Took a drive to Jalama Beach for a burger and a walk.
11/26/2016 Thanksgiving with the Kendalls
We enjoyed a lovely day and wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Rick & Jeanne Kendalls. Todd's brother, Travis and his son, Caleb drove down from Fairfield. Todd's sister, Lauren and her boyfriend joined us from Solvang. Britton and Todd drove down from Santa Rosa. Wonderful food and company.
11/25/2015 Pismo Beach to Lompoc
Arrived at Rick & Jeanne's this afternoon. Todd and Britton beet us there. Now Britton has a cold coming on.
11/24/2015 San Simeon to Pismo Beach
Pismo Beach Coast Village Resort. 400 RV sites, quite an operation.
11/22/2015 Carmel to San Simeon
Rebecca drives Big Sur, Dan has trouble with this shift. Neither one of us is amused but we decide to give it more than 15 mins. The Big Sur drive is mostly carved into cliffs 500 ft above the ocean. It's full of curves and a few one way construction areas controlled by traffic lights. At one such area, the lights on both ends of the one way stretch go green, creating a gridlock halfway. Not a situation you want to be in when driving an RV. To top it off our gas light had been on for the last 20 miles or so. It took a half hour to get out of the gridlock and when we finally found a gas station carrying diesel, we found we had a quarter of a gallon of gas left. We stay at the San Simeon Inn for two nights.
11/21/2015 Half Moon Bay to Carmel
Rode the bikes to the south end point of Half Moon Bay, the most wonderful bike/hiking path we've seen yet. Then we drove to Carmel. Stayed at a small RV Park in the Carmel Valley called Carmel by the River. It was so cute and so quiet.
11/11/2015 Brookings to Redcrest
Veterans Day. Rebecca posts Thank yous on facebook. We stop at a high rated breakfast place in Brookings and they are serving free breakfast to veterans. Very cool. Stayed at Redcrest RV park in Avenue of the Giants. Stay for two nights. No one here. The next day we ride the road through the trees. Awesome.
11/10/2015 Bike Brookings
Another nice day window. We bike ride into town and out to Harris State Park. The trip started out with a steep hill from the camp to the road that leads to highway 101. Rebecca makes the hill but falls over when she reaches the top. No damage to bones or skin but the gears malfunction periodically during the ride.
11/08/2015 Coos Bay to Brookings
We drive In and out of rain today. When the sky clears, we stop for photos. Port Orford is a major Beauty. We pull into Brookings, stop at the grocery store, and easily find the Riverside RV Park. Lovely little setting on a river that changes with the tides. We will stay three nights. The next day we work on our computers and basically lay back for the day. Just camp.
11/07/2015 Laundry, cleaning. The Mill RV Park.
So we moved from the hotel to the RV park 100 yards away. The weather turned, we needed to do laundry and the RV needed some clean up and reorganization. Dan headed the laundry project, Rebecca took on the RV. All said and done, several hours later, we head for the casino for dinner. Dan's carrying (not wearing) his fanny pack containing Rebecca's snap phone (he misplaced his Snap phone several weeks ago) He loses the fanny pack in the casino and it never shows up at security. The next morning, We are getting ready to leave, Rebecca's putting away laundry and realizes she's missing two of four pair of long pants. Dan checks the laundry room and finds a whole stack of clothes (cleaned and folded, mostly Rebecca's) hidden on top of a dryer. The coincidence of these two events coupled with moving from the hotel to the RV park is not lost on Rebecca. Is Dan trying to sabotage this adventure?
Getting ready for the storm
11/06/2015 Coos Bay Harbor, Cape Arago, Ocean Shores, Sunset Cove
Coos Bay was actually one of the areas that inspired us to buy an RV. It's so beautiful here and we timed the weather perfectly.. A splendid day of little hikes, picnic, and taking in the majestic views and beach music: waves, sea lions and gulls. We ate at the hotel and got to see Sarah & Kurt briefly (they were there for Oli's football game).
Coos Bay Harbor
Cape Arago
Sunset Bay
11/05/2015 Lincoln City to Coos Bay
We noted an RV park near Agate Beach (Newport) to explore in the future. Also, Brian Fowler reccomended the Beaver Creek Wildlife Park - south of Newport as a nice place to visit. We missed it this time. We ate lunch at LeRoys in Yachats (were the Stearns here?). Noted Sea Perch RV Park. Arrived in Coos Bay at sunset (5pm) checked into The Mill Hotel/Casino. Nice room, nice view, slots were fun. The weather will be clear for 30 hours.
11/04/2015 Astoria to Lincoln City
Our idea of "leisurely" traveling down the Oregon Coast to Santa Rosa is thwarted by the forecast of rain for the next week or so. We decide to move fast until we find the sun. We noted the Garabaldi - Wheeler Corridor as a place we would like to explore further. Also, we want to explore all the Lewis & Clark monuments that start in Washington and continue several miles south of Astoria.
We spend the night at the Roads end RV park. it's romantic to snuggle up in the RV when it's pouring rain outside, we wonder how long that will last.
11/02/2015 Portland to Astoria
It was a beautiful drive to Astoria, (one of our favorite places). Sarah and Kurt had a place for us to park so we could stay in their guestroom. A welcome treat considering our state of shock and three nights camping in the rain. We stayed three nights and spent a wonderful day with Sarah exploring the Washington side of the Astoria Bridge. We also rode our bikes along the river walk and grabbed a coffee at "coffee girl". We'll keep Astoria on our potential "home base" list.
Double Rainbow over Astoria, Oregon
Happy hour at Kurt and Sarah's
Dan, Kurt & Oli
11/01/2015 Jantzen Beach RV Park, Portland
Saw Austin and Eve's new place today. Very cute and amazed at how much of our stuff they were able to accommodate. We had a great lunch at Pok Pok. Austin returned us to the RV park and drove away in the tribeca. It was a weird moment for the three of us.
10/31/2015 Jantzen Beach RV Park, Portland
Managed to get the Tribeca emptied at Tucker & Roxy's (Jake was there to help too). We had sent some stuff up with Carol also and she stopped by to unload. Then it started to rain. We ate lunch under cover with Tucker, Jake & Roxy at one of Portland's famous food cart areas. We planned to visit the Fitzpatrick's but the rain killed the idea. Not great for trick or treaters either.
Dan, Jake, Tucker, & Roxy - Portland Food Cart Lunch
10/30/2015 Bend to Jantzen Beach, Portland
Stopped by Mount Angel to have lunch with Aunt Jackie, our nephew, Jake (Seiter) helped us with the drive (and packing, and moving for the last three weeks). Dan and Jake in the RV and Rebecca in the Tribeca. We arrived at the Jantzen Beach RV Park around 4pm. Tucker came by to have dinner and pickup Jake. Rick and Chris Gruber joined us for dinner also. What a treat to see them, it had been a long time.
Rick Gruber and Rebecca
10/09/15 House Sold, Road Open
We never put the house on the market. When our neighbors heard we were planning to sell, they made an offer. It sure made this transition relatively easy. No realtors, no showings, and we were able to rent back until we were ready to leave.
Our decision to do this started over a year ago when we purchased the Solera. The idea of camping in comfort, we hoped, would motivate us to travel to more remote places of the Pacific Northwest and the country.
What we didn't realize is that it would give us a new perspective on our house which, for one, was not "RV" friendly. Parking on the street was not ideal nor level; we were not able to drive it up to the back of the house due to a steep incline in the alley, and, we had to find winter storage. With the alley access denied, we would prepare for a trip by loading the Subaru with our gear and then drive to RV on the street and load the RV from the car. This would also be done in reverse when we returned.
The house was also becoming more than we really wanted to maintain. Though we had great luck with renters, it would only be a matter of time before more upgrades and or repairs would be needed. So, when the property values rebounded, it made sense to us to sell.
Since we had the motor home, we took advantage of this opportunity to travel without having to maintain a home base. This makes it totally affordable. Also, as we travel, we can keep our options open as to where our next residence is to be.
Letting go of our stuff was difficult at first. But I have to say as each layer was peeled away, it got easier and easier. Ultimately, it was quite freeing. As we drove away with a way too full RV, we realized that we will have to pare down even more. Many more adjustments were to follow.
