Eureka, California to Klamath, California
65 miles
Gas $3.02/gallon (why is it going up?)
Holiday Inn Express in Klamath (great, brand new hotel attached to a tiny Indian casino)
$117/night + $25/pet fee

Just north of Eureka is the Samoa Cookhouse – I love finding unique places like this (thanks, Roadtrippers). It’s off the beaten path, but worth the 15-minute drive from Highway 101. Built circa 1893, it’s the last lumber camp-style cookhouse still in operation in North America. Established by the Vance Lumber Company, Samoa is one of the last company-owned towns in the US, and the cookhouse was operated for the working lumberjacks.Today, they still encourage you to eat like a lumberjack. It opened to the public in the late 1960s and meals have been served here continuously for over 122 years. It’s all-you-can-eat, family-style. The menu changes daily and you have no choice whatsoever (you can, however, call ahead and find out when they’re serving pot-roast). For lunch today we had a fried pork-steak, peas, baked beans, and country potatoes, with chocolate pudding for dessert, plus soup, salad and homemade bread. So leave your vegan friends at home. It’s friendly, fun, and interesting, with photos of trees and lumberjacks on the walls, plus a small logging museum. Next door to the cookhouse is the Humboldt Maritime Museum.

KLAMATH
Klamath is a tiny town in the mountains, but the hotel, a brand-new Holiday Inn Express, was surprisingly nice (for the price) and Vickie at the front desk was so helpful. There was a great restaurant at the hotel, so I didn’t have to leave once I checked in. If you have kids, there’s a nice indoor pool. All I care about is Wifi.

The casino, run by the Yurok tribe,  was just slot machines, which is fine with me. I almost laughed out loud when I overheard a middle-aged woman talking about dating in a small town…“It’s hard to find a man with a full set of teeth.”

I’ll leave you with that.

MY PHOTO GALLERIES