Time to Leave - Week 1

It's 2013. It's cold and rainy. It's time to leave.

We took off on Sunday the 6th of January and made it as far as Salem Oregon. (That's because we left mid-afternoon.) Oh well, no hurry right? The next day we moved over to the coast and found ourselves in Florence Oregon. It was cold and wet but it is always nice on the eyes when you are on the Oregon Coast. We had a hickup with the electrical hookup between the car and motorhome so we got it fixed and stayed the night in Florence.

It's been awhile but I'm pretty sure this is the bridge you cross as you're leaving Florence, OR.
The bridge below is the bridge across Coos Bay, OR.

I love the design of this entrance to this bridge.

In the morning we headed south. We passed through Bandon Oregon but didn't explore. It's on the "list" to do when it's nice out.

You can see the puddles...  I'd rather visit in the sun.

Along the coast in the rain we went but it cleared as we drove and we landed in Brookings,  OR almost to the California border. It was cold but partly sunny. A lovely campground right on the beach. It's operated by the Port of Brookings. Holly and Buster spent a couple of hours exploring on the beach.  This is about as good as I could get of a western sunset.

Being so close to the Redwoods in CA, this beach had lots of gorgeous redwood driftwood.
(Of course I had to find just the right piece for my "nature" collection. - no... this isn't it!) 

Waves big enough for surfing.

This is all the driftwood I mentioned earlier.

One of the many fishing boats coming in at dusk.

I think these were wild cats basking in the occasional sun break.

During the night it turned ugly. Rain and wind. It made it fun to unhook and get ready to leave in the morning. Have you ever tried to hold an umbrella in a 40 mph wind while unhooking a garden hose? It's not as easy as it sounds.

The clouds were right down to ground level.

We entered California and the weather was so crumby that they didn't even have the check point manned. We stopped for lunch in a cute little town called Ferndale. It was cold as heck but the sun was out so we walked downtown and checked out the windows. It was written up in Sunset magazine and after wandering around we could see why. It is a spot worth seeing but I would recommend doing it in a warmer month.

Our lunch spot in Ferndale, CA

This is a Rambler American.  Holly's first car was a white Rambler American with a black convertible top. 
This even has the old California license plate.

This is a cemetery on a hillside in Ferndale, CA

 That night we settled into a little town called Garberville. We set up camp in a mud pit. Had to keep telling ourselves, "the goal is to find 70 degrees and sun." It's out there if you stay focused and keep moving........... I hope.

The next day we drove through the Redwood Forest along the Avenue of the Giants. It is Spectacular! A bit tight for cruising in a motorhome but what natural beauty.  I wish I had a picture but all of Holly's pictures turned out blurry. 

Our ears kept hearing the ocean calling us so up and over the mountains we went. I have never seen 10MPH signs marking turns in a road but there must have been 50 of them en route to the coast. Pretty, cold, snow? But up and over we went.  It was scary as hell.  No shoulders on the road; shear drop-offs, and no cell service.  I think I saw a sign at the beginning of this road that said if you're over 40 feet long, do not use this road.  Ooops!  Oh well - it's not like we haven't done this before.

We were so high, we hit snow and 35 degrees!  It said icy roads but ...
fortunately, we didn't slip & slide.

And then there it was. The Pacific Ocean and the California Coast with blue skies. WOW!! it really is picture perfect along the Mendacino County coastline.

I will never tire of the beauty of the CA coast, with it's blue waters.

Down the road we bumped and we stayed in Cloverdale, California. Still fairly sunny but 28 at night and barely 48 during the day. Gotta keep moving. 70 and sun is out there somewhere. The setting was nice and the sunset was great in spite of the telephone lines.

Dockercreek Campground in Cloverdale, CA

From there we drove inland into the San Joaquin Valley and Interstate 5. They still aren't letting the farmers water their crops so there are dead fruit trees, literally by the millions, all along the way. I just don't get it.

We stayed in a small town called Patterson, which was a short distance off the hiway.  In the morning the plan was to forge on heading south in search of the warmth. We set our sights on Bakersfield. Yes, Bakersfield. Not on everyone's list of places to go but it's a "big" town so we could re-supply. Along the way we heard from our friends Rose and Dick. They are snowbirding to Palm Desert at the same time. They said they were going to go over to the coast and hit Pismo Beach. Pismo Beach? That has a nice ring to it. Right turn!!

Another lovely state road from I-5 to Pismo Beach

This is actually after leaving Pismo Beach on the way to Bakersfield.

We didn't realize there are such big mtns by Bakersfield - high enough for snow.

We joined them for the weekend in the sun. Still pretty chilly but nice. As an added bonus it was Rose's birthday on Sunday so we all went out to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in town.

Rose, looking for her "Boys."
I accidentally had the "fish-eye" setting on my camera.  Ooops.