The Pacific Ocean...

After a good night's rest, I fixed us a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, onions, and peppers.   It was really good! Christie and I got the camp broke down and packed up as we had a long drive ahead of us. The drive today was going to be a twist fest. I wondered how my vertigo was going to react. Our first destination was Redding, California.  Redding is a good-sized city in northern California. Again gas prices were out of sight. 

We headed out toward Douglas City and then headed north to Helena on Highway 299. We followed beautiful mountain rivers that had a lot of rafters on them. The water was crystal clear and looked so refreshing.  We also ran into a lot of highway construction so we had a lot of downtime. 

In many areas the scenery was breathtaking. We still had a long way to go before reaching the coast. Lots of twists and turns and more construction.  Thankfully no sign of fire damage here. 

Finally, we turned off of 299 onto the 101 highway up the California coast and our first sight of the ocean did not disappoint.  Waves crashing into the shoreline like battering rams against the rocks. What a sight. Too bad it was just for a moment. and it disappeared from sight. We drove up the coast trying to find a place to stay as I had not made any reservations. All the state parks were full. We finally made it to a place called Elk Country RV Campground near Orik, California.  We got our tent set up and secured and headed back toward Trinidad for dinner.  

We ended up at Cher-Ae Heights Casino and Bingo near Trinidad, in their very nice restaurant looking out over the ocean and a beautiful sunset.  Dinner was wonderful and the meal gluten-free. I had a salad that had golden beets. I had never had golden beets before and they were delicious!. It was also my first time to have Bananas Foster.  Very yummy!  A sign in the restroom let people know they used recycled wastewater for the flushing of the toilets.  Interesting! It was interesting that dinner was more reasonable than gas. 

We made our way back to our campsite and got the dogs all settled in and called it a day.  We were looking forward to the next day's adventure. The California Redwoods!

California Here We Come...

We were up early the next morning as we wanted to have showers and charge our electronics. Amazing what all we had to charge. 2 phones, a solar charger, a camera battery, and an additional power pack. After we got the dogs fed, watered, walked then stowed away in the car while we pack, we were finally ready to hit the road.  I got to talking to one of the guys there and he asked if we knew where we were going to go have breakfast. I said I didn't know and he referred us to a place up the road in Fernley, the Black Bear Diner.  The food was wonderful and plentiful. The coffee was really good and the service was great. Last but not least, it was very reasonable.  We had no complaints at all, and this place was extremely busy. Imagine my surprise when I got back to Oklahoma that there was a Black Bear Diner just up the road from me in Moore, Oklahoma. 

After we filled up we headed out west on Interstate 80 also known as Dwight D Eisenhower Highway toward Reno, Nevada. Once we got to Reno/Sparks we headed north on highway 395.  One of the crazy things we saw were the lakes in the area, which looked like pure mud.  When asking someone about it they said it was the spring melt from the mountains that made it look like that. It was the darndest thing I had ever seen. It didn't even look like water.  

We got to the California border and had to go through a checkpoint. I thought they would be asking about fruit and vegetables. However, they looked at us and waved us through.  Christie and I discussed it and came to the conclusion they were looking for human trafficking.  

While heading toward Susanville we saw the heavy devastation of the wildfires that had hit the area.  I don't know how long it had been, but there were burnt out cars sitting by the road still.  It was so sad to see all the damage that the wildfires had wrought. 

Once we got to Susanville we needed to gas up. $4.58 for a gallon of gas! Outrageous!  Then try going to the bathroom. None of these places have public bathrooms for their patrons. I finally had to beg the ladies at Subway to let me use their locked bathroom.  I asked why it was like that and they said because of the homeless and transient population. If they (homeless) find a business that has an open public bathroom they will stay in the business all day. 

We pressed on toward Lassen Volcanic National Park on Highway 38. The roads and landscapes were fantastic. It was like being in another world. Beautiful yet sad due to the fires.  We got to Lassen, it was the only National Park that we didn't get our passport stamped at.  We couldn't figure out where to go to get it done as there didn't seem to be an entrance.  

We headed north on Highway 89 to go to Burney Falls. We were traveling on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway to the McArthur-Burney Interpretive Association and Lake Britton. The surrounding landscapes and vegetation were beautiful.  

We got there around four in the afternoon. After a quick look about, we decided that we would like to stay the night.  We went back up and was fortunate enough to secure a campsite for the evening.  I mean for $20.00 you can't beat it.  As we discovered Christie and I camped in the wrong campsite, my bad, but thankfully no one came in and made us move in the middle of the night.  

I was really impressed as to how the campground was laid out. Each camper had plenty of space and was not stacked on top of each other.   Christie took a hike to the falls and got some great pictures.  Later that night she went again and got the falls and the stars. My little shutterbug!  Again we had a great sleep and are thankful for a safe journey.