A Drive for Giants

8/20:

Today I did something totally unprecedented... instead of heading west I headed south!  Of course,  this was only because I had run out of land to my west. Nevvertheless,  south was the name of the game.

I left Bandon sometime mid-morning and headed down Hwy 101 - the coastline highway!  After some winding around I reached Port Orford,  which is apparently the most west that you can go in the continental US (according to a local). The view there was absolutely incredible:

Finally, a good shot of Jane and the Pacific!

It was at this point that I realized that Jane is painted exactly the color of the Pacific on a sunny day - all shimmering blues and grens and purples.  Of course, right now she doesn't shine as brightly as the sea because of the thick layer of thousands of miles of grime,  but the sentiment remains.  I vowed to clean her up sometime soon so that I could do a better color comparison, but I'm positive that that's exactly it. Sunny Pacific Blue.

I continued on south until I hit Crescent City,  where I stopped to have Jane's oil changed.  I hate having other people do it - especially when I bring my own oil and everything anyways - but I have no oil pan or place to work so I had no choice.  The guys I picked to do it were very careful with her though and soon enough I was back on my way!

Another boring state sign. Boo.

 Next stop was the famous redwoods of California.  They're spread out all over the state but I made sure to go through Redwoods National/State Park,  the site of Big Tree. Unsurprisingly,  the tree is rather big. One might even say that that's a bit of an understatement.

Either the tree is large or I temporarily shrank quite a lot.

One of my favorite pictures of Jane in the redwoods

I wound my way even further south and soon found myself on the Avenue of the Giants,  a delightfully twisty scenic drive through the great redwood forests.  The majority of the drive is spent almost in twilight as the trees are so huge that they block out the sun. I stopped a few places to wander around under the giants,  but mostly I just drove. I think it's one of the best drives - if not the best - that I've done on this trip. Nothing but the beauty of the forest and the roar of a muscle car as you whip around turns, over crests, and down dips. The only limitation to my speed was my driving skill, and for once there weren't a ton of people on the road with me. Just me and Jane and the giants. It was wonderful. I actually enjoyed the drive so much that I went past my campsite and then doubled back when it started to get late in the evening.

I actually really like how this picture came out!

Giant redwood tree with pony car for scale

When I set up camp for the night, two bikers from the site next to me came over and we talked cars and road trips for a long time. Super nice guys - Steve and Glenn - and it was great to have someone to talk to after a day of nothing but driving. We spent a while going over all of Jane's modifications, then moved on to where the road has taken me and where it will take me in the future. And that made me realize that oops, I hadn't reserved a single campsite for the rest of my trip. So I'll do that in the morning so I at least don't have to worry about the next couple of days.

Tomorrow I head on further south (it's replaced "west" as my new favorite word for now) through even more redwoods. Can't wait for another beautiful day of driving! So far California is alright by me, despite my original trepidations. Kelly signing out.