On the Road Again
Friday, April 13, 2012 at 12:35PM 
Well, it's that time. Spring and this man's fancy turns to thoughts of ...
ROAD TRIP!
Not to worry. I'm not THAT old. I can fancy both a road trip and my petite road-trip gal. Besides, we've been hanging together for 30 years now.
We leave this Sunday for the coast, pulling our Casita camper. First stop is Olympic National Park campground at Kalaloch, WA (it's pronounced clay-lock for some reason). With luck, we'll find a campsite looking out over the ocean. We'll get there in time for a nice long beach walk, followed by dinner cooked in our camper, and a campfire to toast us up.
If the weather stays nice (doubtful, if the forecast is right), we'll stay a couple of nights. If it rains, we'll hit the road south to our next campground, Cape Disappointment State Park, which is anything but a disappointment. We hope to do some serious bird watching there. It's migration season for gulls and other shorebirds. Should be a good opportunity to add to our birding life list.
Next stop down the coast is Beverly Beach State Park in Oregon. This will be our first time there, so we're not sure what the campground is like, but it shouldn't be crowded this time of year and there'll be lots of time for beach walking and birding.
I had hoped to be doing some editing on Taking Flight to get it ready for this summer's publication, but my editor is running behind schedule. I'll be bringing a copy anyway and will spend some time self-editing. It's been a while since I read it through cover-to-cover.
After Beverly Beach, we'll drive another four hours south to Bullard's Beach State Park. The campground is quite a hike from the beach, but is nicely protected from the wind. Since the forecast is for showers most of the way south through Oregon, we hope Bullard's will be close enough to California to be dry. If not, we'll be cozy and warm in our camper anyway, and will pretend the sun is shining.
After Bullard's, we'll cross into California and stop at Patrick's Point State Park. The weather is promised to be sunny and warm for the remainder of our trip south, so we may camp there and at our last stop for quite a few days. Might as well drive in the rain and lounge in the sun. The campground sits high above the beach. There's a goat trail sort of path down, but well worth the effort.
MacKerricher State park is our last beachy campground. It has the best campsites on our trip so we'll definitely spend a few nights there. We also love the tidal pools with anemones and hermit crabs. And, of course, more birds.
Just down the road is Mendocino, an arts community, and the Mendocino Hotel with the best Eggs Benedict breakfast I've ever had. That will be our first stop of that last travel day. By evening, we'll be in San Jose visiting our daughter Zay and her favorite Mexican Restaurant, Tlaquepaque.
Her mom will hang out there for a week while I fly east to see my mom, then we'll hotfoot it north on I-5 back to Whidbey Island.
With luck, by the time we get home, my editor will have sent me the line edit suggestions and I will have turned them around already. After all, all play and no writing make this old man a dull boy.