Catch-Up Time Again

Since we left Jess' house we've only had one night of connectivity (honest).  Portland may be the epitome of technology, but NW California is definitely not.  (Must be too busy growing pot and cooking meth to have time to surf the net.)

Anyway, from Harris Beach State Park Oregon, we jumped down into California (only a few miles) and spent 4 days gawking at giant redwoods and exploring craggy deserted beaches in the Humbolt Redwoods State/National Parks.

A nymph in the wood.

Our campsite.
Note humongous stumps right and left.

Better view.

A drive up a dirt road.

A minute earlier would not have been good!

I'm not sure this is a really good road.

My tree huger.

Then I chopped it down.

Val on an awesome trail.

But I wish she'd stick to huggin' trees.
"Call her off, or she's going over the side!"

I protested mightily, but she made me pull in.

The compulsory "up-the-nose" selfie.

Back to huggin' trees.
Much better.

Trail to Hidden Beach.

Hidden Beach - We had it to ourselves for a while.

The last night on the coast was at Elk Prairie Campground ... which of course had no elk.  However departing in the morning, down the road aways from the campground, we encountered two grand bulls battling to the death off to the right of the road.

After capturing the moment, I began pulling back onto the road and while checking my rear-view, there on the other side of the road was the entire herd of 30-40.  By now a logging truck was bearing down so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The rest of the day was traveling from the Pacific Coast of California following the Trinity River to Redding and then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park on the far eastern edge of the state.  As it was Sunday, we (I) figured most responsible adults would be packing up camp and returning home to work and paying Social Security taxes to support us less-responsible adults.  However, since it was actually Saturday, NOT Sunday, we arrived at a full campground, except for one last site which we grabbed instantly. (Feeling only slightly guilty about the "old peoples" camper we blew by at 75 mph racing to get to the campground first.)

Today (the real) Sunday, we crossed into Nevada at Reno and clawed our way up a mountain to Virginia City, there to be greeted by "Street Vibrations", the equivalent of the Sturgis South Dakota motorcycle rally.  I believe I made a (very quiet) comment to the effect that motorcycle rallys mostly tend to concentrate A-Holes...distilling them down until the only thing remaining is the essence of A-Holes.

Her response was to glare and immediately walk into a Christmas Shoppe in front of which I took my seat of shame while pondering the irony of the situation.

Tonight we are in Fallon Nevada, (home of the US Navy "Top gun" flight school)  getting showered and laundered before the next leg which takes us across Nevada and Utah on US 50, "The loneliest road in the US".

More on that when we get reconnected in a couple of days.

Good Night Goose and Maverick from Fallon Nevada.