February 2019                                                                                                    

We are away on a new adventure which will have us circumnavigating the US and lower Canada over the next 3 months or so.  We left home February 5^th, between snow storms in -10 C degree weather with our new to us truck and Geo Pro trailer.  We were very glad to have the truck right off the bat.  Of the three border crossings options, we had missed the Kootenay Lake ferry for the route to Creston, didn’t want to brave the steep decline into Madeleine falls on icy roads through Salmo, so we went over to Trail and crossed into the USA at Waneta.  We hadn’t been on that road before so didn’t know about the steep icy hill we had to get up… so thankful we didn’t have to do it with the Flex we used to have, …our trip would have been short.  The truck made 

 quick work of the hill and on we went.  We got as far as Pasco Washington this night and stayed at a KOA there so we could plug in and use our electric heater and save on the propane the furnace would use all night.  It was -10 C overnight.  We were supposed to have been left an envelope with bathroom codes etc., as we arrived after they closed…hmmmph, no envelope!!  I wandered around the campsite until I found a warm body that may know the codes.  Unfortunately, for me, the one I found was of the male persuasion and as it turned out, the women’s bathroom has a different code.  So, still wandering in the cold and snow I finally found a lady who had just driven in, and she shared the code. What a relief. 

The reason this was important is because our trailer is still winterized until we get far enough south to flush out the antifreeze and start using the water system without fear of it freezing and pipes breaking.  So, you (well all the women reading this) can see the importance of bathroom codes!! 

We had a snug night, Al had made supper while I was out wandering about in search of a code, which helped warm up the trailer too.  The major bonus in our trailer is the electric mattress, oh how I love that.  It does, however, make it rather difficult to get out of that warm snugness in the morning.

The next day we headed west to the coast through Portland which generally avoided high passes and snow.  There were foggy patches and sunny stretches which was a great start to this trip. 

We passed a place called Umatilla in Oregon, which has quite the history.  I never knew about it but there are acres and acres of rows of dirt covered bunkers all perfectly aligned.  This area used to house 12% of the USA’s chemical weapons during the Cold War, but before that it housed anything from ammo to blankets needed during WWII.  The UN passed a resolution in 1993 that banned all storage and use of chemical weapons, so the US spent many years destroying them using high temperature incineration technology.  That project was completed in October 2011 so the bunkers are now all empty.  It’s a freaky feeling knowing now what used to be there.

This day we made it to the coast and out of snow – flowers blooming, some trees too- to a town on the coast called Tillamook.  Cute little place, though I picked the wrong campground so still we haven’t had a good view of the ocean.  We are planning on driving down highway 1 along the coast to Los Angeles then head east.

We found Highway 1 to be very curvy and lots of ups and downs but with spectacular views everywhere, my poor camera is being overloaded already.  There are signs that say it’s a bicycle route – OMG there is no way I would ride this road on a bike.  Motorbike, sure… There is not really a shoulder in many places – the white line on the side is the shoulder,… all 4 inches of it. In other places you could have reached out the window and touched the rock of the mountain, it was so close. 

We passed plenty of areas that have suffered from mudslides, but we were lucky enough to get through to LA with no rain to speak up and no highway issues.

We walked among the Redwoods, including seeing the 3^rd largest tree in ‘the avenue of the Giants’ – they are so massive.  I can’t imagine the sound one of those would make when it fell.  Al found it interesting that the power poles are very small in diameter with so many huge trees about, they indeed look like toothpicks in comparison. 

At a place called Leggett we turned back towards the ocean from to highway 1 in now in California.  This stretch of road was a little frightening.  It was like driving on a logging road way up in the mountains of BC, the only good part was that it was paved.  There were 10 mph corners to maybe 25 mph corners as we climbed back up over the mountains to the coast. The scarier part is that the speed limit on this road was 55 mph…I don’t even think a sports car could have made it up to that speed.

We finally worked our way to San Francisco where we played tourist for a day.  We dropped the trailer in a campground in Vallejo as the plan was to take the ferry over to Fishermans wharf.  Hmmph, best laid plans. We were there on the weekend, and the ferry service has way fewer sailings than on the week days.  So, we drove to downtown San Fran via the Golden Gate bridge.  Parked right downtown and wandered around the piers.  Definitely, a tourist trap now, though a nice one.  There was a cruise ship in dock, two more joined her by the end of the day.

I took riding on the trolley off my bucket list.  What an amazing feat of engineering they are, that trains on tracks can climb up and down such steep inclines.  I know they are connected to a cable but it’s still pretty darn amazing. Views from some of the streets were stunning to say the least.  We didn’t stay long in Unions Square at the top of the trolley line as there was an hour long wait to get on the trolley and back to Fishermans Wharf.  Once back down to sea level we had chowder at Scomas, a seafood restaurant, good food, though the building the restaurant inhabits isn’t quite in sync with the classiness they exude.  Well dressed staff, good food, good service but a room that has old wood panelling from the 70s, old pictures of Joe Namath adorning the walls, and unfilled nail holes too. 

We did a lot of walking, even got to Ghiradelli square for some chocolate, picked up some sour dough bread from Boudin’s Bakery.  We had dinner on Fishermans Wharf Pier 39  – lovely seafood dinner over looking the water and the sunset, though the latter wasn’t worth writing about.

Leaving San Fran was interesting in that we wanted to go back to the coast.  Getting there was an exercise as it was Monday morning, not quite through rush hour and we had the Bay bridge to go over with the toll booth to tie things up too.  Probably 20 lanes of traffic intersecting just before the bridge that had to merge down to about 15 to get through the toll booth then down to 4 to cross the bridge.  My goodness, some very inconsiderate drivers.  In some states, lane splitting by motor bikes is allowed, California for one – that adds another level of stupidness… just saying.  We survived with no incidents and got back on 1 and the coast highway. 

Travelled through the Big Sur area, spectacular is a much over used word in my blog, but it is.  We stayed in Pfieffer Big Sur State Park for a night, off the ocean among the big trees.  There is a skinny road down to the ocean to an area that is great for sunsets. This night the sunset did not disappoint. The rocks in the bay had holes carved out by the waves that the sun hit just a bit before sunset spraying water and sunlight in towards the beach.  The waves were impressive as well, spilling far up the beach, so much so that we couldn’t tell if the tide was going or coming in.  It is obviously a popular place as there were lots of people with their cameras all set up when we got there. 

There was a small creek that we had to drive through to get down and back from the beach, and if one took their time, all vehicles should be able to get through it.  Someone didn’t take her time and she was sitting on the side of the road after the creek, hood up busy working on her cell phone.  I’m assuming help was on the way for her as she didn’t look anxious or look at any of us passing for help.

Further down the coast we passed road construction sites with crews busy fixing up past mud slide damage.  One mud slide schute had a shed to drive through that looked very gothic and appeared to be built so that it was going to stay there for some time. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see catapults along the way.

Al was watching for the famous condors along this section, though we didn’t see anything other than vultures.  

We pulled off at a lookout near San Simeon where the Elephant Seals were beached.  Only a few seals used to come to this area, but now the herds have grown in size with the area now being protected as a rookery for them. 

 They are huge – the males can weigh more than our trailer does.  There were a few scuffles amongst the boys, but generally everyone was happily basking on the beach, though it wasn’t that warm out.  The babies definitely had not been born many days ago.  They are noisy, and Al says smell like rotten fish.

There is supposed to be some bad weather coming our way in the next day or so, so we have chosen to camp in land tonight, and not on the beach where we hoped we’d be able to park and have the ocean at our doorstep.  The winds were originally forecast to be 70 mph gusts, which would topple our trailer for sure.

We stopped in Santo Paula at a KOA next.  It was surrounded by orange groves and peacocks, they had free reign of the area, but I didn't to get the oranges.  There was a male that was strutting his stuff, quite pretty.  We had our first campfire since leaving home, and I shed one coat layer and the socks came off.  Its warming up. 

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Today we are starting the eastward leg of our trip to Florida.  We  arrived in Nemet California where we stopped to visit friends of ours from Grand Forks, BC that live there seasonally.  Lovely couple who made us feel very welcome.  We got there in time to set our trailer up for the night, have a wander with them around their neighbourhood, pick a few grapefruits and back to their place before the rain started.  Rain it did.  

From midnight to 3 the next afternoon, 4 inches of rain came down, setting off flood warnings, and a few wind warnings as well.  I have never experienced rain of that magnitude in such a short time span.  We had a river running down the street where our trailer was that at times was 4 to 5 feet wide and around 5 inches deep.  We didn’t get the floods like other places around us but still we decided to stay an extra night because of the aftermath. Driving would have been a bit sketchy for sure.  Our friends took us on a bit of a tour the next day to see that the area was green from all the rain they’ve been getting, its usually brown and hot at this time of year.  You could see rivers of mud and sludge around the area from the view point they took us too.

Next day we bid our friends farewell and headed eastward, only encountering two closed roads before we could even get on the Interstate.    Once there, it was clear sailing on to Quartzite then Yuma.  Lots of desert landscape, a few ups and downs but getting some more sunshine.  Another couple we know from home live in Yuma, so we stayed the night in their RV resort they stay in seasonally.  Had a great visit with them as well.  These, over 55 communities, are quite something.  Lots of activities to keep one busy on site, or lots of areas to go explore not too far away and no shoveling of snow…

More to come......