The Road Trip 2012 Part 1: Hwy 101 Day 1

The road trip we have been wanting to take for years. A drive down Hwy 101 Oregon coast line. We always said we were going to do this, take a week off and enjoy what Oregon has to offer. Little did we know we would create a small glimpse of this opportunity.

Last year was the longest and most organized trip I have ever taken. From home at the base of Mt. Hood OR, down I-5 to Florence, 101 south all the way to Santa Cruz, CA, then east to the most inspiring place I have ever been, Yosemite National Park. This trip was a stretch of 8 days and a total of 45 hours in a car with my best friend.

We packed the entire car the night before with the exception of some food items and the cooler. Our little 98 Civic was jam packed, even with our roof pack on. The thing about Wayne and I that I have learned to accept is when ever we plan on a time of leaving for a trip add 30-45 minutes onto that. We planned to leave the house at 5:30. Well, it took us a while. We ended up leaving the house around 6:00. We made a lot of stops on our way out of town. I think we were both a little nervous to be driving so far and so long, knowing we would be hours away from anything familiar. 

I stopped at Mt. Mocha for a pastry, and Wayne at Joe's for a Donut, made our way to Clackamas and stopped at Peets Coffee. (We make special trips to clackamas just for them on most occasions.) Last, we made a stop at Fred Meyer to say by to Wayne's mom, her shift was ending. There we were, getting on I-205 and excited as ever

Shadows of the bikes and a lot of flat land and cows until we hit Eugene.

On Hwy 101

Our jam packed car in a little beach town

Road snacks

We stopped for lunch in Bandon and eat on the pier

And we were back on the road. We made a little stop at Port Orford at this little view point.

Hanging with T-Rex

At this point of the trip Wayne had to point out all of the guard rail his company had replaced and fixed last summer and how it is constantly eroding. 

As we made our way to the California boarder we decided that Oregon is pretty awesome. And by the way Crescent City is gross in my opinion. I didn't take any pictures.

As we drove into California we started to notice some redwoods. This area of the highway was very foggy but it made it even more beautiful.

We stopped for a bit to stretch our legs.

At this point of the trip we were maybe 45 minutes from the camp ground we had planned to stay at overnight in Tinidad, CA. Trinidad was beautiful but our camp site location was anything but. Might I add that the day we left at April 20th. That's right, we were traveling in NorCal on the biggest pot smoking day of the year. It didn't surprise me that when we got to the campground the host was baked out of his mind and it took him forever to check us in! He sold up some very wet bundle of redwood for a fire for $9, biggest waste of money ever (we just packed it with us for later. )Plus this was the muddiest camp ground we have ever stayed in.

After we set up our things for the night we still had a ton of daylight so we took a very short drive to the small town of Trinidad. It was beautiful!

We were so tired and knew that the next day would be an even longer drive. We let the sunset then drove back to camp. 

So, it's our first night in California, alone. Our campground is right off the hwy and at times you can hear cars passing by and there are maybe only 5 sites occupied out of maybe 50. We unpacked our necessities for the night and left our action packer out on the picnic table ( it holds our basic camp needs like dishware, flashlights and such). In the middle of the night I wake up to a noise in our camp. I laid there scared and nudged Wayne to wake up. We lay there quiet and hear small movements and someone opening up our action packer. "Oh shit! We are being robbed! everything is being stolen and we will be stranded and have to go home if we aren't killed!" All of these thoughts are going through my head. Wayne quickly gets up with his baton like flashlight opens our tent and yells. There is a damn family of raccoons trying to get into our action packer! They just stand there and look at Wayne and he has to throw rocks at them for them to mosey away.

Ok, So it wasn't a serial killer and we weren't really getting robbed. But what a way to start off your first night in California terrified.