In search of Spring - A travel log of our road trip to San Francisco, Alcatraz and Santa Cruz

For our first road trip of the year we set our sights on a destination that would provide a spring like experience. It was spring break after all. Our criteria was simple -- sun and warm temperatures. Past experience, however, has taught us that in late March there is no guarantee that you'll find either of those things within a couple of days drive. To make matters worse, we had to make sure we could get back within a week and still feel like we had a vacation. My in-laws (alias Deuce and Mrs. Deuce) would be joining us on this trip in their 34' Winnebego.

We made preparations and found a couple of new RV Resorts in California with great amenities. Our final destination would be Coyote Valley RV Resort in Morgan Hill, CA. Morgan Hill is located inland just a few miles south of San Jose. This location would place us within a short driving distance to San Francisco and Santa Cruz. It would also serve as a great home base to relax. We planned to visit the San Francisco water front, tour Alcatraz, and play on the beach in Santa Cruz. On the way down, we would also stop in Red Bluff, CA for a couple of nights at the Durango RV Resort.

Unfortunately, just days before we were to depart, weather reports predicted unusually low temperatures and bad weather for the entire west coast. Determined not to have our hopes for warmer climate totally squashed, we relied solely on optimism and luck to deliver the spring-like experience we were craving. With our fingers crossed, we hit the road ready for a great trip. Little did we realize that, before returning home, we would get not only sun and warmth but also rain, heavy wind, and yes....snow.



Day 1 and 2 - Get out of the Northwest

We left on a Friday morning and headed for California. Our first stop, as usual, was the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. It takes about 6.5 hours of driving to reach Canyonville, OR from our house. We love this place and rarely drive through Oregon without stopping there for the night. One of my favorite things about this place is that they have awesome shower facilities. Each private bathroom has it's own sink, toilet, heater and shower. I love a long hot shower. After a long day of driving it's just the therapy I need. Oh yeah...and there's a great casino there also if that's your thing.

We arrived in Canyonville at around 4:30 and settled in. We later took the complimentary shuttle to the Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino to sample some deep fried green beans that we had heard about from our traveling companions. Long story short...they were soooo good! I could have eaten the whole plate full. When we got back to the RV I headed for the showers and the endless hot water.

The next day (Saturday) we left at 10AM for our drive through the Sikiyou mountains into California. We arrived in Red Bluff in the afternoon and were met with sunny warm weather. Success!! It was Spring there. The temperature was in the low 70s so we put on our shorts and settled in. My son and I grabbed our fishing poles and headed for the Sacramento River, which flows right by the park, to try out some fishing. We didn't catch anything except a couple of rocks at the bottom of the river. We got a lot of casting practice though.

For the next day and a half we enjoyed everything that Durango RV Resort had to offer including basketball, putting and chipping, and horse shoes. The staff there is very nice and the facilities and grounds are very nice. We'll definitely plan to stay there again.

Day 4 - Drive to San Jose

After a great two days in Red Bluff, we buttoned up our rigs and headed south towards San Jose. Right off the get go we hit some strong head winds. The winds stuck around for much of the 5 hour drive south. At times while in cruise control, the RV would down shift to maintain speed. That's how strong it was at times. After battling the wind, we arrived at our destination at around 4PM. Guess what...it was slightly cooler but sunny. The temperature was pleasant as long as the sun was shining. When the sun would go behind a cloud, the light wind would cool things right on down. We had a great evening and prepared for our upcoming day in San Francisco.

Day 5 - San Francisco, Alcatraz, Fishermen's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge

We left the RV Resort at 8:30AM to ensure that we would arrive with plenty of time to make our 11AM boat ride to Alcatraz. We hit morning traffic into the city, got parked and arrived Pier 33 with 30 minutes to spare.

Alcatraz

We purchased our tickets to Alcatraz online to ensure that we would have a reserved spot on the boat. I had heard stories of people who just showed up on a busy day only to find out that the boats were all sold out. So I thought we'd plan ahead. The boat ride to "The Rock" took about 20 minutes and provided great views of the city, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a park ranger who gave us a quick run down on the "rules of the Rock" and what to expect. A short 20 minute film at the start gave us a little history of "The Rock". I learned that a group of Native American Indians occupied Alcatraz from 1969 to 1970 in protest of US Government policies regarding Indians. I had never known that. They apparently did a lot of damage to the facilities and were ultimately removed.

Following the film we walked uphill to the main cell house where the primary attraction is. When you first enter the building, you are given a headset and walkie talkie device that provides an interactive audio tour of the prison buildings. The audio commentary is pretty well done and gave us a taste of what life was like for prisoners and guards there. They also talked quite a bit about some of the famous inmates and escape attempts. Pretty cool!

Alcatraz offers some of the best views of the San Francisco skyline so we were sure to take lots of pictures before catching the next boat back.

Lunch and Shopping at Fisherman's Wharf

We were pretty hungry after our Alcatraz visit so we wandered down to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch. I was craving sea food so we found a fish house where we enjoyed some fresh fish & chips and crab cakes. It was delicious. While we ate, the rain started coming down. Good timing since we were now indoors! By the time we finished eating, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining again. Perfect!

After lunch we goofed around in the many shops in the area. We tried on silly hats, and looked at all of the stuff. As if lunch didn't fill us up enough, we also felt compelled to stuff our faces with some ice cream in a chocolate waffle cone. The smell of freshly made waffle cones was just too good to pass up.

Ghirardelli Square - Sorry No Chocolate Factory

We walked down to Ghirardelli Square hoping to score a tour of the chocolate factory. We stopped to check out several stores along the way as well as some local homeless folks. We ran into this guy who had a nice sign asking for "Weed Money". I gave him a few bucks for at least being honest. You know when in California.....well you get where I'm going.

When we got to Ghirardelli Square I asked the concierge "where can we take a factory tour?" and was told politely "there's no factory....but you can go to the store and get a free chocolate sample." Oh boy. How did we go wrong there? Maybe it was the gigantic Ghirardelli sign on top of the building that looks like a "factory". Needless to say, there would be no Willy Wonka experience for us. Bummed out, we started the long walk back to the car.

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

After the long walk back to the car, we were ready to head back to the RV park. But first we wanted to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove west through the Marina District...wow nice! But no RV parking in those pricey homes. Moving on, we got on Highway 101 and headed over the bridge. As we drove over the bridge, my daughter said "I don't know why this is cool, but it just is." I agree. I'm sure that the local "San Franciscans" who commute across it each day were saying "get off the road tourists! I'm late for work." We stopped at the vista on the northern side of the bridge for a photo op. Of course, there were many other tourists there taking pictures with the SF skyline and bridge as a their backdrop. Some even spoke English. I asked a surfer dude to please take our picture and he said "sure".

After a full day we were ready for the 1.5 hour drive back to the RV.

Day 7 - The Santa Cruz Boardwalk

After a day of rest and relaxation (and jogging), we decided to take the kids to Santa Cruz. It would be our son's 14th birthday in a couple of days, so we thought a day at the Santa Cruz boardwalk amusement park would be a great birthday treat. Once again, we lucked out on weather. On the drive to Santa Cruz, we got some rain and thought "this sucks". But as we got closer to the coast, the clouds parted and it was nice and sunny again. We spent the entire afternoon at the park and left when the park closed at 6PM.

We were pretty hungry and decided to find some food before the 1 hour ride back to the RV. We picked a great little Mexican restaurant in town and had a great meal to end the day. It was a great way to wrap up our visit and make plans for heading back home. We planned to begin our drive home the next morning.

Day 8 - Trying to beat the storm, Stuck in the snow

We had not made firm plans for our return trip thinking that we would just play it by ear. However, before leaving for Santa Cruz we heard reports of a storm moving in to northern California and Southern Oregon that would bring high winds and possible snow near the Oregon/California border. In light of this, we decided to head out early in the morning and try to make it safely out of California before the storm. Our traveling companions chose to continue southward for a few more days into Nevada. "See ya! We're gonna drive towards a snow storm instead."

With the kids still asleep, we pulled out at 6:30AM. We were making excellent time and by noon we were heading into the mountains just south of Mt. Shasta. That's when the weather turned.

It began to rain, which was certainly no problem. The windshield wipers would take care of that. Keep driving. Then a light snow started to fall. Still no problem. We kept going. The snow got heavier and heavier. I thought "ooooh kay." We still had not reached the higher elevations yet and we began to worry about the safety of the roads. We were towing our Honda CRV behind and began to worry about being able to control our tow vehicle as the roads got slicker and slicker. Silently, I was thinking "this is not good."

As we approached the town of Mt. Shasta, the snow was piling up on the road and traffic began to quickly slow down. Eventually it came to a complete stop. I checked the GPS and realized that we were about a mile from the town of Mt. Shasta and 9 miles from Weed.

As the snow got deeper and deeper we decided that, when we reach the Mt. Shasta exit, let's get off the highway and wait out the storm at a nearby KOA campground. After about an hour and a half we finally made it the one mile to the Mt. Shasta exit and got off I-5.

We pulled into the KOA and found a couple of other travelers, one with a fifth wheel and another with a trailer, who were there for the same reason. The manager of the KOA was trying to plow a few of the RV spots for us to use. Nine to 10 inches of snow covered KOA at that time. The manager was kind enough to cut me a discount on the rate and booked us in for the night. I found out from one of the other travelers that there had been multiple accidents on I-5 between Mt. Shasta and Weed that involved over 20 vehicles so they were turning people around. As it turns out, our stretch of road was the hardest hit. Good thing we got off when we did. We felt like we made the right decision after we were all plugged in and relaxing in camp. I borrowed a snow shovel from the KOA manager and used it to clear a path around the RV. I never ever thought I'd be shoveling snow on this trip, but there I was shoveling snow. We watched movies and relaxed for the rest of the night as the overnight temperature dipped into the upper 20s.

Day 9 - Birthday wishes then high tail it out of the mountains

When we awoke in the morning, it was my son's 14th birthday. Our plan was to wait until things thawed out a bit before hitting the road. We opened presents and made his favorite breakfast before preparing to leave around 10AM. In anticipation of possibly getting stuck again, I though I'd put more water in my water tank. When I went to hook up the water hose and turned on the spicket, nothing came out. The temperature had risen to about 40 degrees at this point but the pipes were still frozen. Determined not to be beaten by the cold, I borrowed a hair dryer from my daughter and, after about 10 minutes of blowing hot air on the pipe, water started spraying out. Success! I was able to fill up the water tank so we could be on our way. We were back on the highway heading north into Oregon.

After a few hours, we had made it back to Canyonville, Oregon. I initially planned to just stop for gas. Since the gas station is operated by the local tribe, they offered a 3 cent discount per gallon to those with a casino players club card. I had picked up a players card on the way down to get the 10 percent discount at the RV Resort. Anyway...while getting gas we decided to just stay the night there at the Seven Feathers RV Resort. This had been our first stop on the way south. It was still our son's birthday so we decided to not spend the rest of the day driving. Not a fun birthday we figured. So we spent the afternoon doing what he wanted to do...playing games and enjoying a steak dinner at the casino restaurant. After dinner, we returned to the RV for a fudge brownie and ice cream dessert and enjoyed a couple of movies. And after everyone was settled I, once again, headed to the resort bathrooms for the endless hot water. It was a long hot shower. Aaaahh!

Despite the weather set backs, it was a great birthday. In the morning it would be Easter and we would drive the remaining 6.5 hours home.

Day 11 - Race home on Easter Sunday

We awoke on Easter Sunday a little groggy and prepared for a the drive home. As I was pondering what kind of drive it would be, there was a freakish gust of wind that raced through the RV resort and shook all of the RVs. My pondering was answered with that gust...it was going to be windy. Sure enough, it was windy all the way home. To make matters worse, everybody and their brother decided to drive north as well. Why were all of those people on the road...it's Easter Sunday! Oh yeah...it was also the end of Spring Break. Makes sense, I guess. Nevertheless, we made it home...albeit a little tired.

All things considered it was a great and memorable trip. The kids said that they had a great time and that's enough for me.