California Cruisin

Wish there were another set beside ours!
That would be cool huh?!

We left Eugene a little later than I planned but it all was good.  As we drove south on I5 we chose to take the kids to the Pacific Coast and see the Redwoods.  We had planned to have a short day down to Redding, California but thought  little detour would be fun.  However, the windy mountain drive was not going to allow us to make it to Redding at a decent hour.  Staci and I struggled to find peace about a finding a camping spot  but the thought of a coastal sunset took our minds off it.  Then the thick winter fog. as they call it, blinded us!   We couldn't see a thing.  We hit the 101 and we hoped we could at least let the kids see the ocean.  Just then we rounded a bend and a beach appeared!  We jumped out and ran to the waves barefoot.  Lukah half asleep was scared at the crashing waves but Niah was there to add joy and laughter to the event.  We jumped back it to the warm car and the thick fog to go try and find the place we would lay our heads. 

                                                                          We took a back road that wrapped around the Redwood National Park to see if a camping stop would...well literally jump out from the fog.  As we drove the prospect of finding a spot dwindled.  There was no campground or camping spots on this road!The thick cloud of fog didn't make it better.  We drove up a steep grade and all at one moment we rose above the thick white blanket.  Around another bend and a sight we've never seen jumped through the thick Redwood forest.  A vista point. We unloaded to get a peak but also take a break from the worry we would ever find a place to lay our heads.  The fog was everywhere below us...a word picture of how we felt. Covered in doubt and worry.  But above it was clear and awesome! We jumped into the car with a renewed hope and a minute later we took a dark driveway into the woods.  My wife was stunned I would drive our trailer into such a compromising road...it would be very difficult to back out.  But then the tunnel of trees opened up into an old abandoned parking lot.  And then there it was, tucked into the Redwood, a PERFECT camp spot.  What a night!

    

Above the fog...for a little bit at least

We woke up next day to make another step of faith.  We got a reminder of the word picture of the night before as we dove out...an encouragement to rise above the doubt and fear.  We left and again visited the beach...still in the fog and the event took way longer than planned.  But we rose above and pressed on towards Redding.  However, the day took a curve...well a lot of them.  It was 4pm when we realized we were not going to make it to Redding.  This is when we realized we had no real reason to even go to Redding...why was Redding so important?...why were we trying to even get there.  When you only have a final destination in your plans, you can miss what's right in front of you.  This is when we decided to press on and find the next camping spot.  We were in the Trinity River Wilderness and just past Weaverville, a weed crop town, a camping sign directed us left.  As we drove down the winding road parallel to the river we though this could be good.  And was it!  The road dead-ended into a state park campground that was Empty.  We had the whole place to ourselves!  

The Trinity River was thick full of running salmon and we ended up with one our table.  We used the blessing as an home school biology lesson.  We dissected it and returned it to the river and had chicken for dinner. Haha!  We stayed there for 2 days and left to head south...this time with no daily plan.  We knew south on I5 was the hope, but wanted to keep our eyes open.                                                                                                                That lasted about 2 hours.  Before we knew it we were stressing about where to get next.  We were stopping to find out more info.  We were made aware of our funds...$21!  We only had half a tank $21 and some silver.  What to do?  Well we decided to try and get to Lake Tahoe.  Who knows why, but that plan didn't last long.  As we drove through Sacramento we needed to head east on Hwy 50...but 20 miles later we realized we missed it and were still heading south.  We pulled off the road to wallow and get ourselves together.  We decided to head to Stockton and get an hotel room.  Before we knew it we were $140 richer(silver) and in a Comfort Inn. As I write this we wait on a phone call.  I'm a Choice Member and after our reservation call we were offered a trip to Vegas for 4 nights...$199 no stings.  Well we have to sit in one of those 2 hour seminars. :)  If our miracle money clears our account before noon we have decide to hit sin city. This is a true trip of peaks and valleys!  

Till next time