10-19-21 Westport Beach Trip (Northern California)

10-19-21 Tuesday

Westport Beach, CA

Space 168

Jeeps in Campground: 2

Drive Time: 5 hours including stopping for gas

Miles: 163

Arrived: 03:00 PM

We left CV about 10:00 AM for Westport Beach, north of Fort Bragg. We’ve been as far north as Fort Bragg so this will be an adventure. We will be staying until next Monday the 25th. Our friends, Ken and Jan Reynolds and Roma and Dennis Mofford will be joining us on Thursday evening. The Moffords will be staying at a local hotel. 

BTW for those of you familiar with Jeff, he decided to join us. He wanted to ride in the jeep since he has not experienced the jeep yet. 

After our 27-day trip in September, Barry decided he wanted to have new shocks installed. He had the tag axel shocks replaced earlier this year. In addition, he just had installed anti-sway bars for the front and rear, and a front steering stabilizer. All of this is supposed to help the swaying of the front. She tended to roam back and forth in the lane and when it’s windy it was kind of scary. Plus, after about 4 hours of driving Barry’s hands would hurt or start tingling due to trying to keep the steering wheel straight. We also had to have the front steps replaced as mentioned in one of my blogs during our 27-day trip to Mt. Rushmore. This was the first trip after all the front-end work was completed and what a difference the ride was. She seemed much quieter, defiantly a smoother ride and best of all no rattling! By the time we reached Westport Beach Barry was not so tired. He was very happy about the drive. 

We decided to take 128 from highway 101 to highway 1 instead of highway 20. We’re familiar with 128 so we felt more comfortable taking it. It seemed much windier than driving in a car, so Barry was sure to take the turns slow. When he could he pulled over to let other cars pass, especially the ones on the clock like UPS or truckers. We saw numerous logging trucks fully loaded just barreling through the roads. 

The drive through the redwoods was beautiful. It’s my favorite part of 128. Such a different perspective sitting up high. We passed through Navarro without stopping at Navarro and Husch Wineries for tasting. We love those two wineries. There are others on 128 we normally stop at but those are our favorites. 

Next, we went through Little River and talked about the many times we have stayed at Little River Inn. Another place we love. If you ever get a chance to spend a few nights, please do so. It’s a wonderful place. It’s still run by the same family that started the inn numerous years ago. The restaurant is also fabulous. You can’t go wrong with this place. 

We passed through Fort Bragg and talked about the last time we visited and tasted at North Coast Brewery. The food was great, but the beers are too strong for me. However, Barry loves their beers. 

Now onto Westport Beach where we have not been. Driving along the coast is so gorgeous but the tight turns force us to go slow. Again, Barry will pull over a few times to let traffic pass. He comments often what a difference driving the coach is and less stressful. I’m glad we decided to have all the front-end work done. Happy husband, happy wife!

We made it to Westport Beach and stopped to make sure we were entering the park correctly. We decided to disconnect the jeep and I would go first to check out the road. You enter on a dirt road, go down a hill, across a bridge to the office. It had rained the past few days, so the dirt road was muddy. Barry had to go slow since it was also bumpy. We parked, checked in, bought some firewood and headed to our site. Again, I went first to find the site. Barry pulled in but had to straighten out a bit, leveled and hooked us up. The sewer hookup is at the other end of where our hose is, and we didn’t have enough hose to reach it. Tomorrow we’ll go to the office and buy additional hose. 

We put the awning and rug out and took a walk to the beach. Our camp site is only about a minute walk to the beach. One of the reasons we wanted to come here. The beach is owned by the RV park and private. There are picnic tables along the beach for any of the campers to use. About an hour later it started pouring and continued most of the night. Thank goodness we got settled just in time. Then the winds came up. We ended up taking the awning down for the night. 

We didn’t mind the rug getting wet since it’s made of ground up PVC pipe. We’ll need to use it to wipe our feet since it’s supposed to rain a lot while we're here. 

We cooked dinner, relaxed, read for a while and hit the hay. 

FYI-Cell signal here is very spotty and I would go as far to say, "not at all." So posting updates will be very hit and miss....more miss. If we go into Fort Bragg then I can update but it may not happen until we are on the road home. 

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