At that time, gas was around $3.25 a gallon. I figured that gas would go up so I bugeted $4.00 a gallon for the trip. As the gas prices increased I had to re-adjust the buget. My final buget I used $5.00 a gallon for the gas estimate. Well the good new is we never paid that much for gas. The most we paid was $4.45 & the cheapest was $3.95 a gallon.
We then had to look at the sleeping arrangements. My trailer only sleep 2. There were going to be 4 of us traveling. My wife, 12 year old daughter, 8 year old son & myself. So after a short discussion it was decided my wife & daughter would sleep in the tent & my son & I would sleep in the teardrop. (And yes, this was my wife's idea.)
Next thing we did was look at the route we wanted to take. We had 3 places we wanted to include in the trip, the Oregon coast, IRG & Crater Lake. Everthing else was open to discussion. One other requirement was we did not want to be in the car all day long. We decided to break the trip into 3 segments. the trip down, IRG days & the return trip. Becase of work schedules we knew we could not leave until Sat., July 19th. That gave us 5 days to get to IRG and A week to get home if we wanted it. Below is the route we settled on.
Day 1 - We left home at 9:00 on Saturday an head to Seaside OR for our first nite on the road. We camped at a campground just south of Seaside, OR. We set up camp an went into town a played around for a while before heading back to camp for dinner & playing a few games with kids before bed.
Day 2 - We left Seaside and headed down the coast. We stopped at The Devil's Churn along the way & because the tide was out we were able to explore the tide pools. Ou next stop was the Oregon Coast Aquarium. After that we headed to our campground just south of Waldsport, OR. Our site was on a bluff right above the beach. We traveled a whole 120 miles on day 2.
Day 3 - This was another 120 mile day. We lef the campground ad headed South. We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves and the Oregon Dunes along the way. We sent the night at the Bandon KOA.
Day 4 - We left the Bandon KOA around 9:00 and drove all the way to the Eureka, CA KOA. (Dean was right, it is a dive) We stopped a few times along the way & The Tree's of Mystery. We decided we didn't have time to take the trail ath this time so we just visited the gift shop. After we arrived at the KOA we did laundry, cooked dinner & went grocery shopping to stock up for IRG.
Day 5 - We got up early, packed up & headed up to IRG. We arrived at the gate around 9:00 AM. To our surprise, there was around 40 trailer already there. We found a place to camp, set up the trailer & tent and then spent the rest of the day visiting & relaxing.
Day 6 - We left IRG for a little day trip. We head a little farther south an drove the entire Ave. of the Giants. It was a wonderful drive.
Day 7-8 - We just hung out at IRG and had lots of fun.
Day 9 - This was the last day at IRG. We had thought about staying over until Moday and leaving with the diehards but the kids had run out of clean cloths. We head out about 11:00 AM and headed north. This is where the tip got fun. We did not have any idea whre we were heading or where we were going to camp for the rest of the trip. We knew we wanted to go to Crater lake but that was it. We ended up stopping a the Tree's of Mystery again and this time we did the trail and the gondola ride. (BTW, I do noth like gondola's) We then head inland on to Grants Pass, OR. We ended up at the Gold Hill KOA because the had laundry facilities.
Day 10 - Today we had a little surprise for the kids. We took them to the House of Mystery http://www.oregonvortex.com/ They loved it. Next we headed south to Medford to stock up on food & ice again. We then headed to Crater Lake. After we set up camp & made dinner, we drove up to the rim village and watche the sunset.
Day 11 - Crater Lake. We drove the entire rim drive, did a couple short hikes & just had fun. That nigh we attend the Ranger program.
Day 12 - We headed north out of Crater lake to Hwy 97. Then we headed north again. We stopped at the Newburg Volcaninc monument and the Newburg Lava tube. We had hiked 3200 feet into the 5000 feet long tube when my son decided he need to go to the bathroom. So we made a quick exit to get back out to the bathroom.
We then headed north again with the intent to camp at the KOA just north of Bend, OR. That is whe nthe kids decided they really just wanted to go home. So we looked at he map and figured we were about 5-6 hous from home. That change their mind. We did decide to get close to home so we could get home the next day. (1 day earlier that we had planned) We ended upo driving to Mary Hill State park on the Washington side of the Columbia river. That night we drove up to Godendale & visited the Goldendale Observatory for same star & planet watching. We also got to see the International Space Station go over. We got back to cap late & everyone crashed.
Day 13 - We all slept in until 8:30. Time to head home after breakfast. We originally panned to drive along the Columbia river to I-5 and the head north. After looking at the map, we decide we would keep heading north to I-90 and make a side trip to Roslyn, WA (the town they filmed the TV show Northern Exposure) and to Salmon la Sac (A place my wife & I both camped when we were kids.) We stopped along the river in Salmon la Sac for a late lunch & to play in the river for a few minutes. We then head home. When we got 30 miles from home we saw a site we had not seen in 13 days, RAIN....
So after about 1900 miles we made it home. Every one had a great time. We had no problems with the car or trailer on the entire trip. The kids are already talking about attending the next IRG in 2010.
I would also like to thank Dean & Joanie for hosting IRG & to say how much we enjoyed seeing old friends & meeting new one's along the way. I don't think we could have had a better vacation if we tried.
You can view some of the pictures we took here:
http://rainjersplace.spaces.live.com/default.aspx
Jeremy & Family
