Day 92 and 93 Back to Seattle by way of the CA Coast

Day 92

We started our journey back up to Seattle.  Due to bad weather conditions on Siskiyou pass, we had to re-route up the CA coast on highway 101.  Torrential rain, hailstorms, and windy roads kept us company all day.   We ended our day in Crescent City CA, right on the water.  A highlight of the day were the big trees and big surf. The girls would probably also tell you about their trip to the icy hotel pool, color fading hot tub and their in-room microwave dinner.  As for the hot tub, I had noticed the sign on the wall that read the hotel was not responsible for faded swimsuits or haircolor.  I saw that a lady's tank top was bleached instantly as she sank down into the hot tub.  What I did not notice until we got back in our room was that my swim top was completely bleached out too.  Haley, who was not in the hot tub as long, also had her suit significantly faded.  Hannah spent most of her time in the 60 pool that had unexplained sand leaching into the pool (yes, we were warned on check-in).  

Day 93
I have never been so glad to be on I-5 as I was today.  We were about 15 miles into an 80 mile trek on a winding road from Crescent City to Grants Pass, OR, when out of no where a car was spinning out into our lane.  Any words I write here are not sufficient to describe the enormity of what we went through and how blessed we were with how it turned out.  Somehow I mananged to swerve on the shoulder and go around the car.  It all happened very fast and we came within feet of hitting it.  I wasn't even sure while it was happening that we would be able to avoid it.  I can still remember the awful screeching sound coming from the other car's brakes.  The other car managed to right it self and drive on so I continued on.  It was a small red SUV and I soon saw a similar car in my rear view mirror.  Was this the same car?  I pulled over to gather my thoughts and to see if that car would stop and explain what happened.  It just kept going, so I'm not sure if it was the same car.  We're still not sure which direction it was originally coming from.  There was no rain or ice at the time, so we think the car was just going too fast.  We are so fortunate, there was not another car close behind it or us or things could have ben much worse.  This is a road that had very little shoulder.  Where the spin-out occured I think there was a tree barrier just off the shoulder, but much of that road was unstable rock cliff on one side and no shoulder drop-off of 50-100 feet down to a raging river.  What a powerful object lesson this was for the girls.  This was our topic of conversation for most of the rest of that 80 miles.  I was driving cautiously the rest of the way and the girls took it upon themselves to point out when they saw curving road ahead or falling rock signs.  I'm sure they will forget this experience - it was a "together" experience of the not so great kind.