Day 1: Portland, OR to Weed, CA

Stops: Cottage Grove, OR, Ashland, OR., Weed, CA

We start the trip off leaving the rain behind in Portland and heading to sunnier pastures.

BTW, Timber Jim is leading the helm and is also our tie-breaker vote decider and all around decision maker.  

Our first stop was for lunch in Cottage Grove, OR.  B wanted to see this mural of Opal Whiteley.  She had read her diary while living in Australia.  Also, Cottage Grove is known for a covered pedestrian bridge which they painted in the mural.

We came across Buster's Bottle Shoppe near 7th and Main st.   BTW, I think every small down in America has a Main St.  Busters carried a great selection of sodas, beers, wines, meads, ciders,and specialty drinks.

Our first disappointment came already with not being able to find a roadside attraction of a giant spider  with a VW bug for the body.  It was suppose to be in Wolf Creek, OR. but the directions were not that good and after trying 3 times to find it, we gave up.

We managed to contact our friends, who happen to be attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland,OR.  Downtown Ashland is adorable with a pretty park area and gardens and little river and walkway.  It also as 3 theaters for the plays going on.  We managed to see lots of Westies and VW buses there.  A lot of folks came up from Northern California.

There is also this natural water coming from the Lithia springs which you can drink.  I'm sure it's super healthy but it tastes like blood.

We had dinner with our friends at the Sesame Asian Cuisine restaurant where they had coconut milk Thai ice teas and also some awesome vegetarian Bibimbop.

We continue our trip crossing the border into California where we forgot about the agriculture check and pulled out our two naval oranges.  The inspector laughed and said, oh you two are breaking some pretty serious federal laws.  He looked at our oranges and handed them back to us, and to think I was gonna make a break for it with our oranges imagining some kind of Thelma and Louise scene were we punch it and had the the CHP chasing us until we drive over a cliff.  Oh well, I guess not.

We drove down I-5 watching a beautiful sunset on Mt. Shasta off in the distance. Finally, we ended up in Weed for the night, I mean how could you not stay in a town called Weed?  The town boldly posts an abundance of pot jokes but they did use one sign I thought was clever, "Weed like to welcome you!"

I had a beer at Mt. Shasta Brewing Company, which is great little bar adjacent to their brewing and bottling plant.  I was all set to relax after a long day of driving but there just happen to be that one guy with the loud, obnoxious voice that carried above everyone else's.  I wanted to tell him to shut up, as he was becoming quite annoying, but instead, I drank my beer and just left.  Don't you just hate it when one person becomes so obvious to how annoying they are and ruins it for everyone?  This guy also had little children under the age of 5 after nine.  I don't know if minors in a bar are allowed after 9 pm, but the bar was severely short-handed with only a young 20's something girl server beer from behind the bar.  No hot food available, no body to serve you.  I image she didn't want to kick out the annoying man or just didn't know about minors in a bar.  Maybe that rule doesn't apply in California?

Oh well...

1st camping trip of 2013

With the first 75 degree weekend in 2013 also coinciding with my parents being in town, we decided to go on our first 4 person camping trip ever in Moby. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea too, and finding a campsite near Portland proved to be a challenge as many of my favorite sites were already taken. We did luck out and get the very last campsite at a local state park nearby called Milo McIver State Park which was about 40 min away. The price was pretty decent considering we got water and electrical hookup at the site as well as flush toilets and and hot showers.

Before heading out, we decided to check out the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, OR and get some family pics in the tulip fields. Afterwards, we headed out for a nice drive to the campsite.

Milo McIver State Park is a hidden gem of a park. Far away from big roads, it lies next to the Clackamas River and has easy access to boat ramps, plenty of hiking trails, super pet friendly having poop bags everywhere and ever a large off leash dog area. They also have a frisbee golf course and even equine friendly trails and a loading area. I would go back to this site in the future!

We had a site that could accommodate and 86 ft trailer, way more that little Moby needed so we had plenty of room to move around.

We decided it would also be a good trial run of setting up our new busdepot.com canopy too, though, we had lost the instructions so it took longer for us to remember what poles went where and in what order. A 10 min setup took us 30 min. We need more practice, but in the end we loved the canopy.

We passed the time by with the parents by teaching an easy and fun card game called Phase 10.

Once we were ready for bed, we needed to setup the top bunk for sleeping, as the parens were getting the main bed. Though a little tricky at first to climb up and make a bed in such confined spaces, we were able to do it. Two people moving around in tight spaces proved to be a little challenging to get under the sheets, but doable. The 2" mattress topper was actually pretty decent and we slowly fell to sleep.

The next day after breakfast and packing up everything, we headed out for a hike along the Clackamas river and go check out a fish hatchery in the park.

All-in-all a great trip while getting to work on a few items for the big trip coming up!