"What the heck was that??"

We took off from the Bear River Casino and headed up highway 36 east towards the mountains. The first part of the road took us through another section of big California redwoods forest. Ruth took a video for you below!

After that, we climbed... and at some points, very steep. We had seen the warning signs at the beginning of the road, so we knew there were going to be lots of curves and steep grades. But I don't think Sherman has ever had to climb a long 10% grade before. Probably a few short ones, but never one that goes for two miles! He had to summon all of his horses for that!

Those are some big trees!

One of the reasons we wanted to come this far south before heading east was to see the big trees in Redwood National Park. We have in the past seen some big trees... such as Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. But those are douglas fir trees, and these ones are of course coastal redwood.

When we left the casino, we topped up the gas tank once more, this time at $3.25 USD a gallon ($1.14 CAD per liter). Fuel is expensive in California (often near $4.00 USD per gallon), so we will top up when we see it near the state lows. It will be cheaper once again when we enter Nevada next week sometime.

Goodbye Oregon, hello California!

What a great day we had yesterday... let me tell you all about it!

First of all, as you'll see from the photos below, it was a beautiful blue sky all day long. Temperatures about 60F (15C) which is perfect for doing a bit of hiking and exploring. And, there was a lot of exploring to be done... once again, every five or ten minutes there is somewhere worth stopping at along this section of coastline.

Settling or Being Realistic – What’s the Difference?

Have you ever asked yourself if you’re just ‘settling’ with your life, or do you make a more realistic and positive assessment of what is around you? You can ask this question about many aspects of your life—relationships, houses, traveling, friendships… basically anything.

Settling can mean different things. It could possibly signify that you are maturing and are ready for new and exciting challenges. However, it more usually has a negative connotation, meaning that you’re sacrificing your happiness. That is when you need to be concerned.

We finally got a 100 mile drive done!

We actually got the required number of miles logged yesterday, despite the fact that we didn't really get going until almost 11:00am.

We have to be in Mission, Texas around the 28th of this month. That means, we're trying to do at least 100 miles (160 kms) a day on average. And even at that, we know there will have to be some longer days because we will want to have some rest days too!

More fun on the Oregon coast, and sunny days ahead!

Early start to the day yesterday because we had promised the folks at the Newport Municipal Airport that we would be gone at sunrise. Good thing we were too, because there was definitely some activity around the airport at that hour and there was not a lot of parking.

We actually hit the road at about 6:50am, but we only drove to the first scenic stop, which was not very far away. There is not much distance between attractions here on the Oregon coast!

October Expenses

No, I haven't been procrastinating due to the abnormally high expense report! But yes... we have had another expensive month. We're really looking forward to having a month go by without spending yet another $1,000 on Sherman!

But, it wasn't only Sherman's fault... whenever we travel back to Ontario we seem to spend a fair bit of money.

Well, we didn't get very far!

And no, Sherman is not giving us problems. He's doing just fine.

Its just that there is so darn much to see on the Oregon coastline!

We drive for ten minutes, we stop for half an hour... we drive for ten minutes, we stop for an hour.

Back to the Pacific coast!

First thing we did yesterday morning was go for a walk around the campus of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. It's a big property and we probably did 1.5 miles (2.4 kms) just walking around it.

Lots to see even if you don't go inside the buildings. They have a very cool indoor water park on the property as well.

That was a full day!

Had a great sleep boondocking in the forest. It's not that easy to find decent free camping in the Columbia Gorge... it's simply too popular of a place, so there are a lot of "no overnight parking" signs around. You have to go up into the hills on Forest Service Roads, and we're just not comfortable doing that given how much rain there has been.

The rain stopped around 9:00am, and we set off looking for the first waterfall of the day. There are lots of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area!