67. The Short Version

We finally left Oregon. Packed up the car, hit the coast and drove South. We spent a few days in Florence at Harbor Vista Campground. Yes, we tent camped. And I survived. It has been forever since I've been to the Oregon Coast and we got lucky. The weather was surprising for the Oregon coast - sunny and warmish.

Lucy was such a camper and even managed to settle in and relax while we did things around the camp site.

It helped, though, that we exhausted her on the beach! It was fun to see her run around, chase sticks (chase, not retrieve) and steer way clear of the waves.
From there we drove down to Harris Beach State Park just North of Banning, Oregon and the California border. I loved it here. The beach was rocky. Bleached out drift wood washed ashore. The campground was good too. The showers were free (as in no quarters and 5 minute limit) and private with lots of hot water.

The next morning was damp and foggy so we packed up early and hit the road. We drove through the Redwood Forest and didn't see any moose. We did see trees. And what can you say about the Redwoods? They're big and old. Wait, I'm supposed to use words like grand and majestic. So, sure, they are those things too, but I'm not exactly a nature girl, so let's just call them big.

From the redwoods, we drove through the Lost Coast in search of a campground. It's getting to be the end of the season and a number of places are closed. We ended up at Richardson Grove State Park. It's nothing fancy. It's actually kind of gross this time of year and sort of had a seedy feel to it. We just stayed the night and left early the next morning - around 10.

After RG, we had the joy of cruising over to the 1 on the curviest road ever. I may not have mentioned this before, but in additional to getting sea sick, I can get car sick. The front seat is usually a safe spot. Not so much for this trip. Not fun. Oh, and creepy homesteads - yes, homesteads - line sections of the highway. Who lives in these random, run down, totally isolated shacks? I can't even think about it.

Anyway, we arrived in Fort Bragg and MacKerricher State Park pretty early and selected a nice camp spot (number 101) close to the ocean. It's beautiful here. Rocky coast line with sea lions and kelp beds. Dogs aren't allowed on the beach, but there is a good trail just above the sand line.

I could stay here for days, but we ran into a little trouble that night. The camp stove stopped working while I was making Sloppy Joe's. Don't cringe. We're camping. It's a requirement to eat things like that. I even packed a can of Spam just in case. I was able to finish dinner on the BBQ, but we couldn't get the coffee to boil the next morning. We also both woke up with colds and basically decided we were way over the tent. So we crammed everything into the car and after a quick shower, took off towards the 5. I was thinking we'd stop over for a night in a Holiday Inn Express or something. Wrong. Scott drove 12 hours back to Palm Springs. He was just in the zone and although we did stop for lunch, dinner and a couple potty breaks for Lucy, it was straight through. I was not in the zone. After about 5 hours with a 15 lb dog on my lap, my hips and thighs were killing me. But we made it back and even though we did practically nothing yesterday, I'm looking forward to getting our condo unpacked and settled in. We're on a bit of a deadline and I have a lot to do in the next few days. I'm sort of going back to work next week...