Eureka, CA to Meyers Flatt, CA - 54 miles
Getting out of the tent early was easy this morning because the hot tub was calling my name again. It was covered up, but there were no posted hours, so I helped myself.
We went grocery shopping in Eureka before heading out for the day, but it was a little different than typical shopping on this trip. Eureka has a Costco. We obviously didn't buy much, but we stocked up on the items we use most - peanut butter, honey, nuts, soap. Another rider at camp this evening couldn't believe that we did Costco shopping on a bike tour! We are discovering that there is a whole different dynamic when touring as a family. When we meet a group traveling together, they typically each still have their own gear. 3 cyclists travel with 3 tents, 3 stoves, etc. Traveling as a family, we share a lot of those things.
Last fall in Houston, a friend invited us to the Rock and Gem Show. We saw geode splitting demonstrations, participated in the archeological dig and saw more rocks and gems than we could name. This year, of course, we're not in Houston to attend, but we stopped by a Gem and Mineral shop on our route today. We didn't see any demonstrations, but we did peruse the shop and museum and saw more gems and minerals than we could name. We aren't just homeschooling now, we're travel schooling.
The most exciting part of the day was Avenue of the Giants. We broke away from 101 to travel through the Redwoods. I finally learned the difference between a redwood and a Sequoia. If you're interested, keep reading. There are 3 types of redwood trees. The Dawn Redwoods grow only in Asia and are the smallest of the redwood varieties. The Coast Redwoods grow in Northern California and are the tallest variety, while the Sequoia Redwoods grow in Central California and are the largest in diameter. There's your botany lesson for the day.
At some point today we passed the half way mark! Yay!
