Our 14 Day Vacation was a planned round trip to Oregon and back Memory
Well this year I planned for 3 months of where to go on my Vacation. What I really wanted to do, was to take a trip to places I've never really been to and probably never get a chance to go again. The thought I had in my mind was the only place I have never been to, in All of California was: The North East Section.
So I looked on-line and saw that there really is not a thing in that section of California that nobody would really be interested in going to see anyway! Then I went to Triple A and got some Road Maps and took a closer look at the State. I came up with Mount Lassen and Lava Beds National Park.
I saw the area was pretty much barren and I wanted to do camping along the way and I remember back from about 10 to 15 years ago, I wanted to go see the Oregon Caves. But at the time I first wanted to do this, it would have been a 50 mile Detour on a gravel road that dead ends at the caves. There was the chance of breaking down and being stuck out in the middle of no where.
This time around I did some Research and talked to some people about my plans. My friend Scott said he had never been to the Oregon Caves himself, but he grew up near the California Border very close to where I wanted to go. So he pulls out a map and shows me the "Smith River" and said this was his old stomping grounds. He said the best fishing and the water was so clear all year round. He also made a point where to stop to get my last cup of coffee, since the gravel road I thought I would have to take was now a 2 lane road that went through a Tunnel that crossed the Border into lower Oregon and about 20 miles South of the Oregon Caves.
So that is how I decided to look at a Road Trip, doing a really big circle and ending up back home by going places I've never seen. Now my other problem was this, I was going to leave the day before my Birthday in early August and I found out that the temps would range from 95 to 104 degrees!
So I worried about what to take along and to make sure my route would keep me near water to swim. I also figured I would be camping Most of the time, but maybe every 3 days stay in a motel or hotel to get a shower perhaps?
I had 14 days of traveling time for my Vacation and I needing to plan how many miles I could go and how much I could actually do in a day. And since I have never done this before, I had NO clue on what I could get accomplished in a day, or my body would take. . . such as a sore butt from sitting in the driver's seat for many miles.
Now of course the biggest problem was going to be gas, and to figure out how much money I would need to take this trip, I had to figure out how many miles it would be Round Trip. I rounded off to 2000 miles, give or take 10 miles. That was a Guess and Guess what? On the return home I had drove 1,935 miles! ouch!
I had 3 months to buy New Camping equipment I thought I might need and a lot of things I didn't really need to have, but bought them anyway. And there sure are a lot of New Items out for Camping that you think you just might like to have, including a kitchen sink. I opted out on the kitchen sink part, but it looked cool anyway. (Maybe next time???).
Now I had planned to pack up the night before, right after I got off of work and leave like say 5am in the morning. But my wife was so excited about this trip, she begged and pleaded to leave that night. Sure it's easy to do when your not the one driving or have to set a tent up in the dark, but hey. . . I fell for it and as tired as I was, I still Regret the fact I left that night.
It was like 1am in the morning to find a motel in the middle of nowhere and pay through my nose to get 5 hours of sleep, only to get up and drive once again! We took off driving up the Coast from Santa Cruz using Highway 1 up to San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge. Highway 1 turned into Highway 101 and as darkest dropped upon me, all I knew was that I was headed towards the Giant Redwood forest and have no clue where I was on a map.
Mainly because we saw NO signs! like No Signs of Life either. In fact if there was a Full moon, unless it was directly over head of me, it was lost behind the Tall Redwoods trees that let in No light what so ever and so it became clear we did not make it to our first stop of Russian River, because we somehow passed it and were like 100 miles North of where I thought we were going! At least I didn't pitch a tent in the dark.
The next morning I was excited and made everyone get up before the sun and loaded them into the truck, only to watch them fall back to sleep while I drove. I did pack some Movies for the trip and had the DVD player up front and behind my seat for Ezekiel to watch. But when your eyes are not Opened, you do not see anything!
When I saw the signs for the "Avenues of the Giants" I pulled off Highway 101 and took Scenic Route and saw another sign up ahead that said: "Drive through a Redwood Tree" and so I thought that would be nice and toke that exit to find that my Truck was 9 inches to High! and I could not fit through the tree! So I drove around it and watched other people drive through it in their cheap ass small imported Japanese vehicles! Since I brought the Video camera along, I decided now was a good time to start using it.
We grabbed a bite to eat and some cold drinks and bought our first trinkets of our trip. We went about 20 miles more and came to a sign for a camping spot that was near a Country Store that we could get supplies at. So I drove down the road that ended near a river and found a somewhat nice little camping place and about 50 feet from the Rivers edge. It was about 94 degrees outside and after pitching our "Condo Tent" that sleeps 8 people and we were only 2 & a half using it. We headed straight into the cool, err "Ice Cold" water of the River to enjoy watching our lips turn blue. And yet, we had fun between drying off upper body to searing sun and wondering if the rest of our body was frozen.
Yeah it was good clean fun and dinner sounded good, because I had to build a fire. I decided to drive 10 miles back towards a small Cafe we had passed eariler and ate dinner there instead.
We were way Too Tired to make Smore's that night and Sleep looked good through my blood shot eyes.
The next morning, after a shower. (Did I mentions the place had showers and a Flushing toilet?) Well it did! Along with every bug that wanted to be your friend in various sizes and colors too.
After making and drinking a Full pot of coffee, we drove out to the Country store and bought another cup, only Double Espresso with blended ice to get us going for sure!
We headed back to Highway 101 and drove though the most Beautiful views in the mountains that were only blocked by passing RV's and I was driving about 80 miles an hours and they were doing like 100 and towing a Trailer! What's up with that!???
(What I did on my Summer Vacation 2007) To Be Continued Later, . . .
So I looked on-line and saw that there really is not a thing in that section of California that nobody would really be interested in going to see anyway! Then I went to Triple A and got some Road Maps and took a closer look at the State. I came up with Mount Lassen and Lava Beds National Park.
I saw the area was pretty much barren and I wanted to do camping along the way and I remember back from about 10 to 15 years ago, I wanted to go see the Oregon Caves. But at the time I first wanted to do this, it would have been a 50 mile Detour on a gravel road that dead ends at the caves. There was the chance of breaking down and being stuck out in the middle of no where.
This time around I did some Research and talked to some people about my plans. My friend Scott said he had never been to the Oregon Caves himself, but he grew up near the California Border very close to where I wanted to go. So he pulls out a map and shows me the "Smith River" and said this was his old stomping grounds. He said the best fishing and the water was so clear all year round. He also made a point where to stop to get my last cup of coffee, since the gravel road I thought I would have to take was now a 2 lane road that went through a Tunnel that crossed the Border into lower Oregon and about 20 miles South of the Oregon Caves.
So that is how I decided to look at a Road Trip, doing a really big circle and ending up back home by going places I've never seen. Now my other problem was this, I was going to leave the day before my Birthday in early August and I found out that the temps would range from 95 to 104 degrees!
So I worried about what to take along and to make sure my route would keep me near water to swim. I also figured I would be camping Most of the time, but maybe every 3 days stay in a motel or hotel to get a shower perhaps?
I had 14 days of traveling time for my Vacation and I needing to plan how many miles I could go and how much I could actually do in a day. And since I have never done this before, I had NO clue on what I could get accomplished in a day, or my body would take. . . such as a sore butt from sitting in the driver's seat for many miles.
Now of course the biggest problem was going to be gas, and to figure out how much money I would need to take this trip, I had to figure out how many miles it would be Round Trip. I rounded off to 2000 miles, give or take 10 miles. That was a Guess and Guess what? On the return home I had drove 1,935 miles! ouch!
I had 3 months to buy New Camping equipment I thought I might need and a lot of things I didn't really need to have, but bought them anyway. And there sure are a lot of New Items out for Camping that you think you just might like to have, including a kitchen sink. I opted out on the kitchen sink part, but it looked cool anyway. (Maybe next time???).
Now I had planned to pack up the night before, right after I got off of work and leave like say 5am in the morning. But my wife was so excited about this trip, she begged and pleaded to leave that night. Sure it's easy to do when your not the one driving or have to set a tent up in the dark, but hey. . . I fell for it and as tired as I was, I still Regret the fact I left that night.
It was like 1am in the morning to find a motel in the middle of nowhere and pay through my nose to get 5 hours of sleep, only to get up and drive once again! We took off driving up the Coast from Santa Cruz using Highway 1 up to San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge. Highway 1 turned into Highway 101 and as darkest dropped upon me, all I knew was that I was headed towards the Giant Redwood forest and have no clue where I was on a map.
Mainly because we saw NO signs! like No Signs of Life either. In fact if there was a Full moon, unless it was directly over head of me, it was lost behind the Tall Redwoods trees that let in No light what so ever and so it became clear we did not make it to our first stop of Russian River, because we somehow passed it and were like 100 miles North of where I thought we were going! At least I didn't pitch a tent in the dark.
The next morning I was excited and made everyone get up before the sun and loaded them into the truck, only to watch them fall back to sleep while I drove. I did pack some Movies for the trip and had the DVD player up front and behind my seat for Ezekiel to watch. But when your eyes are not Opened, you do not see anything!
When I saw the signs for the "Avenues of the Giants" I pulled off Highway 101 and took Scenic Route and saw another sign up ahead that said: "Drive through a Redwood Tree" and so I thought that would be nice and toke that exit to find that my Truck was 9 inches to High! and I could not fit through the tree! So I drove around it and watched other people drive through it in their cheap ass small imported Japanese vehicles! Since I brought the Video camera along, I decided now was a good time to start using it.
We grabbed a bite to eat and some cold drinks and bought our first trinkets of our trip. We went about 20 miles more and came to a sign for a camping spot that was near a Country Store that we could get supplies at. So I drove down the road that ended near a river and found a somewhat nice little camping place and about 50 feet from the Rivers edge. It was about 94 degrees outside and after pitching our "Condo Tent" that sleeps 8 people and we were only 2 & a half using it. We headed straight into the cool, err "Ice Cold" water of the River to enjoy watching our lips turn blue. And yet, we had fun between drying off upper body to searing sun and wondering if the rest of our body was frozen.
Yeah it was good clean fun and dinner sounded good, because I had to build a fire. I decided to drive 10 miles back towards a small Cafe we had passed eariler and ate dinner there instead.
We were way Too Tired to make Smore's that night and Sleep looked good through my blood shot eyes.
The next morning, after a shower. (Did I mentions the place had showers and a Flushing toilet?) Well it did! Along with every bug that wanted to be your friend in various sizes and colors too.
After making and drinking a Full pot of coffee, we drove out to the Country store and bought another cup, only Double Espresso with blended ice to get us going for sure!
We headed back to Highway 101 and drove though the most Beautiful views in the mountains that were only blocked by passing RV's and I was driving about 80 miles an hours and they were doing like 100 and towing a Trailer! What's up with that!???
(What I did on my Summer Vacation 2007) To Be Continued Later, . . .
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