Week 833-834 - Coasting Home - 08-07-2022

Coasting Home

We left off last week in Eugene, Oregon, the Western RV Maintenance Headquarters. Having completed the MotherShip's annual checkup, we planned our trip back to Arizona. How do we plan our path? First, we look at the weather, then for pickleball, then for RV stays.

Weather? Case closed! The interior of California is either hot, very hot or even hotter.
We're heading to the coast. It can be tricky finding RV stays on the coast during a heat wave.
But, we'll always find something.

Heading West from Eugene, in one hour, you get to Florence on the coast. Surprisingly, the Florence Elks Lodge had lots of open sites. We spent two wonderful days with very pleasant ocean breeze weather. Then we started our slow roll to the south.

We like to take new roads whenever we can. However, there is only one coastal road, Hwy 101.
Been there, done that, but happy to enjoy the great weather.
The Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge at North Bend is a beautiful bridge.

We love bridges and have taken thousands of photos. Are you bored today? Take a look at three travelogues of Bridges of North America.

Moving inland a few miles to Coquille Valley , we still enjoyed the moderate weather. The Elks lodge has its own 9-hole golf course. On our last visit to this lodge, Pete golfed with sister Donnalee and Don.

This time it was Ellen's turn. Using borrowed clubs, that may have belonged to Billy Barty, Ellen completed the course with joy. Here on Hole 5 she chipped it up and then watched as her putt rolled to the cup.

Having been to Bandon before we just honked our horn as we were passing by.

Gold Beach has Turtle Rock RV Resort where we have stayed before. Our site, tucked away in a remote corner, had its own deck and hot tub. Ooh, not available on this trip; we headed to the Brookings Elks, hoping to get a site. Sites were available and we enjoyed our two days there. Pickleball was good and we got a referral to Felys Cafe. We split a 1/4 burger and we each had a big half. (Not sure Felys knows what 1/4 pound means?)

Hwy 101 is at times a four lane 65 mph highway and other times not so much. This stretch through the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park is not so much.

The drive is slow allowing you to enjoy the redwood trees.

The skinny roads get even skinnier during construction which was prevalent.
We have past by Trees of Mystery multiple times, never stopping, but it has always been busy. We're going to keep the Trees of Mystery, a mystery!

More construction as we negotiate this temporary bridge on the way to the Klamath River.

The curves and hills uses up a bit more fuel. We knew that fuel prices would be higher in California. Fortunately, we did not need to buy diesel in Eureka. Prices in August 2020 were better at $3.349 per gallon as we Beat the Heat.

1) Our stay in Eureka allowed us to enjoy two more days of lovely weather.
2) At times we wonder why the world doesn't run out of lumber. Then we see the mills along the coast and get our answer. Trees are a crop and they just keep on coming.

Another narrow section of the 101 as you pass The Legend of Big Foot, south of Garberville.
Big Foot? Not sure. Patriotic, yes!

Truly this is a slow but beautiful drive through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Passing a semi is always fun.

Due to availability of RV sites at Sonoma County Fairgrounds, we needed to hustle from Eureka. A 216 mile trip is over our normal and was made ever so slower due to the road. We had a great reunion with our RV/Pickleball friends, Gordon and Karen. Pickleball at Finley Park was competitive with fun new friends. We miss Tripping with Gordon & Karen.

Crossing the Richmond Bridge to avoid the toll on the Golden Gate. Do you know how to pay the "cashless toll" on the GG? We did not in 2017 and were billed $275 by mail; fun story!

Our one night stop-over at the Gilroy Elks Lodge illustrated why we love the Elks. While we wondered if we would find RV stays down the coast, the Elks had our back. Each one was available with nice people and a reasonable price.

We have landed at Melissa and Mario's ranch and will be in North County for many weeks. Our view is great and there are projects to work on such as this pergola. We put it up the next day and settled in to HOT weather. Oh well, the cool coast got us here and now we can work on our tans.

To our San Luis Obispo County friends, contact us when you might want to get together.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from Aug 2022