At 1840 ft and still climbing. Hard start for the day.

Commence day 12.

Day 11 - Scotia to Redway (43 miles / 532 total)

It was a day of rain. Which meant lots of stopping and going.

The morning started hanging out on the front porch of the Scotia Inn watching the rain while eating scones and drinking coffee. It didn’t look good. I was going to give it until 11AM and then my plan was to check back into the the hotel if it was still showering.

By 9:30 the blue sky peaked out of the dark sky and I decided to make a run for it. My knees were, and most likely will be for a while, sore but my bigger concern was the rain.

I made it to the next small town, Redcrest, when it started raining, which according to my map had a whole bunch of stuff in it. It doesn’t. So I started looking for shelter and found an abandoned road side store. The roof was solid so I laid down and let the rain beat down.

For some reason all of these small towns have post offices in them. I believe it is a source of pride and history. So after an hour or so I got bored and walked into the post office. There was also a gift shop down the street so I walked in and bought their only food – five candy bars in case I had to spend the night there.

Finally the rain stopped and I made a run for it. Over the next few hours I caught some rain but it wasn’t too bad.

Finally I hit Redway and checked into the seedy Brass Rail Motel, next door to the seedy Brass Rail Bar (both are for sale). I was about to check in when I realized I needed to clean myself up as my nose was bleeding. Not sure how that happened but I cleaned up and checked in for $60. Not bad.

As I fell asleep around 9PM and woke up around 10 to hear the bar going full steam, a good time was being had. Around 1AM there was some sort of a fight or argument with someone that kept yelling, “Take a picture.” I smiled to myself thinking that I was staying next to the bar in Roadhouse – a great movie – and went back to bed.

There aren’t many pictures from Day 11 as it was too dreary.

We had some big winners in yesterday’s trivia:
Ryan from Lodi, CA answered, Scrotum – which is surprisingly incorrect.
Dannyboy, as seen on the OC, answered correctly with Forestville.
STEPH who works with the smartest man I know, Bertrand, also answered correctly. (Thank you for reading.)
Mark D., from deep in the valley had a good attempt with “I don’t know but please put me in your blog.”
Sarah S., from the city of Bend, where they close down Mexican food restaurants for dealing meth, also had the right answer.

Today’s trivia:
Breedlove, a recent phenomenon, is known for this hit song.

thanks for reading,

sellers

Towns passed:
Stafford (pop. 50)
Pepperwood (pop. unknown)
Redcrest (pop. unknown)
Weott (pop. 450)
Myers Flat (pop. 200)
Miranda (pop. 350)
Phillipsville (pop. 250)
Redway (pop. 1,188)

Riding until it starts to rain, for cathy's friend today.

Day 10 - Arcata, CA to Scotia, CA (51 miles / 489 total)

Today’s blog entry contains a number of swear words and is not meant for younger readers, family (including the family of my girlfriend), previous employers/bosses, or future employers…..

“Where the hell am I?”
”Look at your GPS.”
”No, that’s not what I mean. I remember the ‘Welcome To..’ sign I passed a few miles back. I know the name of the town. It’s not what I mean.”
”It’s a little late to start asking that question.”
”What the hell am I doing?”
”Again, a little late.”
”This is fucking crazy. I’m out in the middle of nowhere. Nothing out here but fucking cows. What the fuck am I doing. The only person I’ve talked to today is myself.”
”I don’t count.”
”No shit. Who the hell rides their bike from Rockaway, OR? Did I really quit my job?”
”Stop yelling, the cows are getting riled up. Look, you’re riding your bike, that’s it. Let’s keep this simple so we can make it through this.”
”This is fucked. My life is strapped to my bike. My mood is dictated by the fucked up weather. I wash my clothes in sinks. I deal with cars that slow down just to yell or let the dog in the back of their pick up bark at me. I count a good day as a day when it hits 60 f. Fuck this.”
”Fine. Stop here.”
”Right. Stop here. I’ll just call a cab and tell them I’m next to the farm with black and white spotted cows that is across the street from the abandoned farm. We’ll throw my bike in the trunk and take a ride down to LA. That would make a great blog entry ‘so I decided to cab it the rest of the way.’”
”Look there’s a car coming it’ll be weird if they see you talking to me.”
”At what point do I start worrying about myself?”
”That should have started when turned left on 101 from your grandmother’s house.”
”I guess you’re right, I’ll keep riding.”
”Stay diligent.”
”Always.”

So anyway… I had a really good day riding. The weather was nice and sunny, plenty of shadows. I had a great nights sleep (10 hours). Three bowls of cereal for breakfast along with two cups of coffee.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn last night, which is plenty nice. Actually too nice. As crazy as it sounds, I prefer camping – hard to beat walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night looking up at all the stars.

My right knee has a new type of pain that I attribute to overuse. It started yesterday morning but seems to be doing better towards the end of today. We’ll see. I’m watching it closely.

It was tough to stop riding today. I was having a good day, not to hard, nice breeze gently pushing me along for parts of the day. But, as with blackjack, better to quit while I’m ahead. The next spot that qualifies as a place on the map is a private RV campground 13 miles ahead. The next town is 30 or so miles down. Scotia seems like a good place to stop, it has an interesting story.

Today included a few cool town including Ferndale and Rio Dell. I also passed College of Redwoods and Humboldt State University – both seemed nice. Most of today’s ride was off the 101, another plus.

My bike is doing ok. Not great, but if I had to guess, I would guess it will make it into the Bay Area. The back wheel was untrue (aka bent) and the nice folks at Revolution Bikes took it in and fixed it with minutes. Best $10 I’ve spent on the trip. The homeless lady outside the store advised me I could have gotten it fixed for free down the street – no buyers remorse here. My chain may be stretched and I don’t want to talk about my front detailer cable which is broken, again.

I fear the rain that is coming tomorrow. I constantly check weather reports trying to figure out exactly when and where the rain will hit even though such a request is impossible.

It smelled like cows/Davis all day. (I remember when my grandfather would roll down the windows while passing cows as my brother and I protested from the back seat all the while telling us how good it smelled as he had lost his sense of smell.)

Steven Tyler's voice sings Dream On via the juke box in the corner of the diner I'm eating dinner at. Lyrics below.

Type of beer most likely found on the side of the road: Busch.

Something I forgot to mention the other day: I got a flat in front of Pelican Bay Prison. A first - I’ve never had a flat in front of a prison before.

Even though I hardly respond, I again want to extend a thank you to all of you sending me messages – I read them all and they mean a lot. If you want to see something funny. Send me a text message and you may see the red dot stop moving as I often stop when my phone erupts.

I wish the sun would stay up in Long Beach / Redondo until 8:30 as it does here.

I rode with two guys from Wyoming who were riding to San Francisco from Gold Beach, OR. One was a professor at a college, the other has ridden across the country (“Stay away from Indiana – it’s just bad weather in the summer.” No worries there.).

Two younger riders from Oklahoma seem to have dropped off the map. Hope they are doing ok. After being asked how far they typically ride in a day, “We’ll in Oklahoma you can ride for 80 miles, no problem. This Redwood forest is another story, I wanted to stop awhile back.” Made me chuckle, I felt his pain.

Towns passed yesterday:
Trinidad (pop. 311)
McKinleyville (pop. 13,599)
Arcata (pop. 16,651)

Towns passed today:
Eureka (pop. 26,128)
Loleta (pop. 800)
Fernbridge (pop. 0?)
Ferndale (pop. 1,382)
Rio Dell (pop. 3,174)
Scotia (pop. 1,200)

Trivia – Scotia was originally called?

Congrats to Dan B., a previous winner and winner again with Baron Alexander von Humboldt.

Ryan had a good guess with Captain Cook.

A local patron has turned down the jukebox in favor of the tv, time to go.

Wait, wait, don’t stop reading. One more thing. For the second time in a week I’ve seen old dudes ride their tractor from their house that is off the road to the road to pick up their mail. I love it. When I get old I’m going to get a tractor and do the same.

sellers
A special thank you goes out to Mateo who inspired me to document my conversations with myself.

Dream On:
Every time I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It goes by, like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

Yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life
is in books' written pages
Lived and learned from fools and
from sages
You know it's true
All the things come back to you

Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away

Yeah, sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away

Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until your dream comes through
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On

Sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Sing with me, sing for the year
sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away......

I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.

Day 9 – Humboldt Dry Lagoon County Campground to Arcata (17 miles /438 miles total)

Day 9 was a bummer day. As I rode out of the campground I thought I was being clever and going to make it to Arcata before the rain started. Nope. It started to pour with a strong head wind and there wasn’t anything to do but keep riding until I found a safe place to stop, which happened to be the Arcata Airport.

But first, last night. So I go to bed and around midnight I hear something taking the camo tarp off my bike. I decide that my 1mm piece of cloth that my tent is made of is strong enough to keep whatever it is out there go away and try to think about something else and go back to sleep. When I woke up later in the night due to a brief rain storm I found that my tarp was indeed off the bike but the bear, or whatever, had not taken it for a ride. My food also seemed to be safe. I spoke to the camp host early the next morning and he said the bear can be a real pain and does in fact drink beer – true story.

So anyway, I pull into the airport and there is no place to lock my bike up that is under cover so I have to leave it in the rain as I run inside to dry off inside their lounge. I spend an hour in there and then decide to move my bike under and awning where I can see it. Unfortunately, the TSA frowns upon people who look homeless, have a puddle under them, and do not have any business at the airport. I was kindly asked to leave.

Which leads me to my motel in the middle of nowhere.

I really don’t like staying in motels, I would much rather prefer the openness of camping but so be it.

I’m having a hard time not getting down about making no progress today and a couple of days ago. I want to ride but there’s not much I can do. I’m making good time and just need to wait out the storm.

Stefan was our only winner of yesterday’s trivia with Captain Winship.

Who or what is Humboldt named after?

No picture’s today.

sellers

Day 8 – Brookings, OR to Humboldt Dry Lagoon County Campground, CA (83 miles / 421 total)

What a day. I didn’t mean to go as far as I did but due to closed campgrounds and bad map reading the day would not end. More on that later.

Day 8 was a day of headwind and mountain climbing. I climbed approximately 2800 ft and had head wind most of the way. My legs were not fast by any measure but they were able to maintain endurance. I left at 7:05AM as soon as I thought it was finished raining and got into the campground 12 hours later.

Riding into California was awesome. For some reason being in my home stay adds some level of comfort. I rode through the agriculture fruit station but they didn’t seem to worried about contraband fruit.

Then came the Redwood Forest. It is truly amazing. Reminds of the Woody Guthrie song, This Land is Your Land (lyrics below). He hated songs that were downer songs or that put down a class of people.

Passing through the huge trees was amazing. For a time I was off the 101 going through a state park that had hardly any cars. It was amazing to me to see these tall, living trees blocking the sky except for random glimpses of sunlight.

Between Crescent City and Arcata (not yet there) there is little to nothing by way of services. There are random motels and places to eat but you are on your own for the most part.

Number of people I saw riding their bike while smoking a joint in Humboldt County: one.

So I was going to stay in Orick, then I decided I still had some juice in me so I was going to stay at camp ground about 10 miles down. Well…. it turns out it was closed and the next one was about 1o miles away. Brutal.

The good news was that the campground was awesome. Great spots and spectacular views. My neighbor, Bob from Napa,  walked up as soon as I rolled in and asked the usual questions but I could tell he was drunk. Anyway he left and came back a little bit latter with his girl friend, Diane, and a huge bottle of Jack Daniels. He offered me some and I took a slurp but declined anything further as I was having a hard enough time setting up my tent and dinner.

Then Bob asks me if I’ve heard about the bears? I hadn’t. Turns out there are bear warnings everywhere and that they are a real problem. I read one the warnings and it advises everyone to put all of their food in a locked car. Great, I have no car to lock. Raccoons are one thing but now a bear. Christine had asked me if there were going to be bears and I adamantly told her that beers do not make it down to the coast line – turns out they do.

So, as noted in the picture, I hung my food up even higher this time from a branch about 12 feet high. Yes, I know bears can climb trees but what else am I going to do? Actually, I also cleaned up my campsite and made it look boring compared with Bob and Diane’s – they passed out and left everything outside. Hopefully the bear will be full and possibly drunk after visiting their site.

Whatever the case there are tons of other animals that are fairly loud as I go to sleep. I hear a growl every so often and tell myself that some birds growl.

Total number of PowerBars on Day 8: 4

Total number of Snickers: 3

Number of Cokes: 3

We had a couple of winners yesterday, some familiar, some new:
Marjorie J. was the first to respond with “stopping cows”, the correct answer.
Dan B. from deep behind the Orange Curtain in Southern California also got the question right along with David K. or Tabasco, depending on how well you know him. Further, Roger the tax man also got the question right.

Trivia: Captain _____________ discovered the Humboldt Bay while hunting seals and seat otter in 1806.

Towns passed:
Harbor, OR (pop. 2,622)
Smith River, CA (pop. 2,500)
Crescent City, CA (pop. 8,034)
Klamath, CA (pop. 651)
Orick, CA (pop. 650)

sellers

This Land Is Your Land

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

here. Way to much rain.

Yes, the map is correct. I'm at the airport waiting to check in at a local motel. I didn't make it to Arcata as hoped so I got off the road and ended up