1-7-09 Wednesday (Pump Smack #2) Part #1

For a change, with the RV, we got on the road at 9:30 this morning. We were planning to take a 3 hour drive to Garberville, setup at the next site and then see more of the giant redwoods. We needed to do it today, since the next few days was forecasted as rain. The drive on US 101S was beautiful! Most of the road hugged the Pacific Ocean. Several spots had lagoons on one side, a beach in the middle and the ocean on the other.

A lunch stop lead to discussion of our new estimated time of arrival. It would seem that the GPS as well as mapquest takes into account the speed limit of course. What they don't calculate is that the road is windy and the speed limit drops per curve. I've explained to you in the past that a 3 hour drive usually ends up being 5 or so hours. Pee breaks, smoke breaks (non existent anymore at day 7), dog pee breaks, slower RV speeds, etc. Our ETA to the new RV park, along with disconnecting the Jeep and hooking up the RV would make it pretty late so we decided to do the scenic drive with the RV.

Now we're driving through the "Avenue of the Giants" which is a 34 mile scenic drive. Another beautiful drive, like yesterdays! So amazing. 34 miles of redwoods. As we drove through, we'd weave in and out of the national park and into some small towns. These small towns are tourist traps. They had all sorts of giant redwood attractions. Drive through a tree. A tree house. Etc. We didn't do any of them.

At this point, at the end of scenic drive, we decided that Sacramento was only another 3 hours away, so let's just go for it. It was 12 hours on the road in total! So at 9:30pm, we arrive in Roseville, just outside of Sacramento and are staying at Fairgrounds. I don't think I'll want to do such a long drive again. Well, not the after dark aspect of it. We couldn't see anything, and from what I could tell, as we drove along the edge of "Clear Lake", we missed a lot as the sun went down.

Some miscellaneous observations. Aside from "Adopt a Highway/Road" programs, California also does something within redwood areas. They name an area a grove. Sometimes it's a memorial and sometimes just for a family. "The Smith Family Grove", and the like are all over. I guess it's a sponsorship kinda thing?

Another thing, are HUGE road signs. Quite often, they'll have a curve warning sign that is twice as large as the others. It's the same with speed limit signs here and there. We'll have to get a photo or two.

OK, now for a misadventure. I'll use "we" so as not to take blame or pass blame. Halfway through our trip we pull into a gas station. It was a small gas station and the lane was narrow. As we departed, the corner of the RV smacked a post but only broke the sewer hose carrier. We drive down the road to get back onto the freeway BUT it's closed off. Jim has to stop fast so we still have enough room to u-turn. As we start the u-turn we hear a bang. It turned out the steps didn't retract for some reason. They didn't get damaged BUT some guy pulls along side of us and tells us how to get to the road, oh and that our sewer hose was dragging out of the storage tube and finally fell out a few feet ago over yonder. Jim retrieves it. He's pissed, I'm pissed. I think the dog was OK.

This is part 1 because I'm too tired to do anything with the photos; I'll put them into a part 2 tomorrow.