Is it only Tuesday? Stage 4

We started the morning in Chico, and weather was extremely warm. It was the warmest place we have been. The heat depleted many people’s energy yesterday, including ours. We drove West through orchards of all different fruit and nut trees. We saw peaches, nectarines, pistachio and avocado trees. We then headed South on Old Highway 99. It struck me odd as heading South and going toward Sacramento, but knew we were heading the right way. As we were approaching the town of Maxwell, I noticed some patrol car lights flashing. I thought one of our fellow racers was pulled over for speeding. However, when we arrived at the spot we were in front of a trailer park and there were four patrol cars and a man in handcuffs. We figured it was an early drug bust. We made a few jokes amongst ourselves as we passed the commotion.

We continued rallying heading across highway 20 toward the West. The hills were beautiful golden rolling hills spotted with large old oak trees. We enjoyed the incredible scenery, as it is quintessential California. We watched as the hills went from amber to solid green as we approached the Lake region. We drove along the East side of Clear Lake for almost all of the 19 miles of its length. Clear Lake is the second largest lake in California afterLake Tahoe. It is a pretty Lake, but doesn’t seem to have the draw of Lake Tahoe.

We continued toward Mendocino County, and Willits for our lunch stop. The scenery was lush green mountains full of pine trees. We learned at the lunch stop that more then half the cars were stopped in Maxwell at the scene of the incident and were unable to run the first two legs of the day. We were slightly disappointed because we felt we had run those two legs cleanly and the third leg was our worst, but were pleased because we weren’t involved in the back up.

1919 Hudson Racer driven by our friend Brad Phillips from Haggerty Insurance, and navigated by Dan Stahl (Stahl is also a race sponsor)

Our afternoon was fantastic, we ran two relatively clean runs, but more importantly, we drove through the redwood forest. As we were driving through I told Brad about the time we were kids in our Gran Torino station wagon and car camped in the redwoods. I was very young, but I remember bits and pieces of our trip. I do remember we drove through one of the giant trees.

And we were lucky enough to do it again today. The size and age of the trees are magnificent. It is hard to photograph them and give them the respect they deserve. We gave it a few futile shots, but thought you may get some perspective of their size.

Our friends Mike Weaver and Craig “DeGiorno” Jongerius from The Rome Grinding Team are in the ’31 Ford, we like to call their car “Veuve”

We drove for most of the late afternoon through the trees and loved every minute of it. The road is narrow, and the trees hug the edges, it is dark as you drive threw, and the light peaks in every so often. You see ferns and some other plants on the floor of the forest. It is a sight to see. Aside from the scenery, the smell in the forest was fantastic, I don’t know what we were smelling, but it was such a good smell, I said to Brad it reminds me of the smell of a resort spa.

We continued North to Humboldt County, where we finished the day in Eureka. We were surprised when we drove by an interesting green Victorian style home. There were some people and we asked the story behind the home. They told us, it was built by The Carson family. They owned a logging company, and in the winter when his employees couldn’t log, they would build the home.

The Carson Mansion, Eureka

We were greeted by a good crowd and headed to a local car museum. When we arrived at the museum, there were some men barbecuing fresh oysters, and they were delicious. We enjoyed a few oysters, went into the museum and then headed back toward the cars. We caught up with some friends and headed in for the night.

It is hard to believe we cover so much territory and see so much. We feel so blessed to be able to enjoy all the beauty of our country with wonderful people and in our old cars.

We are off to Gold Beach tomorrow.

Author: emcniff

This is not really about me, but about an adventure we are lucky enough to take each year. Each trip provides new discoveries, and the opportunity to see this beautiful country we are so blessed to live in. View all posts by emcniff