March 19, 2026 - Go to Eureka

Title: March  19, 2026 - Go to Eureka

Hike Info : Description 

Hike Info:

Type: Car

From  Google Maps:

• Mileage: 450 miles
• Drive Time: 7:55

Description:

I got up at 6:30 and got a few things ready. Sherri surprises me and gets up while I am finishing up breakfast. I then spend a few minutes moving stuff out to the garage for future loading. I have been slack in getting trust tax information to the CPA to do the taxes for the trust. So I went off to do that at 8:00. When I returned, I helped Steven level sand in our patio area so he could put in pavers while we are gone. Then I load up the car. While the car does not look packed, the back end is full. But then again, I am not really prepared and we are going out for two weeks.

I start off driving. There are no issues on this segment of our drive. What we know for these next two weeks is that we are going up to David’s today in Eureka and staying through Saturday. Then joining Lawrence and Andrea in Bandon until Tuesday. We will follow them back to Salem through the following Saturday, then go down to Roseburg to stay for a couple of days. After that, we do not know. We will return by April 4th.

We talk a few minutes about possibilities, then talk about a variety of things. We do not stop in Turlock at our normal rest stop. Our first stop is in Elk Grove at our regular lunch stop-Leatherby’s. I have a turkey-cheese sandwich while Sherri’s was Jessie’s chicken sandwich. We topped it off by having a mint hot fudge sundae. What a great way to raise my blood sugar levels.

We popped over to Elk Grove’s Costco and filled up. The gas price has definitely gone up: $5.25 per gallon. Sherri then drives at 1:25 while I rest. She goes through Sacramento and Woodland. When we get to Wiliams, Sherri sees a cloud and thinks it is smoke. When we turned onto Highway 20, we saw the source of the smoke: a field was being burned. By the time we hit CLear Lake, Sherri is ready to give up driving for today. We get to a park with a bathroom about 3:45. Sherri drove for over two hours, a lot more than she is used to.

I drove for a bit more than an hour to our next rest stop. There were a couple of interesting things about this segment. First, more interesting to me than probably anybody else. A few miles after I started driving, I noticed a motorcycle with a yellow headlight following me. When I came to a passing lane, I expected the motorcycle to pass me. He did not, but other cars did. This was on Highway 20 and then when we turned onto 101, he followed us, never passing and mostly keeping a set pace behind us. Not sure why he is not passing us. I think there might be one of three things: first, was he feeling comfortable going at our pace and felt safe. Two, I had done something which really ticked him off-I would not have been aware of it. Last, I had done some damage-also not sure what I did. He left before we got to a rest stop.

Once we got onto 101, I was traveling along quite nicely. Sherri had just awoke when I glanced over at the southbound lane. At first I thought it was a man walking, but then I realized he was rolling along, like being on roller blades. I pointed at him for Sherri to see. He thought I was waving at him, which is also nice. I wonder how far he has gone and where he is going?

Our next stop was around 5pm at the Empire Camp Rest Stop. I take this opportunity to stand for awhile. I also get out my personal pharmacy and take my evening pills. After about 15 minutes we are on our way. There is not much more activity as we travel up to David’s. We munch almonds and Catalina Crunch as our snack-meal. We get to David’s a lot earlier than what I thought we would, at 6:45.

Once we unpacked, we sat around and just talked for over an hour. I think we kept David up-I know I was ready to go to bed and sleep. I got to bed about 9:30 and was asleep by 10:00, not even bothering to read more than just a few pages.