We had a slight delay on picking up Andiamo on May the 8th and this was why we did not book our first two nights after picking up our stateroom on wheels. We figured it was going to be something like this at the dealer or a possible big delay at the border crossing. As it turned out there was a slight issue with the stairs that took about an hour and a half to resolve. Resolve meaning that they had to be ground down a bit in order to be usable. New stairs are on order and hopefully in by the time we return at the end of June. The plus side of this was that there was no wait at the Aldergrove border crossing.
So we are now on the road on a Grand Rolling Voyage of our own with our Special Edition, Pottery Barn Airstream named Andiamo. Our 52 day loop will take us south into the United States first heading down the West Coast of Washington State through Oregon State and into California State as far as Palm Desert. We will then loop up by first heading east to Arizona and The Grand Canyon. We are then heading north through the state of Utah and Idaho, dipping our toes into Yellow Stone National Park and Montana before road cruising back west and home to take in the Jazz Festival in Vancouver at the end of June.
Our approach for this land journey was not to book or shall I say try to book every single night of this adventure, that would really take the adventure out of this journey. Well this plus as mentioned in the outset, have a plan “B” in case of unexpected delays. So we booked some of the areas that might get hard to get a reservation as well as some of the more picturesque sites. Booking included Seaside on the Oregon Coast and then Palm Desert, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Yellowstone National Parks. Our first change of plans happened at Seaside as our original plan was to immediately head back over to Eugene in about the centre of the state and head south from there. What changed? Well, just the sheer beauty of the both the Washington and Oregon Coasts had me relook at our route because I knew that this coast just gets better and better. Fortunately we are not traveling in peak season so there is some availability along the way to allow for these changes. The only real difference is that we were planning on some two night stop overs which have turned into single night stops. This route is longer but so well worth the additional time.
This change really caught all the right gears when we were able to secure a two night stay the Sea Perch RV Resort close to Yachats. We follow Airstream Addicts on Facebook and I believe one of the couples I follow on YouTube (Shout out to Less Junk More Journey) had stayed here, yes a bit pricey but oh my what a great payoff. The pictures show our site pretty much right on the beach here in Oregon. So once I secured this site the gears were in full motion to change the entire first part of this trip.
I am not sure how this blog will update as we are already a week into this journey and I am finally getting to a point where I can think about posting. There are many factors that go on when you towing your stateroom across the miles, from researching sites and routes to setting up and taking down camp. I did get to a point where I created a checklist to follow, you just don’t want to miss anything when you are pulling some 7,500 lbs behind you, I think all in we are somewhere between 14 and 15 thousand pounds and 49 feet long, so it’s important to not miss a step. I’ve recently added to make sure all the windows are securely locked as for the first time yesterday we slept with many of the windows open just to hear the thunderous crashing of the waves at Sea Perch. So all this plus getting supplies including gas, which you really want to do unhitched and all of life’s other little time consuming activities makes for little time to update. Well all this plus getting some uploadable wifi.
So you may ask why bother with continuing the turf or road adventures on the blog. Well, as mentioned many times before, this blog is really a diary of our adventures, hence the name, gdjmtravels and its a great place to put our trips in one location in chronological order. We are very happy to share our adventures with you and welcome you along, many cannot travel for various reasons while others just may get the wanderlust bug by following along and are curious as to what we get up to. So I’m thinking that the pictures will be the main focus but I will perhaps put more comments in the pictures rather than a long introduction narrative.
We welcome your comments and thank you for them, so perhaps we will try to be a little more interactive, should you leave a comment with perhaps a question, we will follow up with the next post to address the comment or question. This could range from what equipment we use and how we use it to more information on our Andiamo as well as our route planning, checklists we use (which as mentioned is fluid), to of course recommendations on campsites and things to see and do along the way.
So to kick this off here are some pics of our first two states, hope you enjoy this part of our travels. We are now a week in we are enjoying it immensely, for instance, I have never seen a wall of marine cloud (fog bank) sitting off the coast, it is so eerie looking especially at dusk. Don’t get me started with the vast beaches and crashing waves and incredible sunsets… California here we come…
Driving on the I5 through Seattle, looking forward to getting off the boring interstate highway.
Montesano, great state parks here, Cape Disappointment State Park was an excellent overnight stay.
Cape Disappointment State Park, very well organized at 45.00, all in Full Hookups
A little Tai Chi on the Beach, minutes from our site.
On the road, way better than any Interstate
Our site here in Seaside, Oregon, Thousand Trails, number 169
Cute town of Seaside
Felt very carnival like here
Yes, the end of the Lewis and Clarke Trail
Get used to sunset pictures from here, amazing.
Oregon Coast is Sealicious❣️
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