Epic RVing with the Gradys - Day 15 - California Bound - Updated!

We are definitely starting to show some signs of either home sickness or road weariness, but we have one more stop on our journey, so we are determined to finish it off. We started the day off with a bit of logistical fun! Our camp was south of Portland about 30 miles, but we had to return the car to Portland. I didn’t want to drive the RV back into Portland and have to backtrack to get back south, so we had to figure something out. Luckily we are technology capable! I drove the car back into town, returned it, then it took me all of 5 minutes to wait for my Lyft to come and to drop me back off at camp 30 miles away. Honestly, it should have been much harder! I thought it was also an interesting sign that I happened to pickup the Lyft right outside a brewery - Moon Shrimp Brewery. Might have to try to find one of those, though judging by the size of the place, that could prove difficult. The other thing I noticed on my 35 minute Lyft ride back to camp was that Oregon, unlike Colorado, allows dispensaries to advertise. I found it a little jarring, I guess, but interesting nonetheless. So many strange laws around…

I got back to camp by 9:30 - Jenny and the kids had camp broken down, so all I had to do was to empty our waste water tanks and hit the road! Today’s drive shouldn’t be too difficult - only 6 hours, and all “downhill,” since we were going south! And for the most part that was true. That is until we got to highway 199, the Redwood Highway! This is about an 85 mile stretch starting at Grant’s Pass. It’s somewhat difficult because it is a 2 lane highway for much of it, but what complicates it further was the last 30 miles or so that were sporadic windy curves. I had some white knuckles for much of it and by the time we finally got to Crescent City, I was pretty tired, but we made it in nearly the alotted time we were looking to do.

(Updated Information) I did have a terrible error in judgment today. I had filled up Harvee in Washington before we arrived in Oregon. Being as how Oregon pumps their fists but not their gas, I was nervous about filling him up there. So in my wisdom, I saw that the trip to Crescent City was at least 100 miles less than the capacity of the fuel in the tank, so I decided to fill up in California instead of Oregon so I could pump my own fuel. I made it, yay!!! The bad part - gas is about $1.00 more per gallon in California than it is in Oregon… So $125 was able to put Harvee at a little more than 3/4 of a tank. Lesson learned - we will fill up in Oregon on the way home…

Our rental car for the week was at the regional airport in Crescent City, so I drove Harvee right up to the airport and Jenny picked up our rental for the weekend, a Jeep Wrangler!!! I tell you, I’m not going to want to drive my cars at home after the ones that we’ve rented on this trip!

Home was about 7 miles north of Crescent City at an RV park called Ramblin’ Redwoods. It is definitely that! Our spot, a pull through spot finally, was right next to the stump of a gigantic tree!

We went back into town to get some dinner and some basic groceries, and now we’re back at camp to play a few games of speed and a quick game of Scooby Doo. I’m currently fighting with one of the most frustrating fires of my life right now! This is only the third time we even got fire wood, but all other fires went just fine, but I’ve spent over 2 hours to get this one going, and it’s still struggling to get started. I imagine it has something to do with how wet it is here - it’s only 60 degrees and that is the expected high for the duration of our stay.

Tomorrow we hike the redwoods!