Tonight I am camped out in the Ocean View Inn, in a nice hotel room overlooking the ocean. No hot tub, but a reasonable place to stay. It was a bit of a pain to get here, but I finally made it.

When I left the hotel in Roseburg this morning, I found out that the highway I came down today was actually closed for 12 hours and was just reopened. Good thing I stopped when I did. Even today it was horrible and black ice was a big problem in Grant’s Pass, OR. It was a great drive though.

Let me go off-track for just a moment. I have tried to remain brand loyal when it comes to flying and hotels, but I’m going to focus on my wallet a bit more than brand loyalty now. I have started to use Expedia now for my hotels. I have way more options that way and I can save some money plus I can earn free rooms on all of my stays no matter where I stay. Now that I will be using the trailer mostly and not relying on hotels nearly as much, it gives me more opportunity to earn a free room. Seems to be the smarter way to go.

In case of interest, the places I stayed at are as follows:

Port Townsend Inn, Port Townsend, WA
Windmill Inn, Roseburg, OR
Ocean View Inn, Crescent City, CA

All of my choices so far have been fine and I would stay at any of them again. I have actually been to the Port Townsend Inn three times previously. I think you have to take ratings, such as Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. with a grain of salt. For me, I don’t need anything fancy – I’m not going to be in the room that long. As long as it’s clean, in decent shape, and the bed is comfy I’m good. I do usually get a place with some sort of free breakfast. That means I don’t have to stop and I can stay moving to get where I want to go. I don’t expect perfect…I mean look at the usage hotel rooms get. You have to look at the value – what you spend for what you get. I am not saying I won’t splurge sometimes though!

Back to the adventure… I got close to Crescent City and my destination. This is a bucket list item for me – Redwoods National Park. I found one of the visitor centers and stopped in to ask questions as well as get my National Park Passport stamped. I also ended up buying a book called “The Golden Spruce” and is based on a true story.

The guy suggested a side trip for me and it was a good suggestion. It was a beautiful drive (as was the drive on I-5 and US199) and was one of the more scenic drives I have taken in my travels. It was a single-lane drive through redwood groves on a dirt road. I stopped for a hike and those trees are amazingly large.

The park is unique in a few regards. One thing is that it is similar to Olympic National Park in Washington in that there are separate sections of it. Another unique feature is the sections are co-managed by the state. An interesting idea.

That catches you up on this leg of the adventure. Tomorrow I plan on going south if the road is open, then I will turn and head back north toward Seattle. I want to check out some actual coastal sections of the park. The section I looked at today and hiked around in was along a river – more like a stream actually.

I can really see the possibility of coming back down this way again and I plan on doing just that and spending a lot more time exploring after I get the trailer picked up. It’s really a nice area, and it kind of reminds me of Florida except for the lack of palm trees. The people are really nice here, it’s nice to be back by the water. Found some good food as well, and you know I’m a foodie!

As I have posted earlier I have gone back-and-forth about continuing this blog. I had to take it private for various reasons for a while but that really doesn’t do much good as far as getting views. I have considered what to do and decided the hell with it – I will keep blogging since there are those who are interested in my travels or want to keep up with me for whatever reason.

Check back for my updates! You can sign up for notifications when I do post an update. Feel free to pass my blog on to others if you think they would be interested.