Ben and Sue Day 58

Friday, November 2, 2007, Day 58

. . . We are nearly home . . . about 225 miles south of Portland, Oregon -- will be home on Saturday for sure.  Was a quiet, somewhat uneventful day today -- was good to begin to see places that were more familiar to us.  We travelled part of the way north on Highway 101 north -- oh the views of the Pacific ocean were spectacular -- giant waves crashing on the rocks.  Now that we are closer to home --  a trip back here along the coast seems very possible and we hope/plan to be able to return and spend some time here.

. . . We saw elk today with huge racks.  Two of the males were fighting -- locking horns and pushing each other back and forth -- was amazing to  watch!

Sue  

Ben and Sue Day 57

Thursday, November 1, 2007, Day 57

. . . We're on the home stretch -- yea!!  We stayed a second night in Eureka California and  spent the day today viewing/exploring the California Redwoods.  Oh my goodness they are tall -- I think I remember reading the tallest one was 360 feet.  To give you an idea of how large in diameter  they are:  Both Ben and I stretched out our arms and stood fingertip to fingertip around the base of the tree.  It took both of us three times  to go completely around.

It's getting cold these past couple of mornings -- only reached 53 degrees all day today. 

Very close to where we are camping -- in fact within walking distance is a thrift store with the sign reading:  50 percent off everything in the store.   So of course we went in to browse around a bit.  This man had some really really old stuff -- good thing we are needing to be home soon.  We did buy one table -- not a very big one and then one shelf with a heart carved into it.  Oh my goodness you should see our truck and our 5th wheel -- yikes -- it's going to take me a month of Sundays just to clean everything out and put everything away.  When you hear the new message I am going to put on our answering machine you will surely understand!        

Sue     

Ben and Sue Day 56

Wednesday, Octoberv 31, 2007, Day 56

. . . Starting out this morning first thing we saw was a field with hundreds of sheep.  Was chilly this morning -- didn't check temperature but my guess was 40 -- 45 degrees.  A heavy fog blanketed the area -- burned of though as the sun came out and most of the day was sunny and warmer.  Travelled north on Interstate 5 to Redding, then took Highway 299 west to Eureka which is where we are this evening.

Highway 299 -- oh my goodness!  Our trip all day was only 160 miles but took us about 6 1/2 hours to drive because the mountain roads were so twisty and curvy.  One lane each direction -- only a few places to pass all the day long.  We did see the most gorgeous autumn leaves -- I think this might be the peak time for them -- very  bright golds and reds and yellows -- really beautiful.  All along route 299 were supposedly these "towns" -- or at least we kept seeing signs for towns -- wish I had written down some of the names but the populations were funny -- in one instance we passed a sign for a town which read:  population 0.  Other populations were almost always under 100.

So. . . that  was about it for today --  mountain roads with the river below and the bright clear blue sky above. 

Our daughter Kat called today to tell us it was snowing back in Sultan where we live  Oh for joy joy joy after almost eight weeks of uninterrupted sunshine.  Ben and I were both thinking the same thing -- maybe we will just drive back down south and stay there for the winter.  Kat went on and on describing  the cold, icy, snowy conditions -- and when she had us both thoroughly convinced she finally told us she was just joking!

Sue