Welcome to California!  We left Oregon this morning and crossed the border 4 miles later.  We went through the usual checkpoint to make sure we weren't carrying any fruits or vegetables, but there were a couple of surprises.  They asked if we were carrying firewood and then searched the exterior of the BaysBus for gypsy moths.  These nasty little critters had raised their ugly heads in Clackamas county where we live, so we had to be inspected.  Luckily, nothing was found.

We saw a herd of elk just before entering the Redwood Highway, part of 101 in Northern California.  We didn't see the largest of the redwood trees, but even the middle sized ones are spectacular.  There were many places where we were slowed down by highway construction.  We followed several pilot cars like the line above because many sections of the highway were falling down cliffs toward the sea. 

Have any of you ever experienced the "singing" lines on the highways?  These look like paint but create an audible tone when tires ride on them.  They aren't the bumpy lines that make you feel as though you are riding on Braille, but some sort of white or yellow flat material that alerts you to the fact that you are drifting out of your lane.  A little spooky, actually.

 Spring has sprung in Northern Cali, as shown by this picture of cherry blossoms and a blooming pear tree.  These trees were already starting to lose their flowers, so they must have been in bloom for a while.  The photo below is a tree full of mistletoe in the campground, Benbow KOA in Garberville, CA, a beautiful and carefully designed family campground.  It is one of the nicest KOAs we have seen.

We had dinner at a very strange cross between an Italian restaurant and a deli.  It is called Calico Cafe.  We had pasta that was made on site and it was very good.  They also served hamburgers, specialty coffee drinks, taco salad. desserts and deli items.  The strangest part of this restaurant was the music.  There was a lone violinist with a bushy beard which was partly dreadlocks, dressed in camouflage and playing everything from The Marine Hymn to Jesus Loves Me to old standards my grandmother loved.  The sound of one violinist alone was a little depressing but maybe it was the song choices.

We were thinking of staying here two nights so Gary could play golf at the campground's course but it is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will probably move on.  We are probably going to stay on 101 rather than crossing over to I-5 right now.  We haven't done it before, so who knows what we may see.