Brookings OR 2-13-2020

We wake up to a dense fog and the smell of the sea shore. Since our late arrival last night we are a little slow this morning but anxious to see what this park has to offer, we have to check out by noon so down to the water we go. The fog is lifting and the view to the ocean below is spectacular. Giant rocks protruding from the water with sea birds circling and talking to you like they know you. The trail is steep and the breeze is warm and comforting. We reach the beach below to see what many storms have brought to the shore in tangled driftwood and rocks, a few people enjoying the scene as we are strolling down the beach. Sealife is abundant and clinging to the rocks, we head back up the trail to button things up in the RV and look for some lunch and fuel for the day. Brookings OR is busy as HWY 101 runs through it, its history of being a mill town still lingers with tourism probably taking its place in the future. Angela pulls up Yelp and finds The Hungry Clam as a good place to fill our seafood hankering. We are not disappointed, it’s a recommendation if you get to Brookings. We fill up at Fred Meyers another good place to get gas and off we go. Driving down the coast is so enjoyable even with the question in our minds of where are we going to spend the night, I don’t spend too much time on it as my co-pilot is in charge of that. We estimate how many miles we can make (about 250) before dark and Angela starts looking and calling, she uses a number of apps; RV Parky, Allstays and sometimes Hipcamp. Many trips we do not have a planned destination which makes adventurous to say the least. We pass through Crescent City our first city in California, it has fond memories for me of a motorcycle trip I made on a 1969 Kawasaki 500 Mach 111 from Eugene down here to visit friends in the seventies. That bike was marvelous and sooo dangerous, at the time the world’s fastest production motorcycle. The Redwoods are part of the scenery now, they are so majestic and make you feel so small. I did hitchhike through the Redwoods when I was 17 and spent the night on a picnic table at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, I was woken up by heavy breathing above my sleeping bag which I had pulled over my head for warmth, you could literally see light through this bag. At any rate, when I pulled the bag down to see what demise I was in for, I found I was nose to nose with a black bear and its cub. My feet did not touch the ground on route to the closest outhouse where the rest of the evening I barred the door. These memories don’t come often but driving through these areas do spark them back to my mind. As we pull a little ways from the coast to drive along a beautiful river which turns out to be Redwood Creek we see a herd of Elk which live in The Redwood National Forest. There is probably 75 Elk and they’re less than a 100 yards from the road so we pull off and watch these magnificent animals.

We are running into problems finding a place for the night, we forgot that this is Valentines day weekend and everyone is booked up. Angela is needing a coffee to continue the search for a place to stay, we are in Arcata and find Northtown Coffee (Organic of course) Angela is happy and I’m hopeful the caffeine stimulus will result in a place to stay. It’s dark now and with no place to stay, we see a turnout on the highway that is not private property and far enough off the road, so we set up camp for the night.