Note: I guess you can expect a blog update from me about once per week. With spotty cell service and our unpredictable schedule, that is about what it is working out to be. Also, I am finding that I prefer to share photos with a few captions rather than a wordy narrative. Thank you for following along…
We left Kelly and Kyle’s home on Wednesday, December 1st after an extended stay so that we could have a braking system installed in “Sparky.” We spent our first night at the Mayo Family Winery in Glen Ellen as members of Harvest Host. Wonderful wines and a lovely spot to camp for the night.
“Cheers!” From the Mayo Family Winery
On Thursday we headed over to the coast. On our way to the Fort Bragg area we made a special stop at one of our favorite lunch spots, The Loose Caboose Cafe in Willits.
YUM! The sandwiches at The Loose Caboose Cafe were worth the trouble of unhooking the tow car from the RV.
Our pretty wooded site at MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg
On our walk to the beach
Selfie time!
We took off Friday morning headed to the Redwoods of the Northern California Coast.
So much beautiful lumber on the Northern California coast
We can never travel this part of Highway 101 without at least a small diversion onto The Avenue of the Giants, my most favorite place in California!
A quickly snapped photo out the window of the RV - Humboldt State University - my home for my freshman year of college. Awww, the memories and the lifelong friends I made there.
We arrived at one of my favorite campgrounds in California, Sue-meg State Park, formerly Patrick’s Point State Park. The park was recently renamed to honor the name given to the nearby rock formation by the Yurok tribe. If you are interested in the history of the park and the renaming, look into it - it is a very interesting story.
The view from the back of our campsite
Our campsite, site 99, near the trailhead to Agate Beach
Ready for the hike down to the beach
The following are photos taken on Agate Beach. We almost got caught in the water of the incoming tide!
Odd brownish foam on the beach
I love driftwood
What a cool striped rock!
There’s a fungus among us!
The walk back up the trail
I don’t know why but I think this is neat looking! Something growing on a retaining fence.
We stopped in to the Visitor Center (still called, “Patrick’s Point”) and bought some souvenirs and a couple of toasty jackets - we’re already glad we bought them!
We also bought a little mascot for our trip. This is “Sluggy” the banana slug. He is much cuter than the real slugs!
Back on the road and we passed the iconic “Trees of Mystery” in Klamath, CA. We have stopped in the past but drove right on by this time.
Driving down the road and keeping an eye on “Sparky.”
On Saturday, December 4, we finally crossed the state line into Oregon!
We arrived at Cape Blanco State Park on Saturday at about 4:30, just before sunset. It gets dark here so early this time of year.
What a gorgeous campsite!
Hooking up Sparky for the drive to the next state park
This is the Cape Blanco Lighthouse - photo taken from quite a distance from the driver’s seat of the RV.
Sunday found us at Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park just south of Florence, Oregon. Mark’s cousin Rich and his wife Joy live just about an hour away in Eugene so they drove over and spent Sunday and part of Monday camping in the site right next to ours. We just love Oregon State Parks! They are beautiful and well cared for. Most of them have full hookup sites and you rarely pay more than $35 a night. This campground has over 400 sites and they are all beautiful. One of the draws for people to this area are the sand dunes. We decided to take a little walk into the dunes…
Robin, Joy & Mark
Joy & Mark
Pictures just cannot capture how steep this walk was! I was pretty proud of myself for deciding to do it and then actually doing it!
The view at the top was worth the climb
Hi, Joy!
Mark, Joy & Rich
Dunes and the beach on one side; a forest of evergreens on the other side
Descending the hill, “heel, toe.”
Happy Hour at the campground
Mark and I left Honeyman State Park on Tuesday morning and headed to McMinnville where we will stay at an RV park for four nights. Here we have the opportunity to do some grocery shopping, laundry and catch upon other neglected tasks. We will use this as a home base to explore the surrounding areas. And of course we are in the middle of the Willamette Wine area so a little wine tasting wouldn’t be out of the question.
Scenes from our drive to from Florence to McMinnville…
Thank you for following along on our journey. Please leave us comments. We love hearing from you!
