September 2026 Update from the Road

In September, we started our rapid-fire tour of Oregon. Once again, we were squeezing in as many sites as we could before we started our long haul to Southern California to join a 4 day celebration of a fellow nomad’s 50th birthday.

As always, our plan was loose. We hoped our first stop after we crossed the border from Washington to Oregon would be visiting friends in St. Helens, north of Portland, but they weren’t ready for us. So we delayed a bit and headed for the Columbia River Gorge. But as we drove toward the Gorge, it was raining. I checked our weather app, and it looked like the rain wouldn’t cease for a few days. So we made a last-minute decision, changed course, and headed out to the desert instead.

We ended up in eastern Oregon following the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway. The landscape was dramatic and colorful. We learned about fossils and visited a couple of mercantiles, one frozen in time and the other open for business. By the time we circled back up to the Columbia Gorge, the rain had abated. Along the Columbia River, we found fascinating museums, wildlife, amazing vistas, and waterfalls.

In St. Helens, we visited old sailing and land travel friends. We had a good time catching up and reminiscing about our previously mobile lives. A fun evening was had bar-hopping before we said yet another goodbye and headed off to the coast.

The Oregon coast is about 363 miles long. We spent 9 days, traveling about 220 miles of it, starting in Tillamook and ending at Cape Blanco State Park. There were lighthouses, sand dunes, exotic plants, rocks, wildlife, and stunning beaches. There will be a very long post with many pictures about this eventually.

From the coast, we headed back inland for one final tourist stop: Crater Lake National Park. It is one of those places whose beauty can only be hinted at in photos. You have never seen water this blue.

Our last stop in Oregon was to visit another friend. Lisa was my college roommate. A professional actress, she was performing in Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She showed us around Ashland and we got to see a few backstage things at the theater.

After visiting with Lisa, we gassed up one last time in Oregon before entering the land of super-expensive gas: California. We were on our way to Joshua Tree, but we had one more stop to visit friends.

I have known Beth since I was 16. She was my brother’s girlfriend but remained friends with my mother after my brother and her broke up. So I guess you would call her a family friend. We have visited her many times, as we have passed through California over the years, and have always had a great time and done something interesting. She and her husband, Tom, live in Clear Lake Oaks, a tiny town on the shores of Clear Lake in northwestern California.

On this visit, Beth was vending at the Pear Festival in Kelseyville on the other side of the lake. Beth and Tom make jewelry and ceramic mosaics. But their biggest sellers are upcycled flannel shirts with cutout band T-shirts sewn on the back. They were flying off the racks at the Pear Festival. We cruised the festival for a bit, listened to some music, looked at old tractors, and ate pear muffins, a pear and cheese sandwich, and pear ice cream.

On our last day at Beth and Tom’s we took an excursion to Calistoga where we visited the Sharpsteen Museum. This museum was founded by Walt Disney animator and producer Ben Sharpsteen. It houses displays about the area’s history and the interesting people who lived there. One highlight of the museum is a 30-foot-long diorama depicting Sam Brannan’s Calistoga Hot Springs resort.

That night Beth and Tom took us out for dinner and dancing at the restaurant where they got married last year.

From Clearlake Oaks we made two big jumps down to Southern California, stopping only to eat, rest, sleep, and do last-minute shopping for the party. On October 1st we would celebrate my friend’s birthday. More on that next month.

* All pics are click to enlarge. The captions tell even more of the story. Once pics are enlarged, you can also view them in a slideshow.

A few expenses

I am not detailing every nickel and dime we spend anymore, but I thought I would write about a few expenses that relate specifically to our journeys.

Oregon State Park Pass

We spent $75 on an Oregon State Park parking pass. It seemed like a lot—especially compared to our Washington State park pass (which cost only $45 and included some campgrounds). But once I looked at this map of parks down the Oregon coast, I thought we should go ahead and get one.

Daily parking at state parks is $12 for non-Oregon residents. We only needed to visit 6 parks to make the pass worth it. We ended up parking at one state park along the Columbia Gorge and at least 9 parks along the coast.

Gas

We spent $921.53 on gas and traveled about 2490.7 miles. Once we entered California, gas prices jumped. But we managed to keep this expense down by buying gas on Native American reservations. Tribes don’t have to pay state sales tax. In California, this can be a savings of up to 70¢ a gallon (so says AI).

Camping

$159.92 was spent on camping.

Some of our camping was planned ahead of time. But most of it, especially on the coast, wasn’t planned until the end of the day. We’d check iOverlander and find the cheapest and most convenient place closest to where we were. Sometimes it was a parking lot; sometimes it was an actual campground.

Our Harvest Host subscription came in handy for some fun and super convenient camping experiences. On the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway, we stayed at the Dayville Mercantile. Since we always like to spend money at Harvest Host locations, we bought a 6-pack of beer. The mercantile’s owner invited us to sit down and drink it in the store. We spent a fun evening chatting with our host and a few other Harvest Host campers.

On the Oregon Coast, we stayed at the Blue Heron. The Blue Heron is a tourist destination with cheese and wine tastings, a gift shop, restaurant, a petting zoo, and a giant field for Harvest Host campers. Once you check in, they give you a piece of paper to put on your windshield that allows you to stay in the camping area for 5 days. The Blue Heron is easy to get to and centrally located. We only spent two days there, but one could easily spend 5 days, using the location as a home base to see much of the coast.

We only used our Boondockers Welcome subscription for our long haul to Southern California when we knew we would be tired and didn’t want to hunt for a site.

And we saved money being old. Because we have a Senior America the Beautiful pass, all camping at Federal campgrounds is half price. This includes National Parks, BLM campgrounds, Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds, and Forest Service campgrounds. We spent 6 nights at Federal Campgrounds in September.

Camping stats:

• 3 nights in a Native American casino parking lot
• 1 night at an Oregon regional park (paid, $25)
• 2 nights on BLM land
• 3 nights at Harvest Hosts locations
• 1 night at an Army Corps of Engineers location
• 1 night in a museum parking lot
• 7 nights in friends’ driveways
• 2 nights at national forest campgrounds (paid, $38)
• 1 night at a brewery
• 1 night in a parking lot
• 1 night at a marina ($25)
• 1 night at a BLM campground ($9.50)
• 3 nights in a National Park Service campground (paid, $62.42)
• 1 night on the street in front of a friend’s house
• 2 nights at Boondockers Welcome locations