Day 6: Sacramento to Trinidad, CA

Today concludes what we hope will be the last 10+ hours of straight driving, both for our wallet’s and sanity’s sake. We arrived at a little inn called the “Good Nite Inn” at 3:45am and were given the only room left: a smoking, one-bed room with ripped screens and a partially kicked-in door. Fortunately, both locks on the door still worked. Here we got a much-needed 5 hours of sleep before we hit the road again. Today, Stephanie turned 24 and unfortunately, much of the day was spent in the car. We got a call from Dad that morning, instructing us to search the far reaches of the glove compartment; he had hidden a birthday card. What a wonderful surprise! After a free birthday breakfast at Sacramento’s finest (Denny’s), we headed up Interstate 5 towards Trinidad, a little town just south of Redwood National Park. Luckily, the scenery on the way to the northern Pacific coast was breath taking. There were orchards of apricot trees and vast fields of sunflowers on either side of the interstate. Once in the mountains, our car clung to the curves as we ascended pass after pass of redwood, pine and fir forests, and the Trinity River raging far below us.

Route 299 took us through a beautiful area called Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The air smelled like pine and cedar as the wind blew our hair and the sun shined brightly through our moon-roof. We soon learned that taking 45-degree turns at 35 miles per hour was considered amateur driving. The locals soon schooled us in how to drive these one-laned, hair-pin turns: in 30 year-old pickups, held together with ductape and twine, while navigating the turns at break-neck speeds. As a matter of fact, semi-trucks fully loaded with lumber were blowing past our Jetta like Jeff Gordon with a shopping cart at Wal-Mart.

We finally broke through the sunny forest onto the foggy coastline, and we soon learned about the coast’s dynamic weather patterns. The temperature had dropped significantly and encountered sporadic sections of fog all the way to our campsite in Trinidad. Our bags were immediately ripped apart in the frantic search to find our warmest clothing. Noticing our tent neighbors huddling around their fire in hats, gloves and what seemed like winter parkas, we knew we were in for a cold night. Their dog had a sweater on too. We knew we were close to the redwood forests, but we didn’t realize we would be sleeping at the base of these giant trees. It was already early evening, so we quickly set up our tent, and headed towards the Pacific for some tidal exploring and to catch the sunset.

The cliffs were very steep, but we finally found our way down to the water. We were delighted to find many bright yellow banana slugs (which happen to be the University of California – Santa Cruz’s team mascot) and many flowers that we definitely don’t see in Illinois. A favorite was the wild lavender. The tide had left behind wonderful caches of driftwood and smooth pebbles littered with seaweed and shells. Every now and then, a smooth blue or green piece of sea-glass was found. We were surprised by the bright orange and pink sunset, as fog had just settled on the horizon a couple hours earlier.

Finally realizing that it was 9:30 and that we still wanted to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday with a nice dinner, we scrambled up the rocky path and back to the car. We had to do the old change-in-the-car trick, and soon we were ready for dinner. As we began to drive towards the small town of Trinidad, we noticed that every building was pitch black. We had a sneaking suspicion that the town was closed down for the night, and this feeling grew stronger as we stopped at the local casino in hopes of finding food. This was closed as well, so we headed back to a food mart that had been open just minutes earlier (at 9:45). Just as we pulled up in front of the mart, a man pulled the string to the neon “open” sign, officially dashing our hopes of a mish-mash dinner, which most likely would have consisted of instant potatoes, coldcuts and milk. Now that the only place open was the Chevron gas station across the road, this would have to be where we would have a birthday dinner. I guess we thought circling the shelves of junk food covered in a fine layer of dust would reveal some hidden treasure of an excellent meal in disguise, but to no avail. We had to settle with a microwavable pack of shrimp lo mein noodles, a refrigerated Italian sandwich and a can of Arizona ice tea to share. Happy Birthday!!! No cake this year. Martina’s 21^st birthday is in 12 days and we hope to celebrate in a town that stays open past ten o’clock. With our bellies full, we made the trek back to our quiet campsite. We were shivering for most of the night in what seemed like subzero temperatures. The 45-degree coastal temperature here at night caught both of us off guard. To add insult to injury, Martina ‘s stomach ended up fighting a battle with her lo mein noodles that she unfortunately, did not win. Stumbling out of the tent at 3:30, she officially waved her white flag of surrender and bowed out of the fight. Exhausted and shivering, we quietly gave thanks for this great opportunity of traveling to such wonderful places but also took grave note of Northwest summer temperatures and gas station dinners.