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Six days to go!
Trees Company
March 8 -
And just when we were saying they didn't make drive through trees anymore. This one
must have survived the ol' EPA sweep.
This is the Chandelier Tree, near Leggett, California. Don't ask where Leggett is;
I'm not sure if it's even big enough for Mapquest. But yes, they have one of the few
surviving environmental maltreat-- I mean, ecological disast-- um, er, natural
wonders from back in the day when you could do that sort of thing.
It's really quite remarkable. Never mind that the trees took 1800 years to grow,
wouldn't it be cool if we chopped a hole in it, big enough for a car? We could
sell tickets.
Never mind that Stephen Hawking is a brilliant gentleman, but wouldn't it be
awesome if we could dress him up in a tutu and make his little pretend voice
box do celebrity impersonations? We could sell tickets.
Sigh. No respect, I tell ya. Well, nevertheless, some of these stops
are kinda cool. They aren't all holes in trees, which proves that you don't
need to rape the land to gain profit, but it helps.
The Tree House...
Is it a house? Is it a tree? At the very least, it's a gift shop. The inside of the
tree is hollow, and an innovative miner propped a door on the front and presumably
lived there for a spell. It has everything a tourist trap needs: chainsaw art,
twig pencils, a penny squashing machine, and the words "As seen
in Ripley's Believe It Or Not!"
The Gravity House at Confusion Hill...
Now, this was interesting. The house is build on a slant (to say
nothing of the "magnetic lines of force" passing through the region) causes instant
vertigo as you step through the door. Your eyes say "straight!" but your ears say
"lean!" There's a few optical illusions (Who's Taller? Who's Taller Now?)
but the house itself is cool enough.
Land of the Bigfoot...
Well well, looks like we may have some wildlife hunting to do in the next few days.
As it turns out, trees aren't the only things that are big around here. The redwood
forests in Northern California and Oregon are home to the elusive sasquatch. Now,
is it just me, or does this one look like Sammy Davis Jr?
Paul Bunyan, and The Trees Of Mystery...
Speaking of big feet, how is it that we keep running into this guy? I guess it
takes a big man to cut down these big trees. They say that with one swing of his
mighty axe, an entire forest of trees over a millennium old were felled to the
ground, to make room for a WalMart. You'll find more stories on
Day 51, the first time we
met him and his Babe.
And then there's Cape Mendocino, the opposite of all of the above. No signs, no
billboards, no roads built for the comfort of a senior citizen in an RV. You have
to want to find it, and when you get there, there's a single plaque to say you've
found it, like you've just shared a private joke with the country.
And that joke goes something like this: "Hey. Pssst! See all those bozos
shelling out three bucks for a hollowed out tree? Well, guess what? They
missed this. Yup. But you didn't, and it's beautiful, right? Now,
don't you go tellin' nobody."
Oops. Well, you know we can't keep anything from you. Let's just hope the
country forgives us. I think it will. After all, we've been together a long time.
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The Westernmost Town In The United States |
The Westernmost Plaque In The United States |
The Westernmost Mailbox In The United States |
The Westernmost Cow In The United States |
more photos in the archive... |
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Today's Weather:
Neither Here Nor There
Sleeping Quarters |
Panther Flat
Site 3. We could see the bathrooms from our site, but couldn't see what was on
the ground in the way of the bathrooms. Keep those feet up high!
Cost: $8.00
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Bkfast:
| Campground Westland Union S.P. |
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Kevin: | Apple Oatmeal |
Aimee: | Coffee |
Michael: | Honey Nut Oatmeal, Coffee |
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Lunch:
| Restaurant Matias Ferndale, CA |
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K's Order: | Beef and Pepper Fajitas |
A's Order: | Bean & Rice Burrito, Green Chile |
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Cost: | $16.32 |
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