What a glorious day! Sunny, with a beautiful blue sky with scattered fluffy white clouds for contrast. The temps were in the mid-50s to mid-60s: perfect riding weather. Even the 5 in Oregon is gorgeous, with rolling green hills and ponds and streams and trees. I saw many birds of prey (I did on the way up, too, but forgot to mention them).

We cut across on the 99, through an area that reminded me so much of home that I kept expecting to see certain sites around the next corner. Deciduous trees and pines and streams gave way to towering redwoods and small waterfalls dancing off cliffs. I love the mountains; I feel most at home in them, I think, probably because I grew up in them. Then we hit the ocean in all her glory, and it was yet another wonder. Northern California and Oregon have the most stunning coastlines of any place I’ve seen. There’s the best of both worlds, with the sweeping coast and the stately redwoods side-by-side.

We’re in Eureka tonight, a town of amazingly gorgeous Victorian homes, but it seems rundown everywhere else. I’d been craving pizza, and we went to an Italian restaurant that the cute desk clerk recommended. It was pricier than we’d planned on, but we split a “small” pizza that was more than enough for us, especially given that we had warm bread with oil and vinegar for dipping and garlic butter, and Ken had spumoni for dessert.

We’d picked a motel with a Jacuzzi again, and made good use of it. I don’t know what I did, but the tops of my shoulders, leading down from my neck, are amazingly sore. Tender to the touch, and they hurt even if I’m not moving, plus now my neck hurts, too. It’l be just my luck that I’ll start to feel better by Monday morning when Ceridwen comes over to give me my pre-chiro massage. Ah well. The hot bubbly water felt wonderful, and I’m going to take some Advil before I crash. Which will be momentarily, because I’m sleepy and I have to get up early to shower, because I’m too tired to do it tonight.

We’ll be heading down the coast all day tomorrow, and the weather report is good, so it’s going to be another awesome day, I predict.