Sometimes, it seems like a golden nugget fell from the heavens and into your lap!
A few weeks ago, my wife Stephanie and I were having breakfast with friends and discussing our recent trips and explorations. The next day, our friends called and said “We are traveling for a while and won’t be using our sprinter van. Why don’t you drive down and pick it up and keep it for a few months?”
Our first reaction was “What!!!” And the second was “yes.”
We felt like we had won the lottery!
So, we picked up the sprinter, parked it in our driveway for a few weeks while we hosted some favorite relatives, stopped the mail, packed the van, made a plan, and hit the road. We also read up on van life, generators, inverters, and propane systems.
So far, we have been on the road for nearly four weeks. Each night, we look at each other with unbelieving grins. Since it is the dead of winter, we did the only reasonable thing and headed south looking for sun and warmer weather (and of course, wildlife and fantastic landscapes).
We started in snow, and until yesterday it has continued to be cold, snowy, and below freezing at night (even in the desert). But beautiful and wonderful just the same!
Unlike some trips, we have nowhere to be on any specific date. Just the road ahead of us, stops, naps, and taking photos whenever we want. Our first stop was to see our granddaughter, and then onto a favorite place, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, maybe four or five hours from home. The next night, we were driving along the coast in Oregon when brilliant yellow and orange sunlight caught our eye as the sun set over the Pacific. We found great views at Tillicum State Park and stayed the night overlooking the sand and listening to the sounds of gently crashing surf. We didn’t travel far the next day, just down the road to Siltcoos in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. We stayed up late reading in the rain and slept in late – because we could! A queen size bed, blankets, pillows, down sleeping bags… what a cozy set up, and so different than roughing it in the wild (full disclosure, we are doing far less roughing as the years roll by).
In the morning, we got coffee and got back on the road. Pretty soon, we crossed the Umpqua River and I was ‘forced’ to turn left. The Umpqua is one of the most beautiful rivers anywhere, and I hadn’t been this far down the river towards the coast so I just had to explore the watershed. Upstream (left), the Umpqua is an unmatched fishing and whitewater river that in recent years has been devastated by wildfires. It is still beautiful, but heart breaking if you had been there before the fires. Down here, where the river meets the ocean, the estuary has missed the fires. A lot more development than in its headwaters, but we are super happy to be here. We spent the afternoon driving along tributaries and looking for waterfalls. We found a few, but mostly found dirt roads, snow, and unmatched views of Oregon’s Coastal Range.
That was a long drive, and we got back to the coast only at sunset. We were beat, and that night found us in a local RV park were we could power up, get a shower, and be ready for whatever the next day would bring.
What will tomorrow bring? The next day? Follow along with us as we journey down America’s western coast and through the Southwest deserts. I realize I am far behind on my posts… but I have an excellent excuse as we are traveling and most often seeking wilderness with little to no internet. Today is a rare stopover in a major city with time to write and to spend time with the images I have taken so far. We have explored the Lost Coast in Northern California, Kernville California (after nearly thirty years since my last visit), Death Valley, Southern Utah, and southern Arizona. Stay tuned for more!
