Road Trip Stop #1: Klamath, CA

We spent 5 days and 6 nights at the Klamath River RV Park.

I love camping. As a kid, we were camping all the time. It was cheap (once you buy all the camping gear), easy, dogs were allowed, and everyone loves campfires. Obviously, this is well before the internet era when your entertainment was games, reading, and just enjoying nature. I am a city girl with a love for nature. It’s where I fill up my cup. I just prefer being within half a mile of a Trader Joe’s most of the time. I see using an RV as upgraded camping. You get your own bathroom, kitchen, and a comfy bed. Plus, when it rains, you’re covered… Which is clearly what we needed most in Klamath. Rain coverage.

The first thing I noticed about this location (after the SIX HOUR DRIVE) was the greenery. This place is SO. FREAKING. GREEN. Bella Swan may hate that attribute but I live for it. Being among the Redwoods is second nature to me at this point. It’s where I feel home. Jacob made sure that we got an “on the river” spot and it did not disappoint. We opened our RV right up to an unobstructed view of the Klamath River. I remember the first morning I woke up (after a night of rain) and I opened the trailer door. I was speechless. I quickly closed the door just so that I could mentally prepare myself to open it again. Beautiful is an understatement. I couldn’t believe THIS was where I got to hang out and work from for a full week. Good job, Jacob.

The second thing I noticed was that this place was so clean! Sure, we had our own bathroom but when you have a lot of hair, washing it is a real chore. I opted to shower at the campsite when it came hair washing time and it was great. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a more clean public bathroom in my entire life.

This section of our trip has been wet. Like. Very wet. It rained part of Monday, almost all of Thursday, and most of Friday. Thankfully, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty beautiful (I even laid out to write on Tuesday and had to take off my long sleeved layer). When it wasn’t too wet, I ventured out to the small little trail (called “The Woods”, which is maybe half a mile and loops back to the back end of the park and on my first attempt, I chickened out because it got ~too quiet~ and had to go back and wait for Jacob to come with me), read my book(s) along the river, drove down to the beach (where the Klamath River and Pacific Ocean meet) to see some seals and climb the cliffs, and just genuinely enjoy being outside. Even the rain didn’t bother me that much. If I was cooped up inside, I was mostly working or reading or cooking. When I did sit outside, it was under the awning, under some layers with a cup of hot tea. And when I wanted to get out, I donned my water proof jacket and hiking boots and walked around in the rain. Water heals me in a way I can never really explain. So far, so healing. Despite the cold.

Sidney, on the other hand, is the literal opposite of a water dog. I think she would rather walk into a fire than walk into the ocean. When we went to the beach, you’d think we were going to throw her in and hold her under. She started getting used to the rain (mostly because she had to go in it to use the bathroom) by Friday, when the two of us were going stir crazy and needed to get out. We headed out to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park because it was close and I found a trail that dogs could go on… Which is tough. I love hiking and I’m lucky that Sidney really isn’t a huge fan because there’s so few trails that allow dogs. I get it. I know. It’s shitty dog owners that don’t know how to actually handle their dogs and won’t clean up after them. One rotten apple and all that jazz. By the time we got there, it was POURING rain and the road we needed to go down… was closed. I almost gave up and told Jacob to go home (actually I did, in fact, do just that). Jacob was determined. He said we could walk down the closed road for a bit – since we were already there. So that’s what we did. Alone. We walked to the trail head and a little further before we both remembered we came absolutely unprepared (no water). But that was okay. The beauty was everywhere and it was impossible not to soak up.

By Friday, I still hadn’t turned of my “must work at 100%” brain and was frustrated with myself. I already know that I’m my own work enemy because I hold myself to impossible standards. When I woke up on Friday and saw that it was going to be a long day of rain (again), I wanted to just cry. Instead, Jacob convinced me to do the hike I had been talking about (even though it didn’t work out in the end) and I told him we had to stop for lunch because I couldn’t make another sandwich. So we did. We stopped at the Log Cabin Diner for takeout and pulled over in another parking lot to eat. I didn’t go inside because bad mood Lauren gets anxious about social things but Jacob said the employees were very nice. They were quick and UGH it was delicious (we both got burgers and fries). Before we left for this trip, I snagged my copy of One Pan, Two Plates and picked out 4 recipes to stick to. I knew that if I just “made it up along the way” I would stress more so this was perfect. These recipes plus some sandwiches, steak, tacos, and the occasional takeout was my plan. So it’s not like we weren’t eating good but when you’re in such a small space, you have to clean dishes (and put them away) every single time you use them. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. There’s also a finite amount of dishes so even if you didn’t want to wash up, you’d run out of clean dishes quickly.

This was a magical location. This is exactly what I needed. This is what I was looking for. It got me even more excited to continue on this journey. I wonder what’s going to happen next.

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Stay tuned