We awoke surprisingly clear headed after our post wedding over indulgence into Kelli’s Seattle homebrew red ale. I opened Peggys curtains to see the grey smatter of cloud and at that moment a strong wind rocked her side to side. Yes we had to be in LA in less than a week and yes it was time to get the hell out of dodge and chase those migrating birds south. If there is one thing we can be certain of its that damp, cold weather and a 24 year old camper van is not a beautiful combination. Oil and water by comparison would be like a well mixed gin and tonic on a hot English summer afternoon in a rose garden.

We packed up, snapped some shots of the very American halloween neighbourhood, took a quick shower at kellis and fed the ever starving Betty as she remained by her food bowl meowing with a look of eternal starvation on her face.

Deciding that our week long drive was not going to be wasted we had made the executive decision to take the beautiful coast road with the windows down so we could smell the pine and sea air and stop along the way to taste the local treats. Peggy grumbled and popped as she warmed up and we headed off.

The Oregon coastal road is along a rugged coast line of crashing waves, dotted with rocky beaches and endless forests of Sitka Spruce, Western Redcedar and Douglas-fir. For those who have seen ‘Twilight‘ this really is Forks country. Although I have had a grumble about the weather it was nice to drive through the winding misty forests seeing the pop of the Autumn colours on the trees.

On our first leg to Astoria we passed ports, small towns, crossed countless bridges, one of which sat right on the water and covered 3 miles. We arrived at a very festive campsite, pumpkins everywhere a haunted house and the lady on reception actually was a hairy chinned, hunched over, smelly breathed witch although I don’t think that her look had anything to do with Halloween. She was lovely all the same and the campsite was completely covered with a low laying mist that finished off the spooky feel.

The next day started to introduce us to the west coast beaches, some rocky, some sandy and all windy and cold. The sleepy coastal towns had a real feel of ‘Amity Island’ out of the film Jaws. You could almost see the town sheriff sporting his knee lenght shorts and sheriffs hat driving round in a 1980’s police car. We got Waldport to camp for the night and went down to the beach to watch the sunset.

Next was the sand dunes of south coast Oregon, miles upon miles of sand. We stopped for lunch at a totally deserted beach and had a picnic. The dunes are a great place to take out a sand buggy and go wild, sadly our budget is more sand than buggy so we just relaxed on the beach as we heard the wails and screams in the distance of people shooting over the dunes.

So after 3 days and over 1000km we made it to California, it had rained non stop all the way, our webbed feet had grown back and its fair to say we where ready for some sun…. We crossed the border into California, obviously not without being cross examined about our ‘citrus fruit situation’. As luck would have it, our citrus fruit passed the border checks! The lady at the check point welcomed us to Califonia and suddenly we where out of the dunes and into the great red wood forests of North California and as if on queue the clouds parted and the sun came out!

We decided to celebrate, we found a quiet corner under the shade of the great trees and set up camp, lit a fire and cracked open the bottle of wine Kelli had given us as a wedding gift from our Seattle wedding and enjoyed it with the cracked black salt chocolates… Thanks Kelli! 

See what happens next on our wedding travel adventure!