.  I also saw a large herd of horses.

All day I saw signs for the World Famous Skunk Train.  They have several historic trains and offer 2 different routes for folks who want to ride through California's redwoods.  I don't know where the name came from, but here's the website if you're interested.   https://www.skunktrain.com

Also all day I drove by wineries and vineyards, bluebonnets and yellow lupines.  You might be thinking of US-101 as an interstate-type of road, remote from its surroundings.  Instead it's more like a well-maintained state highway.  In today's drive, as so often in my travels in California, I went up and down a series of steep hills, sometimes on a narrow winding road, even though US-101 is a major road in the western US, complete with tractor-trailers.

We got off the highway to drive into the town of Ukiah, which the locals call the place "where the redwoods meet the vines."  It has 16,607 residents and lies at 627' elevation.  It's also the county seat, and almost the only place I could find for us to park and walk was in front of the courthouse, which turned out okay.  

I can't find an uncopyrighted photo of the Mendocino County Courthouse, but if I tell you it was built in 1950 in the Modern/Art Deco styles, maybe you'll be able to imagine what it looks like.  It takes up a whole city block, and it's surrounded by grass and flowering plants and trees, and is really a very attractive place.  In the front of the building stand 2 huge old magnolias, and around the sides were blooming azaleas and camellias and other garden flowers.  I walked the dogs all the way around the block, and then we came back and ate lunch.

Lots of the local businesses in Ukiah seemed to be doing well, even with the pandemic, which means to me the town's alive.  And for some reason, gasoline was exactly $1 cheaper here than it was not all that much farther south in Cloverdale.

I saw a sign on the highway warning that tomorrow there'll be a tsunami test from 11:00 to noon.  I looked that up because I thought we were way too far inland to have to worry about a tsunami.  But I guess we're not.  Every year about this time the counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte test their tsunami communications systems.  The tests can include sirens, phone alerts, TV and radio warning broadcasts.  I guess it makes sense they're doing this, because they surely don't need these systems all year long, and they want to be sure everything's working okay in case it's needed.

We continued our drive mostly north and came to the Ridgewood Summit, elev. 1,953', which is pretty high compared to this morning when we were at only 331' in Cloverdale.

A little farther along we came to Willits, pop. 4,988 and elev. 1,391', that calls itself "Gateway to the Redwoods."  Gateway being a fairly broad term, I guess, since the redwood state and national parks were still quite a way farther north.  Willits looked like a normal, small, somewhat isolated American town. 

Past Willits I came to a series of steep hills - a 7% grade, another 7% grade, a 6% grade for the Next 2 Miles.  I'd stopped seeing vineyards but did see a sign warning of elk within the next 5 miles.  And another warning sign saying, "Trucks - Tight Curves Next 9 Miles - Reduce Speed."  They didn't have to tell me twice.  The road has a view way down into a canyon with the Eel River running through it.

Somewhere in there we passed Laytonville, pop. 1,152 and 510' elevation.  There I saw the "World Famous Tree House - Believe It Or Not!" per their sign.

The road began to be lined with redwoods, so I guess Willits' claim wasn't that far off.  For a while I'd considered heading to the coast from Laytonville and driving along CA-1 for 45 miles until I swung back toward US-101.  But I've driven that road before many years ago and remember it fairly well.  It offers fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean and CA's coastal scenery, but it's sometimes a narrow road with no shoulder and rocks jutting out into the road, as I recall.  That means I'd have less time to enjoy the view because of trying to keep from dying as we drove along.

After Laytonville, I saw another warning sign: "Trucks - Tight Curves Ahead - Next 3 Miles - Reduce Speed."  Followed in a while with another one: "Road Narrows."  And that narrowed road threaded between giant redwoods that grew right up to the road, making me worry about my right rear-view mirror.  It was beautiful country but I was glad to make it to the campground in one piece.