We're Outta Here!

It's Time

Time to move out! This will be the last post on the Blogspot site. From here on out you'll find this blog remade and more readable at www.FerryTrails.com. It is already up and running with more features including maps, tags and other new features.

Since Google gives a user little control, I can't tell if you are an occasional visitor or regular subscriber. If you are a subscriber then I can't move your subscription over - you'll have to subscribe at the new site (it's also more user friendly, I hope). If you are an occasional visitor, then just bookmark the new site and you are done.

Thanks for following along - hope to see you at the new website!

Bill

STONEHENGE SOLSTICE

Sometimes It's Just Another Day

This is a full sized replica of the structure of the same name found in the UK. Though astronomically correct, its primary purpose was not intended as a Druid calendar but as a memorial for those from Washington State who lost their lives in WW I. The town that once surrounded this Stonehenge burned down.

For these folks, Stonehenge was a place for a chance encounter. Salt Lake missionaries meet Yakima barrio boys. 

Looks a little rough around the edges doesn't it. So does the new site but in the next few weeks it should be ready to go. The curious are welcome to click this link and poke around. Feedback would be appreciated.

TULE LAKE #7

Cool Cave!

Lava Beds National Monument is as much about what's underground as above. With over 700 caves the Monument has largest concentration of lava tube caves in North America. Tennessee takes top honors for total number of caves of all kind as it averages 4 for every square mile in the state. This is Valentine Cave, so named for the date it was discovered in 1933.

The ceiling varied from smooth to stippled, as above. In the small area we explored near the entrance, portions of the cave roof were iridescent when hit by light. In another area, you could see where chunks had not long ago fallen off. You want a quick dose of spooky? Just turn your flashlight off.

Trying to persuade those a wee bit afraid of the dark. Better flashlights would have helped.

Whether is is a function of the cave or something else, we noticed a number of Juniper trees near the mouth of Valentine cave with a parasitic growths.

A closer look and it appeared to be mistletoe-like.

Something new to me - "Wag Bags." No need to explain further.

NO, NO, NO!

And We Mean NO!

It started innocuously with a standard sign seen commonly in many places. This place was a parking lot near a lake at McArthur-Burney Falls State Park. In just a few minutes looking around the same parking lot we witnessed all the signs shown below. There were duplicates that I didn't photograph as well.

In the slow turn around we did in the parking lot, we became numbed by all the prohibitions.

Coming up the grade from the lake, we saw this last sign. What irony. Welcome to California.

PIGS CAN FLY

Really!

Tucked away on a local county road to seemingly nowhere, we came across quite a mesmerizing playground of imaginative creatures.

The skeleton of a VW underpins this bit of whimsy. Even the local finches approve.

Lacking only snow, steel eyed sportsmen stood frozen but ready.

12' tall penguins, dragonflies the size of small helicopters, nightmarishly long wiener dogs, giant inchworms, oversized crickets, pastel dinosaurs and so much more.

What held my eye the longest? This old 1949 Ford Ready-Mixed Concrete truck, which was very close in year to the first mixers that our family owned. The story behind all this creative iron is a rock, sand and concrete manufacturer called Packway Materials and a man that spends his slow winters creating great folk art. If you thought some of the other places mentioned in the blog have been out of the way, go see where this place is on the adjoining map link on the sidebar.

YO! CHICO!

Walking The Dog

Young Cory here is a yo-yo master. Winner of a number of national competitions, he is also an employee at the National Yo-Yo Museum. 

Who knew this almost hidden delight existed in Chico, California, as part of a larger toy store.

Home to thousands of varieties of yo-yos including the worlds largest (and working) yo-yo, which weighs in at 265 lbs. 

Surrounding this monster are cabinets full of yo-yo's, some dating back to the first yo-yo made in the 1920s. 

In the 1950's the name found on most yo-yos was Duncan. Today, practitioners apparently go for the Kuhn brand. Colorfully named models now proliferate: No-Jive Rainbow, Tom Cat, Flying Camels, Quetzal Mandala and Sleep Machine. Some of them can be found on this clever takeoff on the traditional periodic table of elements. This would have been much easier to memorize in high school.

Backstopping some of the yo-yo trophies kept in this nationally recognized museum are some of the basic tricks that many of us learned (or tried to learn) as kids, including "Walking The Dog." I was pretty proficient in most of them (except "Around The World"- the yo-yo usually beaned me when I tried it) but the tricks that can be performed today are nothing short of amazing. 

Here Cory demonstrates a new type of yo-yo, the aptly named "Off String". This 7 second clip is the first video I've used in the blog and am not sure how well it will work. Please et me know.

DUNCANS MILLS 2

The Charm

There were few stores in this small town but nearly all were geared for the tourist. 

The window of this shop really caught my eye as the array of tea pots on view were intricately colorful.

This barn is the only remaining structure from the mill at Duncans Mills, now used as a meeting room at the RV park.

An unadvertised draw to this little corner of the world is the placid Russian River. 

Spring was underway in Duncans Mills. I certainly recognize the wild azaleas at right but was stumped by the colorful blossom in the planter at right. Looked a little like a Christmas ornament.

 This climbing vine hadn't yet gotten the word that Spring was here.

Read the sign. Smile. This little bit of whimsy was down the road in another small town: Monte Rio.

SO THAT'S WHAT THEY DO

The Not-So-Secret Life Of Airstreamers

Just another tailgate party? Well sort of, this was just a small measure of mischief exhibited at an informal Airstream rally. 

The event was held near Duncans Mills which is on the Russian River in Northern California between Santa Rosa and the Coast.

There is an entire wing of Airstream owners who revere the vintage trailers (made 25 or more years ago). This man not only has a beautifully restored vintage trailer, he pulls it with an near vintage Buick. The motorhome with the awning out in the background is even an Airstream product.

There are cooks aplenty on potluck night - and mouths enough to eat near everything. This particular gathering drew about 100 people which translated into 55 trailers and a few motor homes. You can barely see the folks at the far end of the long line of tables.

Rally organizer Jeff is trying to see if this burro is interested in pulling an Airstream. 

The burro wanted to know instead if he could have a taste of the potluck and maybe a little wine.

EEL RIVER

 It's A R'eel' Place 

Home to rock eating river serpents,

Herbivorous titans,

And home to a beautifully colored blue rock just waiting to be noticed.

A real bonus to our campground on the Eel was that we had the river to ourselves.

 It might have just been another place to layover but it was full of treasures to be found and shared. 

Hello Confusion

Bemusement This Way

That would be one of the many signs directing you to stop at Confusion Hill, a long established roadside attraction in Northern California. Opened in 1949, this place has even achieved a "California Point of Historical Interest"for its longevity and quirky nature.

One of Confusion Hill's clam to fame is "The World's Largest Freestanding Chainsaw Carving", pictured above.

There is a 1.5 mile narrow gauge railroad that weaves in and out of the many redwoods and a "gravity" house which would probably be familiar to those of us who used to visit Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County, California..."Watch water run uphill"... you get the idea.

They have their own version of the Shoe House and many wooden sculptures including the cougar threatening an eagle perched above. 

For years what most of us paid attention to as we passed this area along Hwy 101 was the unpredictable hill above the road. You always wanted to check the road condition as the Confusion Hill Slide, as it was known, could spew rock down its face and shut the road. Today, with two new bridges, the highway twice leaps over a big bend in the Eel River to avoid the slide area. The benign looking face of rock at the far left of the image is left to crumble on its own.

The new bypass initially played havoc with attendance at Confusion Hill as traffic no longer drove past the attraction. Then noted TV travel videographer Huell Houser did a show on the place and that ended up helping them.

As I was walking away the spell of Confusion Hill befuddled me as I witnessed a caravan of virtually identical trucks passing over one of the new bridges. How do it know???