Not much to report today – I did some laundry, tried to get my camera (or lens?) fixed, replaced, or something – but the local camera store doesn’t do Olympus. And frankly, they don’t look like they’ll be in business much longer. They recommended I try a store in Grant’s Pass – that’s a couple of days up the road, most likely, given the rate I’m traveling. Eureka has a cute touristy downtown area that looks like it’s doing OK although it was quiet today:
But the rest of it is still very economically depressed. The older part of town has every second shopfront up for rent, and the newer shopping mall at the end of town has likewise got more empty shops than occupied ones. And noticeably few customers anywhere.
Economic wise it does seem better overall now than in 2010, except for the drought effects. Towns seem overall better, and there’s a huge amount of roadwork going on everywhere. One of the things I noticed that last trip was that the roads were well designed and built initially, but had been really neglected recently. But now there’s repairs happening everywhere. Sometimes frustrating (like when San Francisco shuts down one of its major intersections for 12 months) but badly needed.
Tomorrow I head for the Redwood national park just up the coast – the taller skinnier relatives of the Sequoia trees in Yosemite. Yay! I’m feeling much better now that I’ve rested and I’m out of the big city. I don’t know where it comes from, but despite being born in Amsterdam and living in Sydney, I’m apparently a country girl at heart!