The Beginning

So we’re off, after all the prepping, and a tiny bit planning, we cross into the States on a sunny Tuesday afternoon to start eight months of driving south in our trusty steed, Westy Rick. Having not spent more than two consecutive nights sleeping in our van some might say “Are you sure this is sensible?”. Of course it isn’t!

The 6^th night is here, and we’ve covered 1100 leisurely Kilometers taking us to the coast west of Portland. Every night has been spent “Boondocking” somewhere remote with our only amenities those we carry. Don’t think that means we’re already living like a pair of tramps stomping round smelling of rotten fish, we’re more like well-equipped nomads who usually pee in the bushes but do wash our hands afterwards. And as you can see, capable of making a tasty dinner or taking an outdoors shower.

 Our travels have taken us up into Washington Olympic National Park where we swam in a reservoir, camped out in the trees and swam again in the morning while the coffee was brewing. Here we met some Californians with their own Vanagon who we hope to catch up with again further down the coast. 

Despite our unsociable self-contained lifestyle, we have occasionally visited civilisation to visit points of major interest such as the first ever Starbucks in Seattle. Unfortunately it proved a popular destination with an extensive queue. We tried to find alternative Starbucks (as the photo shows) within a 5 minute walk but couldn’t find quite the right one so we patiently waited our turn before heading across a massive bridge into Oregon.

Another night, another lonely camping spot. Whilst most forest roads are gated or aggressively signposted against entry, some seem to have been forgotten about so we sneak up when no-one is watching. This one just off the coast towards Portland we utilised twice, arriving in the sunshine and waking up inside the clouds.

In an effort to avoid some incoming coastal rain we headed inland, past Portland up into the Mt. Hood region. After a refreshing swim (read wash) in a lake, we tucked in beside a back road where we watched squirrels until it got boring. About 3 hours.

We stopped in Portland to grab some essentials to complete our preparadnessosity on our way back to the coast, bumping into a British family in a kitted out custom Defender doing the same trip as ourselves. Now we continue our way down the west coast, not hanging around in the States too long as we have a loooooooot to see.

This link SHOULD be to our GPS locations on our trip so.

After being overtaken for the fourth time by disgruntled Americans, it finally 

damned on us that the US 50 wasn’t the same as a Canadian 50.

Boring. Didn't go.

Cape of Disappointment. Shouldn’t have gone.