Chapter 16

I apologize for not having a more complete journal on this day. Unfortunately, as hard as Al Gore tried to build the Internet super highway it seems to have passed up a few towns along the way.

Today we rode from Bandon Oregon to Garberville California.

Along the way we met our friends Melissa and Trent McGee. We had “lunch” at a place called Matties in the town of Brookings, Oregon. It’s a great place to slow down and talk about old times. It was great to see them again and we were sorry we couldn’t go to their home for a much longer stay.

As you can see from the picture of flowers below, even though the environment is rather harsh the delicate flowers that grow here are beautiful. There are also wild blackberries and all kinds of other plants growing here.

We pressed on toward the “Avenue of the Giants”. I am excited to see the Giant Redwood trees today.

Just outside of Crescent City there was a fatal accident on Highway 101 that delayed traffic from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. The traffic was so thick it is not hard to see how things could go bad fast. The accident involved 2 cars, 4 adults and one child. The parents and child in the minivan survived and, thankfully, the child was in a seat with all the restraints. Unfortunately for the offending machine and adults driving it the prognosis was not so good. They were driving too fast, they did not survive.

The stop did allow us to take a quick detour to the coast while we waited for things to clear. As you can see from this picture the coastal views are spectacular. I can see why people would want to live out here since it’s always so temperate and the view is amazing.

After the accident it was touch-and-go until we could exit CA 101 onto the “Avenue of the Giants“. Yea, you could see things changing around you, but you have no idea what is about to happen.

If you have never seen a giant redwood tree you must make it a priority. Seriously, I will do no justice as to what I saw today.

Standing in this sacred place you feel so small and insignificant. These trees are 2200 years old and they have been through it all. They are seemingly impervious to floods, fire, drought, smog, abuse. Their forest is untouched and it is the only place I have ever seen “old growth” trees.

Here is is quiet. There are no sounds. Everyone that is here is in awe of what they see. There are really no words to describe them. Only nods, “hellos” and “where are you from” type comments. We are all way far away from here but apparently come here for the same reasons.

When you are standing next to The Giant, the largest living thing in America, you try to get a grasp of what you are seeing. No picture will ever capture the feeling of being next to this tree. I highly recommend you visit this tree.

And for those of you who are still paying sub $2.00 per gallon of gas here is a harbinger of things to come … At the end of the year I can’t imagine anywhere in the USA paying less than $2.00 per gallon of gas for any grade of fuel.

I’m glad I’ve been driving a machine that’s been getting 50+ mile per gallon of groud covered. I see people driving these HUGE machines around that can not get more than 8 miles per gallon of fuel and wonder how they are paying for it all. This trip I’ve been able to keep fuel costs down to below $20 per day. With a big machine it could be $200 per day!!!!

Enjoy the photographs below.

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— Main.JohnWesterman – Published 16 Aug 2004

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