Oct 05 - Fort Bragg, CA
We said goodbye to Fortuna this morning. We drove south heading for the Avenue of the Giants - a 30-mile scenic drive through the Redwoods. It was worth it! What the map on the right doesn't show you is all the twists and turns through the trees.
We stopped a few times to take (more) pictures of these magnificent trees. My apologies - I couldn't get Jen to volunteer, so you get my mug to look at. I'm sitting on what looked like a burl.
I thought it was unfortunate that we hadn't filmed part of the journey, so I turned to YouTube, and guess what I found?! A video of the trip from Leggett to Fort Bragg.
From there we drove to Leggett where we turned off onto what would become Hwy 1 running down the coast. That's when the fun began!
We've been on the road since May 1. Not once have we looked at a Google map of our intended daily route. We've trusted paper maps and tourist guides. Well, never again!
What was pretty much a straight line on our maps was anything but. No sooner had we turned off Hwy 101, we began to climb. Back and forth, left then right then left again. Just like racing car drivers do when they warm up their tires - weaving from left to right. Have a look!
It felt a lot longer than 15 miles from Leggett to the coast at an average speed of probably 10-15 mph. We climbed, and descended, three times. Just when we thought it was over, we started climbing again! In the months we've been on the road, I've never used 1st gear going downhill, but I did today. If you're not careful on long descents.......
We made it to the coast and pulled over to take a picture.
We continued down Hwy 1 and drove through Fort Bragg. We checked into Pomo RV Park just south of the city. We're here for a couple of nights.
I'd hoped that we could ride the Skunk Train, but they have had problems with one of the tunnels on the line. Apparently that has been repaired, but now there are problems with the track. So we can ride for a 1 hr trip from Fort Bragg or drive over to Willits and do a 1/2 day trip. That's the one I would like to do, but the distance is 33 miles (50 minutes) on a road that looks very similar to today's.
That's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.
