Day 10. We did 165 miles today, but because of 35 of them we are really beat. In the state of California, there is only one place along the entire coast that is without development and with a dirt road you can drive. Everywhere else is paved or you just don't go there. We took that dirt road today. But I'm getting ahead of the story. This morning, Eureka was cold and foggy (normal), but we went down to the old town at the waterfront. Neat! There are a number of 100 year old buildings, and one is now a restaurant open in the AM when the rest of the area was as cold as the weather. We ate in the beautiful place with 20 foot ceilings, tall etched windows, exotic murals on all the walls (even restrooms), and downed some fine food. It was an unexpected treat.
After Eureka, we immediately left the main roads and drove through the fog to the old victorian town of Ferndale.
The entire place, all ten blocks or so, is an instant time warp of 100 to 150 years. A big earthquake here in 1991
appeared to destroy many homes (we saw it then), but federal aid allowed them to be rebuilt. Today you can't see
any signs of that damage. There is a small back road leaving Ferndale that climbs immediately into the 2,000 foot
coastal mountains. We made that turn, put the Bronco in 2nd gear, and climbed and turned and turned and climbed
into the clouds. Just about the time we were thinking this wasn't going to be worth it, we broke into full sunlight
and had a 100 mile view from the mountain top down the coast. We essentially stayed on this mountain top road for
the next 60 miles, only the last 35 were unpaved -- no -- make that primitive! Those 35 miles took us over 5 1/2
hours. They were rutted and rough, and we figured we must have reversed steering direction every 3 to 10 seconds
all five hours. Put 100,000 miles on the steering system. And why would we do this? Well, aside from being idiots
sometimes, this road is the only one that provides California's only wheeled access to a wild and untouched beach.
If you descend 2,000 feet and turn at just the right spot, you are soon parked at the edge of the surf with nothing
but seagulls to explain yourself to. Don't believe me? Check the attached photo! We were here once before in 1992
(the road was much better then) and had to do it again.
Departing the beach, we climbed back into the mountains as the sun set and drove south until connecting with Highway 1. We finally drug ourselves into Ft. Bragg at about 8 PM for a late dinner and a motel.
Check out the photo of a beatutiful sunset. Only on this road can you find a stately pine tree perched 1,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, and only you are at the right time and place to take it's photo at sunset
. 
Wow, time to call it quits and go to bed.
Day 11. Five days of coastal roads! NOT doing it anymore. Not driving anymore curvy roads.
Even Blue Angle pilots don't have to take as many lateral G-forces for as many hours and days as we just have.
Not doing it anymore. Nope, nope, nope! Today, we returned from the North American Plate to the Pacific Plate.
Don't know what we mean? Late this afternoon we stopped at Pt. Reyes, north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and took
a short hike to the EXACT epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Then we walked along the San Andreas
fault line.
Attached is a photo of a fence line that crosses the fault, and was there in 1906. The near part of the fence is on the Pacific Plate. The far part of the fence, by Eileen, in on the North American Plate. (The blue post in the background is on the center of the fault line.) The fence was moved apart by about 15 feet in 1906. Interestingly, all of the plates contain a significant land mass continent except the Pacific Plate. It is all ocean except for western California, Baja California and the Pacific Islands. To this plate we have returned. We hope we can drive south faster than it moves north.
Car stuff -- We have our first potentially serious vehicle problem. Beginning this afternoon, we began to develop
an intermittent vibration. For a while I was trying to find an engine miss, but that wasn't working out. While
driving through congested downtown San Francisco with the windows down, the high pitched squeaking of a driveshaft
U-joint finally solved my troubleshooting problem. Now I have another problem -- fixing it. Early Broncos have
a very special driveshaft with a constant velocity joint. Not common. So, we drove slowly as far as San Jose tonight
(it's about midnight) so we could skip any heavy traffic in the morning, and be in an area that might have a capable
driveshaft shop. The yellow pages show only three, so in the morning we will see what repairs are possible, and
how soon. We may or may not be returning home on schedule. From a very average -- or less -- motel in San Jose
(I've already had to replace a broken shower knob with my trusty universal knife/tool), we wish you a good evening.
Day 12. The bad news is that we had to spend all day in San Jose. The good news is that
we got to spend all day in San Jose. Before 8:30 AM, we had tracked down a driveline specialty shop (South Bay
Driveline) and had the Bronco in his place for some serious attention. Bottom line is that he was amazed we even
got the Bronco to him, the problems were so severe. A rear U-joint had finally disintegrated, but in a long decline
before it failed, it had worn out the mounting yoke (part of the rear differential) and had done some damage to
the expensive constant-velocity joint at the other end of the driveshaft. The General Manager, Steve, only took
a few minutes to sort all this out and made it very clear that there was no way he was going to try to repair THAT
driveshaft. A new one was needed. Now, my Bronco is custom in nearly all regards, and a stock Ford driveshaft,
even if available, is too short. Only a custom built unit will work. Not to worry. South Bay's business is building
every part of driveshaft's from scratch. It took five hours, and we ate breakfast and lunch in their work lot (Eileen
says "It just doesn't get any better than that!"), but I have a new and perfect unit, and at a very reasonable
price. But there is a catch. The worn yoke is not a part that South Bay works on, but leaving it defective will
ruin the new driveshaft. Steve makes some calls, and I end up driving around San Jose in front wheel drive only
-- carrying my shinny new driveshaft on the roof rack. I buy a new differential yoke and go to another company,
GearMasters, owned by Aldo. They replace the bad yoke and install the driveshaft. Finally, I'm ready to roll. But
there is another catch.
Somehow during the day, Eileen's glasses have broken a nose piece. So we hunt around in a now drivable Bronco for an optometrist. By 4 PM we are finally as good as we can get, and we head out of San Jose for the coast. Unfortunately, all of San Jose is doing the same thing. Nonetheless, we make our goal of seeing the World's highest covered bridge in the US, and the only one made of redwood (Felton, CA) and the Roaring Camp and Big Trees train station (also Felton). We will have to actually ride the train another time. By now our day is far too long, and we call it quits a few tens of miles to the south near Watsonville.
I'll close with three thoughts. South Bay Driveline and GearMasters were are both very professional and very competent. Very! Seldom do I ever find people to deal with that are as good, and to just stumble into these two was a minor miracle. My sincere thanks to Steve and Aldo and their crews! (That's two thoughts.) Finally, the Bronco cruises smoother that Eileen or I remember in a long time. It is now clear that I've been living with a low-level vibration so long, I thought it was normal. Shame on me. Won't happen again.
I have no digital pictures of this day (preoccupied I guess). Instead I've attached a photo of a very prickly
but beautiful flower we found yesterday. Think of it as Mother Nature's equivalent of today. 
Tomorrow we are going to try to make it all the way home. Wish us luck!
Day 13 and home! 9:15 P.M. and we are home. No photos. All we did was drive. Pleasant
temperatures all day (65 to 72), but never saw the sun even once. Stopped in the old town portion of Ventura and
had a very nice break around little shops and trendy food places. All kind of a throwback to the 60's. Different,
and we enjoyed that. Strange people there. We looked at them and they looked at us. Everyone was taking score on
who was the strangest. I'm afraid I know the answer.
Going through Los Angeles was unbelievable! On a Saturday evening on a clear day, we spent from 3 to 6:30 P.M. getting from one side to the other. Much time spent between 0 and 15 mph. There was only one accident. Just too many vehicles for the roads. And I thought we would cruise right through. Ha! Will be a long time before I volunteer to do that again. The Bronco's new driveshaft was perfect. We ran smooth as silk all day, and most of the travel was around 70 to 75 mph. That's "pick'n them up and put'n them down" for an old Bronco. Now, there are a number of other things that need some work, but I don't want to mention key items like brakes and steering (oops). Well . . . every Early Bronco trip requires some maintenance time. A good omen coming home . . . hit the last 18 traffic lights before home all green. Damn near impossible. 'Course, after Oregon and Northern California, just having to deal with 18 lights is depressing.
## END ##
A note from the Webmaster. Saw Steve and Eileen last night at the La Mesa Thursday nite car show. Eileen looks great from the trip but it looks like Steve picked up a fungus in all that fog in Oregon. ( See below photo ) No wonder when many Californians go to Oregon we never hear from them again!
