Arcata
Our first overnight stop of the trip was Arcata California. Located on the coast, at the very northern edge of California, it is the home of Humboldt state. Going up the coast was a really good idea, as the drive turned out to be gorgeous. I didn’t realize it before, but I had never been up 101 past Marin County, so it was all new to me.
On our way to Arcata, we stopped over in the town of Hopland, home of the Red Tail Ale Brewery. It was a weird mix of historic fancy country club type atmosphere with migrant workers walking around the street. Nothing was really open so we didn’t spend too much time there. One thing of note is that I believe we took notice of our first Subway of the trip in this town.
We stopped for dinner at a pizza place near Eureka, and got some yummy pizza. It was kind of interesting because there were a couple homeless people walking around, and one of them walked into the restaurant. There was some kind of altercation and according to Chris the homeless guy got slapped either by a worker or one of the restaurant patrons. All I heard was yelling but yeah, interesting times.
When searching for a place to sleep, we first tried to get a room at one of Arcata’s motels. Even though it was 1 am in the morning, the motel operator wanted to charge us 80 dollars for a stay that would last less than 6 hrs, so we declined. After driving around for a little bit, we ended up parking by an empty lot behind a motor home/converted city bus to catch a nights sleep. I can say for sure that it was probably one of the most uncomfortable nights in my life, as my car’s leg space was too small for me to lie down, and my seat couldn’t recline into a comfortable position due to all the stuff in the back seat. Added to that was the buzzing mosquito/fly that was buzzing around my head all night. I think I probably got about 4 hours of restless sleep that night.
Arcata seems like it would be an interesting place to live for a year or two. It really reminded me of a really spread out Santa Cruz, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen more dreadlocks in one place before. We stopped at the local coop for some organic figs and strawberries which were yummy, but yeah, lots of hippies and hippy stores.