Great Alaskan Road Trip: Week 20 Roundup

Each Friday, I post some relevant (and not-so-relevant) stats about the trip, as well as a little write-up of what it’s like to live out of a van for weeks on end. Here’s where we are overall:

• Total miles driven: 13,382
• Total miles by ferry: 537
• Total days on the road: 137
• Total nights in a hotel: 10
• Total miles hiked: 123.14

Some interesting stats for this week:

• Fuel stops: 1 (diesel: $4.29 in Coos Bay, OR)
• Technical Issues: 0
• Elk sighted: 24 
• Bats sighted: 1 
• NPS Sites Visited: 2 (Oregon Caves Nat’l Monument and Redwoods National Park)

Not surprisingly, I caught Kevin’s “hantavirus” (not really hanta – it’s just a cold).  So we’ve definitely been taking it slow this week.  But we did see a few interesting things along the way that I wanted to share.  In Klamath, CA just outside Redwoods National Park we saw a road sign that said “Tour Thru Tree”.  We couldn’t pass it by without checking it out.  Somebody has carved a 7’4” by 9’6” opening in a 725-year-old Redwood.  Too bad our van is exactly 9’6” high.  No worries, we didn’t actually attempt to drive through – getting our van stuck in a tree would’ve brought an embarrassingly swift end to the trip for sure.

While we were in Redwoods NP, we saw this amazing bus.  The back has been converted into a greenhouse to grow fruit and vegetables anywhere, anytime.  We talked to the owners and they said things grow great but they do have to take it easy when cornering.  I’m sure this thing wouldn’t fit through the “Tour Thru Tree”, either.

The ocean views along the highway have been breathtaking – when you can see the ocean through the fog, that is.  For those foggy days, the town of Port Orford in Oregon has figured out a way to help people find the beach:

I loved the creativity of this Bandon, OR business owner.  The clock has obviously been broken for a long time.  Most people would’ve fixed it, but this guy just incorporated it into the business name – “Timeless Accents”.  Clever, no?