April 24, 2015

THE SKUNK TRAIN

Up early again and re-registered here in Ukiah (that’s Haiku spelled backwards!) for another night. Then off to find the Skunk Train depot in Willits. (For those of you that remember that show with Gary Coleman from the 70’s “What you talkin’ about Willits”?  That was our catch phrase of the day. I know, I know … lame … but there you go!

The Skunk Train at the station in Willits, CA

We caught the 9:45 train for the ½ day trip to Northspur and back.  It takes you through some beautiful redwood forests and rolling meadows to stop at Northspur where we bought a lunch and ate under the big trees. The highlight of the trip I must say was Greg Schindel ‘The Train Singer’. He had the passengers laughing at his corny jokes and singing along with his never-ending repertoire of train songs. He played guitar, harmonica and auto-harp as he sang … and he was pretty darned good! We bought one of his CD’s! Quite a character!

train singer

The Train Singer

The Skunk Train

lunch at northspur

Lunch at Northspur

Back in Willits by around 1:30 and then we were into the huge traffic jam back to Ukiah on Hwy #101.It goes down to 1 lane each way with traffic lights in the town … they’re building a bypass but for now we had to inch along home.

The rest of the afternoon doing laundry and ready for the next phase to Eureka or thereabouts tomorrow!

Wait … what’s this??? There’s wet stuff coming down from the sky. Oh yes … I remember it now … it’s rain! It’s the first we’ve seen since starting the trip over a month ago. I guess we were due for it at some point!