Zoltar will reveal your future

It's an age old question: if could know your future -- your fate -- would you want to know? If your answer is yes, then by all means go right now to Newport, Ore., where, on the main street of old town, you will find Zoltar. For only a small price -- I think a dollar or less -- the Great Gypsy will tell you what you want to know. Keep paying Zoltar and he will keep telling you more about yourself and your fate. Think of it this way: you could pay a shrink $100 an hour to help understand yourself. Or you could pay Zoltar a buck. No brainer, really.

Incredible RV is made out of a single log

I came today upon an incredible RV -- a travel trailer built entirely of a single redwood log. That's right -- just one log. Back in 1946, before I was even born, it took two months of hard labor for Art Schmock and a helper to hollow out a 42-foot section of a 2,100-year-old redwood tree to create the 32-foot log house, which today we would call a trailer because it has a trailer hitch so it can be pulled. I did not see a license plate, so it is not currently street legal. Actually, the Log House is going nowhere. It's on display permanently at a souvenir shop about nine miles north Garberville, Calif., on U.S. 101 in the heart of the North Coast redwood country, home to majestic, thousand year old redwood trees, and 50-year-old tacky gift shops. To see inside the Log House you must first go to the souvenir shop and tell the clerk you wish to see the house. You will then be given a secret code which you punch into the door of the log abode, and if you are honest like me, you deposit a dollar in a lock box. But I will save you the dollar if you simply take one minute to watch this video that I personally shot and narrated when I visited.

Be lucky you were not in this car

I spotted this Ford Taurus station wagon parked along the Avenue of the Giants scenic route off U.S. 101 in the California coast redwood country. Someone's day was spoiled for sure when Mother Nature dropped a log on this vehicle.

Two funny Oregon coast business slogans

I spotted these two business slogans on my way down the Oregon coast. If you keep your eye out when you travel, you will find similar funny and sometimes very clever messages. The glass shop is in Florence and the brake shop is in Coos Bay. The most popular business slogan is the one used by dozens of American and even Canadian radiator shops, "Best place to take a leak."

Catholic Church does double duty

The Catholic Church in Trinidad, Calif., is very pretty. But it is unusual, I think, because not only does it offer Catholic services, but a Sunday Episcopalian service as well. That's what it says on its sign. Do other churches do this? I wonder.

Fulltime RVers not always so easily identified

People are not always what they appear to be. You think people are residents of a particular town and then you start talking to them and you learn they are living and traveling full-time in RVs. Yesterday, as I left the library in Brookings, Ore., I made a remark about a woman's cute little dog. I thought it was a spaniel. It turned out it was a mutt. "He cost me a bundle," she said, and I asked why. She said it was because it was part poodle, so it didn't shed. "People with allergies will pay a lot for a dog that doesn't shed," she explained. Her dog, for example, cost $350. We kept talking. I asked if she lived in Brookings. She said that she and her husband did now, but in a fifth wheel trailer. Gas costs too much for them to travel, so they are staying put for now.

The next morning, in Crescent City, Calif., I knocked on the door of a small motorhome with European plates: you don't see many RVs from across the sea. It looked a lot like my Winnebago View. The owners, a retired English couple, told me they had been touring North America for more than two years in the 27-foot motorhome and three years in Europe before that. They were only two weeks away from flying home, and their motorhome will follow along. Once it arrives in their county of Kent, they will live in it fulltime. I asked them if living in an RV fulltime was unusual in England, and they said it was. They said that while in North America the trickiest problem was getting health insurance.

Later that afternoon, I was taking a picture of the beautiful lighthouse in Trinidad, California. A couple was also taking photos. "Are you professional photographers?" I asked, and they said no, it was just a hobby. "Are you from around here?" I asked, and they said, "oh, no, we're full time RVers." It turned out that Jack and Susan Girdis were in the area to care for Jack's elderly father, who is in ill health. "It's nice to be able to be with him, but to sleep in my own bed at night," Jack said. Check out the couple's website about their travels. Check it out.

Different places, different sounds

One thing about traveling with an RV is that each time you stop for the night, the sounds outside your window are different. Sometimes it's just traffic. Sometimes it's a train horn. But sometimes it is something better. Two nights ago in Crescent City, Calif., where I camped right on the beach, I heard seals barking all night. They were faint, so they didn't keep me awake. This morning, in the Eureka KOA, I awoke to the mooing of a cow.

I like waking up to different sounds and I like sleeping to different sounds. I look forward to Death Valley so I can lie in my bed and listen to coyotes howl.