LAST DAY OF A WONDERFUL SUMMER TRIP

Well, here it is, the final day of our wonderful summer trip.

We've traveled over 3,000 miles and stayed in Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Wahington, and Oregon this year. We've seen big cities, small towns, mountains, deserts, lakes and oceans. Weve camped in State Parks, National Parks, and many private resorts. 

There have been lots of tasty meals, lots of delicious wines and many evenings spent around the fire pit with our family and friends. 

And Guess what, we plan to do it all over again next year! Alaska here we come!!

A TOAST TO FRIENDS

Still here in Paso Robles, and as you can see still drinking wine and eating delicious food. 

Not a doggie biscuit in sight! Each day is a different winery, and each night is another delicious restaurant. Today they had lunch at Justin Winery the tasting of several very excellent wines. Kathe and Jim liked the wines so much that they joined the wine club. 

After that tasting they stopped to pick up their wine club shipments at the two other wineries that they belong to here in Paso Robles.

I wonder if there is something like a dog food club, they could send three cans of a new dog food every three months. I'll have to talk to Jim about that!

The weather here has been very hot and dry every day, perfect for the harvesting of the grapes, but hard on us who have to walk around in our fur coat all the time.

PASO ROBLES

So sorry I didn't post yesterday, but it wasn't worth your time. We spent August 15th driving from Santa Rosa to Greenfield, CA.  The highways were so rough that Kathe said her brains were rattled. The bumpiest road of the whole trip. We spent the night at the Yanks Resort, in the middle of lots of agriculture. The resort was nice, but there was nothing to see or do there. It was hot, and so windy that the trees were all slanted in the same direction.

Last night we were in Paso Robles at the Wine Country RV Resort waiting for the arrival of Jim's brother and his wife Linda. 

Once they got here, the fun began. Warren cooked his special smoked barbecued ribs, which along with the grilled corn, coleslaw, and cheesy garlic bread, made for a delicious dinner. They sat outside for the evening and swapped stories until it was my bedtime.

Early this afternoon all six of my human friends went for a wine tasting and lunch at Daou Vineyards. They tasted wines and ate several specialty luncheon plates on the members only patio overlooking the vineyard. Then everyone including me took a nap this afternoon. In a few minutes they will be off to eat dinner at a local fish restaurant.  I'm not expecting a doggie bag.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

What a change in the KOA this morning. Over 80% of the people checked out and it's now a quiet, campground. Note to self: don't ever come here on a weekend, especially the weekend of the County Fair and the last weekend before school starts. So, I guess we might stay here again, but only on a weekday!

This afternoon my humans were invited to Kathe's brothers' home for lunch and a garden tour. Warren is quite a gardener, so he was very interested to see all the things Mark and Vicki are growing in their back yard. There are apple, pear, cherry and peach trees. They also have a variety of citrus trees and a huge vegetable garden. It's truly a fantastic use of a backyard!

Vicki prepared a wonderful lunch for them with almost all of the produce coming from their garden. Beautiful salads and a large wild poached salmon. Mark even made an apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert. Truly a delicious feast! 

After lunch, Mark and Vicki insisted that everyone share in the bounty of their garden. We came home with grapes, eggplants, cucumbers, and three varieties of delicious tomatoes. 

Tomorrow, we leave for the trip down south, eventually to Paso Robles. 

NOT SO GREAT

We had a really rough ride today down the 101 and we were all very happy when we finally reached Petaluma and the KOA. That is, until we saw the hundreds of people that were already here. We've been here before, but it's never been like this. 

It's a zoo! Yes, they even have a petting zoo. The place smells like goats. 

Looking at the pool you couldn't even see the water for the number of kids crowded in the space. Every site was filled with campers and there were at least 100 tents in the open field area. And there are lots of unfriendly barking doggies. Not what we were hoping for after a long drive. 

As there was no one to guide us to our site, Kathe and Jim got lost and almost took out a tree trying to turn around and get back to the space assigned to us. Jim was worried about the scratches on the coach, but he was able to polish them out. 

Kathy T got lost as well! I guess we were all tired, but we agreed that we would never come back to this place! Ever!

We are feeling a little better after a nice dinner and some treats, but happy that we are only here two nights.  

FAR AND FARTHER

I guess they got tired of looking at trees, because today they drove off early in the morning. The first destination was a farmers' market in the town of Garberville about 20 minutes south of Meyers Flat. They did bring home some stuff, some eggs, but mostly vegetables. Both Kathies bought some delicious looking homemade jams. The overall impression of Garberville was that it was a hippie haven, and so they didn't spend much time there.

Back home to put things in the fridge, before heading in the opposite direction. That was north about 30 minutes to the Victorian town of Ferndale. They had a lot of fun looking at all the old restored Victorian homes and some bed and breakfast establishments. They walked the Main Street looking in all the little shops and stopped for a really nice Mexican lunch. They didn't come home with much this time, just a pair of socks for my Kathe and some miniature dollhouse furniture for Kathy T.

Tonight, is our last night here in Giant Redwoods Resort, and tomorrow we head south to Petaluma and the KOA. Looking forward to visiting Uncle Mark, Aunt Vicki, and my cousins Alex and Jake while we are there.  

WALK IN THE WOODS

Today I went for a couple of walks around the campground with Kathe, and it is so spooky and quiet with all these tall trees up there. I don't stay out too long! Did I mention all the stuff that sticks in your fur? Redwood trees shed a lot of tiny branches and I like to bring them inside for Jim to sweep up every day. 

This afternoon my humans all went for a walk in the ancient redwoods on the Avenue of the Giants. It was supposed to be a hike, but it was really a walk in between the giant trees. It's impossible to take a picture to show just how big the trees are. First, they walked in the Founders Grove where they had a printed guide to all the interesting facts about the trees. Then they took the advice of the Rangers at the forest and found another area to visit.

The Rangers suggested that they drive to the Rockefeller Grove, as they felt that was the most beautiful drive in the forest. The road was very narrow, but they weren't wrong, it was beautiful. Some of the oldest trees were in that forest.They came upon this Stag, just munching the grass on the side of the road. A really wonderful day.

BIG TREES BIG RIG

Here we are at the Giant Redwoods RV Park. The Internet is not so great, so I will make this short. It was a beautiful drive down highway 101, but we have no pictures of the drive. 

Jim wanted the Kathies to find a fuel station before we reached our destination. Not my Kathe's favorite job. After trying to find something on the internet big enough to accommodate 2 big rigs, they found a Costco in Eureka. It looked good until they pulled in line only to find that they didn't sell diesel fuel at this Costco. How scary, two big coaches that had to cross 4 or 5 lanes of traffic to exit without any damage. I thought my Kathe was going to have a coronary. Luckily, a Costco attendant stopped the traffic to let both of our rigs get out of the line of cars and back onto the highway. A few blocks down the highway we stumbled onto a great 76 station and fueled up.

After that experience nothing could be as bad! When we pulled into our RV Park we just decided to chill out for the rest of the day.  It's a really great park, right in the middle of the Avenue of the Giants. They plan to tour the area tomorrow and may even take a hike into the redwood groves.

SUE-MEG BIKE RIDE

Today the sun finally came out long enough for the planned bike ride into the State Park. Much of the morning was taken up with grocery shopping, as the next place we are staying sent us an email letting us know that there are no grocery stores near them. As long there is chicken in the freezer and a big bag of dog food, what else do we need?

Oh, back to the bike ride. They rode down the street and into the park, luckily there were very few cars on the road. Going into the park on your bicycle is free, but they want seven dollars a day if you drive in with your car.

They rode all over the park, first to the beach where Warren and Jim looked for more agates and small shells. That beach reminded everyone of Hawaii, except for the temperature. 

The second stop was at the trail to Wedding Rock, where Jim and Warren took a hike, first down to the beach where they saw starfish on the rocks. After that they hiked all the way to the top of Wedding Rock, just because they could! 

Tomorrow, they leave for Meyers Flat, California where they will be camped in Redwoods, on the Avenue of the Giants. 

PRAIRIE CREEK REDWOODS

Very slow start to our day today. When Jim woke up this morning, he noticed that we had no power. Other campers also realized the same thing, the power was out in the whole neighborhood. We have a generator, so by running it, we had plenty of power for our breakfast. Everyone just hung around waiting for the power to come back on, which happened at about 11:30. 

Kathy T didn't feel well today, so Warren, Jim and my Kathe decided to take a hike at the Prairie Creek State Park after lunch. The plan was to take a short hike and look for the Roosevelt Elk that are supposed to roam the meadows of the park.

The first destination was Trillium Falls which was through some old-growth redwoods to a waterfall. It was only about a half mile and there were signs that bear and elk frequented the area. Yikes! Next, they drove to the Park Headquarters, and saw some of the elk close enough to take pictures of them.

Not satisfied with such a short hike, they looked for more adventure and found a two more hikes. The Cathedral Trail connected to the Elk Prairie Trail which totaled an additional 2.7 miles. They were dragging by that time and still had another mile to hike back to the car. I don't think that was exactly what they planned because they are all pooped tonight.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON GROVE

Today was supposed to be a day to go bike riding into Patrick Point State Park. By the way, it's now called Sue-Meg State Park, the name was changed back to the Yurok Indian name recently. Patrick, as it turns out was a bad guy, so he lost his park. Anyway, it was so foggy this morning that the bike ride was postponed, hopefully for another sunny day. 

Looking at the Redwood Forest Map, they found a hike through the ancient redwood grove named for Lady Bird Johnston.  The hike was about a mile and a half loop through old-growth redwood, Douglas fir, and tanoak to where Lady Bird Johnson dedicated Redwood National Park in 1968. Some of the trees were at least 20 feet in diameter. There were even trees still thriving, showing signs of fire damage from many years ago. Of course, it was very foggy and cool on the hike with plenty of beautiful things to see. This area was a major logging area before the Redwoods State and National Parks were established.  These pictures show how the fog floats into the forest to nurture the trees.

On the way back to our campsite there were many sightings of the Roosevelt Elk herds that wander through the open prairies of wildflowers and grass. Maybe we will get close enough to take some pictures while we are here.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE SEA

We are finally here at "Sounds of the Sea" RV Resort. This is my third time here and we have the best site ever. This is our view, we have our own deck that looks out to the sea, and we can even hear the sea lions singing to each other.  There are wild black-berries everywhere, so the first thing Kathe did was pick a whole pail full. The cobbler is already in the oven!

Our drive here was very scary at times because of the road work on many of the bridges along the coast. Kathe kept telling Jim not to look down because the motor home was so close to the edge of the cliff. It was also foggy most of the way down. I know the redwood trees need the fog, but do they need so much of it?

Just getting settled in tonight. After three days in the forest the motor home was very dirty, and Jim took most of the afternoon to clean thing up. Now there is nothing to do but eat, drink and relax. 

MORE TIME IN THE REDWOODS

This morning everyone was up early to catch the low tide at the Agate Beach. When I say early, that's human speech for 10:30 maybe 11:00. I've been up for hours! 

Anyway, Warren heard about this beach that was supposed to have lots of agates, pretty white stones with lots of gold flecks. As you can see, it was a very beautiful beach, with practically no one else around. There were lots of birds enjoying the low tide and all, but it was darn cold and windy. That rock out there is home to over 300 species of sea birds. Warren found two nice agates. Jim and Kathe found a bunch of pretty stones which they threw away, and Kathy T flew another of her beautiful kites. And it was darn cold and windy!

Next on the agenda today was a trip to the "Trees of Mystery," which is a giant tourist trap on Highway 101 in the middle of the Redwoods. Jokingly called the Trees of Misery, my humans proceeded to tramp through the woods and follow the crowds. It was an interesting and informative trail up into a forest with lots of giant trees. Part of the trail was a sky-bridge of 9 suspension walkways that 3 of the humans bravely crossed. Guess who stayed on the ground and watched them? The last part of the trail (before the gift shop) was a gondola ride that took them up above the tops of the trees. That was impressive.

Tomorrow it's another drive down the coast to our next stop, Sounds of the Sea, Trinidad, California.

IN THE REDWOODS

Here we are right in the middle of the Redwoods. It’s so quiet here at night, almost spooky because the trees are so big and tall. Only one little problem, pine sap everywhere, including on my paws. Kathe was not very gentle this morning, but she finally removed a rock stuck in between my toes using mayonnaise. Bad news all that work, and I have three more paws!

Today the humans went out to see more Redwood trees at Jedediah Smith State Park. We camped there once but now they only allow 25-foot motor homes, so cross that one off your list. They were however able to hike in the park and see the huge trees along the river.

Later they went to see the Battery Lighthouse in Crescent City, an historic landmark which was built in 1856. It’s a cape cod style lighthouse and still functional. They walked up to the lighthouse to have a picnic and hardly finished their lunch before they were asked to leave. Apparently, the tide was coming in and if they didn’t leave quickly, they would have to wade through water to get back to the car. Or wait till low tide this evening at 8:30 PM. They are home now in time for my dinner.

OREGON TO CALIFORNIA

Crossed the border this morning, and we are on our way back home. The drive on Highway 101 was beautiful but so difficult. Back and forth on the windy road for several hours. Lots of beautiful scenery, but the road was so rough that Kathe couldn't hold her cell phone steady long enough to get a good picture. The phone kept bouncing along with the road. Jim finally stopped at a viewpoint, and she snapped this one of the rocks along the Oregon Coast. 

One of hundreds of beautiful coastal views we saw today. The coast was very foggy and cool, so different than the hot weather we have experienced much of the summer.  We seem to be far enough away from the forest fire to have clear blue sky.

What a wonderful surprise it was when we arrived at our campground. Ramblin' Redwoods is exactly as advertised, in the middle of a Redwood Grove.  We have huge Redwoods all around us, so tall it's hard to take a picture. We are really happy to be here for the next three nights. 

It's so cool tonight we are even going to have a campfire!

EXPLORING BANDON

This morning while I was recovering from the ordeal of getting the long-promised bath in the kitchen sink, the humans decided to go for a bike ride.  Kathy and Warren drove up to our campground with their bikes and Kathe and Jim met them on the park road. There is a really nice bike path to the beach, but Jim decided that they should ride on the road because it was smoother, and not as narrow as the path. 

First, they rode about a mile to the beach and then another 2 miles to see the Lighthouse on the Coquille River. This historic lighthouse was built 1895 and neglected for many years before the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department took over the maintenance. Volunteer Park Rangers are on site to protect this landmark.

After they rode back to camp, they decided to have lunch together and take a drive to Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint. The Taylors have a collection of kites that they wanted to fly on the rocks above the beach. It was a very windy afternoon. The rocks and tidal flats adjacent to the park form part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

There are more than 300 bird species that frequent this area. Perfect place for flying birds as well as kites.

BEAUTIFUL BANDON BY THE SEA

Enjoying our stay here at the Bullards Beach State Park. We have a really nice site with high shrubbery on all three sides which makes it very private. It's a huge State Park, but we are in our own little space.

Kathe spent the morning doing loads of laundry while Jim was paying bills. I was a little afraid that I was going to get a bath today, but I lucked out. I'm really dirty after spending time at Lemolo in the dirt and gravel, but today was cloudy and cold. So, no bath for me.

Later in the afternoon Kathe went for a long walk to the beach and took a couple of pictures. There is a really nice walking path from the park to the beach and the lighthouse. Tomorrow Kathe and Jim will take a bike ride to the same area with Warren and Kathy.

The Taylors arrived today from Canyonville and are really enjoying the cooler weather here. I have my fur coat, but everyone else is wearing sweatshirts.