January 16, 2014
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Epic Road Trip, day 23, part 1
In the morning, knowing this was the last time we’d be camping, I wanted an all-hands-on-deck approach to breaking camp and packing the car. Unfortunately, Quin wasn’t being helpful and everything I asked him to do either didn’t get done or got done in such a way I had to redo it. Normally I’d just make him do it again but I was on a time schedule so ended up doing it myself and getting frustrated. Kendrah helped where she could but I don’t like asking her to do everything I’ve asked Quin to do so I was on my own with 2/3 of the work.
We got the sleeping bags rolled up, my air mattress emptied and rolled up, the pillows, clean and dirty clothes, the shoes and books out of the tent. I folded it up (pretty good at it by now!) and crammed in into the bag. And crammed and crammed. It didn’t fit. What?
I unrolled it and looked at the creases and confirmed that I’d done it right. Rolled it tighter, kneeing it down and squashing the air out. It didn’t fit.
As IF I wasn’t already frustrated! I unrolled it again, stomped out the wrinkles and folded it the opposite way I’d been doing. The ground was dewy and wet and I wasn’t planning on using the tent again for a while so I beat off the grass and mud with each roll, making sure it was as tight as possible. It fit in the bag this time, with room to spare. I was quite satisfied with it as it easily zipped up and I hoisted the bag into the trunk.
Which is when Kendrah patted her face and said, “Um, Mom? I don’t have my glasses.”
Yeah.
So we unrolled the tent looking for a mangled pair of glasses but instead found them inside, perfectly safe in the tent pocket. We rolled the tent up again, got it in the bag and finally managed to get the car loaded.
Our neighbors were coming to life at that point (surely woken up by my growls and snarls) and as we got into the car I cheerily waved to them and said, “Thanks for the story last night!” and then quickly drove away before they could sort through all the things they said/did the night before when they didn’t think that we were listening.
On the way out we saw this bear coming out of the sign. It struck my fancy enough to stop for a picture.
But then it was time for breakfast. By then we were pretty sick of grocery store muffins and portable food so we stopped for a quick virtual cache in Eureka and then went to Denny’s for a cheap, but real meal.
Today’s journey wasn’t a long one –just over 300 miles — but it was on highway 101 right along the coast so I knew it would take a long time to get anywhere with all the stops to see the ocean. Plus we couldn’t go by without stopping to visit Paul Bunyan and Babe.
On the way to Klamath we stopped at a bear statue (also a virtual cache) and got a photo or two.
And noticed a grave marker for Big Foo, which also needed a photo, don’t you agree?
Then it was time to say hi to the big guy.
Mr. Bunyan noticed the kids right away and said hi to them in the parking not. I’d told them he’d probably talk to them but I don’t think they believed me till that moment.
I got a few pictures while the kids wandered around.
Then both kids each climbed on a boot and conversed with the statue. After a bit, everyone lapsed into silence.
After a few moments, Quin tried “starting up” the statue again so yelled “HI!” and the very droll voice of Paul said, “Yeah, I think we already covered that topic.” Which is when Quin really believed the statue was really talking to him and really made him nervous.
Kendrah found it hilarious, though and continued to tease the statue into more conversations about logging, Babe, and whatever else crossed her mind.
I browsed the gift shop and got some shots of flowers and decided against paying $31 to hike the Trees of Mystery trail, and then moved on.
The rest of the day will have to wait, though.
