Day 5 - Eureka to Weaverville, Weed, and Redding

The final day of the CCOL found us in Eureka, and eager to get out of this uninspiring city. In fact, we were so anxious to escape that we set off in multiple groups, with the intention of meeting up on the road out of town. This plan didn't work out too well, so as a result we didn't get a chance to say our goodbyes to Geo and Kathleen, and Ben, who hopefully are now on their way back to Mt Lemon and Tuscon in Arizona. It was great having them on the CCOL, and we hope to see them on the next Oil Leak. Lloyd left in the same group, and outpaced the rest of us, so we didn't catch up with him until our hotel in Redding. Meanwhile, Denise and Michael also set off ahead of most of us, given the problem with their car. We caught up with them in Weaverville, and the good news is that their car performed well today. Maybe it was just a bad case of gas. Sorry; a case of bad gas...... No. Oh, you know what I mean....

My perception of what Eureka has to offer has risen a little since Les sent me these photos of some of the subdued minimalistic architecture it has to offer....  

Now that's not so bad...

Today was to be a driving day on some interesting and challenging roads, starting with CA-299 to Weaverville, and then CA-3 to Weed. As on previous days, we ran into quite a lot of road works, which detracted from our enjoyment somewhat. 

Waiting for the flag man to get us back on our way on CA-299

Following a gravel truck in a single lane section on CA-299

Waiting for another flag man....

Another single file section led by a pilot truck

After a short beak at Willow Creek we were finally able to enjoy the open road. US-299 could best be described as "curvy" rather than "twisty". There were lots of sweeping curves as the road traveled through beautiful countryside.

The open road: CA-299

Eventually, the remainder of the group met up by the roadside, and we were back to a group of 10-15 cars.

Reunited

More road works!

At some point on this road, we picked up a tail of a Highway Patrol SUV. We think he had spotted us earlier being a little over-enthusiastic with the throttle pedal, and decided to follow us. This constrained our progress somewhat...

A row of Jags ahead of me....

...and another row behind me. The pair of headlights you can just see above the roof of Vikram's VDP belong to the CHP SUV

Shortly after. Another set of roadworks....

As a result of the road work delays, we reached Weaverville later than planned. A chance encounter that morning in Eureka had resulted in Jerry learning of a place for lunch in Weaverville, so we met up at The Lunch Box. The food was good, and we had a chance to say our goodbyes to Denise and Michael before they started out on their return trip to Carson City, Nevada.

Farewells at the Lunchbox

Following lunch, we drove the CA-3 from Weaverville to Gazelle. This is a route that Jerry, myself, and Lloyd took  on the way to the NWOL in 2012. The first part of the route was "curvy", and was followed by a decidedly "twisty" section up a steep incline.

CA-3 from Weaverville to Gazelle

CA-3 follows the Trinity River for much of its length. This area was the site of much mining for gold in the past. You can see evidence of dredging for gold in the river bed (mostly dry at this time of year).

Signs of heavy gold mining activity along the CA-3

When we reached the top of the steep climb on CA-3, we ran into a little rain shower. This caused some of the convertibles to raise their tops, whilst the more stubborn continued without.

Look. Rain. In California in September. Wow!!!

Unfortunately, where there is rain, there is also clouds. When we reached Gazelle, and then Weed the heavy clouds obscured Mount Shasta, which we'd hoped to see.

Mount Shasta obscured by clouds as we approach Weed

Mount Shasta as it appeared on Saturday morning from Redding, 62 miles away, as I was leaving! Imagine how impressive it would have been from Weed if the clouds had cleared.We'll just have to go back....

In Weed we bid farewell to Rick and Christine, and Norm and Deirdre in a local coffee shop. Have a safe trip home, and we look forward to seeing you again on the next Oil Leak!

The final leg of today's drive took us south to Redding. In Weed in was cold and spitting with rain. By the time we reached Redding an hour or so later, it was pleasantly warm. The Last Supper took place at the Moonstone Bistro in Redding.

The Last Supper at the Moonstone Bistro, Redding

 Tomorrow, we will all start our journeys home. Some will take more than a day. I wish everyone a safe journey home, and hope they enjoyed the California Coastal Oil Leak. Thank you all for coming, and making it such an enjoyable week. Driving the cars we love is fun, but in the end it is the company that makes these trips so enjoyable. Particular thanks go to Jerry for his tireless efforts in setting this up. Without him, it would not have happened.

I'd also like to thank those who've submitted photos to me for inclusion in the blog. For those who'd like to see more photos, go to https://goo.gl/photos/hwRTDTMQy8Yyd66VA. I may get round to tidying them up, and putting them in order at some point. Maybe....

Day 4 - Fort Bragg to Eureka

Today was a day of delays. Fortunately, Jerry had put together a schedule that had plenty of slack to accommodate the multiple delays we experienced, so we were still able to get to our destination in Eureka in mid afternoon, and enjoy dinner together without feeling rushed. 

Before setting out, Glenn's companion Ted E. Bear was introduced to Oatmeal. They both look happy to have met!

The delays started soon after we set out heading north along the coast on CA-1. The first set of road works held us up for 20-30 minutes, which gave us a opportunity to enjoy the surroundings and beautiful morning.

Waiting for road works on CA-1

Finally getting to see what the hold up was all about...

The drive along the coast was beautiful, with no fog to be seen, and clear blue skies. A second set of road works delayed us, but not too long. Later, when the road turned inland, it became an enjoyable "twisty" which allowed us to exercise our cars to the fullest degree. I don't have any photos of this section - I needed my hands firmly on the steering wheel.... It was during this section that engine problems started to be experienced by Michael and Denise's car. They managed to restart it after a delay, and proceeded to our first stop.

Pacific Ocean from CA-1

The road followed the coast closely for 20+ miles

Our first planned stop of the day was at the drive-through tree in Leggett. The tree, is known as the Chandelier tree because of it's shape, The coast redwood tree  is 276 feet high, and 16 feet diameter at the base. A hole 6 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet high was carved through it in the early 1930's. An E-Type easily passes through with room to spare...

Following Jan and Lynn through the Chandalier Tree

Inside the tree

Emerging on the other side 

The Chandelier Tree 

Jaguars at the Drive-Through Tree.

We took advantage of the stop to work on Michael and Denise's car. The symptoms suggested a fuel problem, given that it started after a fill up in Fort Bragg. Some progress was made, and some possibilities eliminated, but the problem was not solved by the time we all moved on to the next stop. Michael was able to drive the car, provided he did not let the engine revs drop below 2000 rpm. Quite a challenge...

The team of 30 experts works on Michael and Denise's car

We were not spoiled for choice for lunch venues in our next stop at Garberville. We decided to settle for the safe choice of a sandwich at Subway. When a group of 30 hungry folks descended on the Subway store, it was clear that the one person serving had a problem. However, they stepped up to address the problem, and there were 5 people behind the counter by the time we were all served. We decided to eat our sandwiches parked by the roadside at the start of the Avenue of Giants.

Subway lunch on the Avenue of Giants

The Avenue of Giants is a scenic highway  running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Along much of it's length, the road is closely surrounded by giant redwood trees, many of which exceed 300ft in height, and are close to 1000 years old. The avenue, which was at one time part of US-101, is just over 30 miles long. We stopped at several places along the road to enjoy the trees, and peace and quiet that seemed to surround them.

Driving on the Avenue of Giants

Mike stands by one of the huge trees beside the road

The top half of the trees shown in the previous photo

The full height in one photo courtesy of Jerry and "panorama mode"

Wow! A high speed Prius zooms by...

A young Japanese couple stopped to see our Jaguars. They were driving a new Jaguar FPACE SUV. Looks like a Nissan...

Amidst the redwoods on the Avenue of Giants

Lynn taking a perilous walk across a dry creek on a fallen redwood

Amid the live trees stood a dead giant redwood. All the bark was stripped off, leaving a bare trunk. The surface of the wood for as far as we could see was etched with these patterns, presumably caused by boring insects. 

The last leg of our day took us to the town of Eureka. Our lodgings for the night, the Town House Motel, are not in "the nice part" of town (if there is such a part). Across the road is the Eureka Hilton (also known as the Humboldt County Correctional Facility), and we were advised to take special care on the local streets. When we returned from dinner, the owner called each of us who had left any items in our open topped cars, and asked us to remove them, as the covered parking area is commonly searched for by the homeless for anything of value.

We walked to dinner at the Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe. It was doing a busy trade, and managed to accommodate our group of 30 which must have been a great challenge. I think everyone enjoyed their dinner, and hopefully the made it back to the Motel safely....

Tomorrow is the final day of the CCOL, and promises some twisty and scenic roads.

Day 3 - Sonoma to Fort Bragg

Today the group split up on a number of occasions - sometimes this was planned; sometimes it was not. The first split occurred before we had even left the hotel. Lloyd was returning from filling his car with gas, when the gear lever came off in his hand! Fortunately, he was very close to the hotel at the time, and was able to park the car there. Now remember, Lloyd's car is fitted with a Toyota Supra 5-speed gearbox, so our collection of Jaguar parts and expertise was no help here. A quick investigation determined that the gear lever had snapped off at the start of the threaded section that screws into the gearbox. Greg and Dianne Meboe came to the rescue to help Lloyd with his problem, which looked likely to be the end of his tour and require a flat bed home. The first idea was to try to find a long bolt to replace the gear lever. However, the thread seemed to be non-standard, and so it was difficult to source anything that would fit. The next idea was to recover the threaded section from the gearbox, and then try to weld it back onto the gear lever. While driving through an industrial area, Greg spotted a welding setup in the back of truck, and so they went inside to ask if they would be willing to do a welding job for us. It must have been Lloyd's lucky day, because they agreed, and were able to weld the lever back together and did not charge anything for doing so. After expecting to be on his way home, Lloyd found himself back on the Oil Leak in less than 2 hours!

Meanwhile, everyone else was heading for the first stop of the day at the O'Shaughnessy Estate Winery in Angwin. A private tour had been set up by Larry Wade who is a friend of the owners. The convoy of cars set out at 9am for the one hour drive to the winery. A route was chosen with plenty of challenging driving between Glen Ellen and Oakville. A steep winding road resulted in several missed turnings etc, and soon the group was split into multiple parts. Thus we went from one leader who knew where he was going, to several who had to rely on the map and written instructions. As a result, the arrivals at the winery were staggered, and in the case on the group I was in, we never arrived at all. As it turns out we drove past the entrance and only realized it 20 miles later!

Our group of 4 E-Types heading for the Winery

Part of the route through the Napa Valley. Acres of nothing but vines and Wineries

Oatmeal studying the map. His conclusion: We're Lost....

20 miles past the Winery, we had to agree with Oatmeal...

Back at the Winery, everyone else was treated to a tour of O'Shaughnessy's...

Tasting Room

Tank Room

Greg is caught red-handed trying to sample the latest wine....

Barrel storage in the cave

Owner Betty Shaughnessy talking with the tour group

Vineyards adjacent to the winery

Meanwhile, our group concluded that it was too late to turn back, but that we should instead head for the next stopping point in Healdsburg. As we had no phone service, we had to estimate our position, and with a map, and the direction of the sun in the sky, determined a strategy for getting back on the main roads. Our route to us through some beautiful countryside and on enjoyable driving roads. In also took us through an area that had clearly been devastated by fire in the recent past.

Signs of a fire a few years ago on Butts Canyon Rd

More fire damage, but the wild flowers are already back

A smooth road surface, and no traffic made for a great drive

Detert Reservoir

At Middletown we hit CA-29, and were able to follow it back into Napa Valley. From there we followed CA-128 to Geyserville and then turned south to Healdsburg where we hoped to join up with everyone else for lunch

The whole region is nothing but vineyards for mile after mile

To our surprise, though we were behind schedule, we were the first to arrive in Healdsburg. After spending 30 minutes trying to find somewhere to park, we were able to contact the main group and determine that they were still an hour away. The winery tour had overrun considerably. We consoled ourselves at Bear Republic Brewing before heading to join the others for lunch. Again the group split, some eating at The Wurst Sausage Grill and Beer Garden, and the others at The Best! I don't have a photo of the sausage, but this is what Jerry's lunch looked like at the Bar'n'diva....

The terrible parking situation in downtown Healdsburg meant that our cars were widely dispersed. So, we all ended up leaving at different times, and the following drive to Mendocino was in several groups. The route on CA-128 was enjoyable as it took us through the forest and we saw very little traffic. When we reached the coast we were pleased to see that there was no fog, but bright sunshine instead.

Driving through the forest on CA-128

CA-128 approaching the coast

Our first glimpse of the Pacific as we joined CA-1

Approaching Mendocino on CA-1

Being in the first group to arrive in Mendocino I was fortunate to be able to take the time to walk along the edge of the cliffs. On previous visits, it has always been foggy and rather depressing, but today it was beautiful.

View across the bay from Mendocino. Denise and Michael walking on the cliffs

The beach below the tall cliffs

View of Main Street Mendocino from the cliff tops

Wild nasturtiums growing on the cliff tops

Entrance to cave that runs right through the cliffs

View back towards Mendocino from the end of the cliffs

Gaping hole in the top of the cliffs into the ocean below

The last leg today, was a short 8 mile drive to Fort Bragg where we are staying at the Surf Motel and Gardens. Geo and Kathleen Hahn treated us to pizza in the garden for dinner, and Denise Jenkins entertained us with music on her fiddle. A fitting end to an enjoyable day.

Pizza dinner in the gardens at the Surf Motel

Denise entertained us with her fiddle playing