2016 - Charleston's Trailer Tripping: Day 1

Fortuna Area (8/8 – 8/10)

We will spend 3 days in the Ferndale area on the North Coast of California. After 207 miles we arrived at Riverwalk RV Park in Fortuna. This is a nice RV park. We have stayed here before and liked it enough to stay here again. The facilities are old, but clean and maintained. The WiFi is flaky though. There is a strong signal, but it drops all the time and very slow when running.

By the time we “set up camp” it was around 4pm and we were hungry; we did not stop for lunch. We drove into nearby Ferndale and had a delicious meal at Vi Restaurant in the Victorian Inn.

The next two days we visited Arcata, Eureka and more of Ferndale. In Arcata we shopped at Holly Yashi “The Store” and factory. Holly Yashi jewelry originated in Arcata. I love her jewelry. It was a work day so we could observe her jewelry being made in the factory attached to the store.

Bought two pairs ---could not resist!

While in the store I dropped my beloved pocket size, 7.1 pixel, digital camera. The camera that I have had for 9 years and has taken all those thousands and thousands of pictures of our past years of trailer tripping. The camera still works, but the LCD screen shows a negative image instead of a positive one. So we took off to nearby Eureka to Costco to buy a new camera. This one is also pocket size, but 16 pixels and automatic everything. Why did I wait so long!

While in Eureka we visit the “old town” shopping area. Strolling down a street of Victorian style shops we found the Golden Gait Mercantile, an old time variety shop from 1972. Not really a long time ago, but long enough.

Our last day we returned to Ferndale to check out the shops. They were all closed when we visited Ferdale on our first night. Ferndale is known for it's many Victorian homes.

Then we went on an adventure; an exciting drive on “The Wildcat”. Thirty miles of twists, turns and dips on a narrow, badly paved road. The Wildcat had beginnings over a century ago as a trail across the big cattle and sheep ranches that cover the coastal hills. You climb and drive through dense Douglas fir forests. When you reach the top you have fantastic views of the ocean. The road continues along the coast for a bit then turns inland as you go through the small town of Petrolia. This is the place where the first oil well was drilled in California in 1865. Unfortunately, not much oil was found. We continued driving through the dips, twists and pot holes up to and through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This turned into a peaceful drive as we drove through the majestic, towering Redwood forest.