Kimberly's Musings: Our Travel Log

In 2009 we lucked out and found a local Volkswagen Vanagon for sale. We got her for a steal, and even though she is a 1989, she's got a custom bamboo floor and dark tinted windows, and more importantly an overall good engine. Before taking any trips Michael changed the fuel lines and a few other minor things to make her road worthy, and we are planning many great road trips, both near and far.(Our Log has the most recent trip first, so scroll down for older trips) ... I've moved our log to http://www.ourvanagonadventures.blogspot.com/

Trip #2 (Well it's just a day trip) to Vasquez Rocks along Highway 14. A fun New Years Day trip, it was cold. Here are the pics:

That's an icicle covered shrub/tree, icicles were hanging from the cliff above.

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Trip #1: This will be our online photo log of trips beginning with our July 2010 trip to Oregon. We logged about 1500 miles over two weeks. We camped for eleven nights, with just three nights in hotels while waiting for the water pump to be replaced, and on our return trip.

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July 2010 to Oregon Caves National Monument

2 weeks, Approx. 1500 Miles

First stop at Big Sur. Riverside campsite at Fernwood.

Here we are checking in to reserved site #52.

playing around in big sur

And then we had to swing through Santa Cruz to have some experts listen to an odd sound coming from the Van's engine. They agreed with Michael that the water pump needed to be replaced, so we played a bit in Santa Cruz while the Van went to the "Old Volks Cafe", that's really the name of the shop

Mitchell and Mommy on the Log Ride at the Boardwalk

And they fixed the van up fast and we were off,

over the Golden Gate to points north

And our next stop was at the KOA campground in Cloverdale. This is about 1 hour north of Petaluma along the 101.

Mitchell using a borrowed handmade fishing pole, even though he had his own store bought pole, this was everyone's favorite. It was also the fishes favorite. More fish were caught with this pole, made by 7 year old Arnie (pron "our knee") from Iceland. See Mitchell holding his first fish! He caught it all be himself, a great little bluegill. I'm just helping reel in the line a bit to remove the hook. All fishing at this pond is catch and release.

This campground did not allow swimming in the fishing pond, but it had a wonderful pool (heated).

Mama with chicks.

Some quiet time for Daddy.

Next campsite at Emerald Forest campground in Trinidad. Up the 101 now back along the coast. The weather was a bit chilly with the fog, but we loved being right in the BIG redwoods. Much bigger than the southern trees.

Exploring the sites around Trinidad. The National Forest

And we arrive in Oregon. We find a wonderful campground along Grayback creek. It's the cheapest campground we've been to, see any other campers? There are a few but it was our favorite spot.

A bit of our favorite beverage during the trip, and a bit of our favorite activity.

Grayback Creek, Oregon on hwy 46

Oregon Caves National Monument. The caves were discovered by a hunter in November 1874, when his hunting dog followed a bear into a small cave. The hunter heard his dog whimpering, went in after it, and after going in deeper and deeper for 3 hours, using all of his matches, he amazingly found his way back out again, to find his dog waiting for him. This was an amazing tour, well worth it.

On the drive to the Caves we discovered that one of the reservoirs for the cooling system on the van had a leak. Luckily there was a Napa auto parts store in Cave Junction, and they were so helpful in getting a part overnighted so that Michael could replace it. While Michael worked on the van, Mitchell and I got to play at the swimming hole.