Utah-Nevada-California-Oregon (Day 9)

 Sunday, May 16, 2021

Our mishap of the day started early.

When preparing to leave, I hitched up our Jeep for flat towing just fine.  But when hooking up the supplemental braking system, it would not power on.  I fear a short in the cable or a blown fuse is preventing it from starting up.  It would take time to diagnose the problem, let alone fix it.  And we were wanting to get on the road.  So I didn't bother with it and just took the risk of less efficient braking (actually, as long as you apply the breaks sooner, and don't drive like some madman, we'll be fine).

Anyhow, I'll look at this later when we have time.

Our drive out was just as good as our drive in; driving among all the redwood trees and surrounding forest.  We had learned that while Sequoia trees are generally wider and have more volume, Redwoods tend to be taller.  Record high Redwoods top out to around 360 feet.  We were about to find this out at our next stop, the Redwood National Forest; more specifically, the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.  This is just outside of Orick, CA, which is also not that far from the Pacific coast.

We drove into the forest when we immediately saw the sign that says vehicles towing campers not advised to drive into the forest due to steep grades.  There was a trailer turnaround.  I took it where we unhitched the Jeep so that we could travel into the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

When we got there, no parking was available.  It appeared there was some parking just outside the parking lot along the road.  Though there was a no parking sign displayed, someone else had parked up from the sign.  I parked the Jeep next to that car and hoped for the best.

We began our walk into the Grove.  These Redwoods were more impressive than the last ones we saw.  They were much taller than the others.  Definitely taller than Sequoias.  We also saw the marker to where this grove was dedicated in August, 1969.  In attendance was then President Nixon, past President Johnson and his wife Lady Bird and California Governor and future President Ronald Reagan.

Good livin'

After our loop in the forest, we emerged to head back to the RV, hook everything back up and then search for our next stop for the night.  Buffy found a RV park close to the coast so we make reservations.  We set the Garmin GPS and finally crossed the Oregon border.  The drive up US 101 is really cool. 

We stopped at The Honey Bear by the Sea RV Resort near Gold Coast, OR.  They put us into the campspot that had the best view.  We didn't have a huge view of the Pacific Ocean, but had plenty of the sound of surf and a great sunset.  All from the RV.  Good livin' despite the cool temperatures.

We plan to drive up the Oregon coast the next couple days and then to visit some relatives on Wednesday.

• Miles Travelled: something like 170; forgot to look at it
• Number of Parking Tickets Received: 0