Best laid plans

There's been no wifi or no power so like many things on the trip change of plans. Rather than daily up dates, here's the rest of the trip.

Fort Bragg to Lost Coast Day 2 and 3

From Fort Bragg...thinking we should come back, spend some more time...there is cannoeing, horseback riding and of course beach combing, looking at art and browsing stores but no time and hard to do with dog...up and over the coastal range, and down the coastal range. Round and Round we went.

Finally the Drive Through Tree...BIG hit! Drive car through, take pictures, our car in tree, other peoples cars in the tree, on the big tree log, in the big tree log, eat hot dog, walk dog and back in car. On 101 up to Richardson Grove...not at all as I remember used to drive straight through park, pull over go to visitor center, lots of activity, now it’s diverted and dead, no one there...Finally found the visitor center.., deserted.Want to show kid how old these trees are, history in perspective of sorts...the tree log some 8 feet in diameter, with the rings measured and little arrows pointing to world events....Tree was only 3 inches in diameter when the Magna Carta was signed, A little bigger when Columbus discovered America...kid not really impressed..."is it as old as you?"......I decide to make things relevant..."this is when Russia had a Czar"...kid is still not impressed "Czar??" looking quizzicle ..you know the father of Anastasia....(she knows this becasue of the disney cartoon movie). I think maybe ...."this is where Disneyland was started"..but tree was cut down before that......Looked at trees..they are old and big and beautiful. Back in the car on the way to Garberville and the Lost Coast.

Up and over, round and round the Kings Range. I learn that there are three tectonic(?)
plates joining in this area pushing these mountains up faster than any other range in the world...higher and higher we go, round and round. Yep it’s lost, even Garmin can’t find it. Car is not handling it well. I’m beginning to feel lost also.. Finally get to the Black Sand Beach...but no hotel...am I wrong, do we have to go back? Is Shelter Cove somewhere else...check old fashioned map...no we are here.....No telephone reception, no Garmin....so decided to take a few side roads and finally see a 3" by 6" sign..."Shelter Cove"....off we go round and round finally another equally as big sign.."Inn of the Lost Coast". Wonderful, great room facing the ocean, no pool, kid disappointed but there is a hot tub...of she goes..tubing over the cliffs with the mountains touching the sea at her back. This place is so secluded only one restaurant open mid week, across the street and the 73 year old owner, Annie is waiting tables and her husband cooking no Cafe Boujalais .. but very nice good food. Kid makes friends with people above us...chat , chat chat, they are from Monterey and have a yellow lab named "Daisy". We go for a walk,us and our new friend, see cormins (big black birds) settling in for the night on the cliffs, in front of the hotel is a rock filled with Pelicans. Beautiful Mountains all the way to the sea. We are told that low tide is morning and great tide pooling...I decide its to beautiful to leave the next day plus concerned about car’s sluggishness over mountains...thinking about going home to get car checked out. So cancel stay in Eureka and add night in Lost Coast...Good move...head out in morning for tide pooling...no sooner than we are out of the driveway then I hear clunk, clunk, thund, thund thud...flat tire...Kid asks is this going to be hard? I say..."no it’s fun"...she wants to do it...so she does. So proud kid me and not so sure about dog.
Go tide pooling...lots of hermit crabs scampering about with thier shells on, red and striped and big and small starfish, and seals basking on the rocks. Kid makes friends with another kid and off they go...hundreds of hermit crabs later, lots of screaming at dog..."Hailey! Get out!" we are ready to go. We make turkey sandwiches for lunch on cliffs outside of inn, it can not be any more beautiful. Then off we go to black sand beach filled with flat looking stones. Have a contest who can build the tallest tower with rocks...kid stacks 17 into a tower...THE WINNER! She wants to keep her hermit crabs, long discussion about them needing to live in salt water, she says we have salt and she will salt the water at home ...more discussion, agrees to return crabs that evening. Back to home base, find that new friends have brought us big live crab and a few live starfish. Great!...there goes my lesson of leaving things in their natural habitat but it seems to have clicked and she decides since these gifts are at least marginally alive kid will return them to the sea with her hermit crabs. Treasures go into basket on bike and kid is off.
Dinner again with Annie the 73 year old waitress. Tomorrow Eureka, Ferndale and Redding.

Day 4 Eureka, Ferndale and Redding
Car driving fine, must have been the flat..get tire fixed. Glad I decided to cancel Eureka and gave my self time. Glad we decided not to go back home. Off we go..up 101...to Scotia..I want to do a lumber mill tour...no go, closed..must be fear of ecoterrorists....is it ecoterorfobia?.Also looks like the lumber business is down...I guess that’s good...not sure but there is an aquarium building, the size of my first floor at home with trout and salmon at various stages of growth...Pacific Lumber’s attempt at public relations...we are good guys we have fish hatcheries....oh yeah! and and they only cut new redwoods ...because they grow so fast...yeah...remember the
Magna Carta......Off to Ferndale...cute town, walk around buy things, lose camera bummmer! No pictures of last three days...bummer...don’t discover this until we are at a beach and park on the Eel River..arrive at Van Duzell park .. Get out of car, no camera...I’m upset...verge of tears....mad at self...frustrated with having to hold everything all the time...put camera on roof.....we are settling in for a picnic...kid has set up the blanket, sees me and tries to cheer me up . I say...we have the memories in our brains we will have to remember them...she says "yeah, I even remember when I could not ski". not sure of the connection there in 101 degrees but...great kid....great place. Memories of being at camp as a kid on the Eel start flooding back...as we maneuver over rocks large enough to be difficult but not big enough to make it impossible....we get to the swimming hole. Beautiful, deep clear moving river...I’m ready to jump in...Kid...I have to go to the bathroom....I’m ticked..."why didn’t you tell me earlier?"..."I didn’t know"...I’m mad..."are you mad"...."you are mad because you lost your camera it is not my fault"..."YES you are right"...find toilet go back to swimming in the river under a huge rock. Dive in, skin tingles, swim fast, great, blue green,transparently clear water feels soooo good....the feeling of brisk water cold, air hot. Don’t want to get out but we are off..........round and round...I make a turn and see SMOKE .....more and more smoke, close windows can’t see anything but the road. Arrive in Redding pretty late, hot and lots of smoke and more smoke. Kid sees pool....Swwwwwwwwwwwwimmmmmmmmming.......That night we do KFC...brings back memories of Moscow for both of us, one night after a hard day of walking and getting lost and more lost and more walking we came to our hotel so tired and stopped at the corner and ate KFC on the bed ...a picnic...KFC has never been the same . Decide to eliminate all excursions in Redding...too hot, too smokey, found out they almost closed our road last night due to lack of visibility. Finally a straight shot to Sacramento.
There are few meals I remember for years and years and strangely many have not been in restaurants. There were the sandwiches by the roadside on road trips with my parents, the tomato sandwich my friend shared with me after a bike ride on the Danube and now the with the kid, the blueberries and yogurt at the rest stop on the way to Sac. So sweet, fresh and seemingly decadent.... tastes that still linger in the space between the tongue and the mind.

Day 5 Sacramento to Columbia
Check into the Sheraton,, something great fun about walking with dog through fancy lobby. Great pool and kid of course makes friends in pool. Out of shorts for kid and me..search out a Target head out...close to Thunder Valley so where else for dinner (kid loves buffets because she can see what she gets.. "Momma..what are these people doing?" "Losing money dear"..."That’s stupid" "Yes dear, you are right it is stupid to lose money" . Kid eats a plate full of spaghetti...yes the entire buffet was there but she ate spaghetti!....Next time I'll just get a can of Chef Boy Ardee and nuke it in the room.

Morning. Decide we can’t do Sutters Fort....but must have a tour of the capitol...not the most exciting part of the trip for kid or dog ( who spent the tour in the car, in a shaded parking garage) . The kid on the other hand after looking at the ceiling and floor and saying ahaa" was more concerned about "when it was going to end". So we sat through the assembly and senate chambers (who despite no budget were no where in sight), saw the old governors office and then finally it was over... we took off for Columbia. Garmin for some inexplicable reason took us on the back roads...oh well....finally reaching Melones Dam Reservoir aaaahhhhh! Thoughts of a wonderful swim, parked car off in distance, clothes off suits on..the floatables were all blown up...now to start the car and move it to the swimming area...car won’t move out of park, rev the motor, still can’t switch out of park, rev it again and again and again...call AAA...
."where are you?"
"Tuttletown recreation area" .
"Please be patient while we look it up".....it’s ...101 degrees patience is not really working for me...
car won’t move, Kid starts reverting to Russian roots of "optimism" "we are stuck here for all day now".
" Please be patient we are trying to find it".
"Between Angels Camp and Sonora".....It’s big, humungous, we flooded the entire valley, killed off some wonderful wild rivers, people chained themselves to rocks to stop it and now you can’t even find it!
"Please be patient..." "Thank you for your patience we are still trying to locate it"
"Please be patient"....
Kid in her vestiges of Russian optimism " We are going to be stuck here all day!"
"Please be patient."....
Did I say it was 101 degrees.....Stroke of brilliance...read the manual for the car...t r a nsmission
"car will not move from park unless foot is on brake"...good idea...but how is it that I’ve been driving this car for 7 years and did not know that?
foot on brake, car starts...."Please be patient"..
"problem solved, cancel call"
"I’m glad we could help"
...."HELP....you couldn’t even find us!"
Fabulous swim, kid, dog me. floating around, battling who gets who’s raft....just like it was meant to be...
Off we go to find our lodging for the night...Union Hill Inn...wonderful place, Hailey welcomed like never before run of the place. Innkeeper Barbara very friendly and likes to shop..that is evident everywhere silver, crystal, fake flowers, couches everywhere delightful...Kid finds kitty’s "I love kitty’s"...poor, poor kitties, the smart ones run and hide, the slow one is snatched . "I love kitty" the kid squeals as the kitty gasps for breath having just been squeezed to kid’s chest. ....Dinner, superb at the Diamondback grill....wine from next door, friendly folks ...definitely thoughts of coming back....Great to sit and talk to kid...not much of that at home. There the talk is more about what we are doing next and can she watch TV after homework...now we sit and talk about rattlesnakes and summer camp and when does kid get to pan for gold? Why do people have tattoos? And do I have a crush on the guy at the next table?

Day 6 Columbia to Yosemite.
Morning, Columbia. Gold panning...mom shells out for the loaded pan ...$12.00 , guarantee more gold and garnets.. off we go, shake and dip, shake and dip, one pan done. I think ..let’s go..not so faaaast........."No, I want to find more" as she digs in the sand that has been discarded...digs again, and again....mom is getting real bored......finally enough...off we go with our three thin pieces, no not pieces,slivers of gold (30 times as much is sold in the store for $6.50)...its in the journey grasshopper....
Ride the stagecoach, buy candy...we are out of here..not interested in much old stuff...more old stuff in Krivuha (kid’s home town) she’s seen enough run down old buildings to last a life time...
On the road again.....round and round the mountains...if there was a contest to select a road trip with the most curvy roads...this would be a winner...approaching Mariposa...in the distance small pillar of black smoke, looks like a small fire, just starting .....we see fire truck, helicopters staging to take off..the rest is history...last heard 26 thousand acres burned and still not contained..keep driving, round and round...and round...smoke getting worse and worse feel like we are driving through some apocalyptic landscape just kid, me, dog driving somewhere...arriving at Yosemite View Lodge just enhances that feeling, people, dozens of them lined up at the desk and out into the parking lot....no electricity, no air conditioning, no hot water and NO Discount....kid: "IS there a swimming pool?"
"Yes" all is good....it is hot...I ask for first floor get 4th...what about bikes? We have an elevator...nice but you don’t have power...kid is in pool....all is good...turkey sandwiches for dinner on deck over looking river...good....

Day 7 Yosemite to Lee Vinning
Next morning we arrive in Yosemite valley smoke everywhere, can barely make out Half Dome and El Capitan....park car in shade, take bikes off and head off toward mirror lake, (after having tried to ride with dog on leash...not good idea...bike one direction, dog other)... Get to Mirror lake...no lake...no water just little pools of water, definitely no mirror. Kid makes a sand village (many small sandcastles) with leaves on top..." "Flags".she says, "you know...the American Flag"..ooooh ahhhh..... we ride back to save dog from death...kid feels she has rescued dog from dying....off to buy required T-shirts and souveniers....then to see Yosemite Falls...more like Yosemite Drip...not much ...falling...certainly not the huge, wonderful thundering falls of yon....
Kid climbs all over rocks once again sending my heart into throat. On the road again.

Kid sees beach on Merced River...Swimming.....the best swim yet...yes we must return...for a week, much to do, much to see, just scratched the surface...Merced is brrrrrrrrrrr cold...but love the tingle on the skin, kid has ball for dog, "Get da ball" river is not too shallow and not to deep and not swift, fabulous swimming maybe the best of the trip...on the road again.
Back in car from the beautiful green, lush Tualomee Medows past clear glacier lakes up and over Tioga Pass....round and round..exhilarating,completely awesome ...grandiose and magnificent in its bareness....round and round, down to Lee Vining to meet friends.

Lee Vining, a truck stop surrounded by arid Mountains with small specks of ice in the crevasses, remnants of glaciers, Separated from Mono Lake by Hwy 395, desert, dry, hot. It’s beauty is somewhat surreal, and unearthly, 2 gas stations a few gift shops one with a hugh bronze bear in front selling Native American trinkets and a restaurant or two. Housing consists mostly of a couple of motels and trailers. Booze is cheep and the pour is plentiful. Perfect setting for a 50's film noir... Eat dinner with friends who are joining up with us. It seems that they had arrived earlier in Lee Vining and had been befriended by the 20 something son of a man who seems to own half of Lee Vining and the aforementioned Bronze Bear trinket shop. Very Tennessee Willamesk.....Matt, personable, attractive, grew up in Lee Vining, entire high school had 40 people, left for San Diego to go to college and without finishing headed home. Now tending bar in his fathers restaurant. Matt amuses kid with a plethora of cowboy metal puzzles. Asks her where she is from ...for the second time on this trip she says "San Francisco" ...he looks quizzical ..."It’s not a SF accent". I’m happy, seems to be a shift before it was always "Russia" now she is "from San Francisco"..During dinner the waitress tells Matt that his father is on the way maybe to check on the profits since if Matt’s condition that night was normal, dad’s profits have been having a substantial leak.


Days 8, 9, 10 MONO and JUNE LAKE.
Pictures of Mono lake show a beautiful, stark and otherworldly lake. "Save Mono Lake" appeared on many a the bumper during the 70's. It is even more beautiful than any picture I have seen of the lake and although there was successful legal action to save Mono...in reality little has been done to repair the damage but at least new damage has been somewhat in remission. The water level is to be restored to 1966 levels but instead dropped 2.5 feet in the last two years. Of course we swam in the lake, floating without moving, still, quiet, only the seagulls overhead. Other worldly columns of minerals rising around you. If the moon had lakes it would be like this. Strange to see seagulls so far from the coast ..Kid was afraid to go in but finally after clucking sounds and urging and pleading she did. Not a hit...made body white, hair sticky and boobs hurt? HUH?????? Whatever! Talked about her growing and that boobs hurt when they grow and salt water will not make them hurt. I don’t think.
"I don’t care. You made me swim and now they hurt"
Trying very hard not to say ... "I know everything is my fault" what my mother would have said.
Instead tell kid that probably next year she will be wearing a bra....
Silence...then ..."When I was in Russia I would wonder what would happen to me when I grew up, what would I do? Then one day Olga Borisovna (the school director) came and said "Do you want to go to America, someone wants to adopt you and I said "yes"’
Me "Are you happy?" She "Yes"
As we pull into June Lake she is writing a note, tries to read it to me but can’t read her own handwriting, re writes it then quickly reads it to me:
In Russian: "I have had a good vic (week using Russian letters). I have a good mother and I have a good dog..."
Checked in to the June Lake Pines Cottages...shades of my youth...a two bedroom funky housekeeping cottage that lets dog sleep on the couch and has a laundry...yipppeeee....June Lake beautiful, surrounded by old volcanoes and craters. June Lake, tiny, sleepy, one street,town...ok not even have a video rental store...and no wifi....but great swimming and great scenery. We visit the general store several times...back and forth...don’t know why that happens in places such as this...but it is a form of amusement or ritual...the general store...so you go...once to get drinks, go home, then you inevitably need something else and then again...and again...the ritual completed ....We swam and swam and swam with beautiful water, all 4 of us. Rented a Kayak . Kid is now all about fishing. Luckily friends know how and patiently try to teach her. I’m on Kayak exploring the lake with other friend. As we return..."We need a translator"...It seems that between "I know how to do ...(everything)" (my mother who has had several Russian caretakers thinks this is genetic in "new Russians"...they know how to do everything from birth) and the language barrier kid has had several hits but has not brought in any fish...."We need a translator"... Friend tries to teach "Throw and reel" "back up" "fix your rod by snagging it back"...lots to learn....kid loses a few more, friend tries, gets two 9 inch fish...now what ? Poor fish, going to die can’t release..i can't stand the gasping for breath, close lid of cooler....Kid standing in water for what seems hours...she is committed...still no fish, finally she is convinced by friend that fish just not hungry now... "Now that we have two fish we don’t have to go to a restaurant for dinner do we?". she hates restaurants...its all about adults talking and her not understanding. "Well honey the fish are nice but not enough for dinner". She pouts... but that night at dinner engages all with Hangman...which must be drawn precisely to her direction. Last night in fairly decent well understandable English she decided to tell us her versions of various fairy tales..Hansel and Gretel and others less identifiable ones.
Nice to be stationary for a few days...fires still raging on the West side of Yosemite and pretty sure that 140 is not open besides getting a bit homesick decided not to continue to Cambria...time to go home...friends leaving tomorrow and we will leave the next day via Tahoe. It will be good to get home.
Wednesday, friends left early a.m..trying to figure out what to do...is it wrong to just do nothing?..Is it good? Does it have to be measured as to value? Dog happy on couch...kid sleeping neither worried about assigning value to their endeavor....I think the big event for the day will be swimming...love the lake. Found a great place where dog can hang out we can swim. Not really wanting to go somewhere and nowhere really to go with dog. Tried to go to Devils Postpile yesterday but need to leave dog in car so could not do that. Had breakfast and bought fabulous bread and dipping sauce instead. Need to pack. Weather is great, not too hot but clear and beautiful. No smoke.Think I’ll go to the general store and get one thing then go back again later bit of an empty feeling...kid says she is sad because two friends left...dog is sleeping. Kid watching Sponge Bob, now I’m feeling this is not good but don’t have energy to organize and activity...Deciding wether or not to go to Bodie tomorrow...more old buildings.