From Beach to Volcano in One Day

Our new location is far up the West Coast. We left Paso Robles and moved up through San Francisco and Marin County. Once we got into the Redwoods we found so much to capture our interest.

One thing that hadn’t changed from when we came down the coast back in December was the pricing on campgrounds for tenters. At $35/$45 per night, they had priced themselves into economic hurt. The problem was that private campgrounds tending to be less expensive, when we could find them, than those in the State Parks.

One resident, in the Redwood forest area, told us that the state government had lost its mind to be charging those kinds of fees in years like this. We didn’t disagree with her at all. Few of the campgrounds we passed were even half full of RVer’s and few accommodated tenters.

This section of California is so beautiful and so big that seeing all of it would take weeks. Vineyards are just as available that far north along the coast as they are further south. Giant trees loom along the roadsides, giving the largest herd of Roosevelt elk a protected place to reside.

We caught part of that herd early one morning. The cows and young females were looking for handouts at one of the local campgrounds. Some of the young bulls were acting as sentinels at one of the state part entrances along the 101. With their antlers in velvet and their minds on relaxation, they didn’t bother to move when we stopped to snap photos.

We saw more elk in that park half an hour later. No deer put in an appearance. A few squirrels scampered among the trees, but they were much faster than a camera shutter.

By the time we made Crescent City, California, we had overdosed on redwoods and were ready for beaches again. And our sojourn from CA in OR didn’t disappoint us at all.

Our last stop along the Oregon coast was South Beach. We stayed in a nice campground there among the trees and the protective dunes. We shared the space with a troupe of small vintage RVs, some prize winners. A tour group in a school bus took one end of the park for teen girls toting personal tents. Everyone turned in early, though, which meant we could all sleep pretty well.

We left that park this morning and moved north. At Lincoln City we turned onto Hwy 18 and went east to hit the I-5.  From there we moved through the upper end of that Oregon area, through the farms, groves, vineyards, and orchards of the Willamette Valley. Portland was an easy crossing today. I know, odd, huh?

Once inside Washington State, we took a detour at Castle Rock to make a sojourn up the mountain to see Mt. St. Helens as she stands now. Irony reigned today, though. It sprinkled as we drove up to the upper Visitor’s Center. At that point St. Helens stood swathed in cloud cover. We continued upward from the Center. By the 1800 ft. level, the mists had lowered even further.

We made the decision that further exploration was pointless and turned back down mountain. Halfway down it began raining in earnest. Toward the bottom, rain pounded the car. When we turned back onto the I-5, the sun popped out. Now, an hour later, the sun is still out. I guess the mountain didn’t was to wave hello today.

We’ll be leaving this McD’s soon to find our camping spot for the night. Tomorrow we’ll move on to Tacoma where we’ll spend time with Sister Jo’s kids and grandkids before turning east once again.

I hope you continue to stop by to see our reports. Be sure and comment on anything that strikes your fancy.

Until then,

Claudsy

Another Departure Looms

Yes, we're leaving first thing in the morning for parts north. We've been dawdling in Central California. Our friends here may miss us after we leave, but we’ll certainly miss them more. They’ve spoiled us rotten. The kids (read that as one dot and two exotic birds) have kept us entertained each day. And we’ve had wondrous weather while we were here that we could not fail to miss our resting time here.

My writer friend, Mikki, and I have had the opportunity to talk writing, and projects, and gripe about all those things that writers feel the need to vent about. It’s been marvelous. I don’t get the chance to do that face to face normally. It’s gonna hurt, giving that up.

After our opportunities to roam beaches, watch elephant seals, and tour local wineries, we have plenty of material for whatever projects we wish in future. We've sampled local produce from the open air market, enjoyed meals at the local eateries, and generally luxuriated in California's Central Coast environs. That's not bad for an otherwise stormy April in the rest of the country.

Were we privileged? You betcha, and we don't feel one whit of guilt over it, either. Oh, yeah, we've enjoyed ourselves very well, thank you very much.

So, today we’ll get the last of our laundry done, repack the car toward evening, get ice in the cooler tonight, get final showers taken, and God willing, get my hair cut. Before bed, we have to get the car gassed up as well. We’ll pull out first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, and good-byes on our lips.

We’ll try to remain smiling, but it will be hard. We’re part of their herd now, according to Dylan, their Corgi. He believes we belong here, not out wandering the highways in search of new sights and interests. And we feel the same way about Mikki and Richard.

Once we get on the road, though, and point the car north, we’ll do Monterrey first, where we hope to do the aquarium during our stop. Neither of us has seen it. Now’s our chance.

From there we’ll move on to the Redwoods where we plan to camp for a couple of days at the least. Of course, assuming the primal urge doesn't force us to remain longer so that we can soak up all that serenity, we’ll try to keep it down to a couple of days. I’ve camped there once before, back in the nineties¸ and know the spell with which the forest blankets the area.

We’re not putting an itinerary on the calendar this time in any form. When we feel like stopping, we will. When we need to move on, we will. Much of our return will depend on how we feel on any given day. We’re old enough now to allow ourselves that luxury.

So now you know why we’re taking our time going back. We want to spend a few hours in San Francisco, too. We’re both looking forward to that.

The Oregon coast calls to us along Highway 1, the scenic highway. Sunsets along there and the lighthouses there make for great photo ops. That drive also allows for great photos.

In the Tacoma area we’ll take the time to see Jo’s kids and family for a couple of days before heading east along I­-90. We’ll see her oldest son in Central Washington during that trek. We won’t be able to get into an apartment until the middle of the month of May, so there’s no real hurry. It’s not snowing here at the moment. It is up there.

And there you have the situation with us. We’ve had our ups and downs, mostly with the weather and the continuing rising costs of gasoline and, consequently, everything else. We just didn’t budget for that kind of rise in costs.

Yet, when we look back, we managed to huge amounts of material and experience  in 20 states in five months, and much of that while stationary in only a few of them. That’s not a bad track record, don’t you think? The really hard part will come after we re-establish ourselves in Kalispell. Jo gets to put in months of work in PhotoShop while I work on the book and the articles for magazine submission. If luck and writing perseverance prevail, those articles will help us put money back in the savings account. So, keep those fingers crossed.

I can’t promise when I’ll get to post on anything again after today, so you’ll just all have to keep an eye peeled for the slightest blip on your radar screens. I’ll try to pop in again before getting back to Kalispell.Take care and God bless.

Claudsy

Storing Life To Travel

The Universe is an astonishing place. Have you ever really noticed how it takes care of things?

It’s as if the Universe waits for a person to find the right keyhole, place exact key inside, and turn it so that the correct thread of existence and potential can be woven into the proper tapestry. Many times when life become tougher, all it takes is one decision, one action, and life’s ride smoothes out.

Since I’ve announced new plans to vacate the north on Dec. 14, so many things have fallen into place. It’s astounding how making the right decision allows influencing factors to come into their own.
If I wrote this scenario in a novel, no one would believe it. After all, life just doesn’t happen that way. Yet, I wonder how often it really does happen that way and we just don’t notice because our attention is focused elsewhere.

Yes, we’re beginning our trip around the country almost five months early. For months now we’ve waited patiently for certain issues to be resolved so that we could commence with this trip. The sense of urgency, however, didn’t let up. Finally we couldn’t stand that constant push from the hindbrain any longer.

Sister Jo and I sat together and talked. The upshot was that we chose to do the trip as soon as we possibly could. We chose to disregard the need for security, a permanent home, lots of belongings, and hit the road running. We can now see the country and learn about it and ourselves without encumbrances. As soon as we were willing to let go of everything, and make plans to leave immediately, our thread of existence was placed on the loom of the proper tapestry.

Everything will go into storage except what we can carry with us in the car. And we will tent our way across the country, write articles with photos along the way, put together a book about our adventure, and then decide “what next”?

Some call us insane since it’s winter. I agree. It is insane to leave comfortable warmth and safety to travel the deep south, visiting friends and family and seeing what we can find along the way. We wonder, though, why youngsters should have all the adventures? Can’t us older women do the same thing?
That’s why we’re setting out to answer that question.

Some call us brave to even attempt this trip, regardless of season. After all, who wants to live in a tent for over a year, especially someone over fifty or sixty years old? For me this trip isn’t brave, really. I’ve done many other things that required much more courage than this.

Now we work; work to get all our belongings sorted, packed, and placed into long-term storage. We check off each detail accomplished each day. Those check lists are our lifeline in this endeavor. We can’t do this without them.

By the beginning of next week I must have a new website created for this trip of ours in order for everyone to follow our exploits. That’s part of why we’re going. Not everyone can make such a journey. We might as well share as much of it as possible, both with words and photos.

And there you have it. Our next few weeks will be ones of details, decisions, hard work, and planning. In the end we’ll have an entirely new future in the offing.

I hope all of you will come along for the ride. I hope everyone can experience some of our feelings as we move around the world learning about it.

One of those things that will help us along the way is also the thing we plan to help keep us awake on the road. Jo is going to relearn her Spanish and I’m going to learn it for the first time. Yep! We’ve got the CD’s for the car, the books, and the desire. It will help the miles pass quickly during those long days of driving. We will have something to show for our hours of auto travel, and it’ll come in handy in many places along the way.

So, drop by in the coming weeks for updates about our progress. Enjoy yourself, I hope, during each visit.

Until later,

Claudsy