Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe

I've always known about the Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe in Bemidji, Minnesota (left photo) and have been "visiting" them since I was a little girl growing up in Minot, ND. My Finnish grandparents, Charlie and Lempi, lived in Minnesota so we often stopped in Bemidji while going to visit them nearly every summer. Since Gary and I have been fulltime RVing we've stopped several times during our travels, the last time in 2004.

Well...imagine my surprise last week when Gary and I were driving along on Highway 101. Low and behold, at Mystic Trees near the Klamath River in California we see ANOTHER Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe! I quickly snapped a photo! (right photo)

They appear to be approximately the same size and are even dressed in a similar fashion. And, of course, Babe is a nice shade of blue in both locations.

I wonder if there are more?

From the road...Tamales and Taco Salad

As you may know, food is one of the reasons we love full time rving! Well...in Shingletown, CA I had the best Taco Salad I've had in a VERY LONG time...maybe EVER!

We left Crescent City after having spent a most relaxing week with Don and Lee and are meandering east on Highway 299 through northern California.

One of our favorite stops was a brief one on the beach at Orick. (That's me with our 5th wheel in the background.) We used to be able to overnight there but it has been changed to a day-use only area. (Why, we can't figure out!")

Stayed the night in Weaverville at Sidney Gulch RV Park (no Wi-Fi, which is quite unusual nowadays) and then continued on. Driving through Northern California in the Autumn is quite spectacular --sunny blue skies, the bright green of the pines trees contrasting with other trees turning golden yellow, red and brown...Trinity Lake was gorgeous even with the smoke of a planned burn in the background.
NOW...to the best part of the day! We're hungry for lunch when we reach Shingletown. When you're traveling in a truck towing a 36' fifth wheel probably the most important item in chosing a restaurant is "is there parking space?" We spotted the yellow Cafe sign before even noticing the Shingle Shack Restaurant sign, scanned for parking and walla, all was in order to eat lunch at the little shack.

I ordered a beef taco salad and Gary tamales. The order was a little slow in arriving but when it did and after we had eaten, we could understand why! SO GOOD! Ramon, the owner with his wife Kathy, explained that they make everything to order...the beans, the tamales, the beef, the tortilla shell was freshly made. (We heard a local man ordering sopas and wished we could stay and eat again!)

If you are in Shingletown or just passing through be sure to eat there! (Don and Lee, you'd have loved it :-)

More about our travels later...

B