Two Miles and Four Feet from Home: Highway 1 / Northern California

So as usual we slept great in the cool night! We got up early and had plans to drive to Coos Bay Oregon. We did not make reservations since it was so far away and you never know if we might want to stop before then. We headed north and hit some very curvy roads as we hugged the coast. After several hours the road took us through great redwoods forest with many more curves and ups and downs. A lot of hands on driving but beautiful all the same. Finally we came out on Highway 101 and actually had two lanes on both sides. We were still out in the country and would see the occasional gifts store with some great offering like singing trees, Big Foot sighted here, or drive through tree's. We actually stopped at a few and made a lunch stop at one of the drive through tree's. For some reason this had a strange attraction to me and I really wanted to drive through a living tree. We pulled in and the cost was $8. But wait there's more, it also included driving on top of a tree.......but wait there's more it also had a picnic area with houses built out of big redwoods. Shut up and take our money we are so gonna do this! We could not take the trailer through. Even though it would have been fine he had been burned before and so we gladly took it off and headed in. With in no time we were headed through the tree that had a 7 foot by 7 foot opening in it. This was plenty of room but still felt tight. After we went through we went back and took pictures and watched other cars go through. I decided I wanted a video so I went through again while Jasper sat in the front seat and Lyn was kind enough to video the entire thing. This was so 1950's and we loved it! After we saw everything we had lunch in their picnic area and then headed north on 101 again. This was a very scenic drive and we learned that the drive would take us right through the Redwood National Forest Park. Awesome what a bonus. We meandered through and ended up in Cresent city. We decided that we would stop for the night at a KOA just on the other side of Cresent city. We were still in California but it felt like the time to stop. We pulled in and it looked super nice. I went in to get a site and for the first time on our trip there were no sites to be had. She apologized and said if we would go about a half mile back, there was a county run campground that might have an opening. We went back and it was the type that you had to find a site and the go pay. We drove through three times before finding the very last site available. The bonus was that it was in some super redwoods and had cool written all over it. Oh and it was only $15 a night. The site was really for a tent but since the camper is so small we were able to slide it down a small hill and it fit perfectly. Once we got set up Lyn fixed another great dinner and I decided to take Jasper for a walk. While I was walking him a motorcycle pulled in the campground and asked where to make a reservation. This was not just any motorcycle it was an adventure motorcycle ...you know the kind with with big silver compartments on both sides stickers all over the place and things in Spanish written all over it. It also had a name on it "Two Dirty Wheels". I told him that I may have gotten the last site but someone may have left since then so he should drive around and have a look. He did just that and came back around and said that I was right there were no more sites. He said he was going to drive around and see if someone would share. We had plenty of room so I told him he could set up on our site. He did just that and the next thing you know we are having wine and listening to his story. His name was Tommy and he was from Italy and had also lived in Australia. In fact he had become a citizen there. After working there for several years he went back to Italy and decided to do this epic motorcycle trip. He drove his bike to Germany and had it shipped to Ushuaia Argentina and planned to ride up to Alaska and then to New York and then have it shipped back. He had been traveling since last November. He was super nice and it was great talking with him but finally around 10 we all went to bed. It is always funny how the unplanned things in life become more special than the planned things. Anyway by now it was super cool and we settled in for the night. Tomorrow we are headed to Coos Bay, Oregon but who knows, we will go with the flow and see where it takes us. (You can follow Tommy's Epic Motorcycle ride on Facebook here or Instagram here.