Today was the last day in the hospital. This was such a whirl wind experience, and still it didn’t hit me how serious of an issue Ashley had. Her twisted intestine must have been so painful, but I didn’t even realize it was anything more than a stomach ache before the doctor rushed her to the ER. She had recovered to the point that she was able to be functional, and she was wheeled out of the hospital to the car. It was in fact, absolutely amazing that she had recovered so fast, and was still wanting to keep the trip going. It was at this point that I realized I had a true passionate adventurer on my hand, and I had incredible respect for her to continue on.
Before we took off, I walked down to a deli and ended up getting us lunch at Miller’s Eastcoast Delicatessen. I had also done laundry the previous day so we were all set and ready to continue. Once I picked up lunch and got back to the car, we were planning on getting out of the hospital that day. Right when I was walking back when they were wheeling her down in a wheelchair. So they said their goodbyes put her in the front seat and we headed straight for Montana so we could meet my buddy Slaveè in two days for hiking that we had planned.
We started of our itinerary in the city and got to the Golden Gate bridge. We were supposed to go to Point Reyes National Seashore on the northwest side of San Francisco, but due to the weakness of Ashleys recovering body, and the massive amount of people trying to get in, we decided to continue on our scheduled itinerary going through the Silverado Trail.
This is considered one of the best drives for wine and vineyards in the world as it winds through Napa Valley across some of the most prestigious wineries in the world…..such as Caymus and Nickel and Nickel vineyards. This took us about 40 minutes to drive through and we ended up in the town of Calistoga. There are many hotels but we decided to keep driving on since it was still early, and we could still cover allot of ground heading north.
The drive up the West Coast was amazingly beautiful, unfortunately there was a lot of fog. We were able stop for many beach overlooks along the way during sunset which was gorgeous. One of the highlights of today was going to Glass Beach.
This is before we got to Eureka, by nightfall. Overall it was a pretty amazing area but definitely overrated. The main attraction is broken bottle glass which have been smoothed out over time by waves continuously pouching in and out the glass over the course sand. The final product ends up being colorful rocks on the beach which are smoothed out marble sized pieces of beer bottle glass!
From a distance it looked just like regular seaside beachfront but when you get closer you can tell that the sand is colorful and unique. When we were there it was overcast, so it was not as stunning as during sunset, nonetheless it was a quick walk from the car and worth crossing something off for itinerary. I recommend stopping here for a quick attraction during any road trip.
For the remainder of the day we headed north west to the coast and decided to drive the Pacific coast highway until we reached the town of Eureka. This is where we stayed in Motel 6 and had Taco Bell for dinner. This was probably not the healthiest dinner for a recovering patient who had surgery, but Ashley wanted it. We needed a hotel due to her recent surgery. She was in no way able to camp on this night. In fact, she was hardly able to stand as her abdomen had been cut open three days before. Thus I had to help her take a shower and walk into bed. We miraculously made it through the day, and slowly everyday from here on became easier for her.
July 8 Expenses
14.75 millers east coast deli
2.55 coffee
24.70 gas
7.41 donuts
60 parking
13.76 mcdonalds
7.78 taco bell
89.76 motel 6 eureka
Total – 220.71