18 March

It was the usual procedure – up, prepare, head off for the continental breakfast. However, some are from the smallest continents, perhaps as large as Phillip Island judging by what is on offer. Today it was coffee, teacake and partial muffins. Orange juice, but certainly not from the Basil Fawlty “freshly opened plastic bottle” variety. I left Eureka not long after 8. Too much of a sleepin, although I did hear the news that the A$ was 93 US cents (so my spending is not costing me as much).
I headed off up to Oregon on Highway 101. The weather was overcast and showery. I hadn’t realised the night before, but Eureka is on the coast. I followed the coast north and it was misty and breakers were visile when the mist was lighter. At the first beach where there was enough light, I went to photograph the beach and found interesting signs as well.
The weather continued to be poor, but when I saw a SkyTrain tour of redwoods I was intrigued. I stopped in and, for $13.50, got a shuttle bus to the base of a chairlift with small enclosed gondolas. I was the only one and got the first trip of the day. The lift goes up about six hundred yards and stops three times on the way up so you can see the full height of the redwoods. The view was tree-mendous and tremendous. At the top there is normally a view of the ocean and another redwood forest. With the clouds, there wasn’t much to see, but I did see a bole that the redwoods grow from and some very baby redwoods. After an interesting discussion on the growth cycle and structure of redwoods I went back down and headed into Crescent City, to the National Park information centre. Here I got taken for a Scot by an Hungarian woman, but the ranger knew that Budapest was actually two cities, Buda and Pesch. He described a short driving tour locally to see the redwoods so I headed off on that, as it was on my way to Crater National Park. Before I left, he did comment on the ignorance of some of his visitors; one of whom complained that the rangers had planted the redwoods too close to the roads. Must have been very old rangers, as the redwoods are generally two thousand years or older!
The drive was fairly short, along a narrow dirt road about eight miles long. The weather was lousy but the views of the redwoods was spectacular. Unfortunately the rain and consequent darkness meant I couldn’t really take any photos, so you will just have to experience the drive yourself.
At the end, I needed to refuel and pulled in at a little town, O’Brien. The girl rushed out to fill the car and I took some photos there – large blowflies!
As I headed to Crater Lake, I suppose I just missed the signs – clouds surrounding the mountain, snow which rose from a slight smattering when I left the main road to well over two metres as I approached the park, signs saying I should be carrying chains (I wasn’t), showers which changed into heavy rain and then into substantial snowfalls, ice forming on road and the temperature dropping from over 20 degrees to less than freezing in about ten kilometres. Just after I entered the park, I decided that the visit would have to wait for another (finer) day and I turned around. In the tradition of having strange road signs, I did not see a snowmobile (or skidoo) leap over the banks and fly over the road.
I decided to go straight to Portland, so headed up on I-5. At a rest stop I found a coupon book for Oregon, and booked a room at a Super8 motel for the night. Just after that, there was a collision on the other side of the freeway and the backup of traffic was about six miles from it.
I had to refuel again and called in at Cottage Grove. As I pulled up, an attendant rushed to the pump. I commented it was in contrast to the off-hand attitude in California and was told attendants must pump the petrol in Oregon. It’s a $15 000 fine if the customer does it (and has been for thrity years). I also found out what a panhandler is (there were signs in San Francisco prohibiting panhandling). After getting some tea I headed off and then again had the surreal experience of passing through Portland on freeways at sixty miles an hour, having absolutely no clue as to where I was or where I was going, but following the SatNav directions and ended up where I should have been at 9:30.
I booked in and set everything up and will have to empty the car tomorrow. It needs a service (I thought it would last, but it didn’t) so I will change it for another and extend the rental another day and a half. That will leave me with a car until Friday night, which I will spend in Seattle, and then Saturday morning I will go to Vancouver, and spend the night there as well as the two days before I board the train to go across Canada on Sunday evening.
Now I’m off to sleep because it’s after 11, I’ve been driving since 8 and I’m tired!