From Philo to Crescent City (last stop in California)

We took the road to Crescent City from Philo on Monday 20th May. The one thing you can say about Northern California is just how beautiful it is. Every hour on the road is like being in your own movie (a good safe one).

Our first stop was in Willis for fuel (gas, petrol) where we had to ask for advice on how the process worked (it's DIY in the USA). Once you get it it's easy enough:

• tender your credit card by tapping (doesn't work most of the time) or inserting it into the reader.
• choose your fuel type (there's regular and two other more 'green' ones, I chose the best one).
• stick the nozzle into the gas tank and run until it clicks (don't squirt squirt).
• remove the nozzle and put it back into its bracket on the dispenser.
• close your tank.
• drive off.

JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU'RE NOT ADDING DIESEL!

Unfortunately we did the first two parts in reverse. And the manager was happy to advise us on how the process would work. We felt a bit stupid. It's the simple things that trip one up in a foreign country.

Then through Eureka where Karen wanted to stop for lunch. Eureka is a harbour town with not much going on. It looks and feels poor and down-and-out. I'm probably wrong but it's not a place to visit.

Then onto Crescent City. This is also a harbour town. Interestingly it was pretty badly impacted by the tsunami resulting from the Fukushima earthquake. There are signs everywhere informing you of what to do in a tsunami (including a hand crank alarm at the harbour).

The town itself is OK. It's dominated by the massive parkland running along the edge of the harbour. And it was cold. Bitterly so. And this has been the trend in Northern California since we arrived: cold winds necessitating jerseys and wind breakers.

We arrived around lunch time and quickly went into a small brewery restaurant. Had a beer (Porter Ale) and shared a pizza which was huge. While there we booked into the Curly Redwood Lodge.

For some reason Karen and I have always wanted to stay in an American motel. Don't ask us why? But it just seems like something you'd do on a road trip. The Curly Redwood was typical: park outside your door, run by Indian migrants (which seems to be a niche that migrants from the sub-continent have dominated and changed).

The motel was as expected. And then not as expected. The TV was in an odd position to the bed so we wanted to move the TV to a better viewing space. But then need to move a table but first remove the lamp on the table. Unfdortunately the lamp was mounted (glued vas) to the table. So that put an enmd to that plan. Also the TV's aerial cable was fastned so that couldn't be moved either. They must have had an intuition that some South African's were coming.

Before we left South Africa we purchased an Amazon Firestick. So if we ever want to watch our own streaming channels we can just plug it in and then not have to worry about logins etc. It works pretty well. And is a bit of a luxury: not every night is going to be an out night.

The motel was fine. Clean. Odd taps. And my bug-bear: shower taps which don't obviously show hot and cold; so you end up running the cold for a few minutes before realising that you need to turn the mixer the other way to get hot (what a waste of water and time).

We drove around the coast on this very windy day. Karen took some great photographs.

There are a couple of pieces of South African art in Crescent City: dolos! The dolos was invented by Eric Merrifield in East London (who said that nothing good comes out of the Eastern Cape except for pineapples!). (And Rhodes University graduates).

Dinner and breakfast was at the aptly named (own the category!) Fisherman's Restaurant. Food was good. Service, like where we've been in general, was excellent.

The next day we left but really wanted to see a Walmart. Don't ask, won't tell. We expected those stereotypical photos of very over weight people to be dominating the store which only sold low quality cheap stuff. We were wrong on both counts. Quality was good. Range was from low price to high price (and from base quality to high quality). Service was excellent. Range was excellent. I'd be happy to shop at Walmart.

And when they fill a sandwich, it's filled!

So we bought some provisions and were on our way. Next stop Medford, Oregon.