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56th Stop - Solvang, CA

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Blog Post #67 - Written April 28, 2026 Stay: September 28-30, 2025 We weren't planning on doing too much in Southern California, since that's where I grew up and where my parents still live.  So my parents lovingly said they would meet us up in Solvang, CA, a fun Danish town.  We found a cool campground that had cabins and RV spots that let us all stay together. The kids loved the cabin, since it had an upstairs loft with a little window, perfect for lobbing stuffed animals down at unsuspecting couch dwellers.  It was also perfect for doing puppet shows and other various theatrical acts. My parents introduced us to a new game series called 'Unlocked', an escape room style game with clues dependent on a deck of cards.  I might be a little obsessed.  And Z asks to play them all the time, although most of the games have some deduction skills that are a little above his understanding.  But they are still fun to play. We spent our first day together in the old c...
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55th Stop - Coalinga, CA

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Blog Post #66 - Written April 24, 2026 Stay: September 27, 2025 Our next mad-dash stop through central CA was in the small town of Coalinga.  We stayed in the parking lot of the R. C. Baker Memorial Museum, which looked fun and interesting, but we couldn't make a time work to get to see it.  The owner tried his best to open it for us, but our schedule was tight.  They did have this cool outdoor relic gas station that we were parked next to. Setting up was almost a disaster.  Our jack wasn't working.  So we spent the next hour or so on the phone with our warranty rep and whoever else would listen, but apparently a jack problem isn't considered an emergency, since we can still tow the vehicle.  What they didn't seem to understand is that the jack quit halfway through the unhitching process, so we could neither get it on or off.  Their excuse was that there was a manual way to move the hitch, which we were not given the tools for.   So, God...
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54th Stop - Willows, CA: Chico's Rice Farm

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Blog Post #65 - Written April 24, 2026 Stay: September 26, 2025 Because our time in Weaverville was extended, and because our mountain experiences have proven just shy of fatal, we made our first massive change of plans.  We decided to go through central California instead of the coast or mountains. So we nixed San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon.  Decided we would enjoy them much more without a giant trailer (and when our kids were older). We stayed the night in the small town of Willows at a rice farm.  We pulled in late into the small farm, set up, and took a moment to enjoy all the stars you can see without the big cities around.  The next day, we toured around the little farm.  There was a pile of what looked like sand that the kids started running for.  We soon figured out it was a pile of rice hulls (husks).  We came during the harvest season, so the rice fields were dry.  During the growing season, they flood the...
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53rd Stop - Weaverville, CA

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Blog Post #64 - Written April 24, 2026 Stay: September 18-25, 2025 So, there are some roads that I tried to avoid while planning our adventure.  After our Utah fiasco of destroying our brakes, I tried very hard to avoid super scary roads for our massive rig and wimpy truck.  Unfortunately, getting across Northern California, there is no way to avoid the terrifying roads.  It was either through the mountains (from the coast to interior) or along the cliffs down the coast.  Since Gary's brother, Matt, lives in Weaverville, we chose the mountains.  Plus, they really don't recommend going through Big Sur (cliffs) with anything longer than 25'.   The mountains were not good to us.  While driving, Gary noticed that something was wrong with the engine.  The gears were pausing shifting and grinding. Not good.  There wasn't much else to do but pray we make it and keep going.  There aren't any good pull-offs in the middle of nowhere. ...
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52nd Stop - Avenue of the Giants (CA)

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Blog Post #63 - Written April 20, 2026 Stay: September 15-17, 2025 We continued on our Redwoods adventure by driving down to the Humboldt Redwoods.  We loved traveling down the Avenue of the Giants, the long stretch of roads that is entirely encompassed by these incredible giants.   There was a little town that had some fun roadside attractions.  We found the Eternal Treehouse that was like a mini underground bunker.  There was this incredible tree carving of an Native American as well.   Across the street, there was this massive hollowed out trunk that we could climb and stand up in.  They also had the Immortal Tree which has been struck by lightning, cut by loggers, flooded, and burned. The Humboldts had a bunch of small loops to go explore. I think we went down the Founders Grove Loop and the trails around them.  We let the kiddos take their bikes out as we explored.  We found even taller trees with massive gaps in them. It is incredi...
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