Journey To CA :: Section 1

The trip began in Seattle and the end was to be Santa Barbara. We took I5 down to Oregon and when we got east of Eugene we cut across to the coast. 5 is big dull fast. The entirety of the drive was in the 90's and miserable. When we arrived at the coast it was a cinematic moment there was a bank of fog that hung over the water and the temperature dropped 15 degrees. It was spectacular. Here is the mist.


Along the coast we found a campground and spent the night in a secluded little site. This is the only site where I have ever parked and then walked 15 feet through a little tunnel carved through the trees and shrubs, it felt like being in the jungle. This was on top of the sand that defined the dunes that are a major attraction. It was very interesting to us that everyone had a 4 wheeler or a dune bugy in addition to their RV.

The next day we drove into a small town North Bend where we pulled over and had breakfast at a small diner on the main street. It was named for the older couple that operates it. (I have no idea what their names are, but they both began with J's). Oregon is filled with small ma&pa businesses and you can get the sense that people are here because they take pride in their place and their community. The gentleman at the table next to us was German and was biking from Vancouver to the Baja and flying out of LA. He filled us in on his journey and we had really began to appreciate that dedication as the miles passed and we saw the hills and lack of shoulders that he was going to encounter. The breakfast was sadly bad. They gave me scrambled eggs when I asked for sunny side up and the eggs, both mine and Christines were (to quote Christine) "I don't know what she did, but she took all of the taste out and made them taste like rubber, I have never encountered that." That being said, I would go back, the atmosphere was exceptional. Oh yeah, the little old man who took our order wrote out each word of what we ordered, while his wife cooked in the back and on the menu, down at the bottom, they had a note that there are drumcircles every Monday night at 8PM. Quite an event.

From here we continued on 101 South along the border taking in the Seastacks and observing the fragile ecosystem and its components on the beach when we could no longer convince ourselves to sit in the car. And this we had a hard time staying in the car!



Nature celebrated both the male and female perspectives, well if you are a human and like to project your associations onto rock structures.


We even enountered a place with "Ocean Views" Problem was, the fog did not allow us to actually view the fog. The other funny thing is that we were reading a book that gave highlights about the drive and the book told us that there were views of the ocean if you just turned off the main street from the middle of the town. Well we turned before we found the sign and got lost in residential neighborhoods. We laughed hard when we found the "road sign" and realize the joke that had been played on us by the author of our guide book. There is really something magical in that moment, when you realize that this author communicated something about this place and played a little joke on you and reminded you that your assumptions exist. On top of that, it is communiated to you, in this place that you know they have been to and you have to be at to realize your folly.


From here we drove continued across the border and into the State that is now my new home, California. Our goal now was to encounter Red Woods and gaze at their splendor and marvel at our insignificant stature. We went on a little detour side loop that took us on a spectacular drive through a windy dirt road. The road winds because it literally weaves through a forest. Being a dirt road, all of the trees were covered with a grey dust, it made me recall the dust of 9/11 and I wonder if the trees assign that same sort of horror to this grey dust as we associate with the "sacred" grey dust of NYC?


After the driving tour, we got out and went for a little walk among these majestic trees.

After that we hauled down to the Avenue of the Giants Where we pulled in after dark after having driven through half of this amazing park in the dark. We were now really starting to get into the road trip zone, we cracked open a bottle of wine and toasted to the large trees, made some rice and salmon on the propane stove and enjoyed a spectacular evening under the stars, knowing that we would awake in a place beyond what we could imagine.