Pretty much the entire week was raining, so we aren't going to mention it individually.
We woke up on January 2nd and while the situation had not improved in the campground itself, the highways had improved significantly. The tire chain restrictions had been removed from I-80, but the upcoming forecast had more snow for the next 7 days. If we were going to make it into California before mid-January, it had to be today.
Our camp breakdown was the hardest we have had yet. With all the rain, switching to snow, and then temperatures in the teens, ice was a big issue. All our wheel blocks were frozen and had to be carefully hammered free. When we tried to hitch the trailer to the truck, our jack blew the fuse twice in a row. After the second time, we switched to trying to lower it with the manual crank. It was so stuck that the crank itself started to bend instead. We realized that ice had gotten into the shaft and frozen the whole thing in place. After 30 minutes of melting it out, we got it spinning with the manual crank again, then put in another replacement fuse. It worked and we were able to connect the truck up, then had to tow the camper out of the campground through almost a foot of crunchy snow until we reached the plowed part of the parking lot.
Once on the road the conditions improved drastically. The plows had had plenty of time to clear off the roads, especially the highways. We traveled up over Donner Pass (named for the infamous Donner Party who got stuck in it during a 1840s winter) and crossed into California with the camper for the first time. It was a long downhill out of the mountains, but uneventful. At our first gas stop, the camper was absolutely pouring from the snow and ice melt due to being in the warmer temperature of lower elevation.
We had originally planned to go north to hike at Crater Lake on this work holiday, but due to the snow trapping us in Reno an extra day decided to skip it and to come back to Oregon some other time. Instead, we used the day to make it all the way the northern California coast. It ended up being a very long day of driving (though with some of our best towing gas mileage from all the downhill and friendly wind conditions). We got a campsite outside of Orick, just south/west of the Redwood National and State Parks. We had a back-in spot, which was a little annoying since we arrived after dark and the gravel was not particularly distinct from the grass. We set up camp pretty late and were happy to have finally made it to the portion of our trip where the weather should stop being a risk factor.
The next day we worked from the camper and took our all our ski equipment in from the truck bed to dry it out. The campground has a herd of wild elk that live nearby, and we realized we could see them from our camper door while we were doing this. It was a cool moment, and one of the better campground "amenities" we've seen on the trip. It was a very windy night, approaching what we felt a few days earlier in Reno.
On Wednesday we traveled a ways south into Eureka, the biggest town along this section of the coast. We searched for a café to work in for the morning, and found it surprisingly difficult. We went to several before finding one that offered WiFi. Eventually we settled in at a local spot called Ramone's, which was also a bakery so it was not a surprise that their pastries were fantastic. After a few hours of work, we headed to the local Planet Fitness and got in a lift before lunch. After our workout, we went to Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe for lunch and more work on WiFi. At the end of the day we transitioned to Redwood Curtain Brewing Company. Their power had been out earlier in the day due to wind/earthquake damage so they closed a bit early, which was a sign of things to come.
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| Redwood Curtain last call (early due to the power issues) |
After a big grocery run, we returned home to find our own power not working. Initially we thought it was a problem with our camper as we discovered that the wind had pulled the side panel with the connector off, but after inspection we couldn't find any damage to the cables. Then we realized we could hear a couple generators running nearby, and that the only lights we could see we were from vehicles. The whole area actually had a power outage! Since our propane furnace was out of commission, the power outage meant we were totally without heat. Fortunately, the winter temperatures in this part of California hover in the 50s.
The next morning we woke up and were disappointed to find out that they had not restored the power. We decided to go for a few hours of scenic driving while waiting for the power lines to get fixed so we could get back to work, taking whatever PTO we needed to make up the difference. We brought Percy with us and stopped at a nearby beach, taking him on his harness. It's the furthest west he's ever been (and probably ever will be). He was uninterested in the ocean, but did enjoy running around the sand and nearby grass. We also realized that he's never seen the Atlantic, despite living for years in our house 2.5 miles from it.
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| Percy sees the Pacific |
After Percy's beach frolic, we continued driving into the Redwood National and State Parks. Unfortunately, every one of the side or scenic roads we tried to take were closed due to trees that had been downed by the wind. After driving into the park for a while without finding any solid views, we turned back. Sadly when we got home the power was still out, though the electric company had made progress on reducing the number of people affected by the outages. We played some Gloomhaven while continuing to wait and managed to complete two more scenarios.
At one point in the afternoon Bryn went outside of the camper and realized there was an elk about 10 feet away from her. The herd had moved right into the campground itself! It was really cool to see them so up close. They spent about 10 minutes nearby before they had made their way out of the campground. We made a tasty pasta dinner since the propane stove was still working, and went to bed early so we could head back to Eureka if we still didn't have power in the morning.
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| Power is out for a few hours and the animals invade... |
No luck on the power Friday morning either, so we headed back to Eureka. We went straight to Planet Fitness for a workout and shower. We tried to use a Starbucks for our morning work session, but they didn't have a single outlet in the seating area. We found Eureka's trend of no work friendly cafes odd. We rushed back to Ramone's and worked there for the morning again. While we were working, we finally got an estimate on the power restoration from the electric company: 2 more weeks! It was quite annoying that they couldn't have just told us that immediately, as we would have cut our stay short and driven south to another campsite where we could have power. We got a pair of their sandwiches to go, and headed to the county Public Library. We ate lunch before heading in, and worked the whole afternoon there, with access to both free wifi and outlets. Our public library work days have been really convenient.
After work we went to Humboldt Bay Provisions for a pre-dinner drink and so Bryn could get some oysters. She really enjoyed them, but in retrospect we would have been better off without them (more on that next week).
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| A delicious mistake |
Saturday morning we got up and drove out of the elk campground early. It had been a disappointing stay, though not the fault of the campground itself. We drove south to a Harvest Host, Testa Vineyards, located about halfway to Sonoma. Along the way we popped off the highway to take the scenic Avenue of the Giants instead, although several stretches of this were closed due to more downed trees. We did at least get to see some redwoods despite nature working against us.
Testa had just opened a new tasting room a few miles away from their vineyard. The Harvest Host setup was a bit tricky, as they haven't really adjusted to this yet (it's only been 3 weeks and it is the offseason, so we may have been their first Harvest Host guest since they opened the new tasting room). After some careful maneuvering we parked and checked in. They gave us the gate code we needed to park at the winery itself and we did a tasting of their wine. Shawn really liked their merlot and Bryn really liked their white blend, so we bought a bottle of each. We headed over to the winery itself, actually parked the camper for the night and spent the afternoon watching Star Trek in the trailer and drinking the wine. Even though we still didn't have power, at least we had cell signal! It was a good place to park, but the offsite check-in location was kind of annoying. We walked to the nearby Club Capella Restaurant for dinner. Shawn had a really solid French Dip sandwich and Bryn enjoyed the creamy shrimp pasta she got. They were already closing up for the night when we left just before 9, even though it was a Saturday.
We went to bed feeling uplifted about our move south (and towards an electrical hookup!) and excited to sleep in Sunday morning before continuing our journey.
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