Day 7 - Arcata, CA to Medford, OR

[Friday, Arcata, CA to Medford, OR] Left our comfortable Comfort Inn room near 9:27a.m. after John had his waffle, cereal, coffee, orange juice, milk and a banana. Linda had Raw Bits Twang Twang.

Don't mean to backpeddle, but we did receive a prompt comment from Kevin Hoover, editor and publisher of the Arcata Eye. We have published his comment on the blog. He was sorry to have missed Linda's visit. And, the two old buzzards wish to retract their statement that the Arcata Eye's credo is "The moderately objectionable weekly newspaper", and are pleased to correct it to "The mildly objectionable weekly newspaper". Be sure to visit this newpaper's website by clicking here.

Out on Hwy 1 can you say "FOGGY"? We capitalize it because it was really foggy. You saw our escapades with the winding, narrow roads before. Call this the same.

We finally went above the clouds when we got near Crescent City. John got one photograph of some clouds, sitting on the ocean below us, but only a short distance out from the coatline. Then you could see the ocean. It's an interesting view. And, John was able to take a picture of Crescent City from the same vantage point.

Didn't know if we'd have enough gas to get to Oregon (where gas is less expensive) so John bought 3.5 gallons in Crescent City before getting back on the trail.

Along the way we went through the Jedediah Smith National Forest. Very pretty. More redwoods. Their information center was closed, but the restrooms were open and they had some nice picnic tables. That spelled lunchtime for the Tarvins.

After lunch and back on the road, the highway kept following and crossing the Middle Fork of the Smith River. Finally, we rushed upon a sign that said "River Access". John went pretty hard on the brakes but assured Linda he had checked in the rearview mirror to make sure it would be safe. We drove down to the river and found one camper at the access point. Got our cameras and strolled down the foot path to the river where we found two ladies sun bathing by the river side. Yes, they were in bathing suits. We took pictures of the river there (not the sun bathers) and the water was just crystal clear. Later we joked that we should have started taking their pictures and yelled "paparazzi".

One odd thing that happened right after we entered Oregon was that we came upon road work so extensive that they had installed stop lights at either end to control the traffic flow. Fortunately, for us, our light turned green pretty shortly after we got to it.

A second thing is that there seem to be Dairy Queens only in Oregon and Washington. Haven't seen one in California. We like to get a "brown derby" which is what their double dipped soft serve cones used to be called 50 years or so ago. This was the first time we had tried one with chocolate soft-serve instead of vanilla on the inside. John decided he prefers vanilla. Linda sees no downside to chocolate covered chocolate.

And, a third thing is that we filled up our gas tank. Gas was $3.33 in Crescent City and $2.78 in Oregon. And, in Oregon they pump it AND clean your windshield. Almost reason enough to move there.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. Checked into the Quality Inn in Medford around 3:00p.m. It was laundry time and, lucky us, the Quality Inn has a laundry room for guests. It's $0.75 per load and for the dryer, and it's really handy and nice. And, the laundry soap was free (because Linda stole it).

After laundering, we went to the local Black Bear Diner for dinner. John had his usual Black Bear fare, the Hungry Bear Breakfast with Chicken Fried Steak & gravy, eggs, hash browns and biscuits. Linda had grilled salmon and mixed veggies. When John was Googling the restaurant to get the address, he noticed it had about 15 reviews but only averaged two stars. We are very happy to report that the service and food were quite good and that neither one of us saw any rats in the restrooms. But then, neither of us went to the restroom. Why risk spoiling a perfectly nice evening?

Back to the room, work on the travelogue and then a good night's rest. See you tomorrow.

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