And away we go... — Camp Buy Me Love

Mileage = 41,085

Yahtzee Games = 0

The fateful day came and we finally embarked on our National Park Road Trip on Saturday, January 28, 2017. Even though we already went to 3 parks in August, this is the big kahuna, the grand adventure, the 6+ months away from home. I almost said the one that counts, but that's not true at all. All adventure counts, even if it's in your own backyard.

We were late getting out of town by weeks, not hours. Our original goal of leaving by the 2nd week in January was thwarted by needing to get AC installed (along with a few other important service issues) during the holiday season. Safari Condo closes for a few weeks during the December/January holiday season. No contact, no emails, no phone calls. Nothing. We arranged to get the service completed by Get Away RV, but that still involved getting the AC shipped by Safari. We made an appointment with Get Away to arrive for our service on Tuesday, but the AC didn't even arrive until the Friday after. A full week and two days and another trip north from Portland and we finally had the trailer back home late Thursday night. We spent one whole day packing it up and officially left Saturday the 28th of January.

From this point forward I'm told by my loving husband that there is A LOT of info that follows and I should break it into days, but I don't want to do that because it's 9:58 p.m. And I'm a grown woman and I do what I want. But mostly because it's 9:58 p.m.

Days 1-4:

We are McMenamins Passport holders so on the way out of town we went to all the McMenamins in Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, and Roseburg. There are 8 of them so it took a considerable amount of time, mostly because parking is limited when you are hauling a trailer. We had a crazy good lunch at Block 15 Brewing in Corvallis. I would drive from Portland just to eat here for lunch. No joke. Plus G loves their beer so it's a win win.

We ended up staying south of Roseburg at the Seven Feathers RV Resort. I can imagine this place being a zoo in the summer, popular with the casino crowd with shuttles that take you on demand to the casino down the street. It was impeccably clean, quiet, and freezing cold outside, but we were happy to get some sleep. While typically we feel like the sleep we get in Woodstock is amongst the best we've ever had, this night of sleep was fitful, cold, loud (from heater), horrible. Ugh. I bought a 3rd blanket the next day which completely solved the problem of being cold. Plus, we stopped using the heat pump for heat and instead relied on propane heat. The heat pump is extremely loud, while the propane is more like white noise. The second night when we stayed in Elk Prairie in Redwoods NP, the difference was night and day. We slept like babies.

Day two took us across the border from Oregon to California. We stopped at the beautiful DeMartin Beach in False Klamath. It was a small little beach, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. We proceeded to go through Redwoods National Park seeing an interesting array of tourist traps along the way, only stopping at Paul Bunyan. Because...why not!?!? The highlight of the day occurred most certainly after dropping the trailer at our campsite and heading directly out to Gold Bluffs Beach to catch the sunset. The views and setting are jaw dropping and the sunset did not disappoint. I collected a few unique beach stones while G took photos. Scarlett hid in G's wake so as not to get her hair ruffled by the wind, while Murphy followed me around dutifully all while keeping an eye on his sissy.

After our glorious night's sleep in Elk Prairie we headed out to the viewpoint at Patrick's Point State Park to look over Agate Beach. No doggies allowed on the trail so that was a bummer, but we let them out to explore the parking lot and Agate Beach cabins since not a soul was in sight. G spent his elementary school years (K-6) in Trinidad so we drove down memory lane for a few hours. G even visited his 5th Grade teacher who still remembered him, which didn't surprise me at all.

This is going to sound a little ridiculous, but I'm not ashamed. I own it. I rarely put myself out there for ridicule so this is a BIG step for me. We just HAD to go to Guy Fieri's hometown of Ferndale to check out at least one of the spots he recommended on his show. We ended up at Ferndale Meat Company and WOW. They were just my style. Simple and cheap. If I had known how big they were going to be I may have shared with G, but we ended up eating the other half for dinner so it worked out. We both agree that we would go out of our way to come here again...so there's that.

Now on to the Avenue of the Giants. G, being from the area, had been here numerous times, but I have never been before. Of course there were lots of photo opportunities and we even let the dogs out to play a few times, but for the most part it just made you feel small. Really, really small. And young. Did I mention young? Many of the trees (Coast Redwoods) are between 400-600 years old and are the tallest living thing in the world. The end of the Avenue is precisely where our fun ended for the day. Thankful for Phil Knight's Shoe Dog for distracting me from the frightening Highway 101 from Phillipsville to Leggett and even more frightening Highway 1 from Leggett to Fort Bragg. The curvy roads were one thing, but the intense fog after hitting the coast were altogether another "thing". We were supposed to stay at MacKerricher State Park but the campgrounds were closed due to recent storm damage. We ended up staying just south of Fort Bragg at Pomo RV Campground. We were there just to sleep and left early, but it was clean and quiet just like the others. I'm beginning to really like traveling in the winter as opposed to the crazy busy, difficult to find available space summertime camping!

We spent most of day 4 in the car, but had a few highlights that are worth noting. We took our new bikes for a maiden voyage on the quaint Mendocino coast road. Thankfully everything worked according to plan, and we will enjoy putting some miles on those road warriors! I'm kicking myself I didn't look up the Mendocino Wikipedia to see that Murder She Wrote was, in part, filmed there and that her cottage is an actual B&B in the town. I repeated my vacation mantra, "Do something new every time and something else for next time." After our brief bike ride another Highway 1 curvy road day ensued. There were so many scars on the road and in the trees that indicated the recent storm damage. I hate to say it, but I'm glad we were delayed 2 weeks so we didn't get stuck in what I'm sure was a frightening experience for even the most storm ready campers.

After the worst of the curves and road repair passed, we saw a random "Wine Tasting Room - 2.5 Miles" sign that beckoned. Just when you think the sign was for naught, that you had somehow missed the tasting room, and that you need to find a turn around spot, the exit for the winery will come up on your right and another sign will direct you 500 feet further to the official entrance of Fort Ross Vineyard. The well kept dirt road will take you to an automatic gate that leads to the parking lot. All I kept thinking was these people have to have A LOT of money to have such a nice spot in (seemingly) the middle of nowhere. The tasting room was fantastic, the weather was better, and there was a view of the Pacific Ocean from the deck. We stayed here for an hour, which was an indulgence knowing that we wanted to get to Point Reyes Station before dark. I couldn't resist purchasing some of this awesome wine, even though it's going to be a pain in the butt keeping track of it in our trailer/car situation. But I know the time will come that we will want to enjoy a really nice bottle of wine on this trip and those 2 bottles will come in CLUTCH!

Onward to Point Reyes Station and getting our campsite at Olema Campground. They have obviously been ravaged by recent storms and many of the campsites weren't able to be reserved because they were too muddy. We got a prime spot next to the creek and went right to town for gas and to check things out. We landed at Old Western Saloon for a quick beer before dinner at the campground. We were in the saloon for a total of 20 minutes. During this time we saw two dogs who were "regulars" and had someone stop us when leaving. They mentioned to us that they knew we were staying at Olema Campground, because another patron who was there told them so and that they hoped we weren't in the mud. In a small town word travels fast, and we were "the word". Feels good. And a little weird. But mostly good. Right?!

Observations:

Everything was so green from the recent rains. I don't recall seeing California this green. Ever.

The Calla lilies were in full bloom all over. Fields of lilies in yards off Highway 1. I killed the one and only Calla I ever had. Not on purpose, just because I am inept at growing things.

Highlights:

Gold Bluffs Beach

Ferndale Meat Company

Avenue of the Giants

Fort Ross Vineyard

Old Western Saloon