July 30, 2004

Day Seven: Halfway Across California

We woke on the morning of Day Seven to a rain shower in the redwoods. You could hear that it was raining really hard, but so little rain was reaching the ground due to the heavy overstory. All of the banana slugs had disappeared from our campsite, so we weren't able to say goodbye to Flash and Squiggy. Life's like that sometimes.

Strangely enough, a girlfriend of mine from Boise was in her hometown of Arcata, visiting her father. We had plans to meet up with her for lunch, so we took camp down quickly and headed to the campground showers. It was there that I discovered that Millcreek Campground did not supply electricity to the bathrooms, and it was subsequently there that I discovered that the alternating-current plug in on my car will not power a blow-dryer. Dammitalltohell!!!

We had a great lunch in Arcata at a place called Mizotti's. Right outside of the restaurant is the town square, which is where all the kids from Humbolt State University go to buy their pot. I should be fair and say this is where all the drop-outs from HSU go to buy their pot. I was a little surprised, being an innocent Idaho flower. I'm not completely without urban graces, but damn, these kids were baked!

Anyway, Matt and I were very excited because we were pretty sure the Humbolt State University mascot was the banana slug, so after lunch we wound up at the HSU bookstore. We were ready to invest in some serious Banana Slug paraphernalia: sweatshirts, visors, bumper stickers, bongs (just kidding). Turns out HSU is the home of the friggin' Lumberjacks! Disappointed doesn't even begin to describe it, and it wasn't until we got home that we learned it is actually the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Arcata is where we started crossing east across California towards home, so we said goodbye to the ocean and headed for that night's stop in Redding (go Motel 6). Along the way, you pass through Willow Creek, California, which is where the famous "real" film of Bigfoot walking along a riverbed was filmed. Cryptozoologists (those in the know about things that might not actually exist) swear that no human being could walk in the same way this Bigfoot was walking on the film, so it must be true. Plus, you couldn't see a zipper anywhere on the hairy suit, and that lent credence.

Sadly, the Bigfoot Museum was closed, due to it being Monday. I guess there aren't many true believers on the highway on Mondays. Poor Matt was pretty devastated, as it has been a childhood dream of his to visit all the Bigfoot sites that he possibly can. He had to content himself with the picture below.


Hey There, Did You Know I Had a Bigfoot Friend? Posted by Hello