Road Trip to Humboldt County

And you think your fuel prices are high!

Cecile & Pat at Trinidad harbor

Trinidad bay

Trinidad Bay from up on the bluffs

Can't get away without going to the local casino

Both Cecile and I were getting pretty restless so we decided to take a road trip up north to Eureka and Trinidad on Wednesday. We convinced Pat to go with us, although we didn't have to twist her arm too hard. It was a lot of driving...and a lot of gas, but it was nice to get away for the day and the scenery along the way is beautiful. We did a little shopping, a little gambling and a lot of reminiscing about our old stomping grounds. But do we miss our life back then...NO.

Ain't life grand!
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Mendocino Headlands Walk

A favorite resting place for local seabirds

Mendocino homes with million dollar views

The closest thing Mendocino has to a subdivision

Looking north to Point Cabrillo

I hope they appreciate their view!

I am taking advantage of these cool days and take some longer walks around the area. If I can avoid the sometimes drizzly weather, I have some pretty spectacular views during my walks. Monday I took a walk all around the Mendocino peninsula. Luckily the weather cooperated.

Ain't life grand!
29

Windy at the Ocean

Yesterday and today have seen very high winds up here and consequently high seas. The winds are keeping us very cool...high temps in the 50's. The grass is alway greener but I am missing our "heat wave of last week" when temps got into the mid 80's.

Mendocino Heritage Days 2008

- Wells Fargo Stage & Truck it came in
- Kelley House Exec Director Nancy F. making friends with the horse


- Martha Ford aka Jenny, riding the stage
- 1924 Buffalo Springfield steam roller

- 1920's Mack truck
- Spinning/Weaving demonstration
- Cecile & Sheila resting near the end

Saturday we began our duty at the Ford House doing setup and preparation for Heritage Days. Gary started around 8am (Cecile was still sleeping) bringing things up from the basement and moving around bales of rice straw. I went back and picked up Cecile and Pat around 11am. While I was working doing traffic control for the Wells Fargo Stage (more on that later), I didn't get pictures of all the things going on at the Ford House. But the events that were going on included butter churning, ice cream making (Cecile's station), corn husk doll making (Pat's station), weaving and spinning, knitting, logging demonstrations, a Pomo Indian presentation, and old-time games that children would have played back in the mid 1800's.

Roots of Motive Power, located over in Willits, brought over a 1924 Buffalo Springfield steam roller and a 1920's Mack truck. The local fire department brought out it's old hand operated (with about ten people) water pumper. And Wells Fargo brought in their replica of an 1800's stage line, along with four Percheron draft horses, and gave free rides around the block to everybody from 1pm to 4pm. That is where I ended up...doing traffic control for this stage and keeping the vehicles from getting too close to, and spooking, the horses. I enjoyed it and had fun schmoozing with the stage crew and the tourists! Our day finished up at around 5pm. Today will be our first day manning the visitor center and we are looking forward to talking with all the visitors that are in town.

Kelley House Boat Show

I probably would not have have spent as much time taking pictures of this show, except that my good friend Ken is an avid boat enthusiast and I knew he would appreciate the boats they had on display here. I'm not sure but I think most of these boats were hand-made. Some of the folks here were even in the process of making a boat during the show. These boats were sure nice looking. This show was done in conjunction with the Mendocino Heritage Days.

Mendocino

Ford House Visitor Center & Museum
The MacCallum House Inn
View of the Ocean from the Kelley House

Well, we are back in Mendocino again. This will be the seventh year out of our nine years as full-timers that we have hosted here at the Ford House Visitor Center. This will probably be our last year here for a while. We decided that we just might be in a rut and would do some different things for a few years. We would also like to spend a bit more time working on making and marketing our Pegs & Jokers games. So far they have been selling pretty well and we do so enjoy making them.

We will be staying here for the months of May, June and July and have quite a few visits from family and friends while we are here. We love to host all of them here as much as possible.

Going Back to Mendocino

A vineyard that we were parked next to in Ukiah

We left Coarsegold on Sunday, April 27, and started working our way north. We met Pat, who had spent the night at her daughter's place in Patterson, at the Flying J outside of Lodi. We got a bit over 40 gallons of diesel and spent around $175 for it! Thankfully that will get us to Mendocino and beyond but it's still hard to take.

We spent Sunday night at Cache Creek Casino near Woodland, CA. This is a huge "Las Vegas" style casino about thirty miles west of Woodland. We stayed in a flat part of one of the parking lots (which there are not very many of), but it was free. Since Cecile and I stayed pretty even playing the slots, it stayed even. Pat, unfortunately, didn't fare so well. We did have a nice meal at the Vietnamese restaurant in the casino. We ended up driving about 200 miles this day.

Monday morning we headed out on Highway 16 and made our way to Highway 20, which goes along the north shore of Clear Lake. The traffic was pretty heavy due it being diverted from elsewhere because of heavy construction. It was pretty uneventful except for the truck that decided to use his vehicle as a weapon on the road. He ended up passing me on a double yellow line and then, for no apparent reason, slammed on his brakes to prove some unknown point. He was probably some hot-headed young (20's or 30's) kid that was frustrated with the heavy traffic. Anyway, he very nearly caused a massive accident involving a lot of people. Unfortunately I didn't get the license number as I was too busy trying to avoid him and the guard rail.

But we ended up making it safe and sound to Highway 101 and stopped for the day at Shodaki Casino just north of Ukiah. This is a small casino but they are in the process of building a much larger permanent building. They are in the process of working on the foundation right now and probably won't be done with their new building until early next year. Pat decided not to gamble here but Cecile and I were able to make a little money and so didn't contribute to their building fund. We drove about 110 miles today.

We left on Tuesday morning, heading up 101 to Willits and then taking the slow trip across Highway 20 and the coast range towards Fort Bragg. The traffic was surprisingly light as I only ended up having to pull over in the turnouts about six times. We made it to our little campground under the trees around 11:00am. Nothing much had changed with the exception of another couple big trees which had fallen over the winter. We drove about 60 miles today.