Richard's Travels: Eureka - California

9-25-2016.

I skipped the Gold Beach outing and drove to Crescent City, the next place. I will stay only one night and drive tomorrow to Eureka and prepare for the outing in Ferndale, California. I will be the host there.
On the way I stopped at Meyers Creek Beach. The Oregon coast is beautiful.

When I arrived in Crescent City I went to the Burger King restaurant to do my E Mail, but could not get on the Internet. I gave up and went to Home Depot and got some brackets to hold the Venetian Blinds in place. The lady in the department had a little box with all kind of leftover parts. She gave me two pairs.

The rest of the day I read my new book.

9-26-2016.

I left Crescent City at 7:30 AM and arrived at the Moose Lodge in Eureka at about 9:30 AM.

I had stopped at the Honey Bear Campground, near Port Orford, to see what kind of German sausages and bread they sell. The owner of the campground comes from Germany and has also a little delicatessen store on the premises. Unfortunately he sold the campground and store and he wants to move to San Diego.

The store is almost empty. I bought bratwurst and a loaf of bread and had a nice conversation with the soon to be non owner.

We both left Germany almost at the same time. I was eighteen years old and he was nineteen. I have been retired seventeen years and he is just getting ready.

When I arrived at the Moose Lodge I set up the motorhome and then went to a car wash where you wash your car.

Then I went to the Senior Center and signed in for lunch for the next few days.

After that I went for a walk on the waterfront.
The renovation of the Carson Block is completed and the building looks like when it was first built. It was expensive and took a long time.

The debate started at 6:00 PM. I watched it and then walked to the lodge and danced. Normally I would have gone to the Grange and danced with the Friendship Circle Dance Club. But I would have lost more time. The Moose Dance Club was part of the Friendship Circle Dance Club. They split last year.

I know most of the dancers and they had a lot of questions.

9-27-2016.

This was a strange day. It was my last day of the Pacific Northwest circuit. Donna Backus called me that the group decided not to come to Ferndale.

I had planned to call companies today and arrange for plant tours. Now I do not have to do this.

This morning I noticed that there is no water coming out of the warm water faucet. Yesterday everything worked fine when I took a shower. I did some investigating and did not find the problem.

I made an appointment, with a RV repair place, for next Tuesday when I would have returned from the Ferndale outing.

When I got back from lunch at the Senior Center I removed the waterline from the water heater. Then I got a pot and held it under the opening of the heater. When I turned on the water pump the water came out and a little plastic plunger came with it. Now I knew that I had water pressure from the tank. I put the little plunger back. It is part of a check valve. After I put the waterline back I still did not have any water in the warm water faucets.

I was tired and laid down for a while. I could not rest because I was thinking about this stupid problem. I got up and removed the waterline again and flushed out the little plunger. This time I did not put it back. After I reconnected the waterline I turned on the pump. There was water in all the warm water faucets.The plunger was defective. It had plugged up the waterline.

I had solved the problem but had a little leak. The cone shaped seal was hard and old.

I went to the RV repair place, canceled the appointment and asked for two washers. I figured if I ruin one during the installation I have another one.

The sales lady gave me the two washers free of charge. I replaced the washer and the leak was gone. While I was in the repairing mode I also fixed the porch light.

I drove to Les Schwab, the tire place, and asked them whether they could check the brakes on the motorhome. Since I have owned it I never had them checked.

I was told they cannot do it because of its size of the motorhome. I told them that is stupid, If I would buy tires they would take off the wheels.

The sales manager came and explained to me that they could check the brakes but could not fix them. They are set up for replacing brakes on cars. They have no parts for trucks and motorhomes.That made sense but did not help me. He gave me names of companies which will do brakes on big vehicles.

At 5:00 PM Paul called me. He wanted to meet me somewhere and return my Walkie Talkie. He had borrowed it because one of his had a low battery and he was traveling with Maggie. The two kept in touch while traveling. Since nobody comes to Ferndale and I will not see anybody until we go to the Dance Rally in November this is the only chance to get it back.

Meeting somewhere did not make sense. I drove to Blue Lake and picked it up. The two of them are staying at the casino in Blue Lake.

10-1-2016.

This morning I spent some time at the Plaza in Arcata. Besides the Farmers Market, there was the annual Pastels on the Plaza. This event raises money for the North Coast Children Services. Companies and institutions sponsor people to draw pictures with chalk on the sidewalk.

I believe a square or rectangle costs $ 130.00.

Scott sponsored Nicolette. He and Trinity, Nicolette’s friend, gave Nicolette moral support.

Her project was a turtle.

Since Arcata is a college town, there were many students doing the drawings. Some were very elaborate and looked professionally. There were also teams.

For the $ 130.00 participants get the space to draw and a kit with many colorful pieces of chalk, and rubber gloves. One can always get more chalk. Nicolette did not use the rubber gloves and wore down her finger nails on the concrete sidewalk.

The Farmers Market is rather large. One vegetable vendor made yarn when there were no customers.

There was also a band.

I walked around the square several times and admired the work of the artists.

I also walked in the Jacobs Building and admired the beautiful woodwork.

Nicolette was finished at 11:30 AM, just when a dark cloud moved over Arcata. I left before it rained.

In the evening I went to Art Walk in Down Town Eureka, which is on the first Saturday of the month.

The art Galleries are open until 8:30 PM and there are bands playing music in some galleries and on street corners.

The Redwood Dixie Gators are one of my favorite bands.

In the Morris Grave Gallery a youth steel drum band was providing the music.

I met Doris at the coffee grinding shop. Ray and the Mighty Rovers were playing there. They also play at our Monday dances.

10-2-2016.

This morning we had a heavy down pour.

At 12:00 noon started the Eureka Heritage Society Home Tour. I exchanged my presale ticket for the tour package while it was raining.

I was not that much interested in the nine homes. My main interest was the tour of the Carson Block building.

I admired the building from the outside for the last two years and watched the progress on my morning walks.

It cost several million dollars to renovate this large building. It was still raining when I took the pictures from the office Mr. Carson used while he was alive.

At the former Ingomar Theater were articles on tables which showed what had to be replaced and what was found during the renovation.

The floor is actually an extension of the balcony. The seats and the stage are below. The temporary floor was installed some years ago with the hope to revive the theater one day, which probably will never happen. There are two large theaters, and two small theaters in this small city.

Since Carson was a lumber baron there is a lot of woodwork in the building.

The building has three floors. On the first floor are stores and businesses and offices on the other floors.
The rain stopped for a while and I was able to visit the nine remaining houses.

10-4-2016.

In the afternoon Joann came to the motorhome and I removed the pictures I had added to the SD disk of her camera. Since I have a Canon camera and she has a Nikon her picture were not visible on her camera after I put some of my pictures on it.

I gave her an old SD disk with the pictures she wanted.

She wanted to go for a walk and she gave me three choices. Since I do not like to go alone on the Headwater Forest Trail I chose that one. Not many people walk it and it is not smart to do it alone.

We walked to the Two Mile Bridge. The trail has some elevation and it is a good workout and the scenery is beautiful.

It was a wonderful four mile walk. Joann is one of the dancers of the Friendship Circle Dance Club. She and her partner are very good dancers.

10-5-2016.

Yesterday evening, when I looked out of the window, I saw a motorhome with a car in the back, parked in the dry camping area. The car had a kayak on top. Because of a tree I could only see a small part of the motorhome.

I went outside to investigate. A kayak on top of a car means often that a WIN is here. I was Arlene.

She is also heading south to the WIN Dance Rally.

This morning, at 10:00 AM, I knocked on her door and told her that I will pick her up in thirty minutes to go to lunch and Oktoberfest at the Senior Center.

They served bratwurst, red cabbage and German potato salad, and apple strudel. It was actually a good meal. The potato salad was authentic. It was very good.

After lunch I showed Arlene some of the touristy places in Eureka, including the Carson Mansion.

10-12-2016.

I walk every day, mostly on the waterfront.

Saturday we celebrated Nicolette’s 15^th birthday in Sequoia Park. I took only one picture and Nicolette was standing behind her friend. The kids had fun though. Later I did not get another chance.

I went dancing Saturday and this Monday at the Moose Lodge. I met some new, interesting people.

Tuesday through Friday I go to the Senior Center and eat lunch there. There is no lunch on Mondays because of budget problems. A lot of days there is live music and sometimes we dance.

Today I walked at the Fay Slough Wildlife Area. I did not see any wildlife, but there were flowers and blackberries.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week we expect rain.

10-17-2016.

It has been raining hard the last few days. I kept busy cleaning inside the motorhome. The toaster oven looks like new.

This morning I had visitors. The deer do not mind the rain. They were on their way to the apple trees.

I compete with them picking up apples.

In the afternoon we had a small window with no rain. I walked on the waterfront and watched the guys from the Coast Guard enjoy their ice cream. Since I cannot walk a lot I have to stay away from sweets. When I get to better weather and walk more I will have an ice cream.

Two weekends in a row I wanted to watch Jacob play soccer and because of the rain he did not play.

This is my last week in Eureka. Next Monday I will be heading south.

10-20-2016.

The last two days we had beautiful weather. Yesterday I changed the motor oil in the motorhome.

Today I did some exploring. I drove to the Samoa Dunes Recreation Area and walked along the jetty.

I tried to figure out why the wood was installed in the concrete. It makes no sense. It is rotting away now.

The Coast Guard Station has a fancy building.

While I was standing there a Coast Guard boat was heading for the ocean. This one is stationed at the marina near Old Town. At the Coast Guard Station they have two smaller boats.