The uneventful end to my first extended road trip with my dog.
It took me a month to write this post because, to be honest, I was disappointed in the trip. Poor planning was to blame. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy bits and pieces, but for the most part, it was a failure.
One bright spot on our trip was a stop in Astoria. I’m still confused whether it’s in Washington or Oregon, as I saw both listed. It is on the border, but I didn’t care enough to look into it; I simply enjoyed my time at the campground.
While in Astoria, we visited the Goonies house and a museum with fun facts about the movie and others that were filmed in and around the town. The campground we stayed at was near a beach that had a washed-up ship that some called a pirate ship for fun. It’s almost all rusted away at this point, but it’s still interesting to see in person.
From there, we headed south, staying two nights inside a Glamping Yurt way up in the Oregon mountains. We had stayed in one of the Under the Canvas sites in Moab, Utah, a few years ago and fell in love. However, this site fell flat. It has only been open for around six months, but there’s no excuse for the lack of attention to detail that I came to expect from my past experience in Utah. One of their perks is a nightly gathering. It could be s’mores or, at this site, one night was a lemonade bar. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t small Dixie cups with powder Country Time Lemonade and a few berries. Nor did I expect them to run out after only a handful of the guests had a glass. Oh, did I mention it was an hour late as well? Yeah, poorly run, and I can’t recommend this site based on my personal experience. This was just the cherry on top after hubby woke up early for their sunrise yoga with an instructor who never showed up. When he questioned the front desk, they said they didn’t have anyone, but he was welcome to do yoga on his own. The point was that an instructor was listed on their activities board since hubby has never done yoga and wanted someone to lead him through the exercises. To say we were disappointed upon leaving is an understatement.
That’s when we decided to call it quits and keep driving south until we reached our home. We needed to get some rest and stopped at a La Quinta Hotel near the University of Oregon Football Stadium. Right outside the rear entrance was a four-acre dog park that Dingo loved. Across from the hotel was a beautiful park, and we walked around a few times a day for potty breaks and some much-needed exercise for all of us. Upon our check-in, there was a festival in the park with all sorts of vendors. My favorite was the chocolate-dipped, soft-serve ice cream.
The next morning, our goal was to put as many miles behind us as possible. Around 7:00 pm, I couldn’t sit in the truck any longer. I desperately needed a hot bath and a soft bed to recharge my mind and body. It took a few tries, but we finally found a hotel with rooms that accepted dogs.
Our final day on the road started early and ended late. We pushed through, only stopping for potty breaks and a quick take-out bite to eat.
Landing home around 8:00 pm, I didn’t even bother to unpack. A hot shower was calling my name and my bed screamed for me to get under the covers, demanding I sleep in the next day, which I did.
This trip was full of lessons learned for future trips. And speaking of, as I type this post, we are on another road trip. This time, hubby planned out all of our stops with activities and things to do. He’s currently kayaking while Dingo and I are hanging out at our campsite. We rented a van outfitted similar to a small RV.
I’ll have more details about this new trip soon.
Adventure is out there; you just need to slow down and make it happen.
