Lost and Found

Day 37  Monday 9^th May 2011

The day started off with an excellent start – I found the missing hard drive stuffed down the sleeve of my inner jacket. I must have put it down on top of the jacket when unpacking and then by some quirk it slipped down to the elasticated wrist where it lodged as I hung up the garment. I am very pleased. 

Despite weather forecasts to the contrary it did not rain on our parade in Ukiah and this morning was a clear, crisp, sunny start to the day. We refuelled at the nearby Chevron and spotted the signs for the 101 northbound to Eureka so off we went on today’s sojourn.

We had pre-booked a motel in Redding, California and we checked out the maps to find a route east from the 101 and our fingers fell upon route 36 at Alton. This was a good choice. About 30 miles south of our turn off at Alton we encountered signs for an alternative route through the Avenue of Giants so we took the opportunity to take a closer ride through the redwood trees and, true to their name, they were BIG.   

We travelled through the trees for a few miles before rejoining the 101 just before our turn east towards Redding.  The 36 wound itself upwards into the hills, the turquoise Eel River meandered below us, the sun shone brightly, eagles soared above us, chipmunks darted across the road and, all in all,  the ride was heavenly.

 

Riding through the Redwoods

 

We passed the sign for Redding and continued until we met the Platina Road leading to Placer Road. This ride was something else. Huge vistas across the valley to the snow peaked mountains in the distance.  It was a long way down off the unguarded road as well if we messed up a corner and some of those beasties were very tight but we made it through until we were spit out into the bustle of the City of Redding. 

We had programmed our sat navs with the address of the motel but had both input the same street but different numbers. When we arrived we were in amongst a sea of hotels and motels but we had forgotten to make a note of the name of which one we had booked. We plumped for the Value Inn and it turned out to be the right one. The nearby Thai restaurant filled our boots and we retired happy with what the day had given us.