2024-The trek west has begun

Packed to the gills and ready to get on the road. Left about 8:30 as our daffodils 🌼 bloomed profusely. This is the first time we’ve seen them bloom in several years!

Tonight we’ll stay at Union Dalton Winery, Brewery and Cidery in Marysville, Ohio. We’ve stayed here twice before. Large space to park the RV, good beer and cider. Let the adventure begin. 

As we drove across Ohio, you could feel the wind try to move us. Temps were in the 60s but the wind made it feel colder. 

As we pulled into Dalton Union Winery, Cidery and Brewery, we saw the signs for a St Patrick’s Day party. Perfect. 

June 4 - Leaving NC Campground and Arlo in the gym

Today s the day we picked to head north for awhile. Will surely miss seeing little man, Arlo everyday. 

But I’m sure I’ll get pics and videos quite often of the little man. In fact, here’s one of him in their climbing gym with daddy https://youtube.com/shorts/JmNZRTnhEeg?feature=share

We decided to drive north out of Truckee, CA. On the way north, we drove Route 395 and saw some snow north of Truckee and lots of farmland.

A short stop for everyone to stretch their legs before we finish for the day. 

Drove north on 395 to Susanville, CA to a BLM campground called North Eagle Lake. It’s a good choice. Hardly anyone around, big sites and $4 with ATB pass. We are staying 2 nights so we can hike some. 

This is our view from our site. 

As you can see it’s cloudy and looks like it’s raining south of us. 

March 8 - Crafty Bastard Brewery

From Draper, VA, we continued traveling west to just west of Knoxville since Terry and Sandy Countermine were not home to host us 😜. Forsythias were in bloom all along I-40. Sunny blue skies but cold. 

We chose this next Harvest Host purely on the name … The Crafty Bastard Brewery. The outside wasn’t much to look at but lots of parking and the inside had great beers and wines and pizza from Hole in the   Couldn’t have asked for more. 

When we took the boys out for one last pre break, the sign was on so got a shot of it. 

Great choice for tonight’s stay. 

Umpqua Mountains near Idlylde Park

September 6-7

Left the coast so we can explore Toketee Falls, Diamond Lake and Crater Lake. Driving inland, there weren’t a lot of roads. The one we took was twisty and turny, but Bill maneuvered the RV quite well. The countryside changed from coastal to mountains quickly. 

There had been a fire 2 years ago which was evidenced in the picture below. 


We saw several burned houses and campgrounds, along with trees, but luckily the Susan Creek Campground was saved. 

Our place for the next 2 days is Susan Creek Campground in the Umqua Mountains on BLM land and is right along the creek. This is our view for the next 2 days. Yesterday we heard the waves crashing and today we hear the water flowing over rocks. It’s definitely warmer here, in the 80s but a little air moving. 

Look who came to visit…a peacock. Never expected to see this. 

Tomorrow we’ll visit Crater Lake but for now we’ll rest and relax near the creek. 

Wednesday, Sept 7 - drive to Toketee Falls and Crater Lake

We packed a lunch and off we went to visit several stops along the way. 

When we pulled in the parking lot for the Toketee falls trail, we saw this huge pipe. It’s part of a hydro project. The 12-foot diameter redwood-stave fowline (pipeline) is part of the Toketee development of the North Umpqua Hydroelectric Project.

Toketee  is the Chinook word for pretty and it was aptly named. The trail to the falls was only about 1/2 mile but there were lots of steps. 

The next stop was at the Diamond Lake overlook where we learned there had been a volcano in the area many years ago. 

When we arrived at Crater Lake, we couldn’t believe how large it was and had beautiful, blue water that is the deepest lake in the US. It was overcast when we got there but the sun came out and made the water even more blue. 

We just kept taking more and more pictures. 

Oregon beaches via the 101

September 4 and 5, 2022

First beach along Route 101 will be in Langlois, OR, near Bandon. 

It was very foggy when we woke up. Luckily it was lifting as we drove up the 101 because this is what we encountered on the road. 

The views driving along the Oregon coast are breathtaking. Pictures just can’t show the expansive beauty. 

Our campground for the next 2 nights is BOICE Cope Campground, right along the coast along Lake Floras. We have lots of water around us and can hear the waves crashing. 

Great place for wind surfing. 

Monday we decided to take a 6 mile hike to a waterfall and back. Some of the hike was through a forest but a lot of the walking was on sand which made it tough going because the sand wasn’t packed so your feet would sink in. Still a nice hike but it was different than most we’ve done. Everyone was tired including the dogs. 

Ended our last night here with a sunset and a fire. 

Exploring among the Redwoods

The Redwood National and State Forest was just 10 miles from our campground. 

Hiking among the large, tall redwoods made us feel small. 

We ate a picnic lunch along the coast. The fog rolled in and out as we ate. 


We decided to drive up to Crescent City for a beer and cider at Port O’ Pints. Good decision because look what we saw walking toward us. It was small but got us excited. 

This sunset had an added dimension- we could hear the sea lions barking as the sun set over the Pacific. 

Heading east

We had thought we were going to drive north to catch I-80, but after listening to the weather, we decided to drive south. Glad we did. Shannon told us they had hail at their place and Truckee got snow. 

Drove to Bakersfield and camped at Bear Mountain for the night. Nice, quiet, we’ll maintained campground. 

In the morning we decided to drive to Lake Havasu since we hadn’t explored that place yet. 

Driving across I-40 the terrain quickly became desert. 

Not a lot of variation in terrain except for a few Joshua Trees. Gas is at least $1.00 /gallon cheaper here than in California. 

I had read a review on Facebook and Campendium about a boondocking site near Lake Havasu so that’s where we decided to spend the night. 

From the pictures below, you’re understand why it was called Craggy Wash. lots of campers in the area but still places left when we got there. We met and talked with several other campers on our walks. 

Left early morning to drive to Camp Verde. We want to explore Montezuma Castle National Monument. It’s one of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in North America. 

Will describe in next post.