That fool was the terror of Highway 101

The Redwoods

We checked out California highway 1, North of San Francisco. It is a good place to take coastal pictures but not where you would want to drive a big RV.

There were many miles of strangely uninhabited coast and mountain switchbacks. We took some pictures and retreated.

The only sensible way north along the California coast is up Highway 101.

He wore black denim trousers and motorcycle boots

And a black leather jacket with an eagle on the back

He had a hopped-up 'cicle that took off like a gun

That fool was the terror of Highway 101

I always wanted a black leather jacket, but with a chicken on the back...that fool was the terror of Highway 101. I was 13 when that one came out...just then learning to smoke and applying lots of Wild Root Cream Oil to my duck's-tail haircut....when it rained, streams of black stuff would run down my face and neck....

We're in the middle of the redwoods again. Sometimes I feel like a small  asteroid circling the sun...All right redwoods.... here we come, swinging by on our predictable orbit. ... Hello big trees...how have you been.?....so long  big trees, goodbye again.

We go to the grocery store. All the customers look weird with long beards, strange clothing and soul patches. They are my lost people.

We see a large building with a medical apothecary marijuana sign. Next door is a hydroponics and indoor grow light store. I want to live here...as usual Mrs. Phred is a negative influence. I guess I'll just keep orbiting until my apogee decays?

The Puffin Express

North Sydney, Nova Scotia


Captain Mike is a tall thin older guy with a white, scraggly beard. He’s wearing an officer’s uniform with the one stripe of an Ensign on his uniform. Somehow he manages to look faintly disreputable with part of his shirt untucked from his pants.

I’m surprised when he clips on a speaker headset and keeps up an interesting monologue for nearly three hours. It’s about 40 minutes over to the bird islands. The bald eagles are here in numbers. They like to eat gull chicks for breakfast. Mike has a theory about why the the eagles are here earlier this year. It has to do with a poor lobster catch and less food for the gulls to eat as the fishermen change bait in the traps less frequently. We watch some gulls dive bombing an eagle. Mike says the gulls are hungry and less interested in protecting the chicks...maybe so.

Mike starts off with an interesting explanation of the tidal currents that rip though the narrow opening we are navigating between the Atlantic Ocean and the huge saltwater lake, the Bras D’Orr, one of the largest in the world. Sometimes one shore is flowing out, the other in and the middle is ripping trying to fill or empty a big lake though a small channel.

We see a lot of puffins, razorbills (kind of like puffins), great and double crested cormorants, seagulls and seals. There are also black guillemot, great black-backed gulls, herring gulls and kittiwakes.

Captain Mike keeps up an interesting line of patter, explaining about the regions “ferryman” pirates, which makes the place sound a lot like it used to be Somalia.

He has strong opinions about the seagulls, who are exploding in population due to their tendency to eat anything including landfill material. He explains that the gulls eat rodents, which answers one of my big questions. That is... why the bird islands around this area don’t have rats to prey on the bird nests like the islands up in the Aleutian chain.

The puffins dig small nest holes in the rocks over many generations by sharpening their beaks. It reminds me of the legendary small bird that sharpens its beak on a mountain once every 1,000 years and eventually wears the mountain away.
Captain Mike says the seal population has exploded since man killed off the orcas and now the seals are underweight due to over population and over fishing. Mike expounds on the lobster over fishing in the area. There are lobster traps everywhere and the catch is dropping 20% a year. Each of the 300 local lobster fishermen is entitled to 275 traps. They have to come out every day to change the bait in the traps. He says they get 70% of their catch in the first two weeks of the six week season.

Anyway, it’s all very interesting local color and I snap a lot of bird Pix. The puffins are fairly nervous because of the bald eagles and spend most of their time out in the water. They have little wings like penguins so they can fly though the water, but they have to flap pretty hard up in the air and take off into the winds. On this trip, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.

You Can't Keep the Wild Ones

Sarasota, Florida

Salmon fishing in Oregon is good. We cut though the cool fog on the Pacific Ocean for an hour or so, then catch our limit of six Coho salmon in a couple of hours. We can only keep the hatchery salmon with the clipped adipose fins. We throw the wild ones back.

The Oregon sand dunes extend for miles. The weather is very cool on the coast, even in July.

There seems to be a prevailing wind.

This is called Devil's Churn. You get some strange wave effects as the tide changes.

I have an appointment with the Veteran's Administration this morning. They will provide Mom with a pension to help pay for her care at the assisted living center. The application takes five or six months to grind though the bureaucracy. You have to be a combat veteran or a veteran's spouse to receive this assistance.

This seal is clapping for fish parts. He hangs around where the fishing boats clean fish for the customers.

The "feels like" temperature in Sarasota today will be over 100 degrees.



The Columbia River near where Lewis and Clark spent a dismal winter eating salmon until they were sick of it.

The Columbia a few hundred miles to the east of the ocean.

Sunset.

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Coyote Rock RV Park

The fishing trip from Depoe Bay was outstanding. I caught a 24 inch ling cod, two "cabs" and five black rockfish. The RV freezer is about full of fish right now, including the sockeye salmon from last week.

This is a picture of the Siletz River, where we are camped tonight. Tomorrow we'll run north about 50 miles to Tillamook.


I'm making Tuscan Cabs tonight. Cabs are weird looking fish with a big flared collar. Each one makes four meals for two people. They are reputed to be excellent. I usually use this recipe on halibut.

TUSCAN CABS
2 sheets (12 x 18" each) Reynolds Wrap® heavy-duty aluminum foil
1 can (15 oz. each) Great Northern or cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
1 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp. prepared pesto, divided
2 (4 to 6 oz. each) CAB steaks
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1 lemon slices
Preheat oven to 450°F and combine beans, tomatoes, and 1 tablespoons pesto; mix well. Center 1/2 of bean mixture on each foil sheet. Top with one Alaska Halibut steak; drizzle with lemon juice. Sprinkle CABs with lemon pepper. Top with lemon slices. Bring up sides of foil and double fold. Double fold ends to form four packets, leaving room for heat circulation inside packets. Bake 16 to 20 minutes on a cookie sheet in oven. Serve with remaining pesto. Makes 2 servings

This is the bridge coming into Depoe Bay. The town claims it's the world's smallest harbor. I think we saw a much smaller one in Alaska, but whatever floats their boats.
The harbor seals hang out by the fish cleaning place. They slap their flippers in the water, hoping for scraps of fish.

Just outside the mouth of the harbor we saw a whale about thirty feet from the boat. I didn't have my camera, so take my word for it. They like to browse close to shore and eat the shrimp in the kelp beds. This one came up about five times to spout and catch its breath.

Yesterday, Mrs. Phred and I had some clam chowder in Depoe Bay and drove north past Lincoln City. Today the fog cleared and the blue sky came out. A lovely day to be out on the water.

Depoe Bay is fairly touristy in the summer, but nothing like Key West or Martha's Vineyard. They do give the suckers an even break here with good clam chowder, whale watching and great fishing trips.

Fishing Report

Trinidad, California

We watched the shadows lengthen on the Wimbledon courts in the early California morning. Good playing on both sides. Mrs. Phred hides in the bedroom on critical points. She is afraid she will bring Roddick bad luck if she watches. Most of the time this works.

After the game, I went by myself to see the Trinidad State Beach. Mrs. Phred wanted a stay at home day to wash clothes and clean up the RV. I need to fix the tow wires again and check the tire pressures and generator oil before we leave tomorrow.

They are not allowed to fish for salmon in California again this year. The returning salmon population has fallen off a cliff during the last six years. The problem is thought to be declining water volume and quality in the rivers. As agriculture draws more water into canals and then returns it to the rivers, the water temperature rises and the water quality and volume diminishes with the addition of insecticides, fertilizers and other pollutants.

The Shenandoah leaves on an afternoon fishing trip at 1 PM. We catch our limit of black rockfish in about three hours. I end up with about ten pounds of rockfish fillets. We cook some in bread crumbs and olive oil for dinner and freeze the rest in portions for two. I make some brown rice and vegetables to go with the fish.

After we limit out, the crew asks if we want to watch them pull crab traps. They have a hydraulic device on one side of the boat (I've forgotten whether it's called the port or starboard side) to pull in the traps.

None of the passengers actually want any of the crabs, so the crew returns them all to the sea.

A great day for fishing. Today we'll visit some of the redwood parks and maybe play some tennis before heading up the Oregon coat on highway 101. I have always wanted a black leather jacket with a chicken on the back.

He wore black denim trousers and motorcycle boots
And a black leather jacket with an eagle on the back
He had a hopped-up 'cicle that took off like a gun
That fool was the terror of Highway 101

The California Coast

Trinidad, California

Here's a picture of our RV park. The redwoods are tall and thick.


We went to the Trinidad beach in the morning. The temperature never got much above 55 degrees F., but the fog finally cleared a little in the afternoon.


We drove to a kind of junky place in Eureka in the California. It was called King Salmon Avenue. We were struck by the work of a roadside artist. His (or her) website was rust.lust.com.

These were strange, large iron sculptures...covered with rust. The artist took off for the 4th of July.

In the afternoon we visited Patrick's Point State Park. We bought a little rock cod at a local fish market to cook for dinner. I'm rubbing it with sea salt and pepper and serving it with lemon and butter.

Patrick's Point had some nice views of the Pacific.

We saw this seal sleeping on a rock at Patrick's Point State Park.

The viewpoints require you to climb down steep paths. I stepped in a hole and fell again, but this time I didn't damage the camera. Mrs. Phred gave me an odd look as I climbed back to my feet. I begin to wonder if she has doubts about my competence.

At another point we saw sixty or eighty sleeping seals. A bald eagle was floating motionless on the strong updrafts at about 600 feet. Suddenly it folded its wings and dive bombed down to retrieve a fish.

Mrs. Phred wants to watch the Wimbledon finals in the morning. Personally, I've booked a fishing trip. This seal was in the marina where the boats go out.