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!