My miserable and traitorous body is finally relenting and I can happily say I no longer think I am going to die right away. To celebrate, Peggy and I drove a magnificent section of road we have passed many times on the way through this area. The road is called “Avenue of the Giants” and starts at the south end south of Phillipsville and runs sort of parallel with 101 although parallel might not be the right word. The roads are not even close to being straight.
Avenue of the Giants runs through a truly magnificent grove of enormous coastal redwood trees from Phillipsville through Miranda, Myers Flat, a park visitor center, Weott and Redcrest before rejoining 101 a bit above Pepperwood. Truly colossal trees border the road for virtually the entire route except where it runs along the banks of the Eel River. There are numerous turnouts next to the road which is fortunate since we pulled into most of them to admire the scenery. The speed limit on this road is 55 but we had a hard time maintaining 25 due to the fantastic forest scenery and our numerous stops to admire it. There are ample places to park and get out of the truck for some wandering between the giant trees. I am a big Jose but next to these trees I am merely a fabric-coated speck of gooey stuff. We spotted numerous trees that exceeded 20′ diameter and heights over 300′. This road is a magical journey to a primeval forest and is worth a stop by those fortunate enough to be passing this way.
We dawdled so much along this wonderful section of road that we got to the north end pretty late in the day so we drove back to Myers Flat on 101. It looks like when we continue north in a couple days we will get to pull mostly uphill from here to Pepperwood.
Some pictures of this spectacular area can be seen by clicking here

Last night we had another pretty impressive storm pass over us bringing the two-day total up to around 4.5″. However, the weather was great this morning so today we pulled up stakes in the Russian River RV Resort in Cloverdale, headed toward Myers Flat, CA, which is in the middle of an enormous coastal redwood grove called “Avenue of the Giants.” We were just about ready to pull out when Peg noted that she could not extract the wheel chocks near the right front trailer tire, primarily because the tire had fattened up somewhat due to air pressure loss. We broke out the power cords and the compressor and pumped the errant tire back up to 65 psi.
After a quick, smelly stop at the facility dump station, we jumped back onto CA-101 for the trip north to Myers Flat. Right near the intersection of Geysers Road and CA-101 the slow lane exhibits some paving anomalies that make silverware jump from the drawer and quarters to leap from the coin thing on the dash of the truck. We haven’t had to much change flying around since we left the east coast last year but have finally found a comparable section of B-52 asphalt. Near this same spot 101 starts climbing from Cloverdale elevation of about 300′ to a summit up by Ukiah at around 1900′. Charlotte pulled through without even breathing hard. We continued along 101 through Calpella, Willits, Laytonville, Benbow, Garberville and finally Myers Flat where we exited 101 and proceeded through what appears to be a large, rural junkyard to the Giant Redwoods RV Park.
Despite the hideous passage through Dogpatch on the way in, the park is quite nice with full hookups, cable TV, wi-fi and nice restroom surrounded by a very nice cedar fence that eliminates the view of the junkyard outside. The camping spots are right on the edge of the Eel River which is quite swollen thanks to last night’s rain. The weatherman says it will be cold tonight.

Last night we had a pretty good storm pass over us and it left behind 2.92 inches of rain during the night. Thank God Peggy had recently climbed up onto the roof of the Barbarian Invader and identified and repaired all roof leaks. We hung out in the trailer, listening to the steady thumping of the rain on our fiberglass house while enjoying absolutely dry conditions. At times, the storm obscured the signals from our TV satellites which doesn’t happen very often.
My repugnant, turncoat body continues to vex my partially functioning brain by not healing itself in accordance with my wishes. My body is bad.
We did drive about some today, finding the spot where an errant tree took down the power lines to our campsite last night. We had ample battery power to make ourselves quite comfortable during last night’s fun. I’ve gotta hand it to the guys that made and inspected this trailer before we took possession. Everything inside works perfectly even though the outside decals are ugly. During our drive, we stopped by some spots where we had taken photos of the Russian River prior to the storm and we took some “after” shots. What was a calm, skinny waterway at the edges of portions of the riverbed before the storm is now completely obscured by the swollen river which runs fast, bank to bank.

Many who have gazed upon my countenance and the thing below it have expressed horror, disgust and terror and now I have joined them. My body is a traitor because I am still sick. I did not vote for this and I am entirely dissatisfied with the results.
Nobody wants to be party to this kind of caterwauling so I urge them to move on in the blog. Go away.

Today we elected to do some exploring although my miserable, disgusting body wants me to whine. I am still sick but I believe the bizarre and exotic wheezes, whistles and repugnant gurgles emanating from my body are calling to me and telling me to go outside. It is drizzling outside.
We took off for a place called the Geysers although there were never any geysers, just fumaroles or holes in the sidehill emanating foul odors and steam laced with various sulfur compounds. Back in the early 1900s, there were some resorts in the area but they are long gone. Now the main canyon is laced with steam piping collecting potential energy and releasing it in some power plants where I imagine they turn steam turbines to generate electrical power.
The road from Geyserville toward the (not really) Geysers is narrow to start with and skinnies down somewhat later. There are many very tight corners and most of the road is one lane but the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. The Geysers power facilities are closed to mortals so we turned around at the gate and exited the canyon by driving down Geysers Road back toward our campground in Cloverdale. Again, this road from the Geysers to Cloverdale is a tortured, sinuous drive with more tight corners, steep slopes, marginal paving with world-class potholes, abundant gravel sections where slides have occurred and spectacular vistas, at least for the passenger. The driver taking these roads should not take his eyes from the road unless interested in getting mired cars unstuck or taking fast, exciting but ultimately terminal rides into the Sulfer Creek below.
At the bottom of the canyon, the signs of civilization, like Dogpatch enclaves and cows, start up right after the road turns back to what most people consider “a road.” Within a mile Sulfur Creek empties into the Russian River. At this location we turned back toward our camp site at Russian River RV Resort.
The roads into the Geysers are very challenging, particularly if driving a twenty-some foot long Ford F-250 King Cab Pickup. Even smaller cars would require the driver to pay close attention but the scenery along these roads is truly amazing. I’m glad we decided to take this drive despite my body voting NO.
Some pix of today’s fun can be seen by clicking here

I just got sicker today. You don’t want to know about it. Move along.

I am so old now that getting sick may be terminal. I have been making strange breathing noises for a week but I have not died, yet. Peggy is almost completely recovered from her version of this plague and that’s good.
Since I am such a pussy, we stayed around the trailer almost all day. We took a little tour of the local rural roads around our campground and spotted some magnificent houses on big grape-growing estates and wandered into Cloverdale for some tobacco but, other than that, we were boring and did almost nothing outdoors. We did make some campground reservations for the immediate future although the wi-fi is so slow here that we almost expired waiting for the Thousand Trails website to load.

Today we decided to go exploring again despite the fact I seem to be getting sicker. My chest makes little squeaky whistling noises when I breathe. Fortunately, Peggy seems to be getting better.
We got back on CA-128 northbound from Cloverdale. We made another pass through Yorkville, Boonville, Philo and Navarro and then entered Navarro Redwoods SP again. This little-known patch of redwood forest is just gorgeous. The road passes down the north bank of the Navarro River. This time we didn’t get to see all the animals we spotted driving through here a few days ago maybe because it was raining.
We finally broke out of the trees and onto the coast where we picked up CA-1 northbound. After passing through the towns of Albion and Little River, we arrived at Mendocino where we pulled off to check out the many unique and beautiful houses lining the streets of this tiny community. Peggy and I stayed at a B&B here about a million years ago but we were unable to find the place again this time.
From town we took the short drive out to Mendocino Headlands SP which is really just a series of parking spots along the road that runs right at the edge of the bluffs overlooking the Pacific. The ocean here has big expanses of turquoise water, a testament to the beauty of coastlines that are not over-used and grubbied up by humans. Large waves were pummeling the rocks and it was all pretty spectacular.
After wandering around a bit more in Mendocino, we got back on CA-1 headed north toward Fort Bragg. Just after we passed the city limit of Fort Bragg, we turned east on CA-20 that runs back across the coast range to Willits and 101. Once back on 101, we headed south for 45 miles or so to our camping spot at Russian River RV Resort in Cloverdale.
The roads between 101 and 1 in Northern California are truly amazing drives but the road surfaces are lousy with potholes and poorly implemented repairs and there are more curves than almost anywhere else we have been. However, the scenery is worth it. Just budget your time to allow about three times as long as you think it will take and you should be okay.
Some pix of this can be seen by clicking here

I spent last night making weird and bizarre coughing sounds because I seem to be substantially less capable of handling illness that I was when I didn’t have a million years under my belt. I spent the morning gasping so we decided today would be another loafing day.
Peggy is feeling a bit better and she actually went out and did the laundry. The Russian River RV Resort has four areas where washing machines and dryers are available but, of course, the facility closest to us has a dryer that is NFG and the next closest laundry has a washing machine you need to bump around as if it were a pinball game before it will eat quarters.
Peggy says the machines are outside and it is a beautiful day so she seemed strangely happy while washing our voluminuous pile of dirty clothes. She got in both reading and bird watching which seemed to make her happy.

Both of us are now reaping the benefits of being ill. Peggy said she didn’t really feel too bad and I thought I was getting better so we decided to take a exploratory drive to the coast. Neither of us have been on any of the roads in this part of the world so we knew everything we would see would be new.
We drove south into Cloverdale where we turned onto a road shown on the map as leading out to Stewarts Point which is over on the coast. We were moseying along happily until we drove past a sign indicating a locked gate 8.5 miles ahead. We thought the sign was in error since we were convinced we were on the right road. We fired up the Garmin which confirmed that we were bollixed up and we needed to turn around and backtrack about 6 miles. Peggy broke out the DeLorme Gazetteer and it confirmed we had indeed turned the wrong way. We were not too brokenhearted because there was absolutely stunning scenery along what we now knew was something called Rockpile Road.
We went back to where we fouled up and turned onto the unmarked Stewarts Point Road which is very twisty with quite steep hills and long single-lane sections sections through gorgeous but very rough and rocky terrain. On the ridges we could see stands of timber and massive but steep pastures and in the valleys we passed through redwood groves and followed streams.
After about 40 miles, we broke out to the coast and the scenery was magnificent. We turned north along CA-1 at Stewarts Point and were treated to almost magical vistas of coastline with turquoise and blue ocean on one side and big pastures mixed with Monterey Cypress groves in the drainages. Nobody was on the highway with us and we could stop right in the travel lanes without pissing anybody off. We passed through the towns of Sea Ranch, Anchor Bay, Gualala, Point Arena with its skinny lighthouse, Manchester and Elk on the way and they are about what we expected – tiny communities with wonderful old houses. CA-1 is a pretty good road but none of the travels we did today passed over roads over which I would pull a big trailer. Curves are sharp and nothing is level.
Near Albion we turned southeast on CA-128 through the Navarro Redwoods State Park which was spectacular. The road travels right next to the Navarro River and we started spotting quite a bit of wildlife. Peggy spotted some bears and either a bobcat or mountain lion hanging out near the water and deer were everywhere. The groves of redwood trees we passed through are in the bottom of a steep river valley and and they block out so much of the daylight that our automatic headlights came on and stayed on throughout the park. It is an extraordinary place and we vowed to return.
We continued on CA-128 through the towns of Navarro, Philo, Boonville (where they speak Boontling, an undecipherable language) and Yorkville before arriving back in Cloverdale. We stopped at a CVS Pharmacy to pick up more cold medicine. Peggy seems to be getting better but I seem to be sliding downhill. Time for some NyQuil.
Some pix can be seen if you click here