RV Adventure – Drive from CA to OR – NNs On the Wind

May 11, 2019May 23, 2019 Kathleen Ennen

MAY 11, 2019

We left Yosemite Valley CA on May 9, with the plan to stop 2 nights and take 3 days to reach the Oregon Coast, with our first night in Brookings OR.

We stopped in Calistoga CA, a small town of hot springs and the attendant spas and upscale hotels. We stayed in the County RV campground which was simple and nice. We arrived later than planned and never made it into town. The second night we stayed near the Humbolt Redwoods State Park we previously stayed at. It was our first hot day with temps in the upper 80s through the afternoon of our arrival. We walked to the Eel River for a bit of a wade. It was cold but not as cold as expected for what likely is still snow melt. The current was very strong.

As we headed north, retracing our previous steps, we traveled on CA RT101 through Eureka and up along the coast, by Big Lagoon and Dry Lagoon parks. The coast drive continues to be beautiful with cliffs and rocky beaches. As we approached Oregon, more and more of the beaches are wider and sandier. Another observation is that this time of year, maybe due to the incessant grey and damp, the rhododendrons and azaleas are in spectacular bloom. And colors I’ve not seen before!

On May 11 we crossed a river to Brookings OR and stayed on the sand spit and public beach on the ocean. There were great sounds of the crashing waves and we took a nice walk amongst a portion of the marina and fishing boat fleet. Lots of driftwood and trees on the beach.

We have traveled over the years and retired in 2017, when we started on a nine month long adventure departing in December 2017. In the past we’ve traveled to Sri Lanka, Africa (several times), Turkey, and made a number of trips to Europe, and St Lucia. Our 2015 trip to Turkey, took nearly 3 weeks to explore Istanbul, Cappadocia and the areas in proximity to Izmir.

This is a chronicle of our travels, past and present. We love to travel by trains, planes, ships, and cars – and love sailing whenever and wherever we can.

We retired from the US General Services Administration, the Federal Government’s landlord! Thom worked at planning and large scale program management of numerous projects and Kathleen, a registered professional civil engineer, was a project manager for many infrastructure and building renovation projects, including both design and construction aspects, in New England, Florida and the metro DC area. We lived in Washington DC for 12 years and upon retirement sold the house, putting a few things in a 5’x5’ storage unit and started traveling.

On return to the US in September 2018, after traveling to 21 countries, we bought a Class C RV – 2019 Thor Freedom Elite 24FE. We enjoyed our week long camping trip in New Zealand in a small converted van with few amenities, so this seemed liked a good way to tour the US. We hope to visit family along the way and as many US National Parks as possible.

UPDATE – the Covid pandemic made travel more difficult for us. We were abroad for several months when the pandemic started and returned to the US in July 2020. After several months in the RV to visit Utah and Albuquerque NM, we moved east, bought a house on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and sold the RV. For 2021 and 2022 we tended to our new house and cottage, gardens and various boats including a 18’ 1977 Marshall Sanderling catboat and a 25’ Steiger Craft Chesapeake fishing boat, and kayaks and a canoe. Hopefully travel will start again one day!!

May 2022