2026 Pacific Northwest – Return to Home

Putting Miles Behind Us to Get Home...

Wednesday it was time to start heading home. Two stops were planned to break the drive into doable segments. The first stop being in Coos Bay, about four hours away. We hit the road around 10am and headed south on US101. The Oregon coast is very scenic, and one could easily make very slow progress by stopping at all the beautiful spots. Because we had a bit of a drive and a planned lunch stop to visit Tracy, an old work friend, in Florence, we had to enjoy the beauty from the moving RV. The coast varies from abrupt rocky cliffs to nice sandy beaches. The road crosses many larger bridges over bays and inlets. There are also numerous lakes along the coast that look inviting.

After a fuel stop in Newport, we got to Florence at about 1pm and visited with Tracy, who was staying at the Elks campground just north of town (a very nice campground). She has been on the road for eight months and it was a fortuitous coincidence that we happened to be in such close proximity while on our own journeys. Tracy served up a delicious lunch, and we chatted and got caught up for many hours (the old “time flies” thing again).

We left Florence and continued our trek south finally getting into Coos Bay at about 6pm. We pulled into Lucky Loggers RV Park, our stop for the night, and headed directly to our designated site. We didn’t even shut off the RV or get out because it was one of the worst RV parks we have ever seen; very dirty and trashy with narrow sites so that you’re on top of your neighbor. A quick search for other options and we headed out of town to the southwest to Beach Bound RV Park. This campground was very nice and one we would come back to. It was in a forested area with spacious sites. The best part…it was the first place in our three-week trip where we could enjoy a campfire!

Thursday morning, we were on the road again by 10am and continued towards home. The day’s destination was Shasta City where we had stayed the first night of the trip. We headed inland and away from the coast. The drive was still very pretty but it was a long day. Numerous podcast episodes made it go by a little quicker. After pulling into the campground at about 4:30pm and getting set up, GP drove 20 minutes north to Weed, CA to visit with Doug (a high school friend) and Terry. They had a lot of family over, so it ended up being an opportunity to visit with some folks not seen in many years. Always fun to visit and catch up.

The long haul from Shasta City back home was the plan for Friday. We spent a bit of time in the morning cleaning out holding tanks so they would be ready for storage and then hit the road. Stops for fuel in Redding, lunch at Granzella’s (notice a pattern here?), and a quick stop in Santa Nella to stretch the legs along with lots more podcast episodes got us home around 7pm.

A long drive to end a long day, but a really wonderful trip! As always, another few hours were spent emptying out the RV, getting laundry started, and otherwise completing necessary chores. Most importantly, time was also spent with some happy kitties!