The Great American Road Trip: Day 36 and 37 - To San Fran via Crescent City

I'm going to try and combine these posts mostly so that I am forced to limit the number of landscape pictures - I find them pretty but I know that when you aren't the person who took the photo and has the associated emotional memory, they get dull pretty quickly.

The drive itself was simply amazing! I bid a sad farewell to Dave and his family, then got on US 26 towards Tillamook and the Oregon coast. I felt a little pressed for time and sadly didn't stop to get any cheese, but I did laugh watching the cows alternately standing, laying down, and in one field even running along the fence (maybe it was time for milking?). I drove past an air museum, over a couple of bridges, and stopped from time to time for some stunning ocean views with crashing waves driven by the gusty, stormy weather. Kristi is living in Yachats, a very very small seaside town, and she bravely went out into the blustery mist to give me one last hug and send off as I passed through on my way down the coast. Some of the towns were more the "seaside cottage" type places, while others had been built up with larger hotels and amenities. My favorite parts were driving through the forests - in and among the pine trees were deciduous trees (I think that's the right word?) that had lost their leaves for the season, exposing the bare branches that were covered in patches of lacy pale green moss. Driving through large tracts of them almost felt like being in a fantasy children's book, very surreal somehow, like this was clearly a forest where magical things could take place at any moment. The mist and overcast day helped the effect, I think.

I crossed the border into California (and saw the gas prices jump about 60 cents!) and found my way to my airbnb house in Crescent City, tucked back into the woods on a slightly hard to find road. Julie wasn't home yet but her beagle, Barney, was a force to be reckoned with! He guarded the house with all kinds of ferocity, until I let him sniff my hand and then walked away - I think it puzzled him. When Julie came home a few minutes later he was all tail wags and happily threw around his stuffed animals for us to admire and play with. She's a dental assistant training to be a hygienist, so I went out in search of dinner while she settled in to work on some Chemistry homework. It was an early night for both of us since we were both up and out pretty early the next morning. She was out of her homemade blackberry jam, but we did have a quick scone with honey and several cups of coffee before heading our separate ways. I normally really like getting the chance to sit and chat with my hosts, but even without it I still enjoyed staying in her home instead of my original plan of camping in the state park.

I have such fond memories of staying in Elk, CA, so I wanted to drive at least part of the way on highway 1 along the coast. Fortuitously, the moment I exited from highway 101 onto 1, I saw a sign for the "Drive Thru Tree". Who doesn't stop for the drive thru tree? A few minutes later I had paid my entrance and wound my way around on a dirt road, and there it was, as promised, a humongous redwood with a hole in the base. I chickened out on actually driving Oliver through it, particularly after the truck in front of me had to back out because it wasn't going to fit the whole way through, but it was really neat to see and a good place to stop and get some postcards and Gnome photos.

I continued onto US-1, and as I was twisting and winding my way up, down, and all around the hills, I had a happy realization that I was having so much fun! I really enjoy driving for the sake of being in motion, especially on roads like this one with no one around so you could just cruise happily along the twists and turns. The occasional stops for construction weren't nearly so exciting - when you only have two lanes, any repairs will by default bring traffic down to one lane only, but overall it was still very enjoyable. I loved getting into more familiar territory once I got south of Fort Bragg, and stopped to take a few quick photos in Mendocino before getting lunch in Elk and reluctantly giving up highway 1 for the slightly more direct route to San Fran on the 101 (by that point I had been on the road for about 7 hours and even though I love driving, my behind was about ready to be out of the car!).

As I approached the city and saw the Golden Gate Bridge I could just feel my heart lift. The feeling was soon replaced with slightly panicked shock as I saw that I was about to go over it! Beautiful and amazing, yes. Terrifying to be in the left hand lane with only a row of metal posts dividing traffic? Yes! Thankfully people were moving pretty slow so it wasn't nearly as scary as it could have been. I wound my way through town up to Pacific Heights, where another Peace Corps friend had offered to host me in the apartment she just moved into with two of her friends. It's very San Francisco - they're paying dearly and sharing the costs 3 ways. But the upside is that they live in a great part of town in a very charming old apartment that has a few necessary updates, across from a park that is constantly full of children and dogs, and just a few blocks from a number of shopping districts.

As I walked up Elena was on the phone getting a patiently-awaited job offer that very minute! Yay for being able to keep living in the city! We had a great evening cooking and reminiscing about Burkina, and stayed in the spirit by sleeping on her floor as none of the flatmates have yet to get a mattress since I happened to arrive about a week after they'd moved in. We did learn a good lesson about that storage drawer under a gas oven - don't put your wooden cutting boards in it. Lucky for us, the smoke detector had yet to be installed and was languishing in a drawer, so our hurried fire control efforts didn't draw the fire department to help. Huzzah adventures in adult living!