Day 9: Super Monkey BALLS!!

We woke up at 7:30 this morning to a guy reving his Harley. After realizing that he had woke everyone up, he proceeded to yell, "Good Morning". What a start. We kind of went back to sleep for a little while. We then packed up and had bagels for breakfast. Proceeding to the showers, we realized that we didn't have any quarters. Back in the truck and back to the store for quarters. After showering, we got in the truck and started to drive. We had decided to head into the Redwoods for another night. We planned to go to Flint Rock Campground. It looked really isolated on the map and trailers and RVs were not allowed. Yay. Well, it seemed like a great idea at the time. It turned out to be a walk in only, up a steep cliff in fact. Not for us! So we kept going. We found this field with portapotties, really really not for us. It was looking like we were going to go back to Jedediah Smith. Then on a spur of the moment decision, we decided to head south on the 101 again.

We stopped at a Ranger Station to get info. There was a guy there who was bargining for a map. He declared that he had 25 cents and a mint. The clerk replied that the mint looked kind of tasty, but no thanks. He then offered to lick it first. "It makes it sweeter!". He was one of the more interesting characters on our trip so far.... but wait, it gets better...

We got to Prairie Creek Campground,deep in the California Redwoods. It had a campground full sign. Oh well, let's just ask in case. Apparently someone had just cancelled. Yay for us. Once again, the last campsite is ours. Once again, we are those jerks. And it still feels good. It was a great site, kind of isloated, and really large. We set up our tent and back on the road we went.

We headed to The Trees of Mystery, mainly because we were curious about what was so mysterious about these trees. And Rhonda wanted to find out if giant trees meant giant squirrels. They had a gondola there and since Rhonda missed out on the Jasper one, Brett was deteremined to fix this. We hiked up and looked at all of the sights. We encountered a family of 4 with 2 kids. One of these kids was really hyper, and his dad explained that he had been cooped up in the car for much too long. As we were walking by this kid, he proclaimed that he was "Super Monkey Balls". He was climbing trees and this was his superhero name. Brett and Rhonda looked at each other to make sure that each had heard the same thing, and we both started to laugh. We wished that we actually knew this kid and could remind him of this moment/ nickname in 15 years!

At the lineup to the gondola, Brett met a kindered spirit, who liked his Slayer hoodie. According to Brett, Rhonda almost left him behind. According to Rhonda, Brett almost made her go up the gondola alone. But they both got on and it was pretty cool.

At the top, we had a quick look around, then got back inline to go downn the mountain. Oh, look, it's Super Monkey Balls and his family getting off the gondola! And he's as obnoxious as ever, too. Good thing we're going down.

Brett was determined to find a drive-thru redwood tree. We found one just down the road from the Trees of Mystery. As we were paying our $4.00 toll to drive through the tree, the sweet old lady working the toll booth remarked about how both of us had landed such good catches in each other. She asked if it was just the two of us and when we responded yes, she said, "Why, you don't need anyone else when you've found perfection!" We seem to please everybody, wherever we go. And we felt really great after meeting this lady!!

After getting some pics of the Nissan inside of a tree, we hit the road and grabbed some groceries. We had decided that it would be a spaghetti dinner night, but the general store had no hamburger. We managed to cobble up a Polish sausage dinner instead, complete with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.

That night in the campground was the coldest we've seen. We both changed into hoodies and jeans, and made sure we had plenty of extra blankets for a cool, cool night in the redwoods.

Only 250 km's put on the truck today. And we're all still in the truck.