Position:
N 40 29.352 W 123 58.725
We've
been visiting Julie's son Dan and his family in Redding, CA. Dan is
a master mechanic and helped us find our new land yacht “Wanda The Honda".
“Wanda”
is a 1997 Honda Odyssey van. The old kind with regular opening rear
doors (not sliding like most minivans) and regular opening rear
windows. This is important for ventilation if you're planning to
sleep in the vehicle. She has a little 4 cylinder engine (based on
the Accord) that all Dan's friends and all the reviews say is pretty
much bulletproof. We don't think we could have found a better
vehicle for our use (especially for the price we paid). Everything's
a bit tight compared to Rachel, but we think we'll manage just fine.
Yesterday
Dan spent an extra 3 hours after work while Mark helped him put on
and balance two new tires, change the oil, change the radiator and
heater hoses, install new front axles, and generally give Wanda a
good going over to make sure she'll make it all the way across North
America over the next month or so.
Mark
built a raised platform in the back we can sleep on and stow our
stuff under. It's in two pieces so we can remove the forward piece
and still use the two middle seats for passengers if we need to. We
have a cooler, a porta potty, two folding chairs, mosquito screens,
rain covers, a galley (pots, bowls, plates, silverware, food, coffee,
etc.) in a Rubbermaid container, and a single burner propane stove.
Everything we need and we can still sleep in her with all of it
stowed. So now we're ready to go.
It's
not been all work and no play, however. We managed to make time to
relax in Dan's pool, celebrate Mark's 61st and Dan's 30th
birthdays, go wake boarding in Dan's boat with several friends, and
just generally hang out.
We
left Redding yesterday, Sunday, June 9, after celebrating Dan's 30th
birthday on the 8th. Our first day on the road was
great!! We drove 10 whole miles to Whiskytown State Park and walked
up to Whiskeytown Falls in 110 degrees F (whew!). Then we were
westbound over the mountains to the coast and Eureka, the town we've
heard is the pot capital of the US. Coincidentally, it also happens
to be on the shortest route to the West coast from Redding, so don't
be getting any ideas as to our motivation for passing through here.
Our
first night camping was spent a bit south of Eureka next to a big
redwood. We had a great nights sleep and everything so far is
working really well. A bit of reorganizing the galley and the
stowage area addressed some early “access issues”. Over time
we're confident we'll get all the packing and unpacking down to a
science.
The
only problem we've had to date is that it is quite a bit colder here
on the coast. We're all geared up for summer travel and only brought
one pair of jeans and one fleece each. All this cool, damp weather
is beginning to get to us. We may have to go clothes shopping.
Chilly
but having a good time.
Banana slugs are rampant here, apparently if you lick them your tongue goes numb - we didn't try it!!
