Sunday morning 6/1 we lifted our jacks and pulled away from the Sparks Marina RV Park and headed in the direction of southern Oregon.
We had made mention that we didn’t have reservation at a state park outside of Grants Pass until the 3rd and that we might just stop somewhere along the way to kill a day or two but I had this feeling that once we hit the road and were so close to Grants Pass we just might drive straight through, and we did.
It was such a great day for a drive plus it was mainly all in gently winding mountain roads. And we switched from the baron mountain hillsides to those that are covered with tall trees with peak a boo views of snowcapped mountains. The 325 mile travel day really went by in a snap it felt. Well until we were spit out on I-5 my McCloud Ca. for the last 100 miles of our drive LOL.
And other than the construction on the uphill side of the mountain it wasn’t a bad drive at all.
PLUS we had a surprise while doing the uphill side of that construction rattled mountain. I glanced in the rear view mirror at one point and noticed a motorcycle. Then I noticed it had a matt finish paint job, then I noticed it was a burgundy colored matt finished paint job, then I realized it was a very good friend of ours!!! LEE!!!!
All of our friends in the Grants Pass area knew we had planned to roll into town on the 3rd but had no idea we were actually showing up 2 days early. In fact I just had a conversation with Diane not 5 minutes prior to Lee roaring up on his Harley about how I wondered if anyone would see us driving through town ahead of schedule or if we would stay in stealth mode and get a few things taken care of before we were found out LOL!!! What’s the odds of someone we knew spotting us right at the Oregon state line.
Let me tell you, seeing Lee roll up like that put a grin on my face from ear to ear that stayed on for many miles. And long after he disappeared ahead of us, every time I thought about that happening the smile came back LOL!! I knew then that I had probably missed our friends more than I had thought.
We continued on until we reached the Valley of the Rouge State Park where we had reservations staring June 3rd through the 13th in hope we could find a spot to stay in ahead of schedule. And even though it’s not the spot we had reserved we had no problem getting one. We will stay in this site for 2 nights and then move to our originally reserved site.

Our spot at the Valley of the Rouge State Park for 2 nights. Then we move to a different spot for 10 more days.
Another one of our very close friends (Rich and Chris) will be joining us here at the park starting the 4th and camp with us for a few days. I’m sure we will have a great time catching up. It has been almost 19 months since we have seen each other. And I’m sure we will be having some other visitors as well. We better get some ice!!! Our little ice maker won’t be able to keep up LOL!!
In the mean time we plan to spend some time at our storage units getting Diane’s car and my trike going (I’m sure the batteries are dead after 19 months) and taking pictures of a few things to post on Craig’s List. Plus we need to go to our property to check things out. And I just might swing by DMV, the tags on the trike have expired. We have stuff to do, so I better go wake Diane up and get things moving LOL!!
Someone sounds excited! Welcome back to the Pacific Northwest.
Cheers!
Was I to obvious LOL!! It’s always good to see old friends.
We have friends, Beth and Brad, that worked with us here in Benson that are working at Sparks Marina. I hope you enjoyed your stay there. Drive safe.
We did enjoy our stay and would go back.