Coastal Highway, CA

So, I set out south from Crescent City, with the idea that I'll follow the coast as much as possible.  Being an Alberta boy, the ocean was something exotic and exciting.

I followed the 101 south, and eventually met up with highway 1, the Coastal Highway, at Leggett.  As I turned on to the 101, I noticed I was running on empty, but highway 1 was a tiny, twisty road and there was nowhere to turn around....my only hope was to make it to Hales Grove.

Trying not to use the brakes very much to conserve fuel, but not wanting to go off the windy road with my top heavy Vandrew, I eventually made it to Hales Grove.  The moment of elation was short lived as I found Hales Grove to be nothing more than a couple of weathered hunting cabins...no services.

To top things off, there was a sign at Hales Grove saying that there were no services at Rockport either!  I don't know why they felt the need to mention this at this point...maybe it was meant to be ironic.

I was sure that I was going to run out of fuel, but miraculously, Vandrew managed to push through to Westport, where there was a lonely gas pump.  "Watch it," the store attendant said, "it's $4 a gallon".

I would have paid twice that.

There was not a lot of diversity in the landscape along highway 1.  There was also not a lot of cellular service, gasoline retailers, or people.  For the most populated state in the US, I was surprised that there would be such vast underpopulated areas.