Marty's Travels

My house has wheels

Crescent City, CA

I've only driven through Crescent City when escaping to Oregon from California. This time I stopped and will check things out. So far, I'm impressed. I was laughing driving up here from Eureka: 101 is down to 1 lane at about 5 spots in less than 100 miles. Watching the effort of the crews to keep this road out of the ocean, when it obviously wants to go there, is absurdly funny to me. Three years ago I drove this route. Today I stopped at the...

Humboldt

While it's been raining incessantly, the sun has been coming out in the afternoons giving me a chance to do a little sightseeing. Eureka has been the economic center in Humboldt County for a long time, logging and fishing mainly. Those are pretty much gone, so cannabis is now the industry of choice. Everywhere you look you'll see water tanks stacked in big industrial yards. A county permit for a cannabis farm requires that all water used for...

Eureka

I made the land of redwoods and surf. The rain waited until I got parked, and now I'm in for it for a few days. Lotsa water, high winds, and cool. Luckily there are decent book stores around here. Slides have taken out portions of 101 between Ukiah and Eureka, but vehicles are moving through just fine. Over on the coast, Highway 1 is essentially closed for a few months because a significant bridge broke. At least through the weekend, I'll be...

Pretty here

It's certainly green here. The rain let up and the sun came out and I could actually see things around me. One of my favorite places is the Real Goods store in Hopland, at the Solar Living Center. The whole place is a demonstration of off-grid living ideas, and the store sells whatever you might want. I think of it as The Whole Earth Catalog in real life. I picked up some books and gifts, but had a great time just looking at all the exhibits....

An Absurdity

Mendocino County is being sued for a raid on a cannabis farm. The complainants will, no doubt, expect a trial by jury, a jury drawn from peers in Mendocino County. Who are cannabis farmers. Mendo will settle before going to trial, of course, and pay a lot to the complainants for their trouble and any damage caused.

Ukiah (Mendocino County)

I pulled into the fairgrounds here just as the rain started falling. It looks like my next travel day will be Thursday. With every village, town, city, and county in the state working on imposing cannabis taxes on everybody they can see, I humbly suggest they devote all of it to the maintenance of streets and roads. The state, too. And then I'd go looking for that extra 50 cents a gallon everybody pays for gas and use that for maintenance. I...

Wine Country

In 1976, two California wines came in first place in a Parisian tasting, much to the entire world's surprise. The Spanish planted the first vines in 1769, so the farmers around here had some experience. The international recognition led to expanding the California market considerably, while Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia quickly followed suit. West Coast wine is a very large market world-wide today. In 1996 California voters approved...

Trip through the San Joaquin Valley

When I came down into the valley I noticed that it was "hazy". Dust thrown up by the ag activities. I couldn't see any mountains. Today it was just as hazy, and visibility was low. That's a lot of dust. Tonight I learn it wasn't dust, it was good old-fashioned internal combustion engine exhausts, our favorite Califonia smog. I was hoping for progress....

Lodi

My hope was that I-5 would be in better shape than 99, and it was, but, like 99, maintenance was skipped at the overpasses. Add all the trucks, and it was a mess. You know those useless agricultural stations that you stop at when you enter California? I suggest adding a departure station where the state hands you a gift card to cover damage to your vehicle while using CA roads. Worst in the West, by far. So I'm in Lodi at an RV park until...

San Joaquin Valley

I'm in Lemoore, at a very big casino, somewhere in the middle of the SJ Valley. I survived the most unappealing Mojave Desert, and spent a few hours on CA 99. They've resurfaced 99 since I was here last, which was a relief. Then I noted that they excluded repairing two things: the top of an overpass, and the road under an overpass. It was vicious. I'm moving over to I-5 tomorrow. I'll stay at Lodi for two nights to rest up before heading to Napa...

Moving on

I picked up my third pair of glasses today. The new prescription is great, and they were done nicely at Algodones Optical. Now I have three pair all with the same prescription, much easier. So I'm tired of Algodones, and Yuma, and have nothing else to do here. I'm thinking redwoods and surf. Screw the rain, but I'm hoping against terrible rain, road closures, and flooding. A couple of years ago my fear was fire. I'll go to Slab City tomorrow,...