Avoiding the Bulk of the Rain in Fortuna, CA

We beat a hasty retreat out of Brookings, OR just ahead of several days and several inches of rain, bypassing some stops we'd been considering in the redwoods. Riverwalk RV Park in Fortuna, CA was nothing special, but it had paved roads and sites and was in an area where we'd be able to get decent internet if we were stuck inside for several days.

We ended up with a couple of inches of rain off and on over four days...much less rain (and wind) than we'd have experienced in Brookings or other points north of Fortuna. Once free of rain we did some exploring...

The "Victorian Village of Ferndale, CA" sits just five miles west of Fortuna and is a fun place to stroll and admire some wonderfully preserved old buildings. In the late 1800's Ferndale was an agricultural and transportation hub, today it is a sweet tourist destination and an historic landmark.

The Old Steeple/Music Store in Ferndale is owned by Paul and Sherry, friends of Hans.
We'll return later in the week for a concert in this wonderful old venue.

Let's take a stroll down main street Ferndale...

The cemetery on the edge of town was as interesting as the buildings.

We found the hiking around Fortuna to be pretty mild, but interesting enough to get us outside. Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge lies a few miles north of Fortuna and is an Important Bird Area, though the prime birding season is November through May. There are several Refuge units located around this huge bay and we visited two: Hookton Slough and Salmon Creek.

Lovely fall foliage covered Hookton Slough.

We watched several large flocks of Marbled Godwits fly past...the sound of hundreds of birds wings was mesmerizing!

Egret in Salmon Creek.

A fresh water pond at Salmon Creek Unit.

Many flocks of a hundred or more Canada Geese flew overhead during our three mile walk at Salmon Creek Unit.

Headwaters Forest Reserve, located just south of Eureka, CA, protects the headwaters of the Elk River and an intact, old-growth redwood forest. We hiked the first three miles of the 5.5 mile Elk River Trail.

The first mile is paved and signs along the way describe the turn of the century mining town. Falk, that used to thrive here. Beyond the pavement the gravel trail continues through lush second growth redwood forest along the babbling Elk River, which was more of a stream in mid October. Had we continued to the end of the trail we would have seen the old-growth forest the Reserve is protecting.

Morning dew enhances a spiderweb in deep, dark, damp redwood forest.

A large leaf maple is fully engulfed in moss along the Elk River.

Banana slugs.

Hans played pickleball several times at Fortuna's Rohner Park, meeting some lovely folks who invited us to dinner...thanks Karen and Joe for your wonderful hospitality! Rohner Park also has a couple of miles of trails that we walked one afternoon.

An old-growth redwood stump towers over Hans in Rohner Park.

Karen and Joe gifted us some beautiful leeks and shallots from their garden.

We stayed an extra night in order to see Sierra Hull in concert at the Old Steeple in Ferndale. Thanks to Paul for introducing us to his lovely venue...a magical, intimate setting for live music!

Stained glass windows in the Old Steeple, Ferndale, CA.

On Thursday we continued our slow meander towards San Diego, with a curvy drive (that was hard on Rosie) through redwood country. Lets see what kind of fun we can find in Ukiah, CA...

Wrapping Up Five Weeks of Weird and Wonderful Austin

"Keep Austin Weird", the slogan you hear, and see, time and time again about this city we've just spent five weeks in seems to get to the heart of how Austinites feel about their city. It's big and bold and bustling. In the center of the city, art, progressive thinking and entrepreneurship seems to be the rule of the day. The average age of its population is approximately 34, one of the youngest in the US.

Austin is also one of the fasted growing cities in the US. The infrastructure, such as roads, have not kept up with the growth and the traffic is horrendous. Housing prices are skyrocketing, making the most desirable city neighborhoods unaffordable for many of the creative folks who make this city "weird"; something we've seen in other big cities (like San Diego and Portland, OR), gentrification tends to squeeze out those who gave the place its original flavor.

The surrounding suburbs are typical of most large cities, full of communities of similar houses, chain stores and restaurants...why does growth have to be so generic? A drive through the suburbs of Austin leaves you wondering what's so weird about this place???

One thing we wanted to accomplish during our stay here was to become Texas residents. Oregon was a good choice for us when we left California and started fulltime RVing, but going forward Texas will work better for us due to no state income tax.

We also discovered this week that the health care plan we'd chosen through the Oregon health exchange did not provide the full nationwide coverage that we thought it did, despite lots of research before purchase. Why are healthcare plans so complicated??? As of April 1st we will be on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas exchange plan, with participating doctors all over the US, another reason why switching to Texas was good for us.

We've been busy since our last post...

This past week we had the pleasure of seeing our friends Zsuzsa (Z) and Tom, brand new fulltime RVers. We met them in October in Palm Springs where they were hoping to sell their condo and hit the road.

According to Murphy's Law the condo sold in the middle of winter and they had to travel to the midwest where they became South Dakota residents, purchased their truck, then moved on to Ohio where they took delivery of their brand new Bighorn 5th wheel. All that took a couple of months and these warm weather people withstood some pretty frigid weather in order to realize their dream!

It was so fun to see them enjoying their new home! They are currently making their way back to Palm Springs where they will finish outfitting their RV from their storage unit. They stopped in Austin to spend a few days with us and we went on two hikes together and ate a couple of meals together...we were honored to be their first dinner guests!

Z and Tom and their beautiful new home on wheels!

One of our hikes took us back to McKinney Falls State Park...
what's that we see hanging off the tree along Onion Creek?

A water moccasin!

Several Great Blue Herons were nesting along Onion Creek.

First dinner guests in the shiny new Bighorn!

Lately we've stuck close to town taking care of some business so our daily walks have been of the urban kind. Fortunately Austin has numerous creeks running through town with trails along them so it's easy to make a creek/neighborhood loop. We walked the Shoal Creek Greenbelt again, this time making it a loop through the Pemberton Heights neighborhood; it's full of fancy mansions, some dating back to the late 1800's.

A modern castle in Pemberton Heights.

There were many homes with columns in Pemberton Heights, these two seemed especially Southern flavored.

Another day we made a loop out of the Blunn Creek Greenbelt and the historic Travis Heights neighborhood, another wonderful old neighborhood filled with a mix of historic and new architecture and enormous old oak trees.

Blunn Creek.

Another castle!

We then met up with local friends Ashley and Lila to celebrate Ashley's 60th birthday and meet a few of his numerous siblings.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Austin considers itself a "music city" and the month of March is jam packed full of musical events. The weekend following SXSW offers up the very unique HONK!TX. HONK is a festival of community street bands and was unlike anything we had seen before. Marching bands converge here from all over the country and perform for free for three days in public spaces.

These are not your typical high school or college marching bands, though many of the musicians may have gotten their start there. This is an eclectic mix of music lovers playing everything from klezmer and balkan to New Orleans style brass and reimagined popular music from the last 50 years.

We managed to catch a small part of the festivities and really enjoyed the lively music and the people watching. Many of the attendees don their most colorful and outrageous combinations of clothing, making this a feast of color and joy for the eyes!

The musicians are as colorful as the backdrop.

March Madness put on a fun, high energy show!

This past week we discovered pretty Slaughter Creek Preserve in South West Austin. This is an easy five mile loop hike through meadows and oak and cedar forest. The elevation gain and loss is minimal, dogs are not allowed, bikes do the trail clockwise while horses and hikers go counter clockwise. Even though you do hear some road noise and neighborhood noise, it still feels peaceful, especially on a weekday morning. If you want to hike here during rainy season check their Facebook page before you go to make sure the trail is open.

We were glad to have cloud cover the day we hiked, Austin has been warming up quickly!

Austin has been a busy and exciting stopover but now we're ready to slow things down a little. Tomorrow we move on to Fredericksburg where we are looking forward to small town Texas vibe as well as a little more nature in our lives.

A Little Nature and Lot of Music!

On a clear day we ventured out to see a couple of Austin sights with local friends Ashley and Lila. First stop: Mount Bonnell, a wonderful spot to view the Colorado River and some very fancy homes on the riverfront. At 780 feet, this is one of the highest points in Austin.

Hans, Lisa, Lila and Ashley atop Mount Bonnell.

Next we drove a short distance to Mayfield Park, a lovely little oasis in the city. There are a couple of miles of trails plus the pretty grounds to explore...and peacocks!

Hans looks up to find a couple of peacocks overhead.
We saw about a dozen male peacocks hanging around in the trees and on the rooftops.

The redbuds are providing brilliant color all over town right now.

This little guy was only about 4 inches long.

So bright they look fake!

As I mentioned in a previous post, SXSW seems to explode across the core of the city for 10 days. Thousands of people are walking the city streets and every block offers up dozens of options for music and food. Some are official SXSW events where a very expensive badge is required for access, some are "unofficial" events and are open to the public and free. Depending on the popularity of the musical acts, there may or may not be a line or a crowd.

One fine day we made our way to the E. 7th St. corridor to see some free live music. We'd learned that staying East of interstate 35 usually meant fewer crowds and you might only have to park a few blocks from your venue of choice. We were headed for Hotel Vegas, a popular venue for live music with a large outdoor patio and stage. Arriving early, around 1pm, we got right in, met up with a friend, and enjoyed several hours of music. By the time we left the venue about 5pm, it was packed and had a long line...timing is everything during SXSW!

We're standing right in front of all girl surf band, La Luz, at Hotel Vegas.
What you can't see in this shot is how very crowded the venue had become...

This is how packed Hotel Vegas can get as the afternoon wears on!

Way back in 1980 in Albuquerque, Hans met Ryan through music...flash forward to the present and Ryan lives in Austin and plays bass in a band, the Barebones Orchestra. One evening they played a benefit gig for The Center for Music Therapy, where we enjoyed both Barebones and other musicians related to the Therapy Center, including the very talented Emily Morris.

Barebones Orchestra.

Another day we parked on the East side of interstate 35 and walked over to the crazy West side to attend two free events at the convention center: the Flat Stock show and the Gear Show. Flat Stock consists of band posters and there was some incredible art on display and for sale. This would be a neat place to buy art if we had a home to put it in!

The Gear Show consists of all the latest goodies for musicians. Walking the aisles we were thrilled to see the Center for Music Therapy's booth. We spent a few minutes chatting with the Center's founder and president, Hope Young, about music therapy. Through music, therapists are able to help people of all ages (infant through geriatric) with cognitive, emotional and physical issues. From our two encounters with the Center's staff we could see how much they love their work and we have a new appreciation for the power of music.

Hope Young, Center for Music Therapy.

Hans had fun trying out various guitar effects.

Guitars made out of oil cans!

Figuring out what to see at SXSW can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of bands playing at possibly hundreds of venues, all day, every day! Hans, being the music guy in our house, has spent hours researching what we want to attempt to see. He came across a band we knew of from Los Angeles, The Two Tens, who happened to be playing a couple of gigs during SXSW. We caught them at their "unofficial" gig, an afternoon show at the Lost Well, a dive bar on the East side, where parking was easy and we even got a free beer!

The Two Tens rocking the house.

SXSW is an event unlike any we've seen before. It is enormous and really kind of overwhelming! But if you do your research and go with the flow it can be a lot of fun. We're glad we are staying outside of town and have learned the simplest and least congested ways to get to the heart of the city...we can get in and out of the craziness pretty easily and return to our quiet little cocoon on wheels when we've had enough. We've noticed that the sound systems at every venue are set up to be extremely loud so ear plugs are a must.

We are due for some nature and good long hikes...if the rain ever stops. Yes, it's raining again!