Time for another update on my progress:
Reluctantly, I left this scene last Sunday, heading N (and E) on US-1:
The terrain immediately N of there was too rugged, nearly impassable, for them to continue US-1 along the coast, so it turns E, through valleys, around, and over mountains, and along the Eel River bed to Leggett, GA, where it rejoins US-101. It's an "entertaining" drive.
Right after Leggett, the old 2-lane US-101 has been replaced by a nearly-parallel freeway and renamed "The Avenue of the Giants". It passes through the world's largest remaining pristine redwood forest. Here are some scenes from that drive:
There are tourist attractions along the way:
And some "authentic" sights to see:
Even some disturbing ones:
The Avenue of the Giants took me within a few miles of Eureka, where I settled into a nice RV park for the night. When I left Americus, the GMC's carpet was pretty dirty but I never got around to cleaning it. The trip across country, and especially my carelessly darting in & out of the coach without always removing my shoes after leaving Manny's shop didn't improve its state. Then, on Sunday, I forgot 1/2 a cup of coffee setting on the kitchen counter. Needn't tell you when that wound up. Later, somewhere along the "Avenue...", it sounded as if I'd trapped a bird in the rear of the coach & he was squawking like crazy, so I stopped to let him out. The bird was the gurgling of the water & air coming from the kitchen faucet -- over the full sink, which had already overflowed probably 10 gallons into the kitchen drawers, under the cabinet, and onto the hall floor. :-( :-( That settled it: In Eureka, I tried a couple of Yellow Page numbers for carpet cleaners before I contacted a work-from-home individual who agreed to come to the RV park at 0800 on Monday to steam clean the carpet.
Sunday evening, after making the cleaning arrangement and doing my weekly laundry, I found an interesting place for dinner:
That's an old lumber company cookhouse dating from the 1890's. Here's their web site:
http://www.samoacookhouse.net/ They still serve "family style" meals there throughout the week. The dining room I sat in had 11 table for 10 people each. They sat me at the end of one of those alone and after they served me a big basket of bread and a huge bowl of soup, I though I was going to eat there alone. But shortly a family of 8 from Redding, CA joined me and we had a very pleasant meal together -- family style. The first fried chicken I had since GA (but no dark meat!). Very pleasant experience -- but expensive.
Then I toured the rest of Samoa (which I'd always thought was 'way out in the Pacific Ocean). That was disheartening. With the almost complete demise of the forest industry in this area, the once-thriving community is now almost a ghost town -- population 270, with most buildings in decrepit condition whether completely abandoned or not:
That must have been for the president of the company. Even it's pretty run down now. All-in-all a sad situation.
There is one industrial operation still on the pennisula of Samoa: A wood chip plant. At noon on Sunday I'd shared a dining table with a life-long logger (as had been his father and grandfather), who told me the state of things now. His 10-employee company now does essentially no logging. What they do is chip stumps and downed wood from both old-growth and, primarily, clear-cut areas. Wood chips are now the big forest product exported from this area. Here's the plant on Samoa (sorry 'bout the fog, but that's typical):
The pile of chips at the right extends about 3 times that far back down the road to the mill which converts the logs in the left pile into those chips. The log pile is probably 50' x 100 yards x 25' high. It's still a big business!
That's enough for today. I'll continue soon with the story of my Sunday in Eureka and arrival at Bert & Faye's.
Ken H.
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