Eureka to Scotia, CA

Tuesday, 7/21 - 45 mile day which alternated between being cloudy and cold, and sunny and warm. We started the day by riding through the city of Eureka and eating breakfast at a Denny's because that was the only place we passed for breakfast. We also found a bike shop in town because Hal's bicycle headset was making noise and he was concerned it could be something serious. I turned out to be a simple fix. The threads on the headset locknut were dry. Adding some lubricant to the threads eliminated the problem. We passed a lot of farms today. The majority appeared to be dairy farms although we also passed a few cornfields. Many of the small towns we passed through looked like they were economically depressed. Many had an abandoned rail line running through the town which suggests that the town's fortunes declined with the end of rail service. In the afternoon we cycled through a large valley near the Eel river. Most the farms in this valley were larger and more prosperous in appearance as compared to the farms we passed the last few days. Just before we climbed out of the valley we rode through Ferndale which appeared to be a small tourist - destination town. It had a lot of restored buildings including Victorian homes from the 1800s. On the way out of town we passed two cemeteries that were unusual. They were both built on hills that were terraced with concrete walls and the graves appeared to be crammed in. It seemed odd in light of all the flat land in the adjacent valley. There are no places to eat near the RV park we are staying at tonight so we bought sandwiches at a convenience store five miles before the park and carried them to park. We had the same food issue last night but a pizza shop we called delivered food to us at the campground. On past rides on the east coast we found it was easy to find places that would deliver food to campgrounds. However, on the west coast it has been harder to find places that deliver. This is the first campground we have stayed in where there are mosquitos. Another solo biker rolled into the RV park after we had set up our tents. He is from South Korea and he is going from Vancouver, Canada to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is doing about 65 miles a day.