It's nice in Nice

If you read my morning post, you will know that we spent a less than pleasant night last night in Crescent City.  That was not Crescent City's fault. It was the weather, plain and simple.

So, we got out of Dodge about 7:45AM, stopped at Wally World to pick up a space heater to replace the one we left at home, and hit the road.

The driving was...interesting.  At times we were broadsided by the high winds that had kept us awake all night. At other times we were pelted with heavy rain.  At other times, we enjoyed both simultaneously.  Add that to driving the beautiful but narrow and winding road that traverses the Redwood Forest, and you get a challenging but satisfying day of driving.

We are currently ensconced in our home-away-from-home in Nice, CA at The Aurora RV park. We last visited here in August when it was dreadfully hot, but the lake (Clear Lake) was gorgeous.  So we were interested to see the lake in December for comparison.  It is not dreadfully hot. It is not hot at all. It is 52 degrees and foggy. Don't believe me?

Here is the view from our camper door.

This is a view more to the west.

The little black dots on the water are birds.  Mostly grebes, 

I think. There are literally dozens of them.

For comparison, here are a couple of pictures we took in August. 

One of the things we encountered on the drive was a lot of rivers to cross.  Most of them were near flood stage; a far cry from the pathetic dribbles that characterized most of them in August.  That is, until we got on CA20 toward Nice. The first thing we noticed on CA20 was that Lake Mendocino (in Lake County) is still nearly dry. In addition, the streams we saw on this route were trickling, not roaring like the others we saw in Del Norte and Humboldt counties. In addition, Clear Lake is not noticeably higher than it was in August. Go figure. We have just been greatly encouraged by the return of rain and snow to northern California.

Tomorrow, it's on to Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley.  I expect that drive to be less challenging and less beautiful. Come back and see if I get surprised!!