Over the Hump and Out the Door
It’s been almost 2 years since we bought our Arctic Fox 22g travel trailer and 2012 Ford F250 Diesel, and we’ve been having a great time. Camping trips about twice a month or so, in all kinds of weather. It’s a great combo for me (David) to drive (One of my exclusive jobs (sorry for all the parentheticals)), the truck is powerful and weighs more than the trailer, and is comfortable for long drives. Our longest camp was about a week camping by Yellowstone and seeing the Norris clan for a reunion in 2016. Now it’s time to take things to another level.
It was all Robin’s idea. We used to go camping regularly in a tent, and had been all around Oregon but not too far from home. Over the years we were less thrilled with putting up a tent in the rain, but we still have a lot of love for being in the wilderness. She found all these bloggers who had been living full time in various types of RVs, some for more than a decade.
The ultimate goal has always been to dip our toes in longer term trips, spending weeks or months on the road. One day we might even sell/rent the house (RVers call them sticks & bricks) and go full time. One big thing holding us back was the lack of reliable internet, which I need to keep up my consulting business. The ultimate would be to boondock or dry camp, staying in the middle of nowhere on BLM or other public land, without anyone around for miles. We probably won’t be able to do that until we can get satellite or some other global internet connection. Current offerings are mostly spot-beam for satellite or pretty expensive. Google & Elon Musk (Good Ol’ Musky) are both working on it, but there’s no schedule for when it’ll be available for us normals.
Good Nuff is Good Nuff
Rather than wait for the perfect solution, we’re just diving in. We’ll stay in campgrounds and places where there’s good cell coverage, and I can use my wifi hotspot for internet and working. In fact, we’re already on the road!
The first Thousand Miles
It’s been about a week since we boarded up the homestead and asked my dad to keep my beloved Jeep company (I’ll miss it the most). let’s catch up:
Lighthouse at Coos Bay
First Leg: Coos Bay, Oregon
Our first leg took us down the most beautiful highway in the country, 101 on the Oregon coast. What an amazing drive. Can’t get enough! We stayed at the lovely Coqville River RV Park, where the friendly hosts gave us lots of good ideas. We enjoyed old town Brookings and ate some great fish, saw some harbor seals, and checked out the lighthouse, some sand dunes, and watched a few surfers. I’ll never understand why these small seaside towns stay small while big cities keep growing when there’s no room left… I guess it all boils down to jobs, and seems to be a ‘human nature’ thing since that seems to be the way things are everywhere.
Sunrise at Coqville River RV Park
Leg 2: Bye Oregon, Hello Giant Trees!
Dave nestled in a big Redwood
Even though we are eventually heading to New York, we couldn’t do a big trip and miss seeing the Redwoods again. That and the high chance of snowy/icy roads if we just headed east made it an easy decision. One of the hardest parts of the trip is deciding where we’re going every few days. Other than stops in Texas and a few other places, we don’t have any plan. Add the fact that we could stay in each place for weeks and love it, and suddenly decisions get pretty tough.
This leg was no different. We found a trailer park in McKinleyville, even though it’s a 25 minute drive to the nearest Redwood. It was the closest spot with decent cell coverage. Travelling is all about compromising, but you get used to it, and not worth complaining about.
Leg 3: Man California is Big
We drove a good 7 hours and wound up in Pine Grove, which was roughly south east and in the general direction of death valley, which we both agree sounds like something we have to see. Beautiful drive through the snowy mountain pass on hwy 299, and 3 hours later it was 70 degrees and sunny. We did have to spend a few hours making time on an Interstate, man those are boring! It’s so great to not have a deadline and have the option of taking the scenic route – they call us ‘shunpikers’!
We did a few hikes and got to delve into the Black Chasm Cavern.
It wasn’t huge, but it was pretty scary and full of fascinating and rare crystalline structures, almost all of it perfectly preserved. We still want to do Carlsbad Caverns when we get there, but this was a real treat. We even got to break open our own geode, half if which we’ll be sending to our neice.
Angel Wings Stalagtites
Tomorrow’s another driving day – we usually stay 2-3 days at each spot. We’ve been spending a lot of time on blog ‘infrastructure’ and other fancy words for chores, but then we can spend more time writing about what we’re up to.
David Norris
Latest posts by David Norris (see all)
- Week 3 – New Mexico & Texas - May 1, 2018
- Week 2 – We Finally Start Heading East - April 5, 2018
- We Finally Hit the Road! - March 24, 2018
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