Heading back to Berkeley down 5 could have been a quick trip, except we had a few stops to make along the way. We were just 45 minutes south of Portland when we came upon the legendary Woodburn Company Stores. This place is full of every brand name outlet you could imagine, and so big that it had it’s own RV Campground, along with a separate parking lot just for RVs. We had to stop, it was made for us. Besides, I still needed to do my “back to school” wardrobe shopping.
Plenty of space to park...
Two hours later, we got back on the road with a long, hot haul to go. About half way to our destination, we stopped in a small town called Myrtle Creek to stretch, etc. This town was tiny, but it had two things that one would expect to see in Oregon; A Dairy Queen and an Elks Lodge. They were actually across the street from each other.
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We had made reservations at a KOA in Gold Hill OR. As night was falling, I noticed that our running lights on the curbside of the trailer weren’t on. We pulled off at a rest stop and I tried to re-seat the bulb. That’s when I saw a spark and all of the trailer lights went out. It was just about dark and we were going to have to find some place closer to stop for the night. This is when our GPS POI destination locator paid off. Our digital Atlas suggested a couple camp grounds nearby. We explored the first one down a dark, pot-hole filled road, and discovered the gate closed. The sign said it was some sort of Rifle Club, so we high-tailed it out of there, jumped across the freeway and headed into Beaver Creek. We found the park, and there was one last site available, so we took it. Did I mention it was hot?? Probably the hottest night of our entire trip. As we pulled into our spot, we noticed a couple older men in the site next to us sitting at their picnic table… with their shirts off. It was THAT hot… and luckily pretty dark. After we were settled, I cracked open a PBR and Shannon poured a glass of wine, and we both sat out at our picnic table and watched as a short Airstream pulled in… and parked in an overflow spot across the way by the bathrooms. We were good for the night.
It weren't too fancy, but it was home for a night.