Skiergirl: Eureka to Reef Campground (near Fort Ross) California

Today was a people and driving day. I started my morning by having breakfast with my campsite neighbour from the night before. We found a cute little cafe in the Old part of Eureka and had bagels and coffee. He was a really fun person to talk to, as we were complete opposites in a lot of ways. His job is to travel around to companies and talk to them about alternative energy possibilities, such as biomass and stuff. My job is to produce conventional, earth-destroying energy. Conversation wasn't overly controversial though, as I sincerely hope he puts me out of business.

After breakfast I made a bee-line for Highway 1. This highway snakes down along the coast of California and is an absolute pleasure to drive. The views are spectacular as you drive up out of deep gorges and inlets onto cliff tops overlooking the Pacific. The drive is not for the faint of heart, as there are very few guard rails, no shoulder, and nothing but rock and ocean below. The road twists and turns, most corners are perfectly banked but are so tight they have speed limits as low as 10 mph. At one point I felt like I was dancing with Rolly (to Jay Crocker).

When I first hit the coast on the highway I pulled over to take some pictures. As I was taking my picture I heard someone say, "Hey, you're from Alberta?" It was a couple of guys from Vancouver who were doing the same drive. We talked for a little bit and went our separate ways. I stopped for lunch in Ft. Bragg, and stayed quite a while as I was updating my blog. I slowly made my way down the highway again, stopping a few more times to take pictures and once to get groceries. Just as I was pulling out of the grocery store I saw the guys from Vancouver drive by, which I thought was weird since I had not been making very good time. We stopped and talked again for quite a while, turns out they took a wrong turn and ended up on an impromptu wine tour. They were nice guys, second good conversation of the day. I started to have this theory that I would only meet men on my trip. I figured there wouldn't be many women traveling alone, families don't generally bother talking to other people, and women are generally less likely to talk to other women.

I found a really nice campsite for the night, set up my tent, and went back out to the front gate to self-register. On my way by the site next to me, I stopped and talked to the woman occupying it. She was there with her son and his friend, had camped there a lot, was a cop from Sacramento. I continued on my way to the gate. As I was filling out my form I realized I had become so out of touch that I had no idea what the date was. I asked another woman that was there registering and we got to talking. She was also a very nice woman and we talked for quite a while. She was camping alone for the first time and was asking advice... I guess I'm a pro at it now! So, shortly after I had formed my men-only theory, it was happily shot all to hell.

That night, the woman in the next site sent her kids over to ask me to play Monopoly with them. I stayed up way past my bed time, but gently whooped their asses! It was lovely. Although I discovered why I hadn't been scared before and why I was now... I usually crawled into my tent before dark. Walking around in the dark before bed was what did it. But, I didn't freak out and it was fine.