We made it as far as Medford, Oregon after we left Crater Lake last night.  This morning after a coffee stop at a place the girls had been wanting to try called Dutch Bros, we made headway for Redwood National Park along the northern coast of California.  Being that our license plate indicates we are from South Carolina, they decided to give our RV a thorough exterior inspection at the agricultural inspection station as we entered back into California.  There was no inspection station when we originally came into California in the Death Valley area, so this was the first time we had been through one on this trip.  Now, we’re good for a couple of weeks!

After a few hours, we entered Redwood State and National Parks.  It was gorgeous, and everything we thought Sequoia would be.  In Dominic’s words, “It’s so lush!”  The forests were filled with Redwood trees, ferns, and so much other greenery.  We drove south in and out of the park for a little while as there wasn’t a whole lot of driving we could do on the north side of the park while in an RV.  Many of the roads on the north side were closed to RVs. 

On our way south, we found a nice little pullover where Charlie and the kids hopped out of the vehicles to see the beach.  Although I wasn’t able to get any pictures (Charlie did though), we even saw two ponies walking along the beach before we managed to park.  Charlie and kids completed their mission of touching the Pacific Ocean so that they’ve touched the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific on this trip.  I, on the other hand, stayed in the RV trying to book us a campground for a couple of nights while I had a little bit of cell service.  I had just finished when they were coming back into the RV, so I decided I would forgo the beach for now and put my feet in the water in the next couple of days. 

Back in Redwood National and State Park, we stopped at a trailhead where we could park the RV and headed forward on foot. The trail was great.  We all loved walking amongst the trees towering over our heads with the ground covered by ferns all around us.  We took picture after picture.  I found yet another spot that looked like a perfect place to cuddle up with a book.  I’ve always wanted an amazing tree to sit in while I read a good book – maybe one day. 

We finally reached our destination of The Corkscrew Tree which was supposedly three trees that had grown together and twisted around each other.  The kids had a great time climbing in it before we were walking back to the RV to begin our trek north into Oregon and up the coast.

Charlie’s one hope for driving up Hwy 101 along the Oregon coast was to see a sunset over the Pacific Ocean.  Early in the drive we were following along by the ocean quite a bit, but then the drive took us more inland, and the sun was going down quickly.  Just as Charlie was losing hope of seeing the sunset, we rounded the corner, realized we were back at the coast, and saw a little pullover all at the same time.  We parked at the pullover with just a few minutes to spare before sunset and had a gorgeous view…with children once again complaining about how cold it was.  We made it to our campground a little after dark and settled in for two nights. 

Rebecca