From Crescent City home

We awoke very early and decided we might as well start driving. By 6 am we were out of there and looking for a place for good coffee. By 7 we were on the Scenic Hwy. to Prairie Creek Redwoods. This time we saw a large group of elk in the fields close to houses, rather than in the Elk Viewing park, and one lone one without antlers close to the park entrance. They were busy munching their breakfast and let us take lots of pictures.

Eight thirty brought us to the Ferndale area. It was very quiet, basically asleep yet, so we drove out the Petrolia road looking for a good view of the ocean. We eventually found our favorite view from a driveway on the way to Centerville Beach. We also found an abandoned house with a great view of the ocean and fields from the yard.

Back in Ferndale we found a coffee place with an inexperienced barista and dry scones. We walked the streets till things opened at 10 so we could go into the old Mercantile that we had enjoyed in years past. They now market a few things with their label which make nice gifts. In the cute shop "Times Remembered", they had great old styled wooden toys, but shockingly marked 'Made in China' on the bottom. So disappointing. Not all the stores were open and there definitely were not a lot of tourists. The old hardware store from the 80's is not a Cultural Museum, and the bakery is gone.

After a few more loops around the area and interesting photos we headed for home. The GPS says 429 miles so we should be able to get home tonight. The rest of the trip was basically uneventful. The most interesting things to note was the change in temperature from 60's and 70's on the coast and Ferndale to 102 deg. by Cloverdale; and the changes in price of fuel from $4.79 in Fortuna, and $4.51 to $4.69 in other areas. What a difference from Oregon's $4.19 and they pump the gas.

When the S.F. traffic got too heavy on the 580 we decided to stop for dinner and let the traffic let up a bit. It worked and we pulled up at our house just at 10:00. That made 500 miles on our last tank of gas and an average of 50 mpg. Not a bad last day.

Our total trip was 2985 miles with about $35 worth of gas a day, and averaging 46mpg. This is city driving and mountain driving.