Eureka, CA to Cloverdale, CA

Monday December 17th

We got up and got on the road by 8:30 this morning, and a fine morning it was too.  The sun was shining intermittently and the wispy clouds were sticking to the mountains in various places waiting for the sun to dry things up after the rain.  We did still run into a few showers but the further we went the drier it got. 

Once you leave Eureka the US-101 heads inland following the Eel River valley but there are a lot of places where the road still climbs and descends the hills to follow the valley.  This is also the area where the big redwood trees are - very spectacular.  Unfortunately for Cathey the towns along this route have very little parking space so even though she was anxious to stop for breakfast and a post office, we never found a restaurant with parking to accommodate our length until we got to Willits about 12:30.  There were some commercial buildings near the restaurant so we found parking space but still had to walk about two blocks once parked.  Cathey was quite pleased with the "Lumberjack restaurant" where she was able to get breakfast.  Tony was not so pleased because the stop took nearly two hours of precious daylight time.  No post office though, that will have to wait until another day.

At some point we crossed a divide and then began following the Russian River through Mendicino county and then we started seeing the vineyards.  We stopped for the night at a KOA near Cloverdale, CA.  This campground takes the distinction of the most expensive overnight stay in the history of our sojourns - $58.00; also one of the least accessible KOAs we have been to.  About 5 miles off the highway on a curvy farm road then a mile of hairpin curves up the hill to the campground.  But in the KOA book it is listed as one of their premier locations.  I don't agree!

We decided that tomorrow we would get the laundry done and get to the post office to get Cathey's stuff mailed. 

And Millard was right, we were in Sonoma County, we had crossed the county line a few miles before we got to Cloverdale.