Garberville, CA

Thursday, October 25, 2018
Garberville, CA
Benbow KOA

It's always so nice to have a "stay" day after so much traveling. Since we were almost home, we decided to only stay two nights at this KOA, but it sure was nice to relax. I didn't even bother doing any laundry since we would be home in a few days. I took a couple of long walks and Rod worked on an article for a magazine. All in all, it was a quiet day.

Brunch! Leftover steak with veggies and scrambled eggs.

The fog was heavy on the hills and it was chilly.

Our timing is always perfect. 

This KOA is seldom more than 50% full when we're here.

The sun finally came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Philo, CA

Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Philo to Garberville, California
Garberville/Benbow KOA
Distance: 125 miles
Duration: 2 nights
Cost: $57/night
Weather: Sunny and warm

We woke up with the sun and were on the road fairly early for us. I took more pictures of the vineyard and the fog on the hills in the distance. It was such a beautiful and peaceful morning. I hated to leave.

The drive on Hwy. 253 was very pretty with a lot of the trees dressed in their fall colors. The highway is probably just as curvy as Hwy. 128, but there wasn't as much traffic, so it was more enjoyable than when we drove in to Philo from 101. Also, we noticed that when I pulled over to let the cars behind me pass, almost every single one tapped their horns in appreciation. This has happened occasionally on our road trips, but we were shocked that almost 99% of the cars and trucks expressed their thanks to us with the horn tap. Thank you, Northern California drivers!

Another first was having a couple of deer dash across the road, right in front of the RV. Thankfully, we were going slow enough that it wasn't a problem, but it sure got our attention! 

We had one steep descent of 10% for 2 miles, but the RV handled it just fine. I feel so much more comfortable with steep ascents and descents in this Class C RV compared to when we were pulling a trailer. 

Early morning at Handley Cellars Winery.

Beautiful morning with lots of birdsong.

Another vineyard just east of Handley Cellars Winery. Gorgeous!

We decided to play tourists and stopped at the Drive-Thru Tree Memorial Grove in Leggett. It's pretty much a tourist trap, what with the $10 fee to enter the park. Obviously, our RV is far too big to drive through the tree, but we walked around and took a few pictures.

Probably not worth it, but we decided to play tourists.

Nope. The Four Winds is not gonna fit!

2400 years old! Wow.

I don't know how many times we've stayed at the Benbow KOA, but this may have been our third visit and it was nice to be back in a familiar spot. We snagged a good end site, which meant there was nobody on our right and we could enjoy looking out on the beautiful fall colors. The contrast between the leaves and the blue sky was picture-perfect! I took a long walk, desperate to get some exercise and stretch my legs. I walked over to the Benbow Inn and couldn't believe how low the Eel River had become since our visit less than six months earlier.

We enjoyed our drinks outside, as the weather was absolutely perfect. Not too hot and not at all windy. It got pretty chilly after the sun went down, but it was so quiet, we both slept great.

Back at the Benbow KOA.

The river is so low!

Beautiful fall colors.

Benbow Historic Inn.

Last time we were here, this river bed was completely covered with water.

Love these trees!

Not too many people here, so it made for a nice quiet stay.

Escondido and Santa Paula, CA

Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Escondido to Santa Paula, California
Ventura Ranch KOA
Distance: 190 miles
Duration: 1 night
Cost: $45 (normally $55, but the cable was out)
Weather: Sunny and 80s

After breakfast and goodbyes, we were back on the road heading north to Santa Paula. I've never driven an RV in L.A. and even driving a car there can cause a lot of stress. So, I did a lot of research trying to find the best possible route for this leg of the trip, getting advice from relatives, friends and bloggers who either live in the area or have traveled that freeway system. The consensus was to take I-15 to 210 to 5 to 126, which turned out to be just fine, with the exception of the interchange between 210 and 5, which is near Sylmar. The road was very bumpy and we probably should have taken the truck route since the ascent caused us to slow down and left me with nowhere to go to get out of the way of the merging semis. Traffic was heavy! Thankfully, that was the only stressful time of the whole day and to add to the enjoyment of the day, we had our final In-n-Out burger for this long road trip. So, L.A. wasn't a terrible experience after all.

Declan and his daddy, Tim. 

So hard to say goodbye!

Santa Paula, California

We arrived at our campground and got settled in without any trouble. We've only stayed in a couple of KOAs, preferring to camp at state parks or boondock on BLM property. Sadly, this rundown campground didn't change our minds to seek out more KOAs in the future. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't as nice as the KOA in Lynden, Washington or Garberville (Benbow), Calfornia. We had some shade, but no grass. (For future reference, the lower level loops have grass next to the sites.) The KOA offers electric/water hookups and provides a dump station near the front office. We needed a few blocks to get level and the walk to the showers/restrooms were quite a distance from our site. On the plus side, it was quiet and we enjoyed watching a dozen or so peacocks wandering around our loop. I'll take those over javelina any day!

Ventura Ranch KOA

One of a dozen.

No grass next to the campsites,

 but there was a large section the middle of the loop.

Overlooking the lower loop.

Final Thoughts: Nothing special, but sufficient for an overnight.

Escape Road Trip - Day Seven

Our final morning at the Lynden KOA started with off with a bang. Literally. Shortly after 4:30 a.m. we heard what sounded like a loud gunshot. We both woke up and after fumbling around to turn on lights, we realized we were without power. The campground was pretty quiet, but Rod decided to head outside and see if anyone else had lost power. After chatting with one of our neighbors, we confirmed our second theory. It was not a gunshot, but rather a blown transformer. The entire campground was dark. We quickly decided it would be a good idea to head over to the showers before anyone else since the hot water wouldn't last very long once people started waking up. We gathered together all our shower gear and headed out. The sky was still very smoky from the British Columbia fires and it looked particularly eerie on this chilly morning.

Local power crews to the rescue! It took them a few hours to get things up and running again, but thankfully we were heading out after breakfast and weren't too concerned.

I think it was around 5:30 and not very many people were stirring. If I weren't in such a hurry to get a hot shower, I would have enjoyed just sitting by this lake.

So, after our showers (which were still pretty warm, but in dark shower rooms!), we returned to our campsite only to discover that it is possible to lock one's self out of a trailer! After pacing around the trailer, looking for an open window (and yanking on the front door multiple times, hoping for a miracle), we started to panic. How would we get in?! We couldn't drive back to Chilliwack for a spare key since our truck keys were inside the trailer, as were our passports. Nope. A return trip to Canada was out. We didn't dare break a window, not that we had any way of climbing up into one. We couldn't call AAA since our phones and wallets (with the required membership card) were inside. We really thought we were screwed. Until I got a bright idea. The hatch to the "basement" has an opening underneath the bed with two small doors that open into the galley. As luck would have it, someone accidentally left that hatch unlocked. Hmmm. Could I possibly fit?? There was only one way to find out, so we started moving things out onto the patio and made room for me to crawl through. 

Much to my surprise (and I wish I could have seen Rod's reaction), I was able to fit quite easily through the hatch and using an army crawl, made my way into the galley. What a relief!! We've learned our lesson and now wear the lanyards with a set of keys to the door & hatch, which were provided by Escape.

After that stressful wake-up call and lock-out, we were tempted to pour ourselves a neat bourbon, but opted for a nice, hot cup of coffee instead. 

Still pretty quiet around the campground, but we were happy to finally be heading out. The KOA was very nice, but we had no desire to hang around for the weekend. It was nice and quiet up until Friday afternoon, but I have a feeling it isn't quite as peaceful on a Saturday night.

So, off we went on our way to our next campsite in Cinebar, Washington. Due to the power outage we got a late start, so we were ready to pull off at the Smokey Point Rest Area just north of Marysville and Everett where we had a quick lunch in the trailer. Nice not to have to rely on fast food restaurants!

According to Google Maps, it's about 215 miles and a 3 hour and 46 minute drive. Obviously, pulling a trailer is not as fast as simply driving a car. Our tires are rated for a maximum of 65 mph, but driving on I-5 through Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia proved to be a bit of a challenge to even make it over 55. The traffic was awful. We're hoping to do more traveling via backroads and blacktops rather than on the interstates. It's not always about the destination, right?

The sky was pretty overcast and smoky as we drove past Lake Union and the Space Needle. 

Ah, finally a backroad! A backroad with a one-lane bridge. A very narrow one-lane bridge. 

Yes, I held my breath as I drove across. Thank goodness both the truck and trailer fit!

We arrived at our next campsite without any problems. According to the truck computer, we drove for five hours, but our actual time with stops was closer to six hours. So much for Google Maps' estimate! In any event, we made it. The Arboretum is a "dispersed" camp that we found on Hipcamp, which we only recently discovered and has proved to be quite a nice resource for finding unique places to camp. This particular site is located on a tree farm in Cinebar, Washington and is family owned. Our total cost was $20.70 for one night.

Park your trailer or RV in the arboretum on our Christmas tree farm. Beautiful view of the mountains and forests here in western Washington. Close to Mount St. Helens and Mt. Rainier and several lakes. Walking trails all around the site. Picnic table, firewood, fire pit and grill supplied. Property has a view of the Tilton River, which can be reached via a half mile trail. Water available on the farm within a half mile of the campsite. No restrooms. Self contained vehicles only. (from Hipcamp)

This is the gorgeous view that welcomed us from the main road. It looks like we left the smoky skies behind us.

The main house is behind the trees on the left and the barn is just barely visible.

We had a few minutes to relax while we waited for our host to greet us. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs and admire our beautiful little home.

We were greeted by our host, Terry Burres, who directed us to our private site. There are no hookups at the site, so this was our first experience of "dry camping." The Burres have done a nice job making this spot very comfortable for campers. There's an earthen stove for grilling, as well as a picnic table and benches and two comfortable chairs.

They also provided a big pile of firewood to use in their fire ring, but unfortunately with all the forest fires in the area, we were banned from having any open fires. 

This is our view to the south. You can see how dry it is!

Since we were there for just one night and didn't have anywhere we needed to be, we decided to keep the trailer hooked up to the truck. The awning helps to keep the trailer cool, but the sun was already falling below the trees, so it wasn't really necessary but we wanted to see how it would do if the wind picked up. It's got a setting to retract when the wind reaches a certain speed.

It was so nice to relax and have a drink after a fairly stressful drive. We both agreed that we could be very content spending more than just one night at this location.

Happy campers! Notice the lanyard around Rod's neck. :)

It was actually getting a little chilly as the sun went down.

We did a little exploring before dinner and found this pond, which is just on the other side of our camp site. We could hear fish jumping and there were lots of barn swallows flying about, catching bugs. It was simply lovely.

What's camping without a cast iron skillet?! We had a simple steak dinner with some veggies. Delicious!

After we ate, we decided to take a walk and explore the farm. In addition to the tree farm, the Burres have a pretty grape arbor and a large vegetable garden. We thought about walking down to the river, but it was starting to get dark, so we decided to skip it.

There's our cute little trailer, tucked in for the night.

This is the closest neighbor and while they were very quiet, their rooster crowed almost non-stop at dusk and dawn. However, I'll take that over a bunch of loud, drunk campers any day!

Here's another view of the trailer where you can see the Maxxfan and the small skylight/vent on the roof. Someday we'll add solar panels.

Life is good!

August 5, 2017
Lynden KOA, Washington to Bear Canyon West/Cinebar, Washington (Boondocking at The Arboretum)

Click on the photos for a larger view of the image.