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It’s nearly “the end of the road” for the TTACD – BOO HOO!
By John | September 25, 2009
This is the first website update since we left Florence, OR on Wednesday following our enforced halt by Liz’ food-poisoning. A day in bed helped her to stabilise things and we loaded “uncle jack” with our (increasing) luggage and continued the drive south along Highway 101. We’d lost a travelling day buta prior appointment for Thursday in Corte Madera meant there was no more time to be lost and we had to catch up on the schedule.
We knew there would be additional delays for pix along the route and as we didn’t leave Florence until mid-morning, stops for photos would have to be limiting.
The first one was Port Orford where we came upon this view very suddenly and had to do a ‘U’ turn in someone’s driveway alongside a sign that said “NO “U” TURNS HERE!”
The pic below adequately explains why we turned when we did …
We carried on – sadly unable (because of time) to take the many signs we saw that urged us to visit a large number of bays and beaches. Maybe one day, we’ll be able to return and do Highway 101 properly from the real rubber-necking tourist viewpoint?
The afternoon became early evening and still we continued, eventually calling a halt to the day somewhere near Eureka. Yesterday morning (Thursday) saw an early start (for us) at about 8.00am as we still had to make Corte Madera on schedule – but the Giant Redwood forests were in the way.
There was absolutely NO way I was going to miss at least having a glimpse of some of these truly wondrous and magnificent trees, so we took a slight detour on to the ‘old’ Highway 101 and did 15 miles of The Avenue of the Giants. This particular specimen that makes “uncle jack” and I look like a couple of ants had in fact probably reached the end of its life. It may have been struck by lightning or something – but the top was missing and it was ‘only’ about 150 feet tall!
The tourist leaflet we’d picked up along the way showed a pic of a car driving through a hole in a Redwood and this had to be a ‘must visit’ so we headed off in that direction. However, on arriving at the location, we found you can no longer do what we wanted to do and so we had to modify the plans and take a pic of “uj” between two splendidly mature specimens.
I’m no expert on matters arboreal or botanical and I can honestly say I’ve never felt quite so awed by these fantastical trees. I could have spent far more time than we had available just standing there and looking at them. They are truly things of the greatest beauty – quite apart from their colossal size and I’m delighted to see the considerable efforts being made to preserve them. They are absolutely worth it and while I know I’ll be taking home so many memories of this incredible trip of the last three months, the memory of those giant Redwoods will stay with me to my dying day.
We left the Redwoods with a heavy heart and continued south. Within an hour, it became very hot indeed and in some ways, lowering the top might have been sensible. However as the afternoon wore on, the top stayed up and the breeze through the car with the unzipped rear window made things just about bearable.
Our arrival in Corte Madera was more or less on schedule and we’re currently spending two much appreciated nights in the home of Bob and Linda Bundy. This has enabled us to attend to the more domestic matters of getting some laundry done – and for me, there’s a valuable extra fillip to staying where we are.
After the heat and humidity of Florida, the beauty of the Maine Coastline, the fringes of the Rockies (in Colorado) the vastness of Nebraska and the Canadian Prairie – and yet more Rockies through BC to Vancouver…….
……. I never ever in my wildest dreams (or nightmares!) ever thought I’d stay at a location affording such a full-on, in-your-face view of San Quentin jail / prison / penitentiary / house of correction – or whatever it calls itself.
It’s just across the water from where we’re staying – and to prove it, here’s the pic! You can just see it as the thin white strip of building in the distance in the centre of the picture.
Oh, wow! The world’s best known prison – and I’ve spent two nights just over a mile away from it. Makes me wish I’d had the foresight to include Johnny Cash’s track, “The boy named Sue” on the MP3 player – because wasn’t it at San Quentin where he recorded that particular track?
From what I’ve been able to glean from various people here, it looks as though a weekend full of activities is lined up for us – including a visit to an aquarium to see a Great White shark at close quarters. Whatever next? First San Quentin ‘nick’ – and soon a Great White. Can my heart stand the pace, I ask?
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