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.
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| 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.
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| Waiting for road works on CA-1 |
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| 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.
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| Pacific Ocean from CA-1 |
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| 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...
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| Following Jan and Lynn through the Chandalier Tree |
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| Inside the tree |
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| Emerging on the other side |
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| The Chandelier Tree |
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| 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...
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Driving on the Avenue of Giants |
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| Mike stands by one of the huge trees beside the road |
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| The top half of the trees shown in the previous photo |
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| The full height in one photo courtesy of Jerry and "panorama mode" |
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| Wow! A high speed Prius zooms by... |
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| A young Japanese couple stopped to see our Jaguars. They were driving a new Jaguar FPACE SUV. Looks like a Nissan... |
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| Amidst the redwoods on the Avenue of Giants |
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| Lynn taking a perilous walk across a dry creek on a fallen redwood |
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| 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.
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