OUR TOP - and not so hot - FOURTEEN

Here they are, our personal Top 14 (of whatever) from our trip:

Best Seaside Resort: Ironically, it's SEASIDE, Oregon

For it's charming little village, extra-ordinary shops, fine beach, promenade and overall flair!

 Dumpiest RV Resort: SUNSET LAKE, Warrington, WA State

Best Detour: LOON LAKE, Oregon, off Hwy 101, 7 miles west of Reedsport

RV ground right next to the beach, quiet, quaint, a location straight from a Stephen King novel.

Most Amazing Nature: SAND DUNES off the Oregon coast . Here is the Wikipedia link

Second Best: REDWOODS, Northern California

Quietest Spot for a Good Night Sleep: Mill Hill, California right in the middle of the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park

Most boring Boardwalk: EUREKA, northern California

Seriously, it's a dump. Approximately 300 meters of Nothing, no shops, no entertainment, no atmosphere.

Best Strawberry Ice-Cream: Funny enough, in EUREKA at LIVING THE DREAM!

They marinade their strawberries in balsamic vinegar for extra flavour extraction. You need to taste it to believe it! The best ever! ( I am a self proclaimed expert in this flavour- it has been my favourite since I can remember....).

Best Marketing Ploy: ASHLAND, Oregon
Ashland brings Shakespeare to the masses; they make it easy for all of us to understand, sit through and enjoy old English classics. In a nutshell, old English translated into common English!  
This town created their whole existence around Shakespeare , sort of! 
Let's be all honest here, only the most hard core of English literature fans can sit through a proper production of e.g. Hamlet -  It takes full concentration on your behalf to understand old English, patience and a soft cushion for your butt. This whole spectacle takes 4 hours! Yes, I 'suffered' through it. I had the privilege of watching one of England's finest live and in action: Mr. Kenneth Brennagh, Gods gift to the stage!  Therefore, I have to give this clever town my thumbs up!

Alfresco Live entertainment for the masses, lots of fun shops, a well designed park, plenty of parking and an easy going attitude towards arts! Well done Ashland!

Most adventurous, fun activity we did as a family: WILD WATER RAFTING down Rogue River in Cold Hill, Oregon

Coldest Water to swim in: The PACIFIC, brrrrr

Biggest Disappointment for Fish & Chips:

 In Newport at the highly acclaimed LOCAL OCEAN!
The presentation was fabulous, the chips were ok, the fish was fresh with no season, spice and / or taste! Oh how I dislike a chef who plays it safe! Put your finger into the pot of seasoning and show me what you stand for!

Best Shopping Deal: Adidas soccer cleats for $ 30.00 a pair for the boys at SEATTLE'S OUTLET VILLAGE!

Best Deals: OREGON! NO SALES TAX! The price you see is the price you pay! Hurrah!

Best people to hang out with:
Our own family! Yes, it can be done, 24/7 for 14 days straight!
 Apart from hanging out with the family, we met quite a few very nice RVers along the way. We had  a nice chat, exchanged information, shared stories - and waived good-bye. No obligation, no promises, none of the 'let's stay in touch, drop by when you are in the area" kind of talk.  Because we know by now this ain't going to happen anyway! Magic moments and fun memories, that what they are!

Overall Rating of the trip: 10 out of 10!

Stuck on the beach or on the road?

If you are playing with the idea of hitting the road in a brand new, rented convertible, just do it!
If , on the other hand, you want to get away in a rented RV instead, read on before signing on the dotted line.
We are back home, 14 glorious days have gone by in a flash! Our goal was to reach San Francisco, a mere 1460 km away from Vancouver. In European, small car terms speaking, this would be a 15 hour drive - not so in North America:
 The speed limits are way lower (sometimes as low as 80 km on a highway), having an RV makes for slower driving and you need to hit the road early to get some driving time in; unlike us who left our RV parks by noon only every day. Combine these three reasons and you might make it to Northern California only.

Let me make a few assumptions first.;
 let me assume you are a woman,

who loves to drive but is afraid to sit behind the wheel of one of these Beasts,

has a spirit for adventure and is a joyful combination of tidy, neat and clean freak.

First things first, does your husband love driving?
If not, abort the whole RV idea right now, board a plane and get to a resort. If he does love driving, let him know he will be the designated, chosen driver for the entire trip. (And no hanky-panky as compensation, you will experience family time 24/7 during the entire trip)!

Planning your Trip
If you want and need to know where to park at night, book RV sites with a proper website. Otherwise you might end up like we did at our first night - I should have been more aware, they mentioned their on site washroom facilities...

All in all, we never had trouble finding a spot for the night.

If you drive the Beast you need to know if you can 'pull- through'(the easiest way to park) or if you need to 'back-up' (much more challenging, you need to reverse in).

 

 We had enough battery power for at least a night, we had enough water to brush our teeth, use the WC and to do the dishes. What you need to watch out for is not to overflow your holding tanks. That's why you need a dumping station at least every couple of days

 

 

Staying (WIFI-) connected is impossible in National Parks!

Yes, that means back to basics, spending time with the kids, playing games, talking, singing or roasting Wieners. The best example for us were The Redwoods in Northern California:

 

 

 

Going down the Coastal Road (Hwy 101)
 sounds great,
what it really means is, the views are spectacular

the roads are curvy which makes for slow progress. Some of the routes are  inaccessible for RVs. Plus, it is WINDY, a better word for COLD


Here, the shirts came off only for the sake of being on the beach!

 

Expect the unexpected
Three days before we had to bring the Beast back across the border we had transmission fluid leaking, which in turn left us stranded half way up a hill on the side busy Hwy 5 in Oregon. Patience is a virtue indeed; it took the tow truck five hours to find us and tow us to the nearest resort for a replacement RV.

Small spaces make for constant cleaning and tidying!

If you want to or not, as soon as you hit the road, your Beast needs to be tidied up, the dishes washed and stored away. Otherwise, they will break if left unattended in the sink.  A ladder,  pushed carelessly up onto the sleeping quarters above the driver, or an untied sleeping bags at the same location can become a health hazard to the driver.  Dominic experienced it first hand when both items landed on his head -

 

Rest assured,

there will be laundry facilities along the way.  Washing and drying cost us $ 3.50 each time.

 

Costs

Depending on the site and their facilities, a night will set you back between $29.00 - 45.00.

Our boys loved KOA (Kampgrounds of America) . They offer a swimming pool, free put-put golfing, a play ground, a game academy, great Wifi, a bike rental and lots of children. Great for a family  a big NO if you want quiet and peace!

 

Please let me know if you have any questions in regards to where, what and how while on the road. I look forward to hearing from you!

Tomorrow I will give you our TOP 10 of everything from along the trip!

One Thousand Kilometers

further down the road and we are still in Oregon.
Our driver, fabulous husband extra-ordinaire Dominic, is doing a great job maneuvering this big 30 feet Beast along Hwy 101.

 So far he brought us from Trailer Trash Park (sorry, photos deleted)

via Newport

 

 to Loon Lake, (Reedsport)

to the magnificent Sand Dunes,

 all the way down to Gold Beach -  our last stop before we hit Cali.

 To put us in the right frame of mind, our boys make us listen to the Red Hot Chilly Pepper's Californication over and over again...

The views along the coast are magnificent,

 


the water of the Pacific is freezing cold

and the wind blows so hard it can take your breath away:

California, I hope you have less wind and more sun for us: 35 miles to go -

HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES

 Howdy folks, guess what we are doing at the moment:  We are RV - ing to California!                 We swapped beautiful B.C. for Hwy 101. We swapped our house for a 30 footer. So far, our boys are pretty psyched about driving, eating and living together in close proximity of each other -  let's see how long this is going to last...

Dominic put me in charge of organising a hook-up for our mobile home for the first few nights. From the comfort of our home I booked our first spot in Warrington / Oregon. The RV park I chose is called Sunset Lake Park!
The Internet site didn't have any pictures, but with a name like this you can't go wrong, can you?

Actually, you can: we ended up at White Trailer Trash Heaven!

Thanks to various TV shows (e.g. My name is Earl)  our boys are familiar with that kind of living;    they just have never seen it, breathed it or lived it in real life - until now. One night definitely is enough to get a taste of how The Other Half Lives.
I wanted to give you a virtual tour around the park - until I noticed (with slight frustration) I deleted all photos!
Oh well, it wasn't a pretty side anyway...
On the next stop I will show you the pretty sites! Until then,
 Happy days to you, Happy RV- ing to us!

HOT, WET & STICKY vs COOL, DRY & COLOURFUL

As immigrants living in Vancouver we get the best of both world: Expensive Canada and cheaper America.
We get to celebrate Canada Day on July 1 and Independence Day on July 4th! Remember, we live just a skip, jump and roll down from the US border.
Canada Day was a sticky affair to say the least: We had over 30 degrees Celsius here in our neck of the woods.

Our plan was to be tourists in our new country and join the festivities at the annual Steveston Salmon Festival. Hurrah, our family plus 50.000 other fish loving, entertainment seeking families I might add. Were our boys excited about our planned event? To get pushed around, being hot, sweaty and sticky for the longest time?   Oh well, we as parents want to fit into the "awesome' category of our boys. Therefore, we decided doing what the boys rather wanted:

Here we are getting ready for our annual family tubing event down the Alouette river!






Skip three days and we are at Independence Day. The border was clear and Dominic and I set off to watch the fireworks  we missed during Canada Day. Here we are in BLAINE, literally 5 minutes across the Canadian border.

Upon arrival, we saw this:

Oops, that isn't a good sign, is it? Nevertheless, we are here now, we

 eat some delicious ice cream (check out their flavours),

hung out with the crowd,

enjoyed the sunset over White Rock

and watched some seriously amazing FIREWORKS!

As I just said, we are spoilt. The next big twosome will be in October and November:
Here in Canada we will celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October, 5 minutes across the border the same day is celebrated on the last Thursday in November! Go figure- we are in, one way or the other!

A GLIMPSE OF MY FUTURE

When I was 24, I had my first 'real' glimpse of my future! I saw this:

and made it my goal to one day own a coffee lounge on a Caribbean Island.
What can I say, my dream came true! I had to tweak the above picture to see my vision happening (minus the beach, the water and the palm trees)- nevertheless, I operated my coffee lounge in the exotic location of Bussum in Holland-  I felt so excited, uplifted and motivated by my experience that I even wrote a book about it!

Yesterday, at the wrong end of 40, (that's how Jackie Collins would describe me) I had a glimpse of my 'other 'future- this one is definitely not a dream. This one is going to happen, sooner or later - and this 'bitch' is going to hit regardless of where I will be living!  There will be no escaping from it, the only question is , how hard, how sweaty and how uncomfortable will it be when it arrives?  THE MENOPAUSE!
And no, when I saw my future yesterday I wasn't motivated, inspired or excited about to prospect of writing a book about it.

During my Tuesday networking event in Mission I sat across Tracey.
The temperature in the coffee bar was just fine, not too cold, not too warm. All of a sudden Tracey pulled up her long hair and started fanning herself. As I was just making eye contact with my vis-a vis Randy, I only wondered why she was fanning herself. She kept on fanning, all red in her face by now- Like a good sport, with a smile on her face, she explained herself:  these flashes are merciless, they arrive without warning, stay as long as they want to and disappear again.

To me this sounds like a cruel joke of nature! If certain religions want us to believe that God created Man and Woman, he must have been tipsy when he created Eve- or at least didn't think his project through properly. Why does HE want to inconvenience us over and over again? We are the ones who carry and deliver the future!
We should have eternal beauty and wisdom- not stretch marks, wrinkly skin, over elasticated tummies or fat thighs.

Thank you Tracey though for the glimpse into my future! I know full well I am not getting any younger- but the menopause?  I just called my mom to find out when her flashes begun: With 55! Hurrah, I bought myself a few more years. In this instance I want to believe the old saying like mother, like daughter!