Hi,
I am now in Canada waiting for new brakes to arrive from England postage 600pounds :-( Les is waiting for body mounts!!! I offered my bra :-)
enjoy
Friday 18th April 2008
After spending a couple of days in the garage while Les had his truck repaired we head north for Canada and Alaska. Yesterday we had the most delicious Indian meal, superb; we had a doggie bag for lunch tomorrow.
We are on the motorway (freeway) all day getting to Sacramento and route 16, parked at the casino for the night, free and very quiet.
Saturday 19th April 2008
We continue on route 16 and 20 joining up with route 1 (The Pacific Highway) the ride was so very beautiful, the coast is amazing. Arriving at the coast we thought we may give the trucks a wash, so did a round the block U turn - you know right, right, right, right, then I was stopped by the police again! This time he did not have a smiley face, when I opened the door he said “why do you and your buddies’ think you do not need to stop at a stop sign” this was a bit scary, I am frantically trying to think what stop sign we had not stopped at, in front of us there is a stop light (which we call traffic lights) we did not stop at that but here in the US one can do a right hand turn against a red light, soooo I said nothing, “have you got your drivers licence” says he, which of course I have and gave this to him , the grumps left his face to be replaced with confusion “what are these numbers here for” says he, “my birthday” says I “take a seat mam I will be back” says he. I spoke to L n M on the CB we did not know what stop sign we had been through, after a few minutes the policeman came back with smiles all over his face, “are you from the UK mam?” yes, was my answer (obviously!!), it turned out there was some kind of convention in town, the big white police chief was English, were we her friends I told him no, apologized for myself and my friends for driving through a stop sign but some how this did not matter any more, could he help us in any way told us just to be careful etc., etc., he was by now charming!!! I think the licence saved the day!
Sunday 20th April 2008
An amazing drive through the giant redwood trees, Les has a leaking hose on the coolant system of his truck. We park up trying to fix this he is able to do a makeshift job of it. We then drive through the Avenue of Giants which is Ancient Redwood trees between 500 and 1000 years old, this area is national park, very well protected, since logging was stopped in the early 1900’s and has become a perfect eco system it takes the fallen trees hundred’s of years to decompose, and in the mean time provides a wonderful home for, plant life, animals and insects. We parked up on a car park at the side of a closed road, (there had been a land slide) in front of The Immortal Tree which is aprox 1000 years old - original height 298ft; current height 248ft; it has survived a lighting strike which took the top off, the loggers axe, a forest fire in 1908, huge flood in 1964. There is enough wood in this single tree to build several houses. We had a very nice quiet sleep it was however very cold in the morning.
Monday 21st April 2008.
Les got his hose repaired today in Eureka, we were then able to continue our journey through these amazing trees and mountains, we have left the coast and heading east.
It is raining.
Tuesday 22nd April 2008
It is still raining, we stopped in a nice little town to do our laundry, I was in the launderette reading my book I looked up standing in front of the window was a man in total pure white clothes I thought he was an angel but then he walked past saying good morning mam I then thought he must be an escapee from the South Pacific. He was infact in the US Navy!! it was raining and he was walking about in pure white how did he keep that clean?
We are heading for the Volcanic National Park but the snow is getting thicker and the rain has turned to snow, the trees look beautiful all we need is a robin to make a lovely Christmas scene. The snow gets worse we are in fact driving through a snow storm. The Volcanic Park is closed because of snow as are many of the side roads. We spend the night in a very small town/camp/fishing area named “Old Station”.
Wednesday 23rd April 2008
More snow another snow storm, the road over the mountain had a lots of snow on the road we turned around once to retrace our steps but, this would mean we had to go through the snow of yesterday plus a full day before we reached another road going into Canada, so after speaking to some road workers who assured us the road infront was ok for our trucks we turned again and continued forward into the breach!!!!. However we did decide to abandon the rest of our trip in the mountains and head for Canada and our friends Mary and Carl; we travelled with them in China.
So taking interstate 5 we head for Canada and Alaska....................................................................
Happy trails!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment