Eureka! We Have Made It This Far

We rolled into Eureka around 1400 on Wednesday to the Shoreline RV Park.  It is fairly new and has level, pull through spaces.  Great for parking the Fiver, but nothing like a USFS campground with trees and more space.  Then again, those don't have full hookups plus cable, either.  We are spending three nights here as well take short day trips to see things nearby.

We had a nice visit to historic downtown Eureka yesterday, including lunch at Gallagher's Irish Pub a stop at as used bookstore, and even coffee and ice cream afterwards.  We were shocked at the high price of gas here in Eureka and were told that the cheapest gas was at Costco.  So we took a trip to Eureka Costco and filled up with fuel and picked up some dinner.  That pretty much took care of Wednesday.

Ferndale, California Victorian

Today was pretty grey and rainy, so we decided to travel down to historic Ferndale a few miles south of Eureka.  It has a large number of restored Victorian homes that were built by Danish dairy farmers who settled there.  They are called "Butterfat Mansions" because of the Danish dairies that the town was built on.

Another Striking "Butter Fat Mansion" in Ferndale

Another thing we did today was to get our Annual Pass for Federal Lands.  Neil was very involved with the implementation of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act while in Alaska, but this is the first time that we have purchased a pass because we did not very much camping and and visiting to the national forests and parks while in Alaska, so it was time to break down and purchase one.  We must say that $80 seems a bit steep, but we hope to get a lot of use from it over the next year, so it will probably be a good investment.  It was a little easier for Neil to spend the money at the Six Rivers National Forest office than at a National Park site.

We Finally Bought an Annual Federal Lands Pass - for $80!

We certainly know that the federal agencies are not making a lot of money on the sale and use of these things.  We are looking forward to getting the cheaper senior pass in a couple of years when we are old enough.

The Pass to Get - Only $10 Lifetime Pass

Tomorrow, we will drive down to the Avenue of the Giants in Redwood Park, and get another fix of big trees.  Our friend Sam says he doesn't have a chainsaw big enough to cut one down, but that he knows where he could get one.  We once heard someone say that a redwood tree has not achieved its full potential until it becomes a hot tub, but we are not subscribing to that theory.

Our Destination on Friday

Pamela and I have been to the Avenue of the Giants in the past, but it has been many years ago, and pretty short visits.  We will take our time looking at the sights, because when we leave on Saturday morning, we will have to stay on US 101 and not be able to get off on the scenic highway because of the size and length of the Fiver.  We measured the total length of the trailer and truck hooked together and it is a whopping fifty-five feet!

The next leg of the Great Adventure takes us to Willits, California where we will spend several days as we take day trips out to the Mendocino Coast.

In spite of the fact that we have had some rain, the weather has been better because "It is a warmer rain" as Neil puts it.  We have had temperatures in the high fifties, which is a lot better than the twenties back home in Alaska.  We are looking forward to temperatures in the 70's when we get further south, and some sunshine would be nice, too.

Best wishes,

Neil and Pamela