Day 5 - Harris Beach to Cache Creek Casino

Up early this morning and after our coffee, we prepped the RV for departure. All the usual inside & outside jobs were completed and we pulled out at 8 a.m. on the dot. 

The skies had cleared and the rising sun bored into our eyes for the first hour… I’ll take it!!

Down Highway 101, through the agricultural inspection at the California border (he waved us on) then through huge stands of Redwoods as we headed towards Eureka. The drive was straight forward and we actually had very little traffic issues.

We stopped for lunch beside the highway on a wide area overlooking the rolling hills. It was a nice break for us. A turn onto Highway 20 and we took the northern lake route around Clear Lake to Highway 16 and on down to our destination of Cache Creek Casino.

We had watched a Youtube video by “Love your RV” and they had stayed at the casino with positive reviews… so we had to try it. We found the “RV area” which was a gravel lot on the hill and tentatively parked. We walked down the hill towards the main road and we were promptly picked up by one of several casino shuttles. We were given players cards with $25 each loaded on them for food, gift shop or the gas bar! Very nice!!

We wandered around and then the shuttle returned us to the RV. Great service! We quickly found a level spot and after we set up, headed down to fill up the truck’s fuel tank at the Casino's gas bar.

We then enjoyed a birthday dinner at the casino and then headed back up to the rig to blog & sleep. Seven hours of driving was taking it's toll!

Off to Bakersfield tomorrow.

Daily KM driven: 561
To date KM driven: 1800

Day 4 - Rest Day… sort of!

Just knowing that we were staying put at Harris Beach State Park for an extra day helped us sleep all the better.  No packing up, no hooking up... just a relaxing day of exploring ahead.

Those plans changed when Kelly saw the park folks putting “reserved” tags on some of the sites. I thought it prudent to check ours and low and behold, there was a new one on our site post. 😱

I did some sleuthing with the host and discovered that an open site, like ours last night, was only guaranteed for one night. You had to go onto the website and check availability for the following day. I strolled over to the booth and read the “Incoming Reservations List” and our site was now booked for today.  I quickly checked and realized the spot next to us was open for tonight so a “swap plan” was quickly hatched.

It was a basic pack up with me carrying the power chord, water hose and sewer setup next door. Slides in, auto reconnect on the RV’s leveling system and we easily repositioned the rig next door.

A bit of a pain but well worth it as the sun was now out!! Yes a giant glowing orb graced us with it’s presence! We met some fellow campers from Medford and they gave us a few ideas for lunch today.

We then headed into town for a look see and we (the royal we) quickly found a fabric/wool shop. I dropped Kelly off and headed over to fuel up the truck at Fred Meyer’s.

Once back on the road we decided to travel down to Crescent City and check out that area. We quickly crossed the border into California!!  After some snooping around we settled on the Chart Room for lunch. It was out on the waterfront and much to our surprise was populated with hundreds of sea lions lazing on the shore.

A few pictures to prove it!

After lunch we continued south for a drive through the Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park.  We wanted to be able to see it without pulling the RV through.

On our return north, we stopped at an antique store and then hit Fred Meyer’s for a few necessities. I also topped up the fuel in the truck for max range tomorrow :-)

Back at the state park we enjoyed a nice walk around and also managed to grab a few geocaches in the area. Great views along the way.

Kelly makes a find!

I am, for the first time, sitting outside in my lawn chair accompanied by a cold beverage. The BBQ is also making it’s first appearance as its Steak 🥩 for dinner with a baked potato 🥔 & salad 🥗 No one ever suffers on these trips!

We have 11 digital channels available on the big screen so Downtown Abbey gets a rest tonight! Station 19 & Grey’s Anatomy gets the nod apparently :-) 

A bit of planning for tomorrow’s drive with a possible overnight at Cache Creek Casino Resort. It’s a long haul (6 plus hours) and we may decide to cut it short at Willets or Nice... not 100% sure at this point.

Planning an early start... we shall see :-)

Daily KM driven: 135.2
To date KM driven: 1245.1

Day 3 - South Beach to Harris Beach State Park

We are just a bit sad to leave our nice campsite this morning but the drive south continues…. 

I finished up vacuum sealing our meat from Costco and getting them sorted in the freezer.. all the while Kelly enjoyed a nice hot shower as she prepared for departure. She got the better deal!

We researched our drive south and I decided on Harris Beach State Park just north of the coastal town of Brookings, as our destination. A four hour drive with a daylight arrival… approved!

Departing at 10:15, we enjoyed the windy coastal route down HWY 101 and made several stops along the way for some photos. We also made an attempt to have a lunch but parking this rig along the small seaside eateries proved to be “challenging”. We also didn’t plan access to some of our food supplies buried in the RV. We just pushed on with a few new lessons learned.

Aside from the towns along the route, traffic was very light as only crazy RVer’s would be on the road at this time of the year :-)  We only spotted a few today.

We arrived at Harris Beach State Park and after a bit of a drive around, we settled on a nice spot just back from the beach area. It’s a first come, first served situation (unless marked with a Reserved tag) and a very straight forward self check in process. In the summer a reservation would be the only way you could secure a spot here! The ocean view is spectacular and we quickly setup the RV. I made the command decision that we will rest tomorrow (code for Kelly to shop the Yarn stores in town) and leave on Friday. She was good with that! As we are only thirty something km’s from the California border we are fine with the break in movement… hey what’s the rush… I’m retired after all!

Once set up, we drove into Brookings to get a feel for the town. We picked a lunch spot for tomorrow, planned fuel, antique, yarn & quilting supply store stops for the next day :-)

Back at the campsite, we drove down and enjoyed the fantastic views from the lookout at Harris Beach. Amazing!

I’m blogging today’s events as Kelly watched Downtown Abbey. Dinner tonight is chicken with veggies and some leftover lamb shanks… mmm good!

Daily KM driven: 338.6
To date KM driven: 1109.9 
Fuel bill to date: Who cares!

Day 2 - Seaquest to South Beach State Park

We listened to the rains pour down through the night and finally put the kettle on at 06:20 this morning for our coffee. I took a walk around the park and in the dawning light realized we had missed a turn and didn’t get to the normal RV area… the double site we found worked well though. Hey, it’s an adventure!

Our site in the daylight.

After some excellent maneuvering on my part :-) we left the park at 8 a.m. and headed towards the I-5. A quick fuel stop and off we went toward Astoria and the local Costco in Warrenton for some major grocery shopping.  The drive went well via HWY 30 and we once again had lots of rain.  We found ourselves in the parking lot of Costco at 10 a.m. when they opened… very convenient as it was empty of shoppers! We loaded up on meals for our trip and then backtracked a bit to a local Starbucks for a snack and internet fix. We got our US sims loaded and have new phone #’s and it all eventually worked! (We got the Ultra Mobile 3 month plan through EZKonnect)

Initial plans had us stay at Fort Steven's State Park but we decided to head further down the Oregon coast with South Beach State Park now in our sights. The timing looked good for a ‘daylight setup’ so it was ‘approved’ by senior management.

A few stops on the way down for pictures and we quickly found a nice campsite. This is a beautiful State park and we would highly recommend a stay.  Once set up, we ran back into Newport for some diesel so we were ready for tomorrows departure. On the way in we stopped and paid the park folks ($31) so we could rest easy

The beach is right next to our campsite.

 I took the time to give the RV a good spray down with fresh water after all the wet driving these past few days.

All tucked in to South Beach State Park.

Dinner tonight was Lamb Shanks, potatoes and a nice salad… delicious! Kelly watched some TV while I did up today's blog.  A bit of planning for tomorrow's leg south and it was off to the rack once again.

Daily KM's driven: 348.7
To date KM's driven: 776.5

Day 1 - On our way! Finally!

Once again I want to apologize again for all the blog invites that I sent out last night… it was late, I was tired… throw in the private group settings that are new to me and presto… cyber mayhem for some.

I have it figured out now and hopefully you will only get update notifications when I actually publish a new post. That is my goal going forward :-)

Let’s go on a short cruise…. Kelly was up at 04:30 as she was so excited to get going. Most everything was packed so it was just last minute items (toiletries, slippers etc.) Our neighbour Kelly wished us a safe trip as we pulled out of the driveway right on schedule. I laid the law down that I only wanted to drive for 4 hours at a time (give or take) and that we shall be set up and enjoying a cocktail before dark.

We caught the 9 AM ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen and then headed to the Pacific Border Crossing. We have Nexus so that sped up the process…. in fact we really didn’t stop at all as we drove up to the booth.  Next was a visit to Haggen’s in Burlington for some groceries. (We have been warned by the Hughson’s to not buy too much fruit and veggies as these are not permitted into California)

We headed down the I-5 to exit 210 and the Angel Of The Winds Casino for some “free” camping in their new RV area. A trip to Tulalip Outlets was also planned….. but because we made such great time we (the royal we as in Kelly) decided to press through to Seaquest State Park. We only stopped for fuel near the outlets, much to Kelly's chagrin.

This is the only fuel stop pic I will take!

We ran into heavy midday traffic through Seattle as well as monsoon rains south of town.  This unfortunately slowed us and we arrived at the State Park in those heavy rains & fading light (actually that’s nice speak for darkness!).  We took our time and parked the Solitude into a double camp site (after several conversations and maneuvers.) It worked out perfect in the end.

I kept the truck hooked up and did a pretty good job of manually levelling the unit. We had 30 amp service so Kelly did the inside jobs while I secured the exterior. The water was shut off but we went to school on P & H Hughson and had 20 gallons of fresh in the tank. Plenty for our quick overnight.

Dinner and a well deserved beverage followed as the rains came down hard through the evening.  We watched some old DVD’s (Downton Abbey) and relaxed.

Zero connectivity here so the blog update will be out late Tuesday followed by our Day day 2 I suspect…  was off to the rack, dreaming of Cubits!! 

Daily KM's driven: 427.8
To date KM's driven: 427.8

Sun Seeking Arizona - 2020

       We invite you to follow along on our adventures as we travel down to Arizona for our first "post retirement" RV trip! We will work our way down the west coast of Oregon, through California and then across to Arizona. Not 100% sure just where we will end up :-)

At this point in time, we have decided to make our family and friends sign up to see these posts, keeping our trip private until we return.  Message me if you have someone that wants in on the details and we will consider adding them.

FYI - If you are viewing on an iPhone you won't see the cactus picture above unless you go to web view....  but the credit goes to "dakotasnider".  :-) 

Almost ready to go!

And right away my cyber signup system backfired and I sent out multiple requests.... my daughter was not impressed :-( sorry about that! Just delete them and I promise to do better.