Bakersfield, California

We've covered a lot of miles since Harris Beach, Oregon and are now staying indoors at a Super 8 motel in Bakersfield, California.

Yesterday was a long drive down Hwy99 which runs through the interior valley of California. It's where most of our winter vegetables come from and the heavily irrigated fields go on and on. And it's as flat as Saskatchewan.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I once again enjoyed the drive south from southern Oregon to northern California. We stopped for coffee in Eureka, California. I'd always bypassed the town on the highway but it has a charming, restored downtown. The coffee shop I patronized was celebrating its 29th year in a business and for the anniversary a cup of their very fine coffee was only a buck.

Highway 101 through these parts is a combination of freeway and segments of the original road. You'll be cruising along at 60 mph and then have a 10 miles section of twisty road where some of the corners have to be taken at 20 mph. There's one section where there were protest signs about saving a particular redwood forest. I suspect the state wants to push a highway through the forest to upgrade the road.

Just south of Garberville, Hwy 101 meets the original Hwy 1 which goes out to the coast. It's an even more hilly and curvy road. Some of the turns are more than 180 degrees and it was sometimes easier to see where I was going by hanging my head out the window. At least at this time of the year there was little traffic.

The road hits the California coast in a dramatic way. You come around a corner, pop out of the forest and there it is in all its stunning beauty.

 Hwy 1 pops out onto the coast at that ledge just to the right of the middle of this photo.

A little further down the road we found a state park that has campsites all along the cliffs above the ocean. The only other camper was a guy named Dave who was also driving a white VW Westy and gave me some tips on Westy upkeep and California travel. (He's from San Francisco.)

A pretty spectacular place to spend the night but to tell the truth the surf was so loud that it made for a restless night. Still it was very pleasant to sit on the cliff and watch the sun sink into the Pacific Ocean. It was warm and there was hardly a breeze.

The next day we headed further south and spent an hour or so enjoying one of my favourite stops on the northern California coast -- the headlands in Mendocino, California. This is an unbelievably beautiful place with walking trails all along the cliffs. 

From Mendocino we headed inland towards the Napa Valley. Up and over the coast mountains. Vineyards begin to appear as soon as you're just a short way back from the coast and continue pretty much all along the road to Napa. We ended up in the St. Helena for our next overnight. The state parks in California (the ones I've seen at least) don't compare well with the ones in Oregon. In Oregon, you get electricity, water at your site and hot showers. All for their winter rates which average about $20. In the state park near St. Helena, it cost $35 for a site with no facilities and, insult of insults, the park had coin operated showers. No surprise that there were few campers that night.

From the Napa Valley we drove cross country on Hwy 12 to Hwy 99 which runs down to Bakersfield and eventually connects with Interstate Hwy 5. There seemed to be very few options for campers so we ended up staying at a Super 8 motel here in Bakersfield. Just as well, I hadn't had a shower since Harris Beach in Oregon. And there was wi-fi access so I was finally able to figure out my connection problem ... or at least a work around for it.

We'll be heading east into the mountains for some relief from the forecast blistering temperatures. Temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-30C in Death Valley so I think we will have to skip that destination as I'm not sure the van or the dog or myself are up for that kind of heat. In a week's time the long range forecast is for much cooler temperatures so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.