RV trip Archives - Small Things Are Big Things

May 17, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Pismo Pit Stop and Los Olivos Godparents

South.
Now it felt like we were going home.
And I just wanted to be home.
Our first stop was at Pismo Beach.
It was windy and lovely.

(If you’ve ever wanted to know how to take a panoramic picture on your iPhone, I’ll let you in on the trick! Plan the picture, so there is an adult on each end. Start the panorama, and as soon as the picture is off the first adult, she runs to take over the the camera as the other adult takes his place on the other end of the picture. Awesome family picture without a timer or a stranger.)

Pismo Beach is so much fun and I would love to spend a weekend there, instead of just an hour. I can picture our family making fun memories there.
We already made some fun ones…

After Pismo we made a quick stop in Los Olivos to visit my God Parents.
I have so many great memories during my childhood with that family. And then the visits stopped. us kids were growing up, and things were too busy, I guess.
Or maybe the promise of doing something “next year.”

I often think of the saying, “If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
Have you heard it?
I think about that phrase a lot.
What is my busy-ness keeping me away from?
Am I too busy to miss something God wants for me?
Sometimes my lips say yes to something, at the same time my mind is saying, “are you kidding me!?!?” I do like saying yes, because I like helping people and being involved in fun things.
Often when I say no to something, I know I’m saying yes to my family.
And that matters.
It also matters when I say yes to things that are important to my children.
Like lego battles, or crafts, or banana bread or dress up.
If you don’t know what’s important to your children, ask them.
They’ll tell you.
Promise.

Our children keep asking when we can take another vacation in the RV. (I can’t believe it’s already been a year since our trip!) But Brad has had to take a lot of work off for his ACL surgery and I totaled our car, so we get to save for that.
Busy-ness… maybe “next year.”

We had the best trip!
Memories our family will have forever.
I’ll share a fun travel DIY when I finish it soon.

Day 14 – Traveled 593 miles
Grass Valley to Pismo Beach 362 miles
Pismo Beach to Los Olivos 48 miles
Los Olivos to Orange County 183 miles

View our whole trip here:

May 14, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Grass Valley Family

We left Eureka and headed south to our Grass Valley family. During our RV trip, we tried our best to visit as many people as we could, without getting overwhelmed, or making visits the focus. And this visit worked out perfectly. We arrived, and got to spend time with Brad’s family on their BEAUTIFUL property.
They have a lovely garden.
And a pond.
I want a pond.

Brad is blessed to have both his grandparents on this side of the family. And I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last time we would see them together.
I never thought that way before.
Maybe age is making me more realistic or maybe my mom’s death is making me more morbid.
Maybe both.
This life thing is hard.
And time just keeps going on.
Despite sickness and pain and milestones and joy.
Nothing can slow it down.
But sitting next to a pond at twilight sure helps.

We sure do love you guys and we were so thankful for this visit!
I love that we can just pick up where we left off, and have meaningful conversations.
Loving Jesus can do that to people.

Day 13 – Traveled 273 miles

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Rest Stop Route Down the West Coast

And finally here is a quick look at our rest stop route down the west coast for the day:

We saw a giant fly and gained a member of the family, Barry, at O’Brien Market in Oregon.
We had a park play date in Crescent City Park.
We were almost killed by squatter hippies in the Redwoods.
We took advantage of a photo op with giant statues of Paul Bunyan and his ox, Blue.
We got up close with wildlife in Elk Meadow.
We closed out the day with hippies in Eureka!

Not too bad for one day!

While I was working on these posts yesterday, I looked outside and saw Tessa hugging Barry in the backyard. Yep, that bear was worth every penny! She still loves him.

Total for Day 12 – Traveled 415 miles
With a total of six Rest Stop Adventures!

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Hippies in Eureka –Rest Stop Adventures

Driving down the California coast is lovely.
Have I mentioned how beautiful this county of ours is yet?
I have?
Like a hundred times?
Ok, ok, ok… but it’s true.
As we approached Eureka, in the heart of Humboldt County, we saw hippies everywhere. Not the calm-eco-friendly-peace-love-and-hope hippies, more like the I-haven’t-showered-in-a-year-and-I-will-slit-your-throat-to-get-my-next-fix, kind of hippies.
(In case you don’t know, Humboldt County is known for it’s lax rules regarding marijuana. Maybe that’s why there are hippies in Eureka.)

The sun had set and twilight was upon us. It was pretty late, about 9:30pm, because we were so much farther north. We needed a place to park our RV for the night, so our destination was a Wal-Mart parking lot… obviously. We grabbed a late dinner at a local pizza joint. And I’m pretty sure the whole staff was high.
When we arrived at the Wal-Mart parking lot we realized this store wasn’t a typical store because it was in a mall. We parked anyway, and got ready for bed. It was about 11pm, and we were exhausted from all the driving and adventures of the day. Both Brad and I felt uncomfortable because there were still dirty hippies walking around and from our squatter encounter earlier in the morning.
We finally nodded off to sleep and then around 1am there was a pounding on our RV door.
And a deep male voice yelled, “You have to leave!!!!!”
I cannot lie, it was a total relief to see a mall cop and not a hippie when we opened the door. He was very nice and directed us to another spot to park for the night. We drove to the other location, which was on a dark side street surrounded by truckers sleeping though the night and a few other RVs.
I was nervous that hippies were going to break in and steal our children and raise them.
I’m serious.
I’m insane.
But it was late, and I was tired, but I double checked all the window locks anyway!
Every sound woke me up and when I woke up I would wake to see Brad’s eyes already open and ready to defend the family against angry hippies.
True story.
Then at about 3 am there was pounding across the whole side of the RV! And a groggy scratchy voice screaming, “Wake the f—- up!!!!!!”
I cannot lie, I thought the hippies were turning on us, and was ready to throw Barry at the first one to make it through the door… or window!
Why didn’t I bring the pepper spray?!?!!?
Brad looked out the window to size up our foes and it was just a high dirty hippie walking down the street and banging on all the turcks and RVs.
We will survive another day, after all.

We woke up alive and gave Barry a big hug. I’d like to think having a fierce bear guarding the door helped a bit too.

Things to know if you go…

You can not park your RV in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Eureka. Ha.
I’m sure Eureka is a great place during the day. I mean one of my favorite shows is set there. (Warning: Show reveals my geeky-ness.) And I did see tons of beautiful old Victorian homes everywhere.
There is a good pizza joint… where every worker also smokes joints.
Watch out for hippies.

Day 12 – Traveled 45 miles
(Last part, of 6, in the Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Elk Meadow –Rest Stop Adventures

The sun was about to set on the 12th day when we made our 5th impromptu Rest Stop Adventure. We noticed a sign that read, Elk Meadow, and we pulled over.

And we found a meadow filled with elk.
Go figure!

There aren’t any fences so elk must gather there for dinner every night. I mean, there was a sign and all. We even saw a little baby elk jumping around and eating! It was adorable. But we had already stopped taking pictures because we didn’t want to scare him.

Eli are enormous and ugly, but beautiful at the same time. We could have watched them for an hour. But the road was calling, and we still needed to find a place to stop for the night.
A night I will never forget!
More on that in the next and last) Rest Stop Adventure post!

Things to know if you go…

I’m not sure if elk are there all day, but I would guess they come out at sunset and sunrise for grazing.
Elk are huge! And wild. They look docile but you should keep clear. (There was a guy putting his toddler aged daughter like 5 feet away for a picture and the elk looked ready to charge.)
Seeing elk like this was a magical moment for us (like when we saw the bear in Yellowstone). I hope you can experience that too!
No food or bathrooms but great for pictures.
Elk Meadow is a quick rest stop!

Day 12 – Traveled 22 miles
(for part 5 of Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Giant Statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox –Rest Stop Adventures

Our next Rest Stop Adventure was another from Roadside America! Giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox. They are ginormous and make a funny photo.
And yes, your kids will notice these…

…and you will all laugh.
A lot.

As you can see from this picture sans shoes… we all just ran out of the RV for a quick picture.

Things to know if you go…

Paul Bunyan and Babe stand at the entrance to Trees of Mystery. Even though it’s a tourist trap, I thought it looked like it might be fun. It’s a gondola ride and a short hiking trail through an area of redwoods.
This is a great place to stop for a quick picture if you need to stretch your legs during a road trip.
There are snacks and bathrooms.

Day 12 – Traveled 13 miles
(for part 4 of Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Squatters in the Redwoods –Rest Stop Adventures

The first stand of redwood trees we came across in California was breathtaking!
Little did we know we would discover squatters in the redwoods.
True story…
Even though we were having so much fun on our trip, it sure did feel good to be back in California. Our kids didn’t love being woken up, then dragged from their car seats for a family picture in front of the California sign.
But I think it was worth it.
(The sign is amazing and I think it would look fabulous in my living room.)

As soon as we saw the HUGE trees we pulled our little RV over for for some exploring. Everything looked bigger. Even the plants and flowers looked oversized and we felt like were went back it time. We saw a giant slug climbing and took a picture for scale. HUGE. And I have really big man hands so this thing is really a doozy.

I have never seen anything like it! (Side Note: One of the destinations in the book 1,000 Places that can Change your Child’s Life, is the Muir Redwoods, but that wasn’t on our route.) This was my first time seeing the Redwoods and I’m still in awe. I really can’t believe they exist. The best comment was from Eli. “I feel like I’m in the last Star Wars movie on Endor!!!”
I did too.

We decided we would take a little stroll on one of the natural footpaths. Our cell phones didn’t get reception so I felt completely off the grid. And because everything was so much larger than life, I felt small. We saw a dry fast food wrapper on the ground.
Darn people leaving stuff in the majestic Redwoods!

So we are walking around one of the giant trees on the side of a bit of a hill. We can see the roots at the base of the tree make a cave that goes deep into the ground.
Like a huge room.
In fact, it’s so deep all we can see is darkness.
And sleeping bags.
And blankets.
We joked that someone could be in there, and we wouldn’t even know.
As we walk a bit farther we see a split stump of a giant Redwood.
And in the stump is laundry.
Yep, laundry for washing and being hung to dry.
Wait a second, that fast food wrapper was dry… nothing is dry here.
It’s the freakin’ Redwoods… everything is spritzed with a fresh coat of dew.
Everything but that fast food wrapper left by creepy hippies living off the grid.
Oh yeah, our cell phones don’t work so are screwed if they decide to attack.
Then Brad and I had the heeby-jeebies and booked it outta there with the kiddos.
(Honestly, I’m feeling a little uncomfortable just thinking about that moment.)

We left and found Crescent City Park and after that we found some happy Redwoods.
On the grid.
You can never be too careful when it come to hippies.
Brad got clever with the panoramic setting and took this picture vertically up the tree. It’s pretty neat, even though it squashes our faces a bit.

Things to know if you go…

You can pull out at any turnout for some great photos and to have your mind blown.
The best I can tell from the map, the squatters were near the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, and the happy pix were taken near Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park.
Watch out for hippies.

Day 12 – Traveled 9 miles
(for part 3 of Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here:

January 3, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Crescent City Park –Rest Stop Adventures

Our next Rest Stop Adventure happened just about 40 miles from the state line.
We were just driving along and noticed the most beautiful park. We call it Crescent City Park. It was HUGE with climbing and castles.
Pure awesome!
So we stopped… because we go where the wind takes us on this trip.

There was an old hollowed out redwood tree for climbing.
It was fantastic!
We ate PB & Js in the RV and then we were back on the road!

Things to know if you go…

This is a great place to stretch your legs during a road trip.
Plenty to do for kids of all ages! A toddler area and more advanced climbing for older children.
It’s a city park so bring your picnic blanket (or in our case, your whole RV kitchen) and some lunch to enjoy the spectacular views.
Yes for photo ops!

Day 12 – Traveled 46 miles
(for part 2 of Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here:

January 2, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

O’Brien Market and Deli –Rest Stop Adventures

Our family left Oregon early in the morning and we were finally heading toward home.

We said goodbye after one last punch in the face with the Portlandia vibe at Black Rock Coffee Bar. The coffee was yummy, and the baristas had dreads, piercings and tattoos in all the right places.

Driving around the country is amazing. Every time we passed a farm I would beg Brad to quit the world with me, and move to an old farmhouse.
He said no.

After a couple hundred miles of my restoring-an-old-farm-fantasy, the children were getting a little restless. It’s a good thing I bought the Roadside America app! Lo and behold, there was a rest stop in O’Brien, OR that promised to deliver all the unusual a person can handle!

The O’Brien Market and Deli {and Post Office} had everything and more.
A giant fly over the bathrooms… (it’s way bigger than it looks in this picture)

A life-sized redwood gnome…

A climbable vintage caboose…

And a market where everyone got to pick out candy…

AND we added a member to our family – Barry the Redwood Bear.

The whole time we were shopping the market Tess was hugging the bear.
How could we say no?
I mean really, people! The store owners even knocked down the price by $25, because she was so adorable.
More rest stops coming up!

Day 12 – Traveled 284 miles
(for part 1 of Rest Stop Adventures)

View our whole trip here: