Wednesday’s adventure kicked off with breakfeast at, you guessed it, Good Harvest Cafe. Jim raved so much about the red snapper at the first breakfast, that three-quarters of our party did that, including Flip. They were not disappointed. Laura tends to go her own way, but really had a great culinary experience, too.
We wound up going straight to the Oregon Caves National Historic District, after contemplating more redwood adventures at the Hiouchi Visitor Center. Good thing, as there was a 1.5 hour wait, once you made the twisty-turny, crazy ride up. Baby-rider Laura did really well passing her first reality switchback and hairpin turn test. However, parking at the top posed a real problem. As she pulled into the slot, the downhill slope overwhelmed her motorcycle mass, and as she screamed “catch me” over and over into her helmet microphone, she slowly and inexorably headed toward the ground.
Her traveling companions were helpless, and everyone knew how this was going to play out – horizontally. Laura survived with a scrapped elbow and a tweaked highway peg (bikers will know). The trip down was truly a denouement, but fun to take all those curves.
Shout out to Shilo Inns in Grant Pass as their regular $81 rate went down to $64 since Carl was in the Air Force.
We are battle-weary, cave-competent and wanting this adventure to go on forever.
Thursday, it’s Crater Lake, the Vortex and maybe, Bend.
Play on!
If ever in Crescent City, you must dine at Good Harvest Cafe. Jim could not get over the red snapper breakfast, so after coming back for dinner and then breakfast on Day 5, Flip decided to give it a try. His assessment, two pseudo-thumbs up.
Flip translates for the ranger what the biker boys are really trying to say. Doing double duty as mascot AND chaperone is very taxing. At the Hiouchi Visitor Center in the Jedediah Smith campground in the redwoods.
Just getting to the Oregon Caves is an experience, certainly not for the faint of hearts. No trailers, and switchbacks and hairpin turns galore. We lived to tell.
So, no Flips, purses, machetes, machine guns or chainsaws are allowed in the cave, so Flip will have to hangout with the bikes. Bittersweet, but probably for the best.
Before his banishment from the cave area, Flip reflects on his journey at a pond created from the stream coming from the caves.
Yep. That sky is real as are the fluffy clouds. The sun was vicious, and while we complained and perspired, we secretly relished ditching the California cold.
If you subscribe to the 7th Generation theory, that we are the caretakers for seven generations out, this comparison of the free-from-impurities stalactite drips that are pure after the human-influenced and brown or tan dips, then you get it. What you see is a white, fluorescent drip, as opposed to those colored by human touch.
Add fluorescents, and it’s a wild ride.
According to Fitbit, we’ve done 29 flights of stairs and are still smiling. Bring on the shin massagers.
Inside one of the last rooms in the caverns at the Oregon Caves National Monument. Sexy space alien stuff. Wow! Learned that when we toured caverns in our youth, they used colored lights., So, that’s why I think of stalactites and stalagmites as being pink and blue.
On our “easy way” down from the caves (yeah, Team ’08!) we paused for a shot and unwittingly caught mama deer hying up the trail, while her two cutie fawns bounced down. Nice nature touch, courtesy of the National Forest Service. Good, job!
This is the 3-D Flip representing on the road from the caves to the parking lot. He’s a brave wannabe spelunker.
