The place I stayed in last night was not stellar, so I left
there as soon as possible and found a breakfast place in the small harbor town
of Trinidad. It was wonderful! The Beachcombers Café is a local, organic
joint with a great flare and wonderful outlook on the world. They do not have to-go cups for their coffee,
but you can bring your own, or purchase a mason jar for a dollar. For me, breakfast is the most delicious, and
important meal of the day, and this day’s start was particularly good.
Traveling southbound on highway 101, I had several different
stops for my day, but no true agenda. So
when I saw a sign for a scenic route, I took it. The route was called “Avenue of the Giants”
and it was easy to see why. Once again,
I found myself in a redwood forest, true giants of the earth. The drive was lovely, slow-paced and the
perfect way to once again see the trees I had come to see.
My first real destination of the day was a drive-thru
redwood tree. Sure, it is a tourist
trap, $5 a car on this privately-owned land, but cars and trucks alike could
fit through the “tunnel” carved in this tree.
How many people can say they’ve driven through a tree (and both
him/herself and the car survived)? It
was a neat experience, a neat sort of thing to check-off my list.
Soon after the tree, I took off on the legendary highway
1. I in no way completed this route, nor
did I probably see the most beautiful parts, but I saw where its reputation
came from. As a child, I almost always
got carsick on curvy roads. To this day,
my stomach can still become uneasy if I am not driving. But never, since I have been driving the car,
have I ever felt carsick. All that
changed today. Before ever making it to
the ocean, the road went through a dense forest as it hugged the sides of tall
hills, curving along each bend in the hill.
Then, all of sudden, the road cleared the forest and came upon a dense
fog, so thick that I did not at first realize I was at the ocean. Once again, I had the pleasure of driving
along the Pacific Ocean… at least I think it was the Pacific Ocean, as I could
not really see it.
I stopped at a few lookout points and one state park to see
the sites: the beach, the rocky coastline, the seals sunning on the rocks,
small tidal pools and friendly squirrels who hoped I had not read the “Do Not
Feed Wildlife” signs.
 |
| More sea lions! |
Another destination on my list was a special beach in Fort
Bragg. The beach, although unique and
beautiful has a disturbing reason behind its attraction. The beach is made of a mixture of rock and
glass washed smooth by the ocean. I’ve
never before walked barefoot on broken glass before, but I did today! Apparently there was a dumpsite not far from
this beach and much of the trash washed out into the ocean somewhere, but the
glass seems to return, and because of the currents, it seems to come to this
one specific beach. Overall, a neat site
to see.
 |
| These were all along the beach. I'm guessing some sort of "deflated" sea creature. If you know, please let me know! |
I said goodbye to the ocean and turned eastward. For weeks now, my directions have been north
and west. They’ve changed now as I am on
the last leg of my journey. I still have
nearly two more weeks of planned adventures, but the journey is homebound now
rather than outbound.
 |
| Finally, a sunset! |
I drove through Yuba City, a small city north of Sacramento
that may not have a whole lot of appeal, but I made sure to drive through here
to once again relive some memories from youth mission trips gone by. The summer after my seventh grade year, my
youth group traveled (by plane) to Yuba City.
I remember cleaning up some houses that had been damaged, by a flood, I
believe, but in all honesty what I remember most was the time with the other
youth and our incredible chaperones.
We slept in a church multi-purpose room. It was a huge room and there was plenty of
space for us all, but still, we were all in one room. The boys slept on their cots on one side of
the room and the girls on the other. I
don’t know how it started, but at night, as we all quieted down, we threw
(thinking about this, I’m sure the boys started it!) coins at one another from
the other side of the room. The penny
fight continued for several nights, but on the last day, a few of our female
chaperones went to the bank and changed out bills for coins. I still remember them secretly showing all of
us what they had gotten and how excited we all were for that night’s
battle. How did the battle go? I honestly don’t remember. I just remember lots of laughs and lots of
good times in that one huge room.
I drove on to Auburn, California (my second Auburn of the
trip!) where another fellow Fulbrighter was gracious enough to host me for the
evening. Cindy was stationed in southern
England and the two of us travled to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day
together. Yet again, it was great
catching up on transitions home and the past year. I’m so thankful for Fulbright for SO many
reasons, but one of them is certainly that I now have friends all across the
country.
Miles traveled: 392
Hours in the car: 10
Gallons of gas purchased: 9.6
States: California
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