Stop 5: Arcata, CA (norcal)
by Eli
after our lovely visit to the middle of nowhere (SLC) meredith and went 15 hours west through more crazy nevadanese desert and norcal mountains and pine forest and all kinds of craziness and still didn’t make it all the way to elaine’s in one day. everything was fine until we got on the 299 in northern california and meredith started to freak out. apparently those mountain roads are not safe enough for her, especially in the darkness and the rain. the freaking out did not cease until i was forced to call it a night (about 2 hours from elaine’s), and we pulled over and spent the night in a hotel just outside of douglas city. it was actually a pretty nice place, and we were able to catch the most recent episode of LOST.
the following morning we packed up and continued west to arcata arriving at about 11:30 and meeting elaine at a coffee shop soon thereafter, where i had some amazing vegan carrot cake. it was raining most of the time that we where there, but we did not let that stop us. we ate lunch at the plaza at some cafe that had these wonderful garlic fries/tofu burgers, and then headed into the redwood forest.
it is called the “community forest” and i loved it. it seemed very large, i’m guessing at least 50 acres, but could be many more, and was full of mystery. our visit was a bit more interesting than most because only a few weeks ago there was a huge storm with 80 mile an hour winds that knocked over a lot of trees and even took down a few bridges. we wandered around loop 1 climbing over and under felled trees and around detours, and meredith and elaine stopped to talk to a local musician who was practising the violin. breath taking it was.
from there we went back into town, ran some errands and headed in for the night. with corn, salad, and pad thai for dinner we sat down with a few of elaine’s friends and watched Murderball before falling asleep. it was great.
the next morning we woke, packed, and headed back to the coffee shop that we met elaine at the day before. we checked our mail and the like, grabbed some snacks for the road, and headed north on our last day of driving. it was still surpisingly rainy and mountainous considering that we were on I-5 almost the entire time.
we are here now and we are all moved in to our new place and it is great. we still have a bit of unpacking to do, but overall things are really taking shape. i will soon be posting an update on our place with pictures, so get excited.
Awe! Your trip sounds f’in awesome.
I had a dream about rawvioli last night after reading your blog. But it my dream it was called the Green Menace and it was made of people. And it wasn’t even food it was insulation.
But yeah anyway, you and Mere are the B-E-S-T.
Catch you on the backflap
xo, Buns
Hey Dookay. I’ve enjoyed reading your new updates. Keep ‘em coming.
Also, send me a copy of the DVD and one of the disc image so I can start making copies (I’d like to have one for when I apply to work at BCATS very soon, so asap!)
And, finally, the Photo’s section of my website is sort of messing up–instead of showing all the thumbnails it is showing them all full size. I dunno what that’s all aboot. Well, talk to ya later.