WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

What a change in the KOA this morning. Over 80% of the people checked out and it's now a quiet, campground. Note to self: don't ever come here on a weekend, especially the weekend of the County Fair and the last weekend before school starts. So, I guess we might stay here again, but only on a weekday!

This afternoon my humans were invited to Kathe's brothers' home for lunch and a garden tour. Warren is quite a gardener, so he was very interested to see all the things Mark and Vicki are growing in their back yard. There are apple, pear, cherry and peach trees. They also have a variety of citrus trees and a huge vegetable garden. It's truly a fantastic use of a backyard!

Vicki prepared a wonderful lunch for them with almost all of the produce coming from their garden. Beautiful salads and a large wild poached salmon. Mark even made an apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert. Truly a delicious feast! 

After lunch, Mark and Vicki insisted that everyone share in the bounty of their garden. We came home with grapes, eggplants, cucumbers, and three varieties of delicious tomatoes. 

Tomorrow, we leave for the trip down south, eventually to Paso Robles. 

NOT SO GREAT

We had a really rough ride today down the 101 and we were all very happy when we finally reached Petaluma and the KOA. That is, until we saw the hundreds of people that were already here. We've been here before, but it's never been like this. 

It's a zoo! Yes, they even have a petting zoo. The place smells like goats. 

Looking at the pool you couldn't even see the water for the number of kids crowded in the space. Every site was filled with campers and there were at least 100 tents in the open field area. And there are lots of unfriendly barking doggies. Not what we were hoping for after a long drive. 

As there was no one to guide us to our site, Kathe and Jim got lost and almost took out a tree trying to turn around and get back to the space assigned to us. Jim was worried about the scratches on the coach, but he was able to polish them out. 

Kathy T got lost as well! I guess we were all tired, but we agreed that we would never come back to this place! Ever!

We are feeling a little better after a nice dinner and some treats, but happy that we are only here two nights.  

FAR AND FARTHER

I guess they got tired of looking at trees, because today they drove off early in the morning. The first destination was a farmers' market in the town of Garberville about 20 minutes south of Meyers Flat. They did bring home some stuff, some eggs, but mostly vegetables. Both Kathies bought some delicious looking homemade jams. The overall impression of Garberville was that it was a hippie haven, and so they didn't spend much time there.

Back home to put things in the fridge, before heading in the opposite direction. That was north about 30 minutes to the Victorian town of Ferndale. They had a lot of fun looking at all the old restored Victorian homes and some bed and breakfast establishments. They walked the Main Street looking in all the little shops and stopped for a really nice Mexican lunch. They didn't come home with much this time, just a pair of socks for my Kathe and some miniature dollhouse furniture for Kathy T.

Tonight, is our last night here in Giant Redwoods Resort, and tomorrow we head south to Petaluma and the KOA. Looking forward to visiting Uncle Mark, Aunt Vicki, and my cousins Alex and Jake while we are there.  

WALK IN THE WOODS

Today I went for a couple of walks around the campground with Kathe, and it is so spooky and quiet with all these tall trees up there. I don't stay out too long! Did I mention all the stuff that sticks in your fur? Redwood trees shed a lot of tiny branches and I like to bring them inside for Jim to sweep up every day. 

This afternoon my humans all went for a walk in the ancient redwoods on the Avenue of the Giants. It was supposed to be a hike, but it was really a walk in between the giant trees. It's impossible to take a picture to show just how big the trees are. First, they walked in the Founders Grove where they had a printed guide to all the interesting facts about the trees. Then they took the advice of the Rangers at the forest and found another area to visit.

The Rangers suggested that they drive to the Rockefeller Grove, as they felt that was the most beautiful drive in the forest. The road was very narrow, but they weren't wrong, it was beautiful. Some of the oldest trees were in that forest.They came upon this Stag, just munching the grass on the side of the road. A really wonderful day.

BIG TREES BIG RIG

Here we are at the Giant Redwoods RV Park. The Internet is not so great, so I will make this short. It was a beautiful drive down highway 101, but we have no pictures of the drive. 

Jim wanted the Kathies to find a fuel station before we reached our destination. Not my Kathe's favorite job. After trying to find something on the internet big enough to accommodate 2 big rigs, they found a Costco in Eureka. It looked good until they pulled in line only to find that they didn't sell diesel fuel at this Costco. How scary, two big coaches that had to cross 4 or 5 lanes of traffic to exit without any damage. I thought my Kathe was going to have a coronary. Luckily, a Costco attendant stopped the traffic to let both of our rigs get out of the line of cars and back onto the highway. A few blocks down the highway we stumbled onto a great 76 station and fueled up.

After that experience nothing could be as bad! When we pulled into our RV Park we just decided to chill out for the rest of the day.  It's a really great park, right in the middle of the Avenue of the Giants. They plan to tour the area tomorrow and may even take a hike into the redwood groves.

SUE-MEG BIKE RIDE

Today the sun finally came out long enough for the planned bike ride into the State Park. Much of the morning was taken up with grocery shopping, as the next place we are staying sent us an email letting us know that there are no grocery stores near them. As long there is chicken in the freezer and a big bag of dog food, what else do we need?

Oh, back to the bike ride. They rode down the street and into the park, luckily there were very few cars on the road. Going into the park on your bicycle is free, but they want seven dollars a day if you drive in with your car.

They rode all over the park, first to the beach where Warren and Jim looked for more agates and small shells. That beach reminded everyone of Hawaii, except for the temperature. 

The second stop was at the trail to Wedding Rock, where Jim and Warren took a hike, first down to the beach where they saw starfish on the rocks. After that they hiked all the way to the top of Wedding Rock, just because they could! 

Tomorrow, they leave for Meyers Flat, California where they will be camped in Redwoods, on the Avenue of the Giants. 

PRAIRIE CREEK REDWOODS

Very slow start to our day today. When Jim woke up this morning, he noticed that we had no power. Other campers also realized the same thing, the power was out in the whole neighborhood. We have a generator, so by running it, we had plenty of power for our breakfast. Everyone just hung around waiting for the power to come back on, which happened at about 11:30. 

Kathy T didn't feel well today, so Warren, Jim and my Kathe decided to take a hike at the Prairie Creek State Park after lunch. The plan was to take a short hike and look for the Roosevelt Elk that are supposed to roam the meadows of the park.

The first destination was Trillium Falls which was through some old-growth redwoods to a waterfall. It was only about a half mile and there were signs that bear and elk frequented the area. Yikes! Next, they drove to the Park Headquarters, and saw some of the elk close enough to take pictures of them.

Not satisfied with such a short hike, they looked for more adventure and found a two more hikes. The Cathedral Trail connected to the Elk Prairie Trail which totaled an additional 2.7 miles. They were dragging by that time and still had another mile to hike back to the car. I don't think that was exactly what they planned because they are all pooped tonight.