San Juan Islands, then North to Vancouver, then west to Victoria

Ferry to Friday Harbor

We arrived at Anacortes at a dog-friendly hotel, going out to dinner at a nice Thai food place and spent a restful night.

The next morning, after we had a great continental breakfast of muffins, hard boiled eggs, coffee, raisin toast, etc., we caught the 9:30 ferry to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island, one of many San Juan Islands.

Howard led a tour of the town with Celina and Django eagerly ducking into and out of beautiful little shops filled with lovely things for the taking. Living as gypsies, we aren't inclined to want to take too many things home, but we managed to find some mint extract to add to the instant dark hot cocoa mix back at the hotel, and a package of salmon chowder mix to be turned into a nice delicious meal further down the road. Some postcards, postcard postage stamps, yarn and a crochet needle with which to make a sweater for Django were also purchased. Celina has many skills.

Animal Farm Thanksgiving on San Juan Island

Sunset on west coast of San Juan Island

 Later we got in the gigmobile and drove around the island visiting Roche Harbor, the "American Camp" towards the south end of San Juan Island (where the "Pig War" almost created another war between the U.S. and England), and checking out the real estate.

The island had a wide variety of landscapes, with tract housing as well as large ranch-style properties with beautiful green rolling hills.

As the sun set, we headed back to town to meet Howard's musician friend, Rich Barker and his wife Margaret for dinner. Great conversation and food and the promise to keep in touch and perhaps return in the summer to play a gig or two there.

What a great trip. The ferry is warm and there's plenty of room for stretching out and crocheting, reading a book or just feeling the vibration of the huge engines in the ferry that take us back to the mainland at about 12 knots.

Sunrise near Anacortes, driving to Canada

Curved tower of Vancouver

The next day we got up early and headed North, crossing the Canadian border and making it up to Granville Island in the city of Vancouver, getting there before it got too crowded with Sunday visitors. We walked around, checking out the cool market place, filled with many vendors selling every kind of food you can think of. We found a neat store with all kinds of percussive instruments, and a great jacket for skinny Django, to keep warm.

Granville Island Marina

Granville Island Open Market - foods of every kind

Granville Island

We stayed for the morning, then drove south to Delta where the B.C. Ferry takes off to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Luckily the day was Sunday, so there was not commuter traffic. The ferry ride was truly scenic, as we threaded our way in and out of the Gulf Islands off of Vancouver Island.

To Victoria - that Ferry is going to Vancouver

We finally reached Victoria, and found a nice Hotel Travelodge just on the outskirts of town. The hotel rates go up astronomically the closer you get to the scenic areas of the city.  But our room is comfy and we dinned on crackers, cheese, fruit and wine.

Next to the hotel was a dog park - this is a nice open area where dogs are not required to be leashed.

Ball fixation

It was the perfect venue to really exercise Django, throwing the ball up and down the park.  Django's focus on where the ball goes is unbelievable.  He takes this game very seriously.

Go get it!

Got it!

Totem in Victoria

Victoria Government Building

Empress Hotel

In the morning, after a good night's rest, we had breakfast at Santiago's, a fusion of South American and Canadian - excellent "Eggs Benny" and Breakfast Burrito, which we shared - as usual. We had booked the ferry ride back to Port Angeles for 4:00 p.m., so we spent the morning and afternoon enjoying the city, checking out the Empress Hotel, finding some cool earrings for Celina, writing postcards, and generally being the proverbial tourists.

Empress Hotel

Howard's the KING OF THE WORLD

About 90 minutes before departing on the Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles in Washington, it's required to provide passports and pass through US customs. The cars are then loaded onto the ferry and we were off. In order to lose the Canadian coins we had accumulated, we hit the ferry cafeteria and enjoyed some hot soup, candy bars and potato chips. Yum!!!

I'm from Canada, eh?

We arrived at Port Angeles about 5:30, and drove Highway 101 south-east for a couple of hours to Tumwater where we're now enjoying a relatively comfortable Motel 6.

Tomorrow, we drive to Bend, Oregon, to be with the Rick and Chris Wright family for the Thanksgiving holiday. We have been on the road for one week and haven't changed our intention of road trekking for a month, to return to Santa Cruz by mid December. Send us your good vibes and stay tuned. The Gigmobile is full of love and we've feeling adventurous!

Up Through Oregon and Washington

Leaving Brookings, we started to really enjoy the Oregon coast with the myriad chunks of rocks sticking out of the ocean, as far out as 3 miles. Howard remembers going down the coast on Blue Bossa, staying as far out as feasible, just to make sure that he was clear of those dangerous rocks.

Climbing up and over the coastal mountains reminded us of so many roads that we’ve driven before – Highway 9, Bonnie Doon, Big Sur and more.

The rain came and went, as we wound through the mountainous coastline.  There were a surprising amount of tourist traps, including wild dinosaurs, enchanted forests, and other oddities. As well, there were numerous places to pull off the road and admire the beautiful scenery.

Brandon lighthouse

Brandon entrance - scary

Port Orford

Passing Port Orford was an interesting change from the other harbors. Whereas most harbors along the Oregon coast are connected with rivers (very much like the Santa Cruz harbor), Port Orford was really a nicely protected point with a big cement pier where the local fishermen haul their sizable boats to keep them safe from south-easterly storms.

Finally, we made it to Florence, where we found a nice little camping spot right on the harbor/river.  Because it’s so out-of-season, we had no problem getting a spot with electricity and everything.  Oh boy, a chance to camp out in our car-top tent.

Setting up the tent in Florence

Getting "frosted"

After enjoying a nice dinner at Mo’s on the boardwalk, a short stretch of the legs from our campsite, we couldn’t help but notice how cold it was getting. Dressed in layers from long underwear to fuzzy caps, we crawled into bed with Django cuddled up with us and slept. We had enough blankets and clothes to stay warm, but that habitual trip to the john in the middle of the night was a real chore; stumbling in the darkness, getting up and down the slippery ladder, we realized that this tent is probably designed for younger people and warmer, dryer weather.

When we got up in the morning, the frost was thick from the ground up to the top of our tent. The temperature was hovering around 32 degrees, and changing clothes was, well, interesting. When putting the tent away, we had to deal with frost on the top and sides of the tent.

Chuckita and the dinosaurs

We initially were going to go all the way up the coast, but since we were scheduled to be at Howard’s brother’s family in Bend for Thanksgiving, and we had a lot of places to explore, we decided to head east to Highway 5 to cover more ground and get to Seattle to visit some friends of Celina.

Seattle driving

After going a long ways, we made it to Seattle, just in time for rush hour.  Say what you like about Seattle, it’s a great town, but its rush hour is just as bad as L.A.’s. Suffice to say, we got to Michael and Veronica’s place a little late, but still in time for dinner.

After 10 years of not being in touch, Celina and Veronica behaved as if they had never been apart. The child with whom Veronica was pregnant 10 years ago, is 9 year old Rowan. His little brother, Hawthorne, is 7. What beautiful, sweet, funny and engaging boys. Django and they hit it off right from the start. The evening was filled with lots of laughs, great conversation with Michael and Veronica (who look as young as the day they were married) and Chinese food that really hit the spot. We sacked out in Rowan’s room and got a good night’s rest in a warm bed under the generous roof of the Wood family.

Looking out from Anacortes

This morning, we left Seattle and drove to Bellingham. The weather was clear
and cold, in the 30’s. After doing a little shopping, we headed South and then West to Anacortes, where we got a room after checking out the Ferry schedule for more exploring, this time, of the San Juan Islands. Turns out that not too many places are dog friendly on the islands, so we opted to stay another night here at Island Inn, who ARE dog friendly. We are having a nice adventure and it hasn’t even been a week on the road yet.

Django, Skylark and the Flying Gigmobile TAKE OFF!

Django and his God

Choosing to take a road trip into the Northwest in mid November was actually a conscious choice made while sober. Whenever we told someone what we were planning to do, most of the time the response was along the lines of, “Oh my god! It’s going to be so cold and rainy”, to which we would reply, that’s o.k., we’ll figure it out. Only a few hardy, kindred spirits said, “Cool! No crowds, no traffic and no reservations!”

We own a Chrysler Town & Country van, which is almost the perfect vehicle for us with a few simple modifications and additions for gigging and camping. We call it the "Gigmobile". Because we’re musicians and carry a lot of equipment around, equipment we don’t necessarily want passers-by to see in the van, we built a simple platform, which sits in the back half of the van, elevated about 2 and a half feet. Our instruments fit underneath and are concealed and hopefully safe. When the two passenger seats and the bench seat ("stow & go") are stowed into the floor, it makes it possible to insert a plastic office carpet chair mat so we can slide Howie's keyboard and amps in and out easily - the same is true when we store crates of camping stuff. To make our camping more comfortable, we invested in a trucker’s crock pot and a small cooler, both 12 volt with cigarette lighter plugs.

Gigmobile in camping attire

Our big purchase (besides our van) was a used Tepui tent, which sits on top of the Gigmobile like a big crate. Imagine a crate-sized book sitting on top of the van and when we are ready to use it, we simply take off the cover, and unfold the "book" by pulling an aluminum telescoping ladder bolted on: and, 'presto!', the tent pops up - half of it on the van and the other half cantilevered over the side, supported by the ladder. The result is that there is plenty of room for all three of us and it stays warm and dry.

So, at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, November 19^th, we climbed into the loaded Gigmobile with Django, our trusty mutt, and headed North along the coast. 

Our first stop was the Whale City Bakery in Davenport where we redeemed the $25 gift certificate we won when we were the zombie couple on Halloween. We had gone there to see Andy Fuhrman and the Lone Star Band and came away, after dancing our zombie butts off, with a prize! The breakfast burrito we shared was tasty and the pastries that followed while we approached the Golden Gate Bridge were perfect. We had them pack up a sandwich as well, which we tucked into the cooler, to be eaten later, on the road. It's a great place!

Howard began the trip behind the wheel and at the Santa Rosa Costco, where we gassed up for the next leg of our trip, we switched drivers. Before we knew it, we were at the Cloverdale cut off, which took us up over the mountain and down into the Anderson Valley, a beautiful place to see. Lots of color in the changing leaves, probably the last week before the trees loose their leaves and stand against the cold; naked and waiting the long wait for Spring when they will again dress themselves in soft green shoots and leaves and bear their fruit.

Celina & the Redwoods

Howie too

The Redwood forest that stands at the gateway to the coast is filled with the spirit of the Mother; the trees like sentinels of love and ageless truth. Celina says that every time she finds herself in that part of the trip, she gets quiet, really, really quiet. She whispers, “I need to be very quiet here because it’s sacred here.”

Panoramic view of the Avenue of the Giants

Django wanted to pose too

Arriving at the coast we head directly to the Albion River RV Park, which sits at the mouth of the Albion River. We crossed the tall bridge and rolled down the long, steep driveway to the café and campsites. 

Chuckita in Albion

The walk in the cold wind under grey skies to the beach was a chance to see the jade green water ebbing swiftly out to the small cove Celina remembers from her stay here about 13 years ago. Howie played catch with Django at the water’s edge while Celina quickly found several pieces of beach glass. 

This is the location where she wrote “Mendo Blues” and her mind wanders back to those days spent in a friends Airstream trailer, alone, there at the Albion River RV park.

 

Celina and The Birds

We moseyed up to Mendocino proper and ate our sandwich sitting on a park bench while the weather became increasingly windy and we could smell the rain coming. A quick walk to the local book store and toy store was all we could muster before going to Fort Bragg to find a hotel room.


We found a great room for a good deal and a great view of the Noyo River Harbor and got somewhat settled before taking off to visit Ron and Glenda Jaeger, family friends of Celina who had not yet met Howie. 

Hotel Room looking down Noyo River Harbor

Ron and Glenda's trailer home is warm and welcoming and the dinner they prepared was delicious. We reminisced and they got to know Howie, while our dogs, their Sugar and our Django, sparred over territory. Django, the perfect gentleman was very patient and tolerant of Sugar’s bossy disposition and protective nature. 

Glenda, Celina's spirit sister, is also her art mentor and they talked at length about how Celina might approach art on the road. All was well by the end of our visit and parting was sweet sorrow. 

We tucked Django into his bunk in the van and snuggled up in our room for our first night on the road. The rain which had begun as we were leaving the Jaeger’s continued through the next day. All day Tuesday we drove the coast, along beaches, pasture land and forest while rain fell soft or strong

Cypress tree tunnel

on the road.

After checking out the rebuilt Crescent City Harbor, we arrived in Brookings, Oregon in the early evening and found a lovely apartment style motel room, new, clean and very comfortable in the scenic Brookings harbor. A good night’s sleep, Django in his Gigmobile bunk and us in our suite has us feeling rested and ready for another day of travel.

The rain is predicted to stop and we hope to make it to Florence where we will camp out, even though it should be below freezing tonight.