We had picked a beautiful place to spend a couple of days. I was very excited to spend some time by the beach. We lived on the Atlantic coast for seven years and, I’m pretty sure Aaron went to the beach once when we were house hunting and once when a friend came to visit us. I went to the beach most every day on my lunch break. On my days off, I would go as much as I could to enjoy the sun, sand and surf. Aaron preferred our pool and backyard. When Aaron suggested we take the bikes to the beach, I was thrilled. Of course, he was in it for the bike ride and I was in it for the beach.
Aaron seemed disappointed that the only wildlife we saw that day were seagulls and a crab. I wasn’t sure why. The next day he suggested we head down to the beach again. It all made sense when we got there and saw all the seals. I had never seen a seal outside of a zoo or aquarium. They reminded me of lazy dogs and cats. Most of them had just draped themselves over the rocks and slept. A few were swimming and, we did see a mom and her pup.
We really loved our time there with the surf, sun, seals and sand. After a few days of salt air, it was time to get moving south again. Our next stop was Hendy Woods State Park. We were going to be staying in the redwoods!
Aaron was finally finished with Wenatchee (for now) and, it was time to head south. On our journey south we spent one more night in Washington in the Yakima River Canyon. And then it was goodbye to Washington and into Oregon.
Driving through Oregon is incredible. There is high desert, mountains, waterfalls, and the start of the Redwood highway. Our goal was to get to the Pacific coast in northern California, so we spent one night in Oregon on our way down to CA. We stayed at Schwarz Park on Dorena Lake for the night. It was a very pretty campground with a nice shady spot under some really big pine trees.
We had a reservation at MacKerricher State Park in Fort Bragg, CA to get to and, we had the Redwood Highway to drive. I was finally getting to the Pacific coast! Again, the drive was beautiful and challenging. I am glad that Aaron was driving those curvy and narrow highways. I was able to just soak in the sights and the beauty. Pictures do not capture the size and majesty of the redwoods. The first one gives you an idea with the cars on the road next to and across from the trees. My first views of the Pacific were a foggy view, but it was beautiful.
After a harrowing drive down CA Highway 1, and I mean nerve racking, oh sh*t, is this the only road to get there, and holy cow we made it drive, we got to Mackerricher State Park in Fort Bragg and settled in for a few days by the beach.
Some of the parts had arrived and Aaron had more work to get done. Back to Wenatchee we went. Driving down the highway, we saw a bighorn ram on the side of the road! We didn’t see it in time to get a picture. I was quite disappointed that I missed the opportunity. Little did I know, the females would visit us at the campground! I still haven’t been able to catch a photo of a male with the curling horns but, I still have hope. Our friend James was in Oregon for work and took a ride north to hang out with us on a Saturday afternoon. It was really nice to spend time with an old friend. Thank you for taking time for us, James!
When Aaron had finished with the job (until more parts arrived), we took a ride down to Boardman and picked up our bikes, our Starlink dish, our bike rack and whatever else it was we had ordered. And then we moved ourselves to Wanapum State Park in Vantage, WA. I was really excited to go there because the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State park was just down the road. We got settled in, and then it was time for Aaron to open all the boxes and start putting together and installing all his (our) new toys.
Our oldest son, Gage, was going to be in Seattle for work, so he paid a visit to us while we were at Wanapum. He and Aaron took a bike ride and they both went with me to see the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. Well, the forest didn’t look like a forest. The petrified wood was beautiful but, it was hard to get a good picture of it since it was all caged to protect it from vandalism and theft. One interesting thing I found out, petrified wood is Washington’s state gem.
We really had a great two weeks of visiting with our son and a friend who is family to us. We got new toys, saw bighorns, and got to enjoy a hike and a few bike rides. We had to stay in Washington for a little while longer, so after Wanapum, we went back to Entiat again so Aaron could finish the job at last, and we could take the bikes on that trail we had admired last time we were there.
Since February 28, 2023, we had traveled over 5,000 miles. We had hand washed the truck and camper once already, but, they both needed a real good scrub. We had some time to kill before we could check in at our next campground so, we looked for a carwash that would be tall enough for our home to fit. Once we found it, we washed the dirt and grime from our truck and our home. Fresh and shiny, we were ready to check-in at our home for the next few days.
We settled in at the Wenatchee Confluence State Park. Aaron went to the job site to see what was needed. We were hoping that the job wouldn’t take long and we could be on our merry way. Well, that wasn’t quite the case, and it looked like we were going to be in Washington for a good while. The park we were in was lovely and we enjoyed our stay, but we decided we wanted to see more of the area since we were going to be in the area for a while.
We found a campground run by the city of Entiat, WA. The campsites were close together, but the view was amazing. When we arrived, we noticed that there were numbers painted on the side of a mountain and, we could not figure out what they represented. We did some research and learned that this was a tradition that went back 100 years. Since 1923, each graduating class designed their year’s number and painted it on the mountain. Recently, they added the numbers for the classes of 1920, 1921, and 1922 to honor them as well. Then, we found out the name of the mountain is Numeral Mountain. This added a unique and cool view to our home for the next 10 days.
The park had a beautiful walking/biking path that ran right behind the campsites. We enjoyed the walk and envied the people on bikes. Aaron had always had a bike and really missed the e-bike he sold before we started this journey. We talked, researched, and decided that folding e-bikes were the answer. We did more research and found some e-bikes that we really liked. Now that we knew what we wanted, we needed to figure out how to get them to us. The Boardman, OR office was about 3 hours away and they could receive our packages! We started ordering and planning. Then we realized that even though they were folding bikes, they would be too big for the inside of the truck, and we didn’t want to store them inside of the Airstream during travel. We had some time to kill (Aaron was waiting on parts for the job) so, we ordered our bikes, Starlink, a bike rack, and other things that we had found we would like to improve our life of travel, make Aaron’s remote work easier, and make life a bit more comfortable for us both.
Our time was up at Entiat, and we packed up, hooked up our home and headed back to Wenatchee, with a quick detour up a national forest road where there was still a little snow and dirty snowmelt. It was a sketchy but cool drive that left our camper and truck the dirtiest they had ever been. Luckily, we knew there was a carwash waiting for us back in Wenatchee.
Wandering Cindi 