Day Two, Part One: Christy Mystery Goes to Trees of Mystery

Introduction:  I recently passed a milestone birthday, one of those numbers that as a child seems so impossibly large that you never expect to get there.  It came at the end of two years of personal disaster (see this post for an explanation, if you haven't already read it), and at a time when I desperately needed something good in my life.  I tossed around a lot of ideas of how to celebrate surviving the last year (lots of hospital time was involved) and making it to my birthday.  Finally, my husband and I decided to go see the Redwoods.  We had driven through several times, but always on the way to somewhere else.  This time, we would just head south and see what we could see.  We did some searching, settled on a few (very few!) priorities, and started making plans.  Somewhere along the way, we discovered a cool resort south and east of the big trees, where every "room" was a converted caboose, and decided that would be fun and unusual, exactly what we were looking for.  

These posts are my daily reports of our trip: the things we saw, the places we went, and the people we met as we drove approximately 1,500 miles in the course of six days, and had an adventure.  I tried to write down my impressions each night before bed, or over my first cup of coffee in the morning.  I wanted the memories to be fresh, undiluted by another day or days of travel and experiences.  I can only hope you enjoy reading them a fraction as much as I enjoyed living them.  (If you missed Part One, click here.)

Day Two: Christy Mystery Goes to Trees of Mystery

(I thought I was going to do a post for each day, but when I started putting in the photos I decided this had to be in at least two pieces.  We'll see if I can get it all in two ...)

Slept, not late but until 9 or so.  Then up for a quick breakfast at the Best Western in Brookings, and on the road to California.  Down 101 through Crescent City to Trees of Mystery.  Yes, Christy Mystery went to Trees of Mystery.

Wonder Stump Road, one of the storied places in the Redwoods

Along the way, though, we had a couple adventures. Several years ago we drove through the Redwoods and saw a road sign for "Wonder Stump Road."  We promised ourselves we would come back someday and try to find out what is a "Wonder Stump."  Well, Steve did a little investigating and found that it was an old, old stump, named long ago.  It had fallen and then a tree had grown out of it.  It was on a postcard in the 1930s or 40s and became famous because of it - here's a link to the National Geographic page about the Wonder Stump.

 It is now on private property, and we heard it is nearly rotted away, so we didn't get to see the actual stump.  What we did see (and, sadly, failed to get a picture of) was a one-lane road through massive trees that came right to the edge of the pavement with exposed roots occasionally intruding into the single lane.  In one place the road took a sharp right turn to avoid a giant tree that had been left standing right in its path.  It was simply one of the most impressive things I have ever seen.

The street sign for Star Trek Lane, with no signs, of course!

We also stopped to take a picture of a street sign that wasn't there.  Which was exactly what we expected.  You see, on the map that shows Wonder Stump Road there is an intersection with Star Trek Drive.  Now we had to see that - but we didn't believe for a minute that the road sign would be there.  We fully expected that it would have been stolen, and we were right.  We took a picture of the empty pole to prove our point.

Finally, after our drive down Wonder Stump Road and on through Crescent City, we reached the Trees of Mystery.  This is one of those roadside attractions that was born in the late 40s, in the boom that followed the end of the Second World War.

Paul Bunyan, icon of Trees of Mystery

There are "life-size" statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe in the parking lot, inviting you into the attraction, From there you pay admission and start up a path that leads through an old-growth redwood forest.

Paul's famous Blue Ox. Babe

The main trail is 8/10th of a mile and has some ups and downs.  It's a fairly easy walk, especially since visitors want to stop every few feet to take in the sights.

World's Largest Family Tree.  Impressive? You bet!!

One of the many fascinating things along the path is a "family tree."  This is a tree with multiple trunks growing vertically from its branches.  These new trunks start from branches that are 40 or 50 feet (or more) off the ground.  The picture here is of the largest family tree, with twelve trees growing up from the branches on a single tree.

One of the uphill stretches along the main path.  

 Partway through you reach the lower terminal of the Sky Trail, a 1/3 mile gondola ride through the trees that rises 571 feet to the upper station.  Once there, the view is breathtaking.

One the gondola cars on the Sky Trail

The ride is pretty spectacular, too; seven minutes of gliding through trees hundreds of feet tall in a small observation car.  The capacity of the cars is supposed to be six, but some of them better be little kids!

The ride soars over a trail that can be hiked from the base of the ride to the upper terminal.  It is only recommended for hikers in reasonably good physical shape, equipped with proper footwear.  We decided riding was the better choice.

Looking down the hill at the car in front of us

Below the car you can also see a rough staircase which, according to the ride operator, is used to access the towers for maintenance.

As I said, the view from the top was amazing.  You can see for miles, incredible vistas of mountains and forests.  There are also a couple osprey nests in the distance, though I wasn't able to get a really good photo of them as .they were so far away.  And in the other direction I could see the ocean

Ocean to the west, and ...

mountains to the east.  Spectacular!!

This isn't even the Wonder Stump, but it's pretty impressive!!

I was surprised at how much time we actually spent in Trees of Mystery.  I went prepared to walk and gawk and get back on the road, but we actually spent close to three hours, stopping to take pictures and crane out necks trying to see the tops of trees that towered 200 feet and more above us.  We exchanged picture-taking with a couple families, so that they could all be included in their vacation pictures, something that made us both happy, and gave us the chance to have pictures of the two of us together.

Christy Mystery and the wonderful husband, writer J. Steven York

Still holding hands, after all these years!

When we reached this carving, there was a man taking a picture of his wife in front of the carved heart.  I offered to take their picture together, which seemed like a good idea to me.  He wasn't so sure, but his wife grinned at the suggestion and quickly dragged him over next to her.  It would have been churlish to refuse her offer to reciprocate, wouldn't it?

So we had our picture taken in front of the giant carved heart.  Our picture-taking couple were amused by our holding hands, but we still do, after nearly thirty years together.  Yeah, we're like that.







Hang on, the day isn't over!  Stay tuned for Day Two, Part Two, in which we visit Eureka and the Avenue of the Giants,

Day One: The Adventure Begins

Introduction:  I recently passed a milestone birthday, one of those numbers that as a child seems so impossibly large that you never expect to get there.  It came at the end of two years of personal disaster (see this post for an explanation, if you haven't already read it), and at a time when I desperately needed something good in my life.  I tossed around a lot of ideas of how to celebrate surviving the last year (lots of hospital time was involved) and making it to my birthday.  Finally, my husband and I decided to go see the Redwoods.  We had driven through several times, but always on the way to somewhere else.  This time, we would just head south and see what we could see.  We did some searching, settled on a few (very few!) priorities, and started making plans.  Somewhere along the way, we discovered a cool resort south and east of the big trees, where every "room" was a converted caboose, and decided that would be fun and unusual, exactly what we were looking for.  

These posts are my daily reports of our trip: the things we saw, the places we went, and the people we met as we drove approximately 1,500 miles in the course of six days, and had an adventure.  I tried to write down my impressions each night before bed, or over my first cup of coffee in the morning.  I wanted the memories to be fresh, undiluted by another day or days of travel and experiences.  I can only hope you enjoy reading them a fraction as much as I enjoyed living them.

Day One:  The Adventure Begins

The day got off to a good start.  We left home more or less on time, and had beautiful weather for the drive down the Oregon Coast on 101.  We knew today was going to be a slow day mostly spent driving in preparation for the major sight-seeing to come.

Yes, it really was this beautiful!

 We stopped in Florence, Oregon, for gas, but mostly we moseyed along with traffic and enjoyed the views.  Stopped several times for photo ops --

My favorite cameraman J. Steven York, taking in the view

Yours truly, just enjoyin' the sunshine

including my first post-birthday shot, at a sunny spot along the highway.  The beautiful weather and reasonably light traffic put us in good spirits for the first day's drive.  Switched drivers in Coos Bay, after a late lunch at Taco Bell.

After we left Coos Bay, we made a stop at Misty Meadows in Bandon to pick up some jam for a friend  (hi, Colleen) and some for us.  I got peach, and Steve got apple jelly, which he says he hasn't had since he was a kid.

Made the hotel (Best Western Beachfront, Brookings) about 5:30 and check-in was quick and easy.  Settled in and listened to waves for a little while, then finally pried ourselves up and out for dinner.  There is a restaurant next door that is supposed to be good, but we will never know.

We tried, really we did.  When we arrived there were people in the dining room, but no hostess, just one guy sitting  and waiting in the lobby.  We waited, too.

Waiters came by at least three times and promised that "She'll be right with you."  Two different customers brought their tickets to the counter.  One spotted their server and handed him the check.  The other customer joined the wait.

Eventually the hostess showed up carrying three bags of to-go food.  She stopped and ran the waiting woman's check, then tried to ring up the to-go, but there was some serious confusion about the order - it was for the guy who'd been waiting when we got there, I think.  But she was so mixed-up, it was hard to tell if she was giving him the right food.   He seemed to think she wasn't

We weren't particularly upset, the day had been far too good to let this spoil the day, but by this time we'd been there for 10 minutes or more, no one had even talked to us, several more people were waiting behind us, and it was clear the hostess was in way over her head somehow.   According to the specials board, dinner prices were in the $30+ range, which would mean $70-80 before tip.

We decided to cut our loses.  After all, if the front of house was that big a mess, could we REALLY trust the kitchen?  And we didn't want to start our trip with an expensive (by our lights) meal that was a disappointment.

Those are Steve's feet, pointed toward the windows of our room

We walked back across to the hotel and got our car.  We drove around for a little bit, but didn't see many open restaurants.

Determined not to let the silly restaurant put a damper on an otherwise-marvelous day, we picked up chicken at KFC, ate in the hotel room, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  It was good company, cheap food, and a table by the window with  a view of the beach.  Not bad!

It is nearly midnight, and I think we're about to call it a night.  Haven't turned on the TV, or opened up the computer.  I'm actually typing this (very badly) on a rubber-key rollup Bluetooth keyboard, into the blog via a wireless connection on Steve's Google pad.  It isn't perfect, but it's sure easy to carry around!


Tomorrow, Trees of Mystery and a cool place to stay for the next three nights.  More to come!!

The Sound of Breaking Glass; or, Engage Writer Brain

Somehow this post never got published.  Let me take care of this Right Now!!

There are times when it is extremely difficult not to indulge in the time-honored writer habit of Making Things Up.  It is, after all, what we are paid to do: sit alone in a room and Make Things Up.  I've talked about that before, but it's a part of an incident that happened last week.

L. to R. Barton Grover Howe, Christy Fifield, M.L. Buchman

I was in a friend's shop for a book signing of Murder Hooks a Mermaid.  It's a combination antique shop and bookstore, a delightful jumble of treasures from the last two centuries, collectibles (especially glass and apothecary items), and new and used books.

I was at one end of the shop when I heard a noise near the cash register.  The sound of breaking glass.  That's a scary sound in a shop full of breakables, but it got worse.  The noise didn't stop, and it was accompanied by the crash of something heavy falling over.

Before

Another customer, a woman with two bargain-table books in her hand, had jostled the owner who was walking behind her, knocked him over and in the process knocked over an entire display case.  She managed to topple thousands of dollars worth of antiques.  She knocked over one display case, thereby breaking out the glass front of a second case, and destroyed an entire case of antiques, including some unique and irreplaceable pieces.

And After

She asked the owner something like "Did I do that?" in a way that clearly implied that she didn't, and hurried out of the store, leaving her books on the counter.  Fortunately, the store is insured, and no one was injured, in spite of the piles of broken glass.  But the emotional impact of losing several irreplaceable pieces is a blow my friend will need time to recover from; and we don't know yet what the financial implications will be.

As my husband and I talked about it later, I had to keep from ascribing motives to the woman who knocked over the display.  It felt as though she high-tailed it out of the store without any attempt to take responsibility for the destruction she caused.  But maybe she truly believed she was innocent and left because she was embarrassed.  As I said, I was making things up.

I also realized that, given what I've been writing, this scenario (or something very much like it) will undoubtedly appear in a future book.

And this is where the Writer Brain comes in.

Writer Brain is a symptom all writers seem to manifest.  It is that moment when you detach from some awful event and start storing details to use later.  It's a way of dealing with painful or disturbing situations.

An example?  At the beginning of my summer medical odyssey I took an ambulance ride.  About ninety miles with lights and sirens, in the middle of the night, headed for a regional medical center and emergency surgery.  It should have been terrifying and stressful, and to some extent it was.  But Writer Brain took over.  It quickly occurred to me that this might be the only time I got a close-up look at the inside of an ambulance and I started looking around, trying to store up all the details I could, to use later.

So last week's disaster will show up in a book sometime, just as calls from our police scanner have formed the basis of certain scenes, and other painful - or joyous - personal experiences have informed other stories.

It's the curse (and the blessing) of Writer Brain.