Travels: Seaside, WA to Hoh Oxbow Campground, WA – 207 miles (1633 total miles) Accommodations: Hoh Oxbow Campground, no hookups, very free & empty
We had a leisurely morning of breakfast, good-byes, and packing up to go. We were bummed to leave the Wallaces; we had such a great time! Finally loaded up around 12:30pm and took off for Washington. We headed over the “Froggy Bridge” as Mason called the bridge leading from Astoria to Washington {4.3 miles across the Columbia River}. We stopped in Long Beach, a small tourist town on the coast, so Dave could work for a couple hours. I think I may have finally gotten the hang of dressing for this cold, rainy weather. I bundled up the kids and myself and walked around Long Beach for a couple hours.
At 3:20 we pulled out of Long Beach. We passed old barns in abandoned fields where grass grows up covering more than half of the building; a sign “Tutoring and Computer Repairs” with an arrow pointed up a wooded driveway, really? would you stop?; bays, rivers, and other such bodies of water, sloughs?; cranberries growing; trees, grass, plants galore; small fishing villages with huge piles of oyster shells; the Willapa River; a huge herd of elk; blow downs; and did I mention the greenery?
Mason and Marin have been sleeping in the car a lot. Mackenzie has been reading a lot and just finished Ralph and His Motorcycle. Dave stopped and got oysters. We stopped at a beautiful lake called Lake Quinault. The kids ran around on a big grassy area, jumped over a creek, Kenz fell into the creek, and then we explored a bit of the Quinault rain forest before hopping back on the 101 towards a campsite yet to be decided.
At 8:17 it was still light out, and we were still driving. We had salami, cheese, crackers, blueberries, and carrots in the car for dinner. At 8:51pm we stopped at a beach in Washington to potentially camp but nothing was available. We continued on our way through the dark cascading trees that almost touched across the highway and ended up staying in the Hoh Ox Bone River Campground in the Hoh Rain Forest for the night. We pulled in at 9:30 when it was finally completely dark. I was pretty nervous about staying in this dark, drippy, deserted campground and had difficulty falling asleep {Note: It did rain all night}.
Courtney: We want relationships with people. It is sad to leave the ones we have and the ones we find along the way. I realize long-term “on the road” style living is not conducive to building these relationships and sustaining them in a way that fulfills my desires for relationships. But short-term it is really fun to connect and reconnect with people.
Dave: It was really hard to leave the Wallace’s today to get back on the road – they were incredibly kind and generous; it was great to have people to hang out with; it was an easy place to relax and recuperate for a few days.
Kids: Marin, “Apple me Mama.”, “Papa my rain coat.”, “Araining outside.”, Mason, “I changed my mind mom, the green bridge was the froggy bridge” {yesterday it was the snake bridge}, “More windy down trees or blowed ones. And some of the forest is cut down, see Kenz.” “I think we could find a cute house we could live in here.” {Quinalt Lake area}. Mackenzie, “Can we stay in this rain forest tonight?”, “We are following the river.” Dave, “We are in the boonies.” Kenz, “What are the boonies?”, Mason, “I saw a ginormous tree.” Kenz, “All these trees are bigger than you can imagine.” Mason, “They are bigger than Papa.” Mason, “Papa you are bigger than a baby dinosaur.”
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May 24, 2010
Travels: Seaside, WA to Hoh Oxbow Campground, WA – 207 miles (1633 total miles)
Accommodations: Hoh Oxbow Campground, no hookups, very free & empty
We had a leisurely morning of breakfast, good-byes, and packing up to go. We were bummed to leave the Wallaces; we had such a great time! Finally loaded up around 12:30pm and took off for Washington. We headed over the “Froggy Bridge” as Mason called the bridge leading from Astoria to Washington {4.3 miles across the Columbia River}. We stopped in Long Beach, a small tourist town on the coast, so Dave could work for a couple hours. I think I may have finally gotten the hang of dressing for this cold, rainy weather. I bundled up the kids and myself and walked around Long Beach for a couple hours.
Courtney: We want relationships with people. It is sad to leave the ones we have and the ones we find along the way. I realize long-term “on the road” style living is not conducive to building these relationships and sustaining them in a way that fulfills my desires for relationships. But short-term it is really fun to connect and reconnect with people.
Dave: It was really hard to leave the Wallace’s today to get back on the road – they were incredibly kind and generous; it was great to have people to hang out with; it was an easy place to relax and recuperate for a few days.
Kids: Marin, “Apple me Mama.”, “Papa my rain coat.”, “Araining outside.”, Mason, “I changed my mind mom, the green bridge was the froggy bridge” {yesterday it was the snake bridge}, “More windy down trees or blowed ones. And some of the forest is cut down, see Kenz.” “I think we could find a cute house we could live in here.” {Quinalt Lake area}. Mackenzie, “Can we stay in this rain forest tonight?”, “We are following the river.” Dave, “We are in the boonies.” Kenz, “What are the boonies?”, Mason, “I saw a ginormous tree.” Kenz, “All these trees are bigger than you can imagine.” Mason, “They are bigger than Papa.” Mason, “Papa you are bigger than a baby dinosaur.”