West Coast Trip - 17days of fun!

[3Ms75Argosy]

Whew - talk about withdrawl. Just spent 17 days going from Seattle, down I 5 to Shasta - Sacramento - San Fran - south to Santa Cruz (+ side trip to Carmel), up hwy 1 / 101 to Monteceto, Coos Bay, Eureka, Long Beach, and home. All this on the spur (well, 3 weeks notice) of the moment with three kids (our two girls 5, 11, and our nephew from Germany 15). Boy, was I worried about not having reservations! But, all worked out fine.

Did I mention that I determined with 3 days to spare that my modded V8 Astro wouldn't handle the heat of 100+ degrees, hills and the loaded 26ft Argosy? Or that with 3 weeks to spare, I had to fix the AC, put the kitchen back together, and oh yeah, how to sleep everyone with our dinnette and pull out couch? Food - had to replace the non working fridge too. How about tires and repacking the bearings, check the brakes, and I'm still working nights up until we leave. AND, I did the Seattle to Portland bike ride the week before departure. ARRGGG!!!

So.... I dropped the trailer off for the AC replacement, bearings and brakes (good thing, they had to be rewired), new Goodyears, tore out the bedroom closet and dresser, made a new quicky bed and shelving under with OSB and foam, did a quicky recoveriing of the new ordered foam, cut out our new kitchen counter, stained and varnished it, installed it, determined the old stove was just toast, ran to camping world, got a new one, FOUND OUT LATER IT WAS TOO HIGH!! Sigh.... make lemonade.

Pull vehicle...... hmmm, three days to go. Bought new "shorty" '94 purple 1 ton Dodge van with a 5.9 v8. MUCH better. 1 day to go - got new hitch and prodigy brake controller installed, and new rims and tires. Day off - adjusted drop bar and installed sway controll, WE'RE OFF!! I'll post more of our trip later.

Here's some pics from the trip! I'm just trying to catch up with the 8 pages of posts I missed, and enjoy this Seattle sunshine. More tonight!
Marc

[3Ms75Argosy]

Here's some more pics - hopefully!
Marc

[Safari Tim]

Nothing like proper modivation!

You now have a trip to remember

[3Ms75Argosy]

The trip was great. We took our time, no more than about 150 miles per day. That allowed us a late start, time to check out our surroundings (beachs, etc), and try out all of those great touristy type stops along I5 and the coast. On I 5, we stayed at Woodburn, OR (great outlet mall), Weed CA (Mt shasta and the caves), Lk Folsom in Sacramento CA, San Fran (China town, the waterfront, etc), Santa Cruz, Monteceto CA, the Redwood Forest, Eureka, Coos Bay, and Long Beach (horse back riding, gocarts, etc). I'm sure I'm forgetting some stops.

Airstreams - we were a bit puzzled why we didn't see any. It wasn't until we hit Pacifica (were we stayed on the cliffs above the ocean) that we started to see some (newer excellas). We saw more older models as we went up Hwy 1 and 101.

The scares. I will NEVER take Hwy 1 out of Marin county to Monteceto again! The road is SO TIGHT and wavy. I wasn't at all able to look at the sights - I was too busy trying to keep the rig on the road. Not fun. Instead, I think I will take the 101 and come down to Monteceto. I loved the river and town. The river water is SO crystal clear - I really want to investigate getting a portable boat to take with us.

I got to test our brakes and slalom abilities when two deer leaped in front of us - and stopped. I swerved into the oncoming lane (thankfully empty), just in time to see the second one come out of the bushes. Between steering, braking, and honking, we avoided everything. Thank goodness the people behind me didn't hit me either!! There was also the cow that was on the wrong side of the fence, watching me go by on Hwy 1 that was also interesting....... hamburger anyone?
Hope everyone else is having a great time!
Marc

[norbert]

kudos to you sir!..you have my utmost respect....you gave those crumbcrunchers and young skulls full of mush, an experience they will keep in their memory for the rest of thier lives...
norby

[Stefrobrts]

You rock, Marc, what a great trip! I hope someday we have the time to take a really slow journey like that. I'm sure you got to see a lot more stuff than we did in our rush to Callistoga and back.

We have always travelled without reservations and have had no problems yet. There's always someplace to stay when we get tired.

[Coastalview]

Marc, to bad we didn't know you were taking a side trip to Carmel, plenty of driveway space here. The Monterey Peninsula has plenty to see, but not alot of accomodations for over nighting with an RV. Jeff

[3Ms75Argosy]

Hey, that's just a great offer! Carmel was gorgeous! We stayed at the Santa Cruz KOA. Unhooked, we went to Cannary Row (awesome aquarium by the way), and then down to Carmel. The sunset was breathtaking. We'd like to go back soon. I noticied your Oct dates. I'll have to check if I'm off. One of my favorite memories of Laguna Seca is watching the AMA races there. I'd like to go back one day to watch the CART teams in action as well.
Marc