The Birth of an Idea

We woke up late and decided to make breakfast burritos which was probably the first meal we made on the trip. Somehow we have been eating out a lot on this trip just because of all the delicious vegetarian options that are on the west coast. Mmmmm.

...(David) After our homemade breakfast treat, we met up with Wes and his friend Adam at the jewelery stand where Adam works. By this time it was late afternoon so plans for a dinner rendezvous with the two were made with Wes and Adam which left Alyssa and I to explore Hawthorne Street. What happened next might be one of the most important out comes of the trip thus far. It was facilitated by an accumulation of the experiences that we had and their impact on how we, and in particular, Alyssa feels about Columbus and moving, and I think that the post trip entry may include some of those realizations and hopefully will list what we learned from the trip. However, for the actual account of what is about to happen on this day that seems to us, still now, a week after the event took place, I'll turn it back over to Alyssa.

....(Alyssa)

By hook and by crook.

Waking up in the car, still in the parking lot of the Seven Feathers gas station, was uncomfortable. We seem to have done a lot of car sleeping this year, but it is never comfortable. What is worse is that in whatever language the Seven Feathers tribe uses, their translation of coffee is something along the lines of "hot non potable brown water." So we had to start driving without coffee. We eventually stopped to get coffee, food, and directions to the place where we needed to return the car since we were only about an hour away. After a hassle at the rental agency which wanted to charge me more for returning the car early, we came to an agreement where I would just leave them the car but return three hours later so it could be counted as the next day. We set our to waste time and write the blog at a coffee shop while we both waited for Hertz's "next day" and for Wes to get off of work. We rode back to Wes's place, which is pretty grand, and after a shower, headed back to officially hand over the car, get dinner, and proceed to a bar so that Wes could "Buck." We found that this means playing the arcade version of Big Game Hunter on safari mode. Alyssa and I watched for a moment but, skeptical about the fun that could be had in shooting digital wildebeest, settled on shuffle board where Alyssa thoroughly frustrated and beat me.

Redwoods and Indian Casinos

Today we woke up and drove through the Redwood National Forest. The first stop was at a beach just inside the park where we walked around for a bit, and I played with some seagulls (mostly just trying to see how close I could get to them). The second stop was at the top of a mountain for a hike on a trail that went to The Grove of Giants. We hiked for an hour and a half through fields and trees looking at the beautiful scenery. There were a lot of giant trees, ferns, bright yellow slugs, snails, elk, and no bears. Unfortunately we had to turn around before we made it to the Grove of Giants because it was getting late and we didn't want to be stuck in a field in the dark with the bears. The hike was fun and relaxing except the entire way back was uphill. We left the park after our hike and started heading north toward Portland again. After a couple hours of driving, both of us were getting tired so we decided it was a good time to finally stop at a casino! It was an Indian reservation casino call the Seven Feathers. We seriously rolled into this casino at eleven o clock and spent a couple hours there. Our limit was ten dollars each, we got our club cards, and we were off to the penny slots! Turns out the slot machines are a little confusing with all those pictures and different ways to bet in every diagonally way possible. I settled on the Slingo machine (penny) after trying a few that weren't very fun because they were too difficult to understand. I decided what the hell and pressed the max bet button, which was two dollars. Go big or go home was my temporary motto. All of a sudden lights were lighting up and there was clinking. I won twenty dollars! I should have stopped there, but as a slot machine newb I continued to bet and lost most of what I had won. I took it pretty well since I had planned on spending ten dollars anyway, and it was late. We decided to get some food and then continued to gamble. David wasn't having much luck and had to turn to scouting the casino for abandoned tickets worth only a few pennies so he could keep playing. This however led to the security guards watching us more closely. We were the youngest people in there flitting about sporadically to different machines, and everyone else was planted at their favorite game. When both of us finally lost our ten dollars a security guard approached us and asked for our IDs. David being who he is asked if "this was a routine check". The security guard ignored his question and wished us luck. Obviously he just wanted us to know they were watching us. We left because we were out of money but perhaps too early making us look guilty. We went across the street to the gas station that was also owned by the casino. A security truck pulled up in the space next to us and the man got out and went into the store. I didn't think he was following us but David did. Anyway nothing else happened and we went to sleep in the parking lot.

Get to getting

We woke early, with everything packed. All that we needed to do was to put the panniers on the bikes and walk to the bus stop. We made it, after a slight scare at almost missing what we thought was our bus, with plenty of time that we utilized to get coffee. The bus came, bike free, so we were off to Ukiah by way of some of the windiest hilliest roads I've ever seen. The scenery was quite spectacular especially with the morning fog. Alyssa was more effected by the terrain however and was rather motion sick for most of the 4 hour bus ride. We arrived in Ukiah, and since we got to choose where we wanted to be dropped off, we chose the Safeway with a Starbucks. From there, I called to inquire about a rental car. They picked me up, and a girl was very helpful giving me many discounts, but was unable to get me a car right away because it had not yet arrived, but for waiting, I got a full sized Nissan Altima for the price of a compact which meant that we would for sure be able to cram our bikes into the trunk. We used a roll of plastic drop cloth to wrap our bikes in as to not dirty the boot of our nice new rental. After loading the car, we set off for Eureka, but quickly found that we shared a secret motive; we needed the slots. Maybe it was the billboards advertising casinos or maybe it was the more luxurious turn that our vacation had taken, but either way, it was decided. We stopped at a few smaller redwood forests along the way, made it to Eureka for a Mexican dinner, and set to choosing our casino. Because of the time, we decided to get a hotel first. We found one not far from the casino, checked in....... and promptly fell asleep after gambling that if we lay down for just a minute, we would be better rested to do well at the casino. We should have known; we hadn't even made it to the casino, and we had already started making risky bets.

Decisions with a pinch of hastiness

Our excuse is that we were nursing our colds, but in actuality, the bus that we were supposed to catch left at 8:10; we didn't know exactly what we were going to do from the end destination, Ukiah, and we didn't wake up until 8:10, leaving little time to pack and make in to the bus stop. Ukiah, a small town in the interior of California, was decided to be our best destination because of our fledgling plan of taking an Amtrak to Portland. The uncertainty in the plan was due to the four hour bus ride that would nearly take us back to San Francisco which, when coupled with the 4 hour layover and the 16 hour train ride, would make a 25 hour trip and was also due to the lack of information regarding Amtrak's accommodations for bicycles. Regardless of the reasons for it, we stayed another night in Point Arena at the Sea Shell Inn. When we woke, we looked for breakfast at the two tiny markets which completed a tour of the towns food stores, and looked for a box to ship more of our items back to Ohio that we would no longer need....or so we thought. We did find boxes and sent home our camping gear and some accessories that would no longer be needed since we planned on taking the train. Almost immediately after dropping the boxes off at the Post Office, we decided to check into a rental car because we both still dreamed of seeing more of the coast and the redwood forests that the train was sure to eliminate. Turns out, renting a car for 3 days is actually the same price as train tickets are, and if a direct route was taken, the car would also be about 3 times faster. God bless America eh? The only problem with this is that all of our camping stuff was now in two boxes at the Post Office so we would not get to camp in the Redwood forest. We briefly discussed asking for a refund and our boxes back, but we then remembered our last camping experience and decided that our camping supplies just weren't warm enough even if we did have it. With new plans penciled into our literary, only penciled at this point due to the two bike limit on local buses that still must be overcome to get to Ukiah, we set out to enjoy Point Arena, right after a nap. We both were still pretty sick and now feeling worse than we previously had probably due to our arctic camping expedition of the night before. A small nap and our hungry bellies were more than enough to whet our appetites for the sites of Point Arena however, so off we set for the pier, the main town attraction and site of the pizza place that we patronized the night before. The pizza tonight was good, and we ate it with the wine we bought so that we could lighten our load further, and after packing, we went to sleep early hoping to catch the bus in the morning.

Ups and Downs

I can't really say when we woke....not because we were camping and didn't have a clock, because we did. I can't say because the first time we woke was went we heard footsteps nearby and then our panniers attempting to be opened. I sprung into action, grabbed my light, and burst out of the tent....which is a dramatization of the real events that include me turning my light on in the tent after fumbling unsuccessfully for the zipper, blinding myself to the fact that the zipper that I had found was for the screen so me bursting out of the tent was actually me trying to burst through the screen. Lucky for us, since this process was so delayed, the perpetrator was not the deranged owner of the seemingly abandoned tent at the campsite over that the rangers had inspected earlier, but a much more benign troop of raccoons. The raccoons did prove to be much more annoying and persistent than any deranged camper would ever have been and proceeded to launch a second attack while I was removing the food from our panniers to put in the lock-box at our site. I scared them away again with another mock chase, only to have them flank me. Their cunning and skill was unexpected and successful....in pissing me off. Being a primate, I grabbed a stick to defend myself which I ended up throwing, Ventura style, into the bushes at the rustling that I identified as a third wave. By this time I had the bikes free standing as opposed to leaned against the picnic table where they were easy targets to the raccoons who used the table as strategic high ground, had bungee-ed the lock-box door shut, and jammed a stick in the clasp for good measure. Despite all the excitement, Alyssa remained in the tent sleepily inquiring from time to time as to how the battle was going. Also adding to the uncertainty as to when we awoke, in addition to intermittent raids by the courageous but defeated raccoons, was the bitter cold. We've talked a lot about the cold, but this night takes the cake. We had made a fire out of wood that we foraged for around our site, but that was safely distant from our tent and had burned out shortly after we went to bed. We had sleeping bags and were in full clothes, but it simply wasn't enough. We both woke multiple times shivering and re-huddled for what little warmth we could gather, but knowing that we would just be awakened what seemed like minutes later. During one sleepless spell I briefly pondered if this was how people froze to death, but decided it probably wasn't that bad, although Alyssa later voiced the same question. Most of the time we woke up asking, "Is it getting light out?" The answer seemed to always be that no, it was still pitch dark. Finally, Alyssa decided to go to the bathroom and saw that the sky was actually getting lighter. We jumped out of the tent, and although we said we would just leave in the morning, we started making a fire. After packing up and getting a little warmer from the fire, but mostly just really smoky, we headed, reluctantly, into Jenner where we hoped to get warm coffee and charge Alyssa's phone to get in touch with Zach. We got coffee at a mediocre cafe that was somehow loved on Yelp, which makes more sense when considering the small crappy town we were in that didn't even offer cellphone coverage. With Alyssa's phone charged tentatively connected to a roaming signal, we texted Zach to see where he was. As a reminder, although it was mentioned in the yesterday's post, we had been in contact with Zach, expected to meet him, and told him that we were sick, wouldn't make it to our prearranged spot, and would need a ride. Some how between the time that we had texted him yesterday evening to tell him that we would be camping in Jenner and had very little signal to which he responded that he was still a day away and the time that we got to the cafe the next day, Zach had drove past Jenner, not texted and found himself over 200 miles north of us which meant that he couldn't possibly turn around for a four hour drive to get us and besides, the car was very full. Maybe he picked up a lot of redwood pine cones that took our spots, or maybe he just never considered that we would be physical objects that have volume, either way we were fairly certain that he probably knew how much room he would have much before the previous evenings exchange and that he had definitely just knowingly drove past us. We were annoyed, and it could be argued that the offense still stings upon contemplation. So, with little choice and feeling sicker than ever, we started to ride... (Alyssa) and ride we did. For several hours. Although we rode for awhile we only manage to bike ten to fifteen miles that day. The hills were incredible! I'm pretty sure we climbed more in that morning than we did the entire day we rode from San Francisco to Wine Country. Since we couldn't do anything else except keep riding north, I switched into the lowest gear I had and enjoyed the view. Just to make it perfectly clear how many hills there were and how long, we climbed one stretch for over a mile and a half with no break in the hill. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or just being high from the physical stress but for some reason it felt great. I felt crazed but it was quite an accomplishment to climb what we did in the condition we were in. Although we were moving, it wasn't a good enough pace to ride the miles we needed. We both agreed that we needed to figure something else out, our vacation was turning to difficult times and we didn't want to stop having fun. We decided to not camp anymore because of the cold (and our colds) and ultimately decided to stop touring. We stopped at a hotel on the coast and used their internet to find a different way up the coast.....(David) which involved taking a local bus that had the added drama of only being able to take two bikes; if there was even just one bike already, we would have to wait until the next day when the bus came again. So we waited for the bus, for four hours, and eventually it came....with a bike on the front. Great, huh? Luckily the driver was super nice and the guy with the bike, a small mountain bike with quick-release wheels, offered to put his inside the bus. So we made the bus and went 40 miles north up the coast for $2.75 each to a cheap hotel that we had found at Point Arena. The hotel, which I just realized we did not take photos of, was the most retro thing you can imagine and was run by some very nice hippies. The rooms were wood paneled, retro old tv, one wall covered by some mountain scene, think 8' by 16' mural, which was framed with what looked like redwood, small leather sitting chair, pretty much the works as far as cheap old hotels built in the 70s. The town was tiny and recovering from a harbor fest so literally everything was closed save one pizza place which the lady from the hotel offered to drive me to in order to pick up a pizza. The pizza was delicious, and we spent time adjusting and talking about our new trip plans.

TIME....

...was not on our side this day. We woke early from a chilly night to find that a witch-woman had been chanting around the campsite. A woman told Alyssa this, and Alyssa thinks she was feeling her out as we talked to no one and went to be early. We got ready for a ride to Korbel Champagne Cellars in out full riding gear, but we only had a 1000 foot ride down the street to get there. We took a tour which was good but cheesy and finished with a tasting that continuously referenced time. We then started riding toward the shore where we hoped to meet with Zach Baird. We had been in contact with him but it turns out that there is no cell phone service on the coast; neither Alyssa or I had any bars, and Alyssa was actually in "roaming" which I thought was a relic of the car phone age. Anyway, at the time, we didn't know he ditched us. We had told him we would be at Jenner camping because we were sick, were behind schedule, and didn't have phone service. The phone service issues stopped us from reaching him until the next day which will hold the full story. For now let it suffice for us to say that we found a state park with primitive camping and decided to stay without paying since we were on bikes which worked. It took awhile to find somewhere to camp and mostly because it was Labor Day weekend. Jenner was completely busy and annoying and no one wanted to help us find somewhere to stay. We even asked another cyclist and his only suggestion was to bike twenty miles north and there might be camping there but he couldn't say for sure because he needed to go eat. Of course we were asking him at 5:30pm and a twenty mile ride in our condition with all our gear would have taken at least three hours and well into the night. Jerk. For the rest, see the next post.