Whole Dean

There wasn’t much that we wanted to see on our way out of Los Angeles. We did, however, make a stop at In’n’Out for more greasy goodness; when headed back east, you never know when you’ll pass your last chance at a Double Double. The next sites that we really wanted to see were those that we initially headed towards after leaving Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons – those being the parks in southern Utah and Arizona. We knew that we wouldn’t make it to Zion, Bryce, or the Grand Canyon by nightfall, but the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada was doable. Continue reading “Valley of Fire SP, Nevada”

Once we finally got down the mountain from Sequoia National Park, we followed the road south through the towns of Exeter and Portersville. We weren’t exactly sure where we headed, but did know that our general direction was either south towards Los Angeles or east towards Nevada. Continue reading “Los Angeles and Places North”

Once we left Glacier Point in Yosemite, we continued south out of the park, headed for Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. There is no easy route to get from Yosemite to Kings Canyon, even though the parks border one another. We had to instead head due south to Fresno before hanging a left and driving east to Kings Canyon. It was a long day of driving. Continue reading “Sequoia National Park”

After leaving Brian’s house, we made our way inland to Yosemite. We took the easy and delicious route for lunch, which meant a stop at In’n’Out. Since we arrived at the park in the late afternoon, all of the campgrounds in the valley (where you want to be) were full.  As it turns out, they had ALL been reserved a year prior.  Yosemite reservations open a year in advance and sell out within seconds for the most popular dates, minutes for others. It’s a crazy popular place.  Continue reading “Yosemite”

We were excited to head down towards San Francisco to meet up with Jennifer’s cousin, Brian. Since it was a Friday, we had to wait for him to get out of work. We killed time at In’n’Out, Costco, and finally a public playground close to Brian’s house, which is where he met up with us before leading us to his home in Livermore. Continue reading “Cousin Brian’s”

On the 13^th, we stopped in the historic town of Mendocino for a while. It looked like a great place to spend a day eating and checking out the shops. Instead, we drove through and then checked out the cliffs on the outskirts of the village.

Continue reading “The Rest of NorCal”

In the morning, it was still lightly raining as we packed up and headed out of our campsite in Harris Beach, Oregon. We made it down to California in time to eat at some Mexican joint in Crescent City. We also found a playground in Crescent City that the kids enjoyed while I sat in the campervan and streamed a live dirtbike race on my phone. Continue reading “Into California We Go”

On the 7th we continued working our way south down the Oregon coast. It was slow going since we stopped at nearly every scenic overlook, but we weren’t in a rush. Eventually, though, we worked our way down to Umpqua Aquaculture, one of the many oyster farming companies on the coast.   Continue reading “Oregon Coast – the final chapter”

After the Van’s Aircraft tour, we began heading towards Eugene, where Jennifer’s cousin Joe and his wife Elica live. Since it was still early in the day, we decided to stop by a pumpkin patch / fall festival; there were plenty of them in the area. After a quick Google search, Jennifer told me which way to drive to get to what would be the most ridiculous pumpkin patch of them all – Bauman Farms. Continue reading “Back to the Oregon Coast”

On October 4^th we left the coast to head inland to McMinnville. At some point on our journey to Oregon I recalled that the Evergreen Aviation Museum was out there; “there” turned out to be McMinnville. Evergreen’s star attraction – and the reason I wanted to go – is the Spruce Goose, which is a massive (it has the largest wingspan of any aircraft ever made) seaplane built back at the end of WW2.   Continue reading “Evergreen and Vans – Airplane Stuff”