A dramatic entry into California

Greetings from Eureka! We just passed through the super-cool hippy town of Arcata where we bought fresh organic strawberries from a dude on a farming commune and ate lunch at a local bakery. I had fresh guacamole on a whole wheat bagel - I love CA! (We learned that by law Arcata can only have 6 corporate chains in its boundaries. Cool.)

In order to get here, however, we had to climb our biggest mountain of the trip yet: 1,200 feet up through the Redwoods. These are some of the songs that we sang in our heads, under our breathe or in sporadic loud outbursts that helped us make it up the hill: Yellow Submarine, Eye of the Tiger, We Are the Champions, Bohemian Rhapsody, Flashdance, The Little Red Wagon Song (from Boy Scout Camp), and Fifty Nifty United States. We ate lunch at the side of the road on the top and felt victorious. However, about an hour later, my body started to shut down. We stopped in front of an enormous statue of Paul Bunyan (he's not Californian, is he?) and I took a nap on a bench. I sat there rather comotose for a while longer until Chris bought some fudge. Rocky Road flavor and Peanut Butter flavor. After that, we rode on for 35 more miles.

My mom and dad are going to meet us on Saturday night and they will ride with us for a week: mom in the car with all our stuff (aahhh) and dad on his rode bike. We'll be so light...