We're trying to get our travel groove back here at The World on Wheels. After our move, it's been a bit difficult to do. I think part of it is when you move to your favorite vacation spot, everything else pales in comparison.
Now that we're 350 miles farther north than we used to be, Northern California destinations are a lot closer than they used to be. Instead of a 12 hour drive, the Eureka coast area is only 6 hours. Seems like a good time to give it a try.
Along the coast in this part of California, prices can be prohibitive. In San Francisco, it is very easy to spend over $500 per night and just a basic room with a private bath will be around $200 per night but the farther away from the city you get, the cheaper the rooms get.
The Clarion Hotel in Eureka seems to have the right price and amenities to serve as a base of operations for a four-day trip to the northern coast. It's 270 miles north of San Francisco via highway 101.
After leaving Interstate 5 in Williams, we skirt along the edge of Clear Lake. The lake is the largest natural lake in California (Lake Tahoe is bigger but a third of that lake sits in Nevada). It's also considered to be the oldest lake in North America.
There are a few little resort towns along the shore that cater to boaters and fishermen. Some have definitely seen better days. About 20 years ago, we took Tim for a day at a waterpark on the south shore that has faded away in the intervening years.
The winding shoreline keeps our speed down, explaining the main reason this 330 mile drive is taking over six hours.
On the other side of the lake, we end up in Ukiah, where we meet up with the 101, which is a freeway at this point. At some points, where the redwoods crowd in, the freeway will narrow down to a slow, two lane road. Eventually, we come out on the coast and get to the city of Eureka, which is the county seat of Humboldt County.
If you're not aware, Humboldt has long been the capital of California cannabis culture with a laid-back lifestyle that's been attracting stoners since before I was in high school. Now that it's legal, it's in the open and very prevalent.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop with pot here...there are addicts of every stripe on the streets of this town. We see people doing drugs, changing clothes in the street, relieving themselves, and more. It's not a pretty sight but we hope things will be OK as our hotel is at the edge of town and it appears to be pretty nice.
We go down to the waterfront to have dinner at Cafe Waterfront. Eureka has a few dozen gorgeous Victorian buildings, this is one of them. A former brothel, the Cafe now specializes in fresh seafood from Humboldt Bay.
My wife takes advantage of this to have a delicious scallop scampi.
I'm not such a seafood lover so I have the day's special meatloaf while Tim goes with his go-to seafood dish of fish 'n chips.
After dinner, we take a walk along the boardwalk among the cars parked with occupants getting high. A few of them greet us, none really bother us.
Back at the hotel, we observe a person living in their car, changing in the street as we go in our room. We find out the temperature is very warm and the air conditioner is not working. Of course, this is the only room with a roll-in shower available.
Our only option is to leave the window open to let in the cool sea air. Not something I really want to do in this sketchy neighborhood. I rig up some wooden hangars from the closet to keep the window from opening too far.
It's a restless night and I complain to the front desk when we eat breakfast. The maintenance guy looks at the air conditioner and says it can't be fixed today. Fine, we'll check out and leave this disappointing town anyway.
We pack up. I have our van backed up to our room door. I load our suitcase, I turn around to grab another bag, I turn back to put it in. There's a guy reeking of pot with a bottle of booze in the hood of his sweater going through the open door of our van.
I confront him and yell at him. He's says he's 'hotel security' but know I don't buy it and he jumps on a bike and starts to ride away.
I yell at him "give me back what you stole," and chase him. He stops and I check our things. Once I'm satisfied that we've got everything valuable, I let him go.
Hotel management apologizes and gives me $40 off our room rate.
We get in the car and get the hell out of Eureka.
Darryl Musick
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