Cannon Beach & Broken Arm !

Cannon Beach is a very picturesque seaside town, quaint shops, lovely houses on the hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean and also a great RV Park.

Unfortunately though we will remember this spot as the place where Luke broke his arm!  A simple little fall, from the last step of the motorhome he tried to jump to the curb, didn’t quite make it and fell with all his weight on his right arm.  He has a break at the base of the humerus (elbow) and a green stick fracture mid-way up the humerus.  The hospital was fantastic, there was no waiting in the Emergency room and our travel insurance covered everything.  We’ve stayed a few extra days at Cannon Beach and Luke’s biggest disappointment at this stage is that he can’t go in the swimming pool.  Thank god for Toy Story 1, 2 & 3!

I think the face says it all!

Coos Bay to Newport to Neskowian

Big Day – finally found ‘Toy Story 2’ DVD.  We have been looking for it for the last 2 weeks, every supermarket we go into, Luke makes Rich look through the DVD’s, every store, Macy’s, Sears etc.  It’s been an ongoing saga, we even bought Toy Story 3 as well.

The weather forecast was for rain for the next 5 days so we sourced RV Parks with the best facilities for the kids – a heated pool.  It’s amazing how much Luke’s swimming has improved.  The floaties have also given him extra confidence in the water.

Goodbye California, Hello Oregon

We spent our last night in California on the coast at Patrick’s Point.  We crossed the board with a big cheer, watched the petrol prices drop and the conditions of the roads improve greatly.  (California is broke, high tax on petrol and govt jobs cut).  We stopped for lunch at Azalea Park with a massive wooden fortress playground.  Luke’s eyes were like saucers when he saw it.

We stayed one night in Brookings, then moved on to Coos Bay and stayed at the Casino with an RV Park.  We had our first raining day for a while, so we took advantage of the indoor swimming pool.  We went out for dinner at the Casino and ate way too much.  The kid’s meals were even too big for me.  We still haven’t got the ordering right yet.

Caspar to Redcrest to Patrick’s Point

We headed slightly inland to the Humboldt Redwood State Park, home to the biggest Redwood trees you’ll ever see.  Our RV Park was situated on the scenic drive known as the ‘Avenue of the Giants’.  For some crazy reason we chose this area for me to have my first drive of the motorhome.  At times there wasn’t any bitumen on the other side of the white line and these massive trees appeared to crowd the road.  I think Rich was more nervous than me.

As we left the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ we were still amazed at the size of these Redwoods.  Unfortunately the pictures cannot capture the enormity of these trees.

Cloverdale to Caspar

From Cloverdale we headed back to the coast and cooler weather.  We went for a scenic walk around the cliff tops, which took its toll on the pram.  As Rich pumped up the tyres after our walk, the tyre blew breaking the wheel frame with it.  We’re not sure how long the minor repairs will last!! Rich met some of the other RV’ers who were retired Fire Fighters who travelled here to scuba dive.   We were treated with some abalone for dinner.

Napa to Cloverdale

Just south of the State Park was a very quaint looking town called Saint Helena.  We returned the next morning and strolled along the street.  Rich was very lucky most of the shops weren’t open yet as they had some really nice boutiques.  We had coffee and a ‘special treat’ then hit the road for another ‘big’ drive, one hour heading north east back to the coast.  We spent two nights in Cloverdale, a small RV Park situated on a hill overlooking more wineries.  We spent the afternoon in the pool and have finally got into shorts and t-shirts.

San Francisco to Saint Helena – Napa Country

We farewelled Jerri and Charlie and we’re extremely appreciative of the hospitality of two people we had only briefly met in Yosemite. 

Once again we tackled the freeways to get out of San Francisco.  Rich is doing a great job driving the RV and I haven’t quite summoned the courage to tackle it yet.

We travelled through some pretty country side and an amazing number of wineries on our way to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.  There are 230 wineries in this region and we didn’t even stop at one, can you believe it!  The state park was very pretty and once again the boys built a campfire.