Weaverville, Redding, and Chico, CA

I was going to do a video blog but it came out lame and I just wasn't up to it :( sorry about the delay. I feel like some of the events have been so long ago there isn't much to report but we will see how this turns out...


Weaverville..... oh Weaverville, it reminds of a certain post on facebook that makes me chuckle. I have been to Weaverville one time before for work and was only briefly there. And it turns out I never really went into the historic part of Weaverville. Well, we stayed at an RV park and in the morning we ambled on over to the historic part to try and find some goods and to get to know the city. We past some great breakfast joints and couldn't resist so we headed on in to a place and Anna got a nice breakfast sandwich and I got this bagel sandwich that had smoked salmon. When they delivered it it looked like the man's meal was Anna's and the girly meal was mine. But hey I don't care I chowed down on it and enjoyed plentifully. After visiting the museum there we basically were done (not much in Weaverville honestly). We headed to Redding.

Once we got to Redding we did some shopping at Target then headed to the mall to check it out then figure out where we were going from there. Turns out there really isn't that much to do in Redding even though it has a population of 90k. Anna's old time friends who live there weren't able to hang the first night so we were left to our own devices. We got bored at the mall and were noticing things about the populace. Such as, girls there love these strappy sandal things that look like old Greek type sandals. We wanted to sneak a couple of pics of girls wearing them but decided against. We then drove to the Sundial Bridge which is like the most known landmark in Redding. It's this pedestrian walkway and is crazy looking. When we went it was dark but we planned on returning in the morning. Finally, we headed to Walmart and spent the night after exploring it, it was huge.

Sundial Bridge at night

Next day we went on back to Sundial and busted out the bikes. We went on a pretty strenuous bike ride along the Sacramento River all the way up to the Keswick Dam. It was actually quite enjoyable and we had a grand 'ol time taking pictures along the way.

Bike ride view

Wondering what is taking Anna so long

The Lookout Tree

Sundial Bridge

making sure we weren't running late

very photogenic

the view was amazing

We met up with Anna's friends, who are mine now too :), at their office. They are brothers, Tim and Dennis. We learned about their company and what they do. Tim is = to Michael Scott!!! Dennis is like Jim Halpert!! Very exciting and we just caught up and Tim and I talked about VWs because he actually owns a sweet looking bus that is the same year as mine. We agreed to get dinner and see some live music after they got off, unfortunately, Tim had prior obligations though.

We got some sushi with Dennis, his wife Angela, and their friend Anna. Food was good the Asahi was delicious like always. During dinner Dennis and I talked about some amazing things. He and I have never really had a heart to heart conversation and I have always heard he is a really cool guy. Turns out he really is a cool guy and the things he has thought about and the way he sees the world is amazing. We discussed just breaking away from old habits and not following in our parents' footsteps that are negative. We talked about taking good risks and developing your true self and your, "Couple Identity" For the most part I agreed with everything he was saying and many of the things he said were very encouraging to me. Reflecting on this conversation and the meeting with Shelley I almost feel like Anna and I are traveling around the country discovering its beauty then periodically having these interactions with these wise teachers. I hope that I bump into people along this journey who help me better see the world and fill me with a new vigor for life. I feel like some Buddhist pilgrim going from one mountain top that has some wise old monk atop it to the next.

Dennis, Angela and Us

Didn't like how the cat was saying hello

After dinner we headed to the music. It was called Love Lounge and I believe it was put on by Dennis' church. It was part talent show part concert. People came up played a song or two and then next performance. They had a ventriloquist too whether you like that kind of thing or not. It was a very enjoyable night that ended with us resting our weary heads in the Walmart parking.

Next day we went for a long walk along the river then chilled out with some coffee. We then headed to Chico and unfortunately it started raining. We rolled into Chico in the afternoon and visited The Naked Lounge coffee joint. Not owned by the same people in Sacramento. It wasn't quite as nice but it did the trick and we stayed there for awhile while we surfed the Internet. One of my facebook friends suggested going to Madison Bear Garden so we went. It was nice had a drink and just joked around for awhile. We debated seeing a late night showing of Harry Potter but decided against it. We chilled out in Maander and watched some TV.

From our walk

Peet's. Before all the drenching we went to a Chico Alumni game where my sister's friend Leah played. It was fun and we talked to her parents and husband who we haven't seen in a long time. We wanted to walk the Bidwell Park but the rain is just too nasty. Next stop Auburn most likely or we may head home early we will see PEACE!!

Mean Muggin'

Drenched after walking in the rain

Reflections on Walden (only read if interested :)

So it has been awhile since I spoke about Walden. I have still been reading it is just when I write a blog and I get to the point where I would talk about it the blog is soooo long I just have to end it. It has been a couple days since I have read so it definitely isn't fresh in my mind but I will do my best. I remember feeling like all these people living on the north coast, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties in particular, are trying to exemplify what Thoreau is getting at. Thoreau spoke about clothing and how readily people dispose of it when it gets a hole in it when one could repair it so easily. He pointed out how someone can do way more things in an old pair of pants than in a new one. What he was getting at was that we try and preserve these nice things for so long and they end up just being wasted or never being used. He discussed building his own home and how for a year's worth of rent of a college student they could build their own home and have independence.

One of the most poignant things he discussed was the way housing worked for, "The Civilized World" as opposed to the, "Savages"

He noted that the homes the Native Americans made were probably just as good as the New Englander's homes yet the community comes together and builds every family a house with the natives. The civilized man hopes to buy his house one day and then spend half his life trying to pay it off. The natives have their homes paid for and are not burdened by their debts. Thoreau did a great job of pointing out the set backs our society can have sometimes.

Eureka, Shelley's house, and Arcata, CA

Our trek thus far:



Feeling good. Guess I just wrote a blog at a time I was just a little in the dumps. Shall we proceed?

So we spent the night in Myers Flat which is on the edge of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Stayed at an RV park at it was pretty much gravy. The next day we start making our way to Eureka with the intention of staying at Anna's parents' old time friend's house.

On our way up US 101 we drove through The Avenue of the Giants. It is this amazing road where all of these huge redwoods have been preserved so that you can just be in awe of them. We were driving around at like 10am yet it seemed like evening time because the forest did such an effective job of blotting out the sun.

Pretty big yea?

In another tree

Yea way up there!

Maander looking like a thug

So we roll into Eureka and decide to take an amble around town and get to know it. We heard previously that there are a lot of victorians there due to how well off the region was with logging during the era where victorians were built. Walking around was quite enjoyable. Eureka really feels like Sacramento in a lot of ways. It was flat for the most part and easy to navigate around the more touristy spots. After getting some lunch at a co-op we headed to The Carson House. Which is like a must see building in Eureka. Carson was this lumber baron and built the most elaborate home for himself there. What sucked was that it wasn't open to the public. Apparently some high society exclusive club owns it and uses it for their devious purposes.

Amazing looking church in Eureka

On the promenade in Eureka

Carson House

Kinda crazy about Carson. Apparently after building his house and getting up there in years he started becoming insane. He would spend his days making stakes and became preoccupied with vampires. I don't blame him either because this region looks a ton like Port Angeles. Well after years of making stakes and going and hunting for vampires and never finding them he snapped. He started thinking people close to him were vampires and he would stake them through the heart and kill them. He had become so powerful of a lumber baron people really couldn't do much about it. Well this went on until he ended up accusing his best friend. Carson caught his wife and his best friend cheating together. Then a month later it turned out Carson thought his best friend was a vampire and killed him. Finally, his friend was a big enough person in the community where they just said this has to stop and hanged Carson. Pretty crazy.

After Eureka we made our way to my in law's friend's house. Her name is Shelley and she lives on a farm with a big red barn with some goats, horses, chickens, and a dog. We met her, me for the first time and Anna hadn't seen her in a very long time. We chit-chatted and walked around the farm with her introducing us to all of her animals. She brought us to the back of her property and showed us some early 30 year olds couple property. They had just started to farm. Turns out there is a movement in Humboldt county to try and make it completely self sustainable. People are super into growing their own food relying on the community for other needs and making sure they can live this way forever.

That's where goat cheese comes from

Miniature Horse

Anna and Shelley w/ the animals

Shelley made some excellent enchiladas and we had some goat cheese and milk. We probably ate more than we should have but it was quite good. We then showered up and headed to bed.

In Eureka we heard about a town called Ferndale which is a dairy farming community that became very well off and have tons of victorians and great architecture. We decided to head out there for a few hours before making our trek to Arcata then down hwy 299 to Weaverville. Ferndale had a very nice main street with lots of shops and many majestic churches a surprising amount compared to the population. I think the population there is like 1.5k and there were at least 3 huge churches there. Either everyone goes to church there or most of the pews are empty come Sunday.

Another

Ferndale

Playing the guitar before lunch

Next stop, Arcata. Shelley said she really loved going to Arcata because it reminded her of Berkeley in the 60s. It is where Humboldt State University is and we knew we would see lots of young people and dreadlocks. These people put me to shame when it comes to personifying a hippy aesthetic in todays time. I really need to up my game :) We drove through the college then made our way to Arcata Plaza. Parked and went walking. We ended up by this really cool coffee shop called Mokka Cafe. Its a finnish bath house and coffee hang out. You could rent a sauna or hot tub and get your java on. All the saunas and hot tubs were booked but we stayed for a cup a joe. It was easily the coolest coffee shop I have ever been to. Nothing in Sacramento compares. It was amazing that they made a bath house and it totally didn't feel like the pervert hang out where who knows what happens. There was a cat just chilling in the lounge area and that provided a really cool vibe (I miss you Titus).

Yum!

this is where the hot tubs and saunas are

We walked a bit in the Arcata Neighborhood Forest then made our way through hwy 299. 299 was yet another big challenge for Maander consisting mostly of big uphills this time with not so much the twists. He made it like a champ and then we camped out here in Weaverville.

A tree on top of a tree pretty cool

So today we will just be meandering around Weaverville and then heading to Redding. I left my black jacket and green beanie at Shelley's house so I am going to have to go to a thrift store to get an appropriate jacket, I only have that super heavy one now. Peace y'all things have definitely been better since Fort Bragg.

Oh and I was joking about the Carson story.

Mendocino, Fort Bragg and the road thus far

Thank you all for your responses to my last blog it made it much more fun! I think I will settle on Emmett's suggestion of naming the bus Maanderwagen. I will officially be calling Maanderwagen names like The Maan, Maandy, Maander. Thank you all for your contributions :)

Ok the last entry I made I said I tested Maander a great deal. That was nothing compared to what we went through yesterday. Now I am going to talk a little backwards because I have yet to talk of Mendo and Fort Bragg but this needs to be said. This last stretch of highway 1 was unquestionably the most difficult. We were right on the shoreline for the initial stint out of Fort Bragg but then pretty quickly we were in the Redwood Forest. I was thankful because the wind was pushing Maander around quite a bit. We traded off windy conditions for suggested 10mph turns and huge grades up and down. I swear I rarely was in 4th gear because I was either climbing the hill or keeping myself from overspeeding down a hill. This is NOT hyperbole!!

Back to a more linear way of talking about our trip :P

So once we had our Breakfast, after using the Bed we stayed at, we went for an amble about town and the coast. We stopped into a Jam and Preserves store and this very out-going gentleman greets us from behind the sample area. He is talking it up with all the customers and trying to charm the pants off of anyone who would listen. He had a beatnik look to him with black rimmed glasses a fedora and a vest. We sample a few preserves and Anna mentions we need mustard as well as mentioning we are travelers. He says he knows many like us. It seems travelers, hitchhikers, and people voluntarily homeless like to come to Mendo. He says if we guess his state of origin we can have a $10 jar of mustard for free. His clue - the state Jonny Appleseed is from. I first guess New York he says close and I continue. I start naming states all around there and he is like ok last try and I say Massachusetts. He is like big winner take it. I was quite surprised he gifted us with a pricey jar of Mustard.

Us with the free mustard! And I trimmed up!

Water tower and Kelley house Museum

The beach before we descended down

Nice church in Mendo

 We then meandered down to the beach where there was a plethora of driftwood. We had the ocean crashing on one side then probably 40' max of beach then a large cliff side. An amazing thing was that there was fresh water seeping out of the cliff rock onto the beach. You look to one side you see ocean and waves crashing the other gentle fresh water trickling down rocks. It seemed poetic.

Self pic cheesin'

Really cool part where the ocean broke a hole in the rocks

Beautiful Abalone shell

Gazing/Reflecting

We grabbed some supplies from the hardware store and grocery and made lunch. After lunch we decided it was about time to make our exit to Fort Bragg. Not a long drive I think maybe 25 miles if I remember correctly. We drive into town just a bit then turn back to where we spotted the visitor's center. The lady there starts telling us all the sites to see and the first place she says, "We have a beach you can go to. It's called Glass Beach and it is where the city dump used to be!"

I thought to myself how odd that she would mention that part about the history of the beach. Now we knew that Fort Bragg would be more industrial not quite as romantic as Mendocino, but man they weren't kidding. Maybe it was a combination of the weather and the change of scenery but Fort Bragg just felt dreary and had no appeal to it. We walk to Glass Beach not too far off and as we are getting closer and closer to the beach the wind is coming off the water pushing us away. I almost felt like the ocean was communicating with us. We get to the beach and there were actually many tourists there exploring it. However, there really wasn't much to see or discover.

Biggest known Redwood in Mendo county... Lets chop it down!
- Says stupid ppl from 1943

This is glass beach.... yeah....

We then walked down the touristy, historic district I believe. The shops were in nice buildings and they had very eclectic stores. We stop into a handmade co-op consignment place and see what they had. We then go to an antique shop where the store owner was just hanging out behind the counter reading his newspaper and smoking cigarettes. The store had a bunch of old stuff the seemed mildly valuable and I just felt like this guy had been doing this for so long that it was like he was just barely procuring anything of value and selling just enough to get by for the month and he was completely fine with this prospect. With the continued smoking in this shop, it created a very interesting smell in the store. It wasn't a bad smell but felt aged and rustic.

$10 bucks to someone who correctly guesses
 the town we were at when we took this

j/k

We return to Maander and make a long pit stop at Starbucks before boondocking across the street in a Safeway parking lot. The next day, Sunday, we get up and head towards a church I looked up the day before, First Baptist Church of Fort Bragg. We get there at 9am not knowing when the service would start. We see it starts at 10:30am and there is coffee too! We are like cool! and decide to go for a walk to kill time till service. On our walk we run into Lighthouse Foursquare Church. Same starting time and it has a potluck afterwards!! Bingo we jump on that. Service was nice especially the worship. The Pastor spoke about Veterans' Day, he was a veteran himself. He said some things in regards to speaking in tongues I didn't agree with and he kept cutting to videoclips of some patriotic song and pictures of soldiers and battle. Not to disrespect veterans, but it was ad nauseum and felt cliche. We met some of the people then headed to the potluck.

Attending the potluck we witnessed that Lighthouse is heavily involved with the homeless/poor people of the Fort Bragg area. Essentially between all the churches in the area a homeless person could have at least one meal everyday except maybe Saturday. They were involved in rehabilitation and it just seemed like they truly had a heart for the homeless in the area.


We hit the road and settled on stopping somewhere near Garberville to break up the trip to Eureka. Like I said before not an easy drive. We stop by the redwood tree that you can drive through (they cut a big hole in a redwood essentially). Maander was too tall to fit so we had to settle for driving around it and then taking pictures by it. We then stop at an RV campsite in Myers Flats.

Hwy 1 Scenery

That's a lot of wood

OMG we are IN a tree!

Reflections on the trip thus far:




We are now one week into our adventure and I feel it necessary to reflect on the journey thus far. As of this very moment I am actually feeling many different emotions, some good, some bad. I loved our start to the trip meeting the locals in Winters and love many of our stops thus far. I of course hated that morning in Winters when Maander had problems. I think after Mendocino I have been disappointed in Fort Bragg and the weather just kinda took some of the wind out of my sails. Walking around a town that seems pretty normal getting beat by the blustery wind after just coming from a town that seems as if it was created by a great fiction author can do that to you.

I need more warmth and less moisture. Anna and I decided we won't be heading up the coast the whole way. Looks like it very well may snow in Crescent City around the time we will be there and there is no chance I want to deal with that. Instead, we will go to Eureka and take highway 299 to Weaverville and Redding. A guy at the church said that 299 really isn't that bad of a highway to use to get to I-5.

I am asking myself, "Can I really live this way for potentially a year?" So far it has been a big transition and I am hopeful for when we get to warmer climates. I really wish we were able to start this journey in the warm months. We will have to adapt. Don't get me wrong, I am not giving up yet or regretting this decision. I am merely questioning myself and trying to make sure I am making the best decisions possible.

....seriously sorry for how long this blog is :(...... :)

Little more Petaluma then Bodega Bay, CA

I'm tired and I got a lot of sleep last night :\.

So on the 11th we stayed in Petaluma for awhile because one of my best friends, Matt, decided he wanted to meet us there. He lives in Vallejo so it wasn't a bad drive for him. The Veterans' Day parade was going so there was lots of foot traffic and children playing in the street. We met up with Matt and his wife, Kristy, and their two kids Zach and Ethan (my God Son). We had some Mexican and talked; it was good times.

Anna and I and the Boyds

For my Wesleyan brethren

Off to Bodega Bay not a long drive and we weren't sweating the time at all. Anna and I rolled in to Bodega at probably 3pm and found a campsite after visiting the Visitors Center. All I can say is that if you want to go crab fishing then go to Bodega Bay. It seemed like everyone who was there was there to fish for crab. Tons of pots all over the place tons of boats filled till they were almost capsizing with pots. The campsite we stayed at, we go and park and wait for the ranger to come and give us our registration and all that jazz. We seriously didn't complete the transaction till about 5pm. She was taking her dang sweet time.

Crab pots galore

We headed out on a walk after that while it was twilight. I was hoping that we could get to the Pacific Ocean on our walk. I brought my headlamp some supplies and we meandered on foot down the road towards Bodega Head. We made it to the edge of the bay where it wasn't technically the Pacific and then turned around. After the walk we climbed in the bus and did some reading and fell asleep quite early.

From our night hike in Bodega

We got up and Anna made some oatmeal while I did a little jamming on the guitar. We then headed out on bike to Bodega Head. We wanted to go to Fishermans' Memorial. The hills were pretty big and we had to get off and walk the bikes up in some places just cuz we are pretty weak. We walked all around the cliffs and took pictures and met some people from Australia.

Trucking up that hill

This guy was just hanging out looking for whales

during our hike

She didn't fall off

We got back at about noon and decided it was time to head up to Mendocino. I was definitely nervous because it would be highway 1 all the way and it has tons of twists and turns and inclines and declines. We said a quick prayer and at a gas station I check all the vitals on the bus. Everything looked good and we were on our way.

The drive was not easy at all. I was constantly downshifting and upshifting and using the gearbox to slow us down etc etc. I was avoiding using too much of the brakes because I didn't want to get them too hot or wear them out. People were coming up behind us and I was constantly using turn outs to let people by. The good news was that we weren't in a rush to get anywhere. We planned on a pit stop at Point Arena Lighthouse just to let the bus rest and to regroup ourselves.





The lighthouse was really cool we forked over the money to get the guided tour and saw some sweet scenery. The lens was insane and was made in like 1906. They were making those lenses back in like the mid 1800s too and it was hard to believe we possessed the technology to make them back then.

Point Arena Lighthouse tallest one in Cali, getting painted

Up on top

Here is the lens they used in the lighthouse

Grey Whale skull pretty massive

After that we continued North and finally landed in Mendocino. I was so proud of the bus making it to Mendocino. It behaved like a champ and if it survived this leg of HWY 1 I am confident it can make it through anything else we are going to put it through. Anna has officially lost 30 lb. since she started dieting and exercising so her reward for her/us was to stay at a Bed and Breakfast for a night. So thats where we are at now just hanging out.

Note to readers:

Sorry I am so wordy I am really trying to be brief and use more pictures.
Anna and I are using the same pictures for our blogs is that annoying? Should we make a conscious effort not to duplicate the pictures in our separate blogs?
I hate always writing, "the bus" I want to name it have any ideas?
Constructive criticism always appreciated.

Leave answers in the comments