Episode 9 - Going Home

The Coasts of California & Oregon, the Redwoods, Oregon Bridges, the Columbia River Valley and home!

We left Nevada the Monday after the Pow Wow (I think it was March 4th). Our plan was to slowly travel through the Sacramento Valley, over to the coast and up that way. We went along Hwy 40 to Barstow, Calif. then 58 to just outside Bakersfield.

We stayed at a park called the Orange Grove. Every site has at least one orange tree. We stayed at the Orange Grove a second day and did some touring around. We toured around Bakersfield and stopped to visit the California Living Museum. Great little zoo with a focus on reptiles and birds of California, particularly the south. Then we visited a local growers market $3.50 for a small flat of fresh strawberries, $2.00 for a large plastic bag of avocados,bag of almonds for $2.00 and tomatoes for 2 lbs for $1.00. This is what I've been looking forward to!! And then the rain started . We really hadn't seen rain since we left Alberta almost 5 months ago-it's wet!!

From Hwy 58 we took Hwy 99 toward Fresno and Sacramento. Mile after mile of orchards and trees in bloom-blossoms ranging from white to light pink to dark pink. Some were in full bloom, some were losing their blossoms while others were just starting - possibly apple, cherry and we were told there are peaches and apricots.

We stopped at a small park right on the Merced River. We found an interesting Cheese Factory in the next town, Hilmar and spent a couple of hours touring that and getting some great cheeses. The next day, even though it wasn't raining when we got up, it's rained most of the day. We were going to shift over to Hwy 5 but decided to stay with Hwy 99 to Yuba City and then turn off at Hwy 20 towards the coast. Didn't do much sight seeing but found a dry camping area around Colusa (next to a Casino, of course) and headed over towards Clear Lake the next day.

The sun came out so travel wasn't too bad. We followed Hwy 20 to meet Hwy 101 and then along Hwy 101 and stayed at the "Golden Rule" campground @ Willits. We were going to stay there longer but thought the weather out at the coast might be better so we went up to Crescent City.

SURPRISE! Crescent City weather was HORRIBLE!! Cold/rainy/windy but the area is incredible! We toured the Redwoods, and spent as much time as we could on the beaches.

Here is where our only disaster occurred! Did you wonder why there were no pictures from Nevada to Crescent City? Well, they got deleted before they got saved to the disc. So naturally, we had to retrace our steps back along the shores and through the Redwoods in order to take more pictures!

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The Redwoods - Crescent City, California

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The Coasts of California & Oregon

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Crescent City, California

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From Crescent City we travelled up Hwy 101 through Brookings to Coos Bay, Oregon and stayed there for a couple of days - again trying to avoid the bad weather.

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Brookings, Oregon

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Coos Bay and Charleston, Oregon

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We decided NOT to take the coastal road the rest of the way up and took Hwy 126 from the coast over to Eugene. What a nice little city! Our plan was to stay in Eugene until the cold weather in Alberta broke. We did end up buying some new tires for the truck because we had been travelling on summer tires and had no idea what weather we would hit.

We met some very nice people at the RV Park who showed us around Eugene and we toured around the area on our own. Around Cottage Grove , famous for its covered bridges, but I've given it the award for worse directions for anyplace we had been throughout our trip. We finally did find the covered bridges and saw much of the countryside in the process.

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Cottage Grove, Oregon

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By this time both of us really wanted to get home . . . it looked like the weather broke and we booted it up Hwy 5 to Portland and then Hwy 84 along the Columbia River then north to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and up Hwy 95 to the border at Kingsgate and home along Hwy 3. We left Monday morning and were home for supper Tuesday night.

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Columbia River between Washington and Oregon

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near Pincher Creak, Alberta

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Home!