Month: October 2018

Tripometer – 9569 mi

Gas Gauge – 737.398 gal

Location – Soledad Canyon RV & Camping Resort, Acton, CA

Lodging – $50

Cans of OFF – 4

Starting fairly early on Saturday morning we parked our car in between the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach in L.A. There is a beautiful bike and walking trail that travels between these two locations and provides us with the perfect place for a nice Saturday afternoon stroll.

Santa Monica Pier was exactly as we’d expected, being more amusement park than anything else. The wandering performers of every type and skill level kept us simultaneously entertained and horrified. You’d think some of these folks would practice in a mirror or on a recording before coming out in public to demonstrate their skills (or lack thereof.)

The walk from Santa Monica to Venice Beach was beautiful. A constant stream of bikes and electric scooters plied back and forth beside us as we walked enjoying the beach air and sunshine, our cold bones finally thawing in the California sun. It is readily apparent why this boardwalk is so often featured in pictures and movies.

Venice Beach was by far the most interesting destination for the day. Known as a magnet for local artists and street vendors we had pictured an art festival type atmosphere to the boardwalk on Venice Beach. What we found was somewhat different. There is a striking wealth gap amongst the people on Venice beach, the haves and the have nots. The artisans spanned the range from the truly gifted to the truly mentally disturbed, many of whom were living and sleeping mere feet from their art on the sidewalk. The smell of marijuana was so strong that we both felt a little lightheaded before we began the walk back to the car in the evening. What we found to be most disturbing were the number of people sorting through garbage cans for their next meal. Our assumption is that the warm and consistent weather attracts the homeless to the area.

One of the things we have been looking forward to the most during our visit to the SW US is the food. We are both big fans of Mexican food and this is probably one of the best parts of the US to experience really top notch Mexican grub. Tonight was our first foray into local Mexican at the Cabana restaurant near the campground. We were richly rewarded with a fantastic dinner of chicken mole and cheese enchiladas. We went to bed tonight with warm round bellies and lots of leftovers.

Tripometer – 9458 mi

Gas Gauge – 737.398 gal

Location – Soledad Canyon RV & Camping Resort, Acton, CA

Lodging – $50

Cans of OFF – 4

Ranger woke up this morning a new dog. THANK GOD. Apparently we managed to break our dog with car rides and lack of sleep (he still will not sleep a wink while the car is moving). He is back to his old self again and acting like a full blown puppy.

After Kelly finished work this afternoon we jumped in the car and headed into L.A. Our first destinations were Bel Air and Beverly Hills. We both really enjoy looking at beautiful homes and properties and this looks to be one of the fanciest neighborhoods that either of us have ever seen. We found Bel Air to be interesting but most of the homes are relatively spartan on the street front, most of the value of these homes is in the location relative to L.A. and the tremendous views from the back of the houses. The streets we were driving down ride the ridges of several hills in Bel Air and all of the homes seem to be cantilevered over the edge of the hills to get the best view of the surrounding valleys. Most of the homes appear to be relatively modestly sized but we imagined the interiors to be fantastic.

Beverly Hills turned out to be all we expected. Having no taste for expensive for expensive’s sake, we weren’t looking forward to spending any time in Beverly Hills or in any of the shops along Rodeo Drive. We did enjoy some of the cars we saw driving through the area. It was like a car show watching Rolls Royces, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and even a McLaren drive casually down the streets here. We both really enjoyed the ‘Witches House’ pictured above. The house could well have sprung from the pages of a children’s book of fairy tales.

The homes in Beverly Hills were much more attractive to look at than those in Bel Air. Spaced farther apart with room for landscaping, these homes were spectacular. We saw a fairly wide range of ages on these homes. Some were from the early days of Beverly Hills in the 1920s, but most have either been refurbished several times since then or completely torn down and rebuilt. We were both shocked at the continuous buzz of maintenance and renovation companies working on these homes and yards. There seemed to be much more work truck traffic than residential traffic in the streets.

We discovered a little unexpected gem right in the heart of Beverly Hills. About 200 yards down from the Beverly Hills sign that Kelly and Ranger posed in front of was an amazing little cactus garden that is very lovingly maintained (I wonder where they get all of the money to pay for this??!?). We all enjoyed a nice walk through the garden looking at many types of cactuses that neither of us had ever seen before. We’re both very excited to immerse ourselves into the desert southwest. The cactus garden was a welcome start to this area’s ecology. Ranger is none too impressed with the prickly plants. As an interesting side note, the dog poop bags available just outside of the cactus garden were the uber-expensive, thick plastic, and perfumed type. Not just scented, these were highly-perfumed, likely with Chanel we joked. We grabbed a few of those tiny luxuries before we got back in the car to head on down the road.

Not finding enough to occupy ourselves with in the uber-rich area of Bel Air and Beverly Hills, we drove to Hollywood Boulevard in search of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hollywood sign. We’re not sure what we expected but we both quickly realized that all of the songs we’ve heard over the years referring to both Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard as ‘dirty’ were not just referring to social and figurative filth. Hollywood is one dirty city. We had intended to walk the walk of fame looking at the Hollywood stars, but honestly the sheer quantity of in-your-face drug use and homeless people stopped us from looking for a place to park. Paul spent the drive trying to read some names on stars as we drove slowly down the boulevard. After exclaiming that he had found Betty Davis’ star Kelly remarked snidely that she was sure Betty would probably not approve of the homeless man brushing his teeth over a trashcan next to her star.

The highlight of Hollywood for us was the discovery of Hollywoodland. The Hollywood sign that we are all familiar with originally said ‘Hollywoodland’ as an advertisement for this housing community nestled up in a canyon just North of Hollywood Boulevard. We discovered the area when we drove into the neighborhood to hopefully grab a better picture of the Hollywood sign. The homes here were so much more interesting and comfortable feeling than any we had seen in either Bel Air or Beverly Hills. Many of the houses were in the Tudor style and made us both feel as though we were in the hills outside of London.

Tonight’s drive back to our canyon campground was our first experience with rush hour traffic in L.A. In the picture above you can see nine lanes of backed up traffic all not moving in the same direction. We won’t be griping about traffic jams in other cities for a while.

Tripometer – 9328 mi

Gas Gauge – 722.350 gal

Location – Soledad Canyon RV & Camping Resort, Acton, CA

Lodging – $50

Cans of OFF – 4

The last week has been hell on more than our spirits, the inside of our rig is blown up. While Kelly worked today, Paul cleaned and reorganized the trailer and truck to a deep clean (though he never found what’s making that slight, but extremely foul odor in the car <sigh>.) When we left Maryland we didn’t know how we would live day-to-day in the trailer in a practical sense. We had to find that out as we travelled. Now that we’ve been on the road a few months we’re able to sort the contents of the trailer into more sensible and workable locations. It’s nice to have a clean slate for the week to come.

When we woke up this morning, Ranger looked flat out sick. He has no enthusiasm for food, play, walks, or anything that would normally get him excited. We decided that if he hasn’t improved after a full day of recuperation we would have to find a local vet and have him looked over for illness or injury (though none is readily apparent.) As the day progressed however, he began to come around. He spent most of the day sleeping under the trailer (his favorite shady location for napping). We think he was planning on another day of moving until the sun began to set. As night fell on the campsite he suddenly became alert and somewhat happy again, venturing out from under the trailer for attention and love. That’s REALLY good news. We will have to see if he returns to full steam over the next few days.

We finally broke out the hummingbird feeder that has been with us since the beginning of the trip. We were excited to see hummingbirds and feeders in many places in the campground and we couldn’t wait to set ours up. We don’t think either of us can recall hearing the hummingbird song before today. Magical.

Clearly recuperating ourselves, we treated ourselves to a home made meal and some television tonight for the first time in weeks. It’s nice to be stationary if only for a few days. The weather, though hot during the day (especially in the sun) is nice and cool in the evenings. We both decided that tonight would be a great night to turn in early.

Tripometer – 9327 mi

Gas Gauge – 722.350 gal

Location – Soledad Canyon RV & Camping Resort, Acton, CA

Lodging – $50

Cans of OFF – 4

We’ve driven too far too fast.

Leaving the hotel this afternoon after a very late checkout, the sun blasted us in the face with 90 degree temperatures from the get-go. Time to pack away those fleeces.

Ranger is looking no better this morning, he’s acting like a 12 year old dog. Both Kelly and Paul are in foul moods and the whole tone of the trip has turned ugly. We passed the day making snide and cynical remarks about the gradually urbanizing landscape and slow death of all vegetation around us. We have certainly entered the desert southwest.

Arriving at Soledad Canyon RV Park just before dark and after driving through suburban L.A. rush hour traffic for the last hour and a half, we had a dinner of leftovers (at least we have good Indian food) and went to sleep shortly after. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Tripometer – 9152 mi

Gas Gauge – 704.777 gal

Location – Best Western, Kettleman City, CA

Lodging – $144

Cans of OFF – 4

After going to bed with bellies full of fantastic Indian food and leftovers for one meal in the fridge last night we decided that instead of fighting over who gets the leftovers, if we got the same Indian food for lunch today we could make a full meal for both of us later. (It was really good Indian.) We left camp to continue our drive shortly afterward.

Moving forward with our plan to drive through to L.A. in the next two days, we went around San Francisco and got on the I-5 south through the San Joaquin Valley. The I-5 is the biggest highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and we are making good time; however, aside from growing a chunk of the country’s food here, this valley doesn’t have much to offer tourists except fresh produce. The temperatures went from a cool 60 something early this afternoon in the hills above San Francisco to well into the 90s in the heart of the valley. At least we’re starting to warm up finally.

To stretch our legs we pulled off the highway around sunset at what was supposed to be a scenic overlook, but in reality was merely a parking lot on top of a hill overlooking the highway. It did provide us with two artsy photos. Not sure what we’re going to do with the ‘urban desert dumpster’ photo.

After searching for a campsite for the night for over an hour and not finding anything that looked less than stabby-stabby, we decided we would break down and get a hotel room on the highway tonight – the first hotel room since we left Maryland. We put in another couple of hours of driving and pulled into a Best Western just off the highway and both enjoyed long hot showers and cable TV.

Ranger is not looking good. He has no sense of humor and refuses to jump up on anything. We’re concerned he may have hurt himself the last time we took him swimming. When we helped him up on the bed tonight he whimpered from Paul lifting his rear end. We’re both a bit concerned about him.

Tomorrow is the last push to LA. We’re so sick of driving…

Tripometer – 8910 mi

Gas Gauge – 689.177 gal

Location – Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Lagunitas, CA

Lodging – $35

Cans of OFF – 4

As soon as Kelly finished work today we were on the road. We continued our slow drive down the Coastal Highway enjoying the sunshine for much of the afternoon. The temperatures are still cool on the coast but the sun is much stronger here than in WA & OR. It may not be much warmer, but our attitudes are beginning to thaw. A quick detour to Point Arena Lighthouse afforded more than a few picture opportunities. The Pacific Coast is still stunning us on an hourly basis.

In the early evening the fog began rolling in off of the ocean giving everything the look and feel of Ireland. With the steep cliffs to our right and visibly flowing fog coming up the cliffs and out over green pasture land we couldn’t get ‘O’ Danny Boy’ out of our heads (thanks to Paul). Somewhere during the drive south with Samuel P. Taylor State Park as a destination, we drove away from the coast onto some less twisting and smoother roads. The drive was easier and Kelly had a chance to relax a bit behind the wheel.

Pulling into Samuel P. Taylor tonight we were all exhausted. Not feeling like cooking we again dropped the trailer and headed to nearby Lagunitas, CA to a little Indian restaurant for dinner. We were amply rewarded with the best Indian food we’ve had since Maryland. We think our proximity to San Francisco has improved the quality of food tremendously.

Trip Note: The wind is forecasted to be 30mph with gusts to 50mph on Pacific Coast Highway below San Francisco tomorrow. Having driven this stretch of highway on a previous trip to California, neither of us relished the idea of towing this trailer on those roads in that wind. We’ve decided that if we put in two more days of driving we can likely be at our next destination near L.A. Once we arrive outside of L.A. we plan to make a basecamp in a nearby canyon for several days while we recoup from this drive and do trips into the city to see the big tourist attractions. No one wants to be on the road anymore right now.

Tripometer – 8729 mi

Gas Gauge – 675.525 gal

Location – MacKerricher State Park, Fort Bragg, CA

Lodging – $55

Cans of OFF – 4

We started today with our last Oregon coffee for a while and drove south on Rt 101 towards LA. All along the coastal route we’ve been enjoying stopping at antique, junk, thrift, rummage shops. Marine related antiques and oddities tend to attract our attention more than most, so our route down the Pacific coast has provided ample opportunities to indulge. Today we stopped at one of the more eclectic shops we’ve passed. The marine stuff outside got us to stop, only to find the inside was filled with bizarre collection of leftover Burning Man art in various states of disrepair.

Today’s drive took us through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, uncontestably one of the most amazing scenic drives in America, the ‘Avenue of the Giants’. This 20mi road that weaved left and right of the main highway along its entire route was absolutely breathtaking. The old growth redwoods in along this route have been untouched by modern man and exist as they have for a thousand years. This state park is home to many of the top ten tallest trees in the world, all of which are well over 300 feet tall. Travelling slowly through the park we spotted a hollowed out giant Redwood right on the road and stopped to take a closer look. It turned out to be one of the coolest things we’ve seen on this trip. Check out the video above for a closer look.

Still travelling south on Rt 101 after Humboldt Redwoods we took a left at Leggett, CA on Rt 1 ‘Shoreline Highway’ to continue our travels along the coast road. What followed was a lesson in patience and route research. The road became a barely two lane back road through dense coastal redwood forest. The forest had been logged long ago so there were no huge trees, just smaller densely packed young redwoods and assorted other trees. The area reminded us both of Green Ridge State Forest, our favorite camping location near home. Not familiar due to the foliage but rather, the topography of the mountains, the size of the roadway, the tight turns and steep hills with deadly drop offs with no guard rails. Kelly’s driving video game just leveled up again. The driving was excruciatingly slow much to the dismay of everyone behind us (few though they were). There were towns listed on Google Maps, but more oft than not the ‘towns’ were either abandoned and falling down or simply a single business that had closed years before. The road seemed to go on for hours at the rate we had to drive and there was nothing but dense forests surrounding us the entire way. Thank God we filled up the tank before we started down this road. It was hours before we saw another gas station. So much for great coastal views.

We arrived late at MacKerricher State Park and overlooked the $55 campsite cost due to simple exhaustion. Dropping the trailer as fast as we could we scampered into town to find something warm to put in our bellies. The only restaurant in town, a small Thai place would only serve us take-out because they were closing at 8:30. “Things close early around these parts”, we were told. That’s fine, it was delicious.

Special Note: Our favorite activity to wear out Ranger before long drives has been to play fetch in the water, be it ocean, lake, river, or stream. The past few nights have been to beaches where swimming is strongly warned against. Both the sandy beach that you are used to walking on and the beach underneath the waves near shore are very steep causing tremendous undertow. Apparently it has been frequently deadly in the past. Needless to say we haven’t exercised Ranger enough over the past few days and he is getting rather melancholy about it. When we try to put him in the car he refuses to jump up on his own and often walks away from the car when we are fully hooked to the trailer and ready to leave. He’s done with this daily drive stuff.

Tripometer – 8553 mi

Gas Gauge – 659.195 gal

Location – Big Lagoon County Park, Trinidad, OR

Lodging – $38

Cans of OFF – 4

This morning was foggy and cold as we woke. We decided to only pop out one tent bunk on the trailer and leave the trailer hitched to the truck last night to make the pack-up this morning quick and easy. We were on the road with only a few minutes of effort.

After a hot breakfast at a local diner we took Ranger for a run and swim on the beach. It’s been more than a few days since we’ve been able to swim him and only the second time we’ve been able to swim him in the surf. The beach here was a bit steeper than the last time he swam in the surf and consequently the waves were a bit rougher. We were both watching the first time he got tumbled by a wave. The look on his face was pretty impressive to say the least. He didn’t seem to put off by the experience, though a little wary, but the NEXT time a large wave was headed his way he scooted out of the way so fast we both had a really good laugh. Apparently you can fool him once…

We’ve driven past and over many rivers in the past few days along the coast. Whenever we’re near the mouth of the river the number of boats fishing there increases exponentially. We’re guessing that it’s the salmon run. Today while driving through a small coastal town we ran over a salmon in the middle of the road. It seemed oddly appropriate.

The point of this weekend was to make some good distance down the coast towards LA. We’re making progress every day but the going is slow along the coast mostly due to the windy coast road and the speed that we need to take the road when hauling the trailer. The scenery along the coast has been fantastic and we are very hesitant to move our travel route inland. Our fearless driver Kelly, though, is beginning to show some signs of strain. Lassen Volcanic National Park was also on our list of parks to visit on this trip. This park dropped from the schedule today as we realized it would take us two days of travel time plus visiting days to tour the park. It’s simply not in the cards this trip.

We drove through Redwoods NP and the associated State Parks today. The sheer size of these monster trees is humbling and amazing to experience every time we have the opportunity. All of the campgrounds in the Redwoods forest had no usable cellular signal and Kelly needs to work in the morning so we had to keep going. We passed at least two different campgrounds that had campsites situated in and amongst the huge old redwoods (and in one case, amongst huge redwood stumps) and we had to keep travelling.

We camped this evening at a tiny community park right on the coast. We were both horrified at the cost of tonight’s lodging. The small size, dilapidated campsites and horrifically smelling restrooms at this campground make it the lowest value we’ve run across for a campsite. The sunset on the other hand was amazing. We spent the evening drinking a bottle of wine and commenting on the attire of our fellow campers, most of whom were dressed to appear in a eastern European gypsy documentary.

Tripometer – 8377 mi

Gas Gauge – 643.882 gal

Location – Bandon Wayside Motel & RV Park, Bandon, OR

Lodging – $43

Cans of OFF – 4

Leaving camp this morning to start our long drive south we took the opportunity to empty the waste tanks in the trailer at the campground dump station, a once or twice per week chore. Today we were behind a man in hospital scrubs who was not wearing gloves, manhandling his sewer hose and dumping his tanks. We both sincerely hope that Dr. Poopenstein washed his hands and changed his clothes before surgery.

There was much more sun today as we made our way south down Rt 101 with occasional detours down Rt 1 to stay on the coast. The road can be narrow, steep and ride right along side steep cliffs that fall off straight down into the ocean for miles on end. Kelly has been dropping into focused silence occasionally as we face more and more challenging road and weather conditions while towing the trailer. Many video games often increase in difficulty when you achieve a new level, Kelly has been getting a kick out of referring to new and worsening driving conditions as ‘leveling up’. She has also been making “cha-ching” sounds (ala Mario Bros.) when accomplishing things such as avoiding idiots, veering to miss cows, etc.

Pulling into the little town of Bandon just before dark, we decided to make our home here for the night. While Kelly ran into the grocery for dinner fixins, Paul stayed in the truck to find a place to stay for the night… with the car ignition in the on position and the seat heaters and fan turned on… for 30 minutes.

Once the AAA tow truck arrived and breathed life back into the truck’s battery, we decided to book a campsite behind a tiny local motel. The Bandon Wayside Motel & RV Park turned out to be our favorite RV Park experience to date. The 20ish room and 9 campsite motel is run by a young couple who have really put a ton of effort into their small property and it shows. We really enjoyed string upon string of Edison bulb lights they had strung through most of the trees on the property. The whole RV Park glowed.

Much to Kelly’s Horror… Beeeeeeeep… apparently there is another fog horn off the coast here too.

Trip Note: Today we firmed dates for Dave to come visit us in southern Utah in a couple of weeks. Our plan is to pick him up in Las Vegas on the 5th and head to Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon for a week of vacation. Before we meet Dave in Las Vegas we want to grab a weekend in LA to take in the big tourist spots before heading to Joshua Tree NP and then in to Las Vegas. As we look at the map and our progress bar for making this schedule happen, we decided to bypass Crater lake on this trip. We’ve heard from several people along the way that it is a beautiful place but not worth putting ourselves out to achieve. We need to move this rig south!

Tripometer – 8243

Gas Gauge – 625.372 gal

Location – South Beach State Park, Newport, OR

Lodging – $31

Cans of OFF – 4

By morning Kelly was ready to personally seek out the fog horn in the night and bring it swift cruel justice at the hands of a heavy implement. The noise cancelling headphones that she’s been wearing to sleep every night are excellent at blocking out repetitive sounds like traffic or trains, but at a frequency of every 30-40 seconds the headphones can’t block out the majority of the fog horn sound. The horn isn’t the classic fog horn we all think of either… it’s best described as the sound a swimmer hears at the beginning of a race, except it’s about 3 times longer. The duration between the horn blasts is just long enough that you can’t anticipate when it’s coming next. Kelly is referring to this as a form of aural Chinese water torture.

Knowing that we are going to be on the road for the next week driving to southern California, we took today to clean up the trailer, top off the pantry, and do the laundry.

Kelly and Ranger took the car into town this evening to go to a few little shops. Ranger had the best time this evening, though. He had his first up-close encounter with sea lions. The look on his face and the confusion apparent in his actions was enough to make several people on the pier laugh out loud. Ranger appeared to take it all in in this order: 1) They smell amazing. 2) They are HUGE. 3) They bark, only I can’t understand of word of it. 4) Holy Hell, they like to swim too!

While going to the camp showers late at night Paul noted that when the campground quiets down you can hear the sea lions in town loud and clear… Oh, and the fog horn.

Special Note: Picnic tables are hell on your posture. We have 4 folding chairs of two different types on this trip. All of them are lower than a standard chair and this makes sitting at the picnic table in a folding chair awkward. We also have a small folding table that IS the right height for a folding chair but isn’t always set up if we plan on moving sites in a day or so. Consequently, we have found ourselves using the picnic table in our campsite to do much of our day-to-day activities. The lack of a chair back on a picnic table bench is really making us miss our dinning room and office chairs at home.