There was a very successful AB distributor in Eureka for years, but because AB is almost exclusively an industrial product, when industry leaves, so does their ability to survive. Your nearest AB distributor is now in Santa Rosa, which you are right, is 4 hours away (assuming no fallen Redwoods across the highway). I thought though that WBCO had an arrangement with CED Santa Rosa as a sub-distributor for AB, and many of the WBCO employees at one time were from the old AB distributor. That was a long time ago however, it may not be the case any more. I looked at their website and there is no mention of AB, just every other brand under the sun, so that may be the reason.
Jacobson Engineering in McMinleyville is a huge SI and they do a lot of AB programming, but it's more likely they would be a competitor for you.
There is a specialist at CED who is also very knowledgeable, ask for Brian Thomas. He lives in the Bay Area, but he is responsible for that territory and he is about as good as they get. He's also been around long enough to have likely done work in the now all but defunct lumber industry in California.
I'd offer to help, but honestly, it's been almost 20 years since I've done any serious bit twiddling, and I left before the PLC 5 was released, then came back after it was "Silver Series" (meaning almost obsolete), so I have zero experience on that product in particular. The forum at PLC-talk is probably better for you. There are a lot of guys from the PNW and BC on there who have a lot of experience with AB in lumber mills.
