Road Trip Day 3: Fort Bragg

We got up and out early to take the "skunk train". It follows a four-hour roundtrip through the redwoods. It got its name back when the train had a gasoline engine; someone commented that you could smell the train before you saw it.

I thought that a four-hour ride might get boring, but it was very relaxing to look out the window at the forest. The conductor told us a lot about the logging industry. (Fort Bragg used to be a logging town.) A man with a guitar strolled through the cars singing railroad songs. He slipped past us; otherwise, I was going to ask him to sing the "City of New Orleans". The ride was good, clean, slightly corny fun.

After the ride, we were hungry, so we ate at the one restaurant that I didn't like very much. After lunch, I had initially planned to go to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens. However, it was kind of late, and also I didn't want to make a left turn onto Highway 1, so we decided to go there on the way out of town the next day.

Instead, we wandered around downtown Fort Bragg, which is a Historic District. Mom's camera wasn't working, so we stopped at a combination camera store and music store. The man at the store looked the camera over, told Mom that she'd have to get it fixed by the manufacturer, and didn't charge her for looking at the camera. However, I found some piano music that I wanted to have, so he made a little money off of us. We went to the one bookstore, and there was a dog in the store. In general, the shops seemed to be very individualistic. No chain stores there!

Between the early start and walking around, I was pooped, so we went back to the motel to take a nap. Then we got up for dinner, and went to sleep early again.