Today started innocently enough... We didn't know it at the time, but it was a good thing we got up early. It's funny how being on a roadtrip like this can change your perspective on things. Before, a 4 hour drive was a long day of driving. Now a 6 hour drive like today sounds not all that bad! We were tempted to leave a little later since the drive wouldn't be so bad, but luckily we didn't. We weren't 5 minutes into the drive before we had a check engine light come on. I looked under the hood but naturally nothing was smoking, steaming, cracked, or otherwise going "Hey! I'm broken!!", so we knew we were at least not about to blow up. We had just passed a Toyota dealer, so we went back to it and were told we would have to wait about 2 hours. Knowing that you have 6 hours of driving to do, that does put a kink in your day. We tried to be positive, or rather I tried to keep Dena positive, and I whipped out the laptop in the waiting area and worked on the website.

We finally got out of there around 11:30am, since it was only our O2 (oxygen) sensor. Needs to be replaced, but not the end of the trip. The only downside was that this would limit us on our time for stopping to take photos and trying to see Redwood park. Alas! We'd had very good vehicle luck so far, it was about time for a hiccup.

The trip wasn't bad after that, though the drive was even curvier than going through the Big Sur area. It was just as pretty though! We had better weather for most of it, so it was an awesome drive. Some of the roads were laughable with how many miles you went going maybe one mile in straight line distance. It got even crazier once we moved away from the coast. It's like being in a tree tunnel. You can barely see outside the trees, and you wind your way down the mountains, surrounded by green. Once we finally reached highway 101, we saw a little offshoot where we could drive through a tree, so we laughed and paid our $5. The Echo was an easy fit through the tree, which apparently was over 300 feet tall! Insane trees out here. Where's Wicket?

The remainder of the trip went pretty quick since it was a lot less curved, so we made up a lot of the time and got to Eureka easily! The hotel was actually really nice, aside from a bed that was too firm. Just enough to make sleep mildly uncomfortable. Oh well, we made it!

Goodbye San Francisco! Hello Eureka! Land of… not much!

The drive to Eureka was yet again very beautiful. The coastline is breathtaking as usual. But what's this?! Things changed a bit and we drove through some woods - redwoods that is. The woods are humbling here. There is nothing like this in the East Coast. Our pines and what not are pathetically puny compared to the West Coasts. We took a tiny detour and drove through a tree (yes, that's right, you read correctly). There was a tiny park where a redwood had a hole cut right through it where cars could actually drive through it. And being that my car is tiny it was easy to pass through. The visit was a quick one - we didn't even get out of the car.

Getting back on the road we continue our crazy tree lined and coastal path toward Eureka where there is absolutely nothing there. Or rather - I take that back. It was a nice little town. I mean, c'mon - if a town can have two comic book shops in the same vicinity, it must be pretty nice.

Once we arrived at the hotel we both pretty much crashed. The drive was a long and crazy one. Sleep was a must! Tomorrow will be yet another day of driving the same type of roads. Oy!