Digital Nomad Summer - Part 5

Here's Part 4.

In the last blog, we packed up on our final day in Bodega Bay, CA; it was time to head further north!

The two of us with some big old trees

Although the distance from Bodega Dunes Campground to our next spot inside William Tugman State Park in Lakeside, OR was only about 500 miles, we still woke up early; the first few miles out of Bodega Bay were along Highway 1, a narrow two-lane twisty, turny byway conveniently located on the very western edge of the continent, and we wanted to get on the road before too many other folks did as well.  That part of the drive went completely fine (thankfully) and before too long, we were leaving the area, including the town of Bodega, behind.  Bodega and Bodega Bay might be best known for being the filming locations for much of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, and we zoomed past some of the more notable spots (the Tides, where we did some of our shopping, was also in the movie).

There's not a lot in Bodega, but it is cute

The St. Theresa of Avila Church

Potter School, which is now a private residence

As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, Chris does all the driving with the full rig; it's too much for me, and I freely admit that (I handle the vast majority of the planning, packing, shopping, etc. to make up for this, as I fully realize the amount of work he's doing on travel days).  To break things up for him (and us), we try to stop every 100 miles or so and take at least a short break to get out of the truck, stretch, walk the monkeys, have a snack, go to the bathroom, and so on.  That's about every two hours, and we've found that to be a good frequency for us.  On the first half of this particular travel day, we enjoyed a second breakfast at McD's in Ukiah, CA and grabbed some gas in Garberville, CA (and then stopped for lunch at a handy pull off from the 101).  This area of California has tons of patches of gigantic redwood trees, and there are numerous city, county, state, and national parks dedicated to them.  On our route up the 101, we passed through several, and they're seriously amazing to see, even from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle.

So neat!

Normal sized vehicles for scale

Of course, the coastal scenery wasn't bad, either

While researching our route, I learned that Redwood National and State Parks had a scenic drive that would fit right into our plans.  The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway runs for about 10 miles, has entrances and exits right off the 101, and lets you get up close to both the redwoods and open land, as it also runs through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.  As we neared the area, we saw several signs for elk crossings, and Prairie Creek did not disappoint in that regard.

A few elk were grazing...

...but most were chilling out in the tall grass.

Before too long, we were once again amidst the giants:

After finding a good spot to park the rig, we got out to wander and take shots, then hopped back in and continued our voyage.  

Moderately sized human for scale

The combination of high amounts of summer traffic plus constant onslaught from sun, wind, rain, and salt air means the 101 is often under construction, and we passed through several setups like this, where all traffic was reduced to just one lane, taking turns crossing bridges and whatnot.

Just a random traffic light in the middle of nowhere

We crossed more bridges than I could count,

including this one, guarded by golden bears

Guess what?  Bear butt!

We found Paul Bunyan and Babe at something called "the Mystery of Trees."

One of the most significant downsides to traveling with the rig is, for me,

not being able to stop at insane roadside attractions like this on a whim.

Someone has a very heavy head -

sorry this is blurry, it was taken at close range

Finally, we made it out of California (it seems to take just as long as driving across Texas), and headed into Oregon!

I love how our nav system is all like, "what do they got in Oregon?  LUMBERJACKS!"

I mean, I guess I did put a picture of a famous one right up there in the blog, so...

As we entered the beaver state, the sun came out, and we ooh'ed and aah'ed over the gorgeous vistas along the coast.

Not too shabby!

Oregon: Way less expensive than California, and twice as pretty!

After a quick pit stop at the rest area near Brookings, OR, it was time for our final push into Lakeside; we made it to Tugman Campground around 6:30pm, making it a twelve-hour voyage, longer than we'd initially planned (the combination of windy roads and lower speeds made for a pretty pokey drive).  We set up the rig and unhitched, and I took possession of the truck to run to the local market (McKay's) and pizza spot (Osprey Point Pub and Pizza, inside of the nearby RV park) to grab some dinner and provisions.  Although we didn't eat until 8 or so, it was delicious, and before too long, we were all passed out asleep in our respective beds.

Sunday was a rest and recovery day for us; while we ensured we were set up for work to start on Monday, we also went to the market again (Amy) and the local hardware store (and the non-local Walmart in Coos Bay, when it turned out the tiny local hardware store didn't have what was needed - Chris).  Other than that, though, we hung close to the campground, romping the doggos and checking out the park's shower facilities (review: quite good and totally free!).  Per our normal Sunday routine, we also watched Stage 9 of the Tour de France and the F1 British Grand Prix.

Downtown Lakeside

Monday was our first full working day from Tugman State Park, and it was a bit of a scramble.  Our Starlink was having trouble finding a clear sightline through the gorgeous (but inconvenient) tree canopy, so we rotated between the Starlink, the Solis Lite, and using the hot spots on our phones to have enough bandwidth to complete all of our work tasks.  We also wandered the monsters a few times, per our normal routine, and Zoe even hopped into Eel Lake!

Site C1, our home for the week

Our path to the bathhouse

Bob is enjoying the Oregon weather!

When we planned this trip, I let Mom know that I'd have three days of vacation time to spend along the route, so if she was interested and had the opportunity, it might be fun for her to come out and meet us somewhere, and we could enjoy a mother-daughter walkabout like we've done in the past.  She picked the Oregon leg of the trip, and flew into Portland while we were winging our way from Bodega Bay.  After work on Monday, we cleaned up (took showers and put on real clothes!), packed the girls in the truck, and drove north for about 45 minutes to the town of Florence.  We met Mom at Homegrown Public House in the old town part of the city and had a great dinner - with all five of us!

Zoe had a great time trying to eat the bees buzzing around the gorgeous flowers,

and Bea got lots of cuddles.

Chilling in the sunshine, underneath my chair

Post-dinner, Mom and I said goodbye to Chris and the girls and headed to our Airbnb for the night to start our ladies' trip, which I'll discuss more in upcoming editions of the blog!  Here's a spoiler - we drink all sorts of delicious beer and wine, drive all over the southwestern part of Oregon, and visit Crater Lake National Park, which is absolutely incredible.

Later!

Amy