Oregon to Vancouver

After visiting the redwoods, we returned to the coast to locate a campground before dark - without real success. We ended up in the marina area of Brookings, OR. While the location was promising, we learned that all the stores, shops, restaurants and pubs closed at 8:00 p.m. Since it was about that time when we pulled into our RV spot, we were fortunate to find a small cafe that served a delicious clam chowder, fried clams, and oyster sandwiches.

Brookings, OR

After a long day of traveling the California coastline, walking amongst the redwoods, and hiking about Brookings looking for dinner, we slept in and slowly headed our way north along the Oregon coastline. The coast was very majestic and the weather cooperated (unlike most of California) so we had terrrific views.

Oregon coast

Along the coast, we stopped at one of the world's finest golf resorts, Bandon Dunes. Mark and Mason camped out and made a picnic in the RV park while I visited the clubhouse, course and pro shop. After collecting some mementos and a score card, I climbed a high dune and took pictures of the clubhouse and course.

Bandon Dunes clubhouse and course

Following the picnic in Bandon Dunes, we continued up the coast to the very quaint fishing village of Florence where we bought some Dungeness crab and fresh oysters. Since the prior evening's accommondations did  not meet our previous standard, and because it was our last night along the coast, we searched early for a small, very secluded and beautiful camp spot. We were rewarded with a 15 space campground in an Oregon state park along Rock Creek, less than a half mile from the ocean. Our campground spot was the most beautiful of our trip. It was the last spot on a straight line into the woods and the nearest available camping spot was over 100 yards away.

Rock Creek, Oregon coast

The following day was the informal mid way point for our trip. We left camp reluctantly and left the coast for Mark's home in Vancouver, WA. The majority of the day was spent cleaning the RV, our clothes, and re-stocking with groceries and supplies so we were ready for Susie and Brayden's arrival.
Mason and I had a very plesant evening with Mark, Gina, Tony, his girlfriend Kathy, Jennie, Mark's 4 year old grandson, Zakari and some local firends.

Tuesday morning, Mark cooked us an excellent breakfast and sent us on our way for the other Vancouver. The trip was uneventful until we reached the border. While getting Mason's student visa posed no problems, apparently a personal transgression in 1980 (when I was about Mason's age) sparked the interest of the Canadian Border Patrol. After some discussion and an extra $200, they deemed me safe enought to allow me to enter their country.

After our excitement at the border, we cruised the final 30 minutes to our RV site in Burnaby, left the RV and set out for the University of British Columbia (UBC). It took us an hour of train and bus, but we finally arrived on the spctacular campus of UBC. Mason was able to get his check-in completed and we went to see his new dorm room. He will be staying in a brand new dorm this year, with a view of the ocean and the mountains from his top floor room - very nice!

We explored the campus all afternoon, took care of logistics and then headed for Granville Island for some seafood and beverages. We ended the first day in Canada with a few hours of live blues. The Vancouver music scene is spectacular. Mason is going to love it here and I hope I can come back often to visit.

Napa Valley, August 26

This entry on the blog is Mark's...from our campsite at the RV park on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, we drove to the Napa Valley. We had to do a little plumbing repair on the RV in Napa, while we waited to meet my sister, Monica, her husband Bill, and my niece, Jessica. We met up at Lake Hennessey, just east of Napa and performed a memorial service for our late father. The spot we laid our father's ashes is very beautiful.
After the service, we all had lunch in Napa and Monica, Bill, and Jessica left for tourist time in San Fran.
Mike, Mason and I drove straight to the coast on a very narrow and windy road, but finally we reached HWY 1 on the coast and drove north until we found a campsite at Casper Beach. This was the best RV camp site so far while I have been on the road with these guys. We had a great night there, cooked steaks on the grill, told tall tales, and played board games until midnight. Next morning I left Mike and Mason sleeping in and went for a hike around the campground, beach ( cool cove ), and some of the hills surrounding the campground. We left camp around 11AM and headed north for the Redwood National forest and Oregon.
 We stopped in Crescent City, CA and Mike and Mason had a close encounter with some sea lions. Just north of this area we stopped for a hike through some massive redwoods and sequoias. Then the road led us farther north into Oregon and we found campsite in Brookings, OR about 8PM and hoped to find a good pub to have dinner and a beer. Unfortunately, this town rolls up the carpet at 8 o'clock and we ended up settling for some seafood take out and eating in the RV ( the clam chowder was very good ). Right now we are all sitting back, catching up on e-mails, the blog, listening to some news, and I think Mike is actually trying to work. More tomorrow.

Casper Beach Campsite

Mike and Mason in the drive through tree

Mike making new friends. Crescent City, CA

Mike and Mark, Redwoods National Park

Where's Mark, Redwoods Nat Park, CA

Mike cannot believe the size of this downed redwood.

Well that was an interesting night...

So, last night as Mike was finishing up our blog post there came a rapping at the door. We open it up to discover three police officers shining there flashlights in our faces. They informed us that we were not able to spend the night where we were and that we were going to have to move. This was at one o'clock in the morning, but the fine officers of the San Francisco police department were quite insistent. Luckily we were able to find an RV park just north of San Francisco that didn't have a gate and sneak in, which is where I am now. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were able to take nice hot showers and do some laundry this morning.

Now to bring everybody back up to speed. Yesterday was actually a great day in spite of the trouble with our parking place. We slept in at Kirk Creek campground and woke up to the Pacific ocean in our back yard. Once we got moving we decided we should stop and get some breakfast. In the heart of Big Sur there is a little inn called Deetjins tucked in to the mountainside surrounded by sequoia trees. The little cafe located there had an amazing breakfast (even if the service was a little slow) and we got back on the road full and happy. From there we decided to try to find somewhere to go for a little hike, so we stopped by a ranger station and got a few suggestions from the ranger.  He told us to go to Andrew Molera Park because they had a nice easy one mile walk down to the beach. We took his suggestion and it turned out to be a great one. The next stop on our little journey was Carmel so that we could go to this cool little pub that Mike remembered called the Hog's Breath. We stopped in and had a drink and some delicious crab dip then headed up to the Seventeen Mile Drive. The Seventeen Mile Drive is a road through Pebble Beach that runs right along the ocean and some of the world's best golf courses. It is also home to the Monterrey cypress tree which is only found here. We took our time and took in the sites along the drive and then headed north. The drive up to San Francisco was pretty cool because we got to see all the farm land where our raspberries, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables come from. When we did get to San Francisco I caught up with Mr. K (my high school biology teacher) and then got some delicious Thai food for dinner. That brings us back to the beginning of my post. We will try to make these post's more regular from here on. We had some issues with cell reception in Big Sur but hopefully that won't be a problem any more.

Andrew Molera State park beach

The creek we had to cross to get to the trail. It was freezing

We ran into a couple of coues deer on the way back from the beach

 

A very "happy" friend took this for us at the Hog's Breath

Mike at the lone cypress tree on the Seventeen Mile Drive

An outlook post on our way into California.


        

Wednesday morning we left the luxury of a full service RV park right on Pismo Beach and headed north along Highway 1 towards the scenic Big Sur area.

                                                                Drive to Big Sur
We were fortunate to arrive early in the day and claim a coveted beachside camping spot at the Kirk Creek campground just into the Ventana National Forest at the southern edge of the Big Sur area.

                                                                        Kirk Creek Campsite

 Since we arrived early, we decided to take a hike into the mountains, a very ambitious endeavour. Two and half mile , mostly, what felt like straight up as we went to near sea level to 1800 feet above sea level. The good news is it took less than half the time to return to camp.

We were there

View from the hike

Mason "in" a tree

Mason

Having a little fun from the top

View from the hike

Wildflower - Does anyone know what type it is?

After a short trip to the ocean to checkout the beach, we had a large dinner over the grill, played a game of Catan ( Mark won) and slept like the dead.

Mike and Mason on beach

Mason on beach

Mark wins Catan game

Thursday to come. The police just stopped by to tell us that the parking spot Mason's high school teacher told us would be Ok - isn't. Explain in next blog, but have to sign off now. We'll get to Thursday's activities ASAP.

Cruising the Califorina Coast

Today was our first day in California. We pushed hard Monday to get to San Diego and stayed right near the beach. The cooler weather and nice sea air was a welcome improvement to the oppressive heat of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. After a quiet night we turned in early, and we left the air conditioning off for the first time on our trip. In the morning we headed north to Los Angeles to Pick up Mark at Long Beach airport. The I-405 was a little rough, but as L.A. goes, not bad. After Mark was safely on board we headed for the coastal highway. The views were amazing and it was great to just sit back and enjoy the ride after almost 2,000 miles in three days. We found a nice turn off of the highway and went down to the beach to take pictures and feel the sand between our toes. California is so beautiful and it really makes you appreciate how large and varied our country really is. The driving was the most enjoyable of our trip so far and we finally meandered our way to Pismo Beach and found an RV park right on the water for tonight. Both Mike and I are really enjoying having Mark with us and we're looking forward to a great ride up the coast from here!

The campsite in San Diego right on Mission Bay

The beach right off the highway

Mike and Mason, smiling away

The two brothers

Right on the beach tonight!

It's gotten a little cold in Pismo Beach

                                                          A video Mike took of a seagull

Oops! Wrong country

After covering over 800 miles of Texas, we decided that since we were so close to the border with Mexico, we ought to at least stop for a visit. That's when the adventures began. Our first attempt was at a border crossing in the small town of Ft. Hancock to El Ponvenir. As we pulled up to the border crossing, we were duly informed that it was not a safe area as a US tourist had been kidnapped just Saturday and they found his beheaded body ealrier that day (Sunday).However, the younger of the two border patrol agents was going to let us walk out onto the bridge were there was a plague to take a picture. As we started to park the RV, the senior agent highly recommended that we try another border crossing as we would be within a pot shot range from the other side and things were very "tense" at this time. After some conversation, it was apparent that (1) this is not that unusual for the Mexico-US border stations, and (2) the problems extend all along the border and our government, nor the media care to bring the level of tension to the attention of the general public.

Well, needless to say, we decided to head for El Paso and the more civilized finery of Ciudad Juarez. Mason can now say he has been to Mexico, although we spent more time in line trying to get  back into the US than we did walking the streets of Juarez.

                                                    Can't wait to get back into El Paso

                                                 Ciudad Juarez - that's Spanish for shit hole

By the time we returned to the RV, the sun was setting and there were monstrous thunder cells in the sky, making for a beautiful sunset and interesting light show. We heard this morning that the same system casued wirdespread flooding just north of our location in New Mexico last night.

                                                     Big thunder storm in New Mexico

We both felt good after a dinner outside Deming, NM - a local diner with interesting clientele and decor you could only find in a 30 year old restaurant in the middle of the desert. We decided it was too late to find an RV park, so we headed for Tuscon. Didn't quite make it as the RV provided the first (and I hope only) surprise. Apparently the RV shop forgot to change the oil even though there was a sticker in the widshield clearly indicating an oil change was past due over 1,000 miles before we picked up the vehicle. So, we found a Walmart in Benson, AZ with a Jiffy Lube across the street.

Woke up this morning to learn the Lube shop was closed on Mondays, but, a nice man told us of the nearest alternative, just 45 miles away. Fortunately, it was on our way towards Tuscon. we passed Davis mountain AFB on the way to the lube shop. Apparantley, the base is the designated location for all retired C-130s as there had to be at least 500 of them lined up in mothball.

                                          C-130 graveyard at Davis Mtn. AFB, Tuscon, AZ

 We had our home serviced and are now heading into Yuma, AZ, Should be sitting at a tiki hut in Mission Bay just north of San Diego enjoying a cold beverage by late this afternoon.

Arizona desert

Hello from the Road!

Well we're in the middle of Texas right now about 550 miles in to an 800 mile drive. The surroundings are pretty bleak, but they are kind of beautiful to look at, as long as you're moving at least 60 mph past them. There's not really much to do so we've taken a lot of pictures of things that peaked our interest along the way.

                                    One of about a million oil wells in the Permian Basin

                         We passed a HUGE windmill farm that seemed to go on for miles.

                       It was the only cool thing we saw in Texas. We took lots of pictures.

                                      It is very easy to zone out while driving these roads.

                                                   I can't get over how flat it is!

                                           Multi-tasking: eating a snack and pumping gas!

The First Day

Well, today was the first day on the road and we did pretty well. We made it to Tyler, Texas by about 4:30 and spent the day relaxing around the RV park. The drive itself was not nearly as bad as either of us expected. There wasn't much traffic and it was pretty smooth sailing. The scenery was about what we expected, though. Louisiana and Texas are flat and dull (and that's putting it mildly). We're guessing that tomorrow is going to be more of the same and we just hope we'll make it out of Texas with our sanity. All in all, though, today has been a great day. We had a blast hanging out in the RV and grilling steaks out for dinner. It was a great start to a grand adventure, and it's only going to get better from here!

                                                                  The open road.

                                                              Our very first campsite!