Captain’s Log - Stardate: 20-16-07-25 – Mission Day 20 (Day count corrected)

Captain’s Entry:

The ride today was harrowing!!!! (See my First Officer’s Description Below)

In a dark, dark wood there lived a whole buncha huge, giant-sized trees along a twisty, narrow track. That narrow track proudly bears the name Avenue of the Giants. Thank goodness someone had the foresight to save these big, burly redwood trees and then put a road through the middle, so the rest of us could see them. The road may have been scary, but thankfully it looked almost brand new, smooth, no potholes, and it had lots of turn-outs for big lumbering vehicles like ours. Whew!

After the dark shade of the redwoods, the abrupt turn around a curve presenting the Pacific Coast like the burst of a flash bulb in our faces took our breath away. Stunning! Marvelous!  Incredible! Lovely! Amazing! Brilliant! (Flash bulbs? Cameras used to have them. Cameras? Like an iPhone for taking photos only you can’t make calls)

This campground costs $60 a night because you can pitch your tent on the beach and sleep to the sound of the pounding surf. You can take your dogs on the beach if you clean up after them. You can rent a teepee if you’d like. You can park your RV next door to the sand dunes. It’s an ocean-lover’s dream campground!! 

End Captain’s Entry.

First Officer’s Entry:

Here we are in Westport, California at the “Large Loud Family Escape from the Big City RV Park and Family Fun Center.”  At $60 per night, the most expensive park we’ve stayed at this trip. (But it IS right on the ocean. I gotta admit that.)  I am writing this on Monday, July 25^th and I don’t know when we will be able to post it as we have no cell phone, no internet, no electrons at all down here in the depths of the California Pacific coast.

This place is PACKED with large families, large groups of families, large groups of friends.  The sites are stuffed with RV’s trailers, tents, tables, furniture, toys, and large campfire rings.  This is a family vacation destination.  The family next to us has Momma, Poppa, three little boys, a little girl and a baby. They have a big dualie-pick-um-up truck with 6 bicycles in the back pulling a small camper and have put up two large tents for the kiddies.  One of their four dogs dogs barks continuously and they think that yelling at it to shut up will actually get it to shut up.  Hasn’t worked so far.

Sounds bad, eh?  Well, truthfully it is a rare occurrence, sorta like when you check into the last room available in a nice hotel and find you are next to a big noisy family, or a very loving couple, or the elevator shaft.  Sometimes ya just gotta take your lumps and roll with the punches.

Our plan today was to drive south on Rt. 101 to Rt. 1 to Leggett, turn in at The Drive Thru Tree, take the Smart Car off the trailer and drive it thru the Drive Thru Tree and then proceed to the RV Park that describes itself as an RV Resort.

That didn’t happen.  The BIB didn’t say a word to us as we approached Leggett and we almost drove past the turn off to Rt.1.  Luckily (?) the captain saw a sign with an arrow saying “Leggett” and “Drive Thru Tree” and screamed, “Turn Right Here!”  So I did.  With much braking and a lot of leaning and swaying I managed to:

1. Make the turn without turning us over.  (Barely.)
2. Miss the sign saying, “Turn Left Here for the Drive Thru Tree.”
3. Drive right past the sign saying, “RV’s over 40 feet long not recommended” (with the toad we are 55 feet) and got so far down the road that I was unable to turn around.

You’ve heard the term, “The road not taken”, right?  Well I just drove 28 miles on the road that shouldn’t be taken.  Whew!  Twenty-eight miles of narrow road with first gear hairpin turns, uphill’s and down, and huge lumber trucks screaming around blind corners at breakneck speed.  Cheryl darn near put a hole in the floor while pushing on her imaginary brake.

So here we are in the last available big rig spot in Loud-Family-Ville, which is the only RV Park on Rt. 1 between Leggett and Fort Bliss, paying waaaaay too much, and I still haven’t driven thru that flippin’ tree.

So tomorrow, while the captain walks down to the ocean beach to wave-watch, I will take the shuttlecraft and re-drive that miserable 28 miles of switchbacks all the way back to Leggett and drive through that mizerabel tree.  I’ve come this far, and I’m not going home without checking it off my Master Todo List.  

End First Officer’s Entry.