June 13-July 9, 2014

Took our first extended trip in our new Allegro RV from June 13th through July 9th, 2014. The trip was about 3,600 miles in total, going from our home near Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles, up the coast to Seattle and back via Eastern Oregon, Idaho and Utah. Daughter Krista, her husband Dave and their daughters were with us most of the way (Dave flew back after a week to get back to work). Son Jason flew down to LA from Seattle to meet up with other son Kyle and his wife Crystal who drove up the coast in their car. Overall, it was a great trip. Didn't have any problems with the RV (unlike the other two trips we took in rented RVs). We LOVE our motorhome! Hope you enjoy the following posts with photos from along the way.

Left Phoenix for the LA area and stayed overnight at a very nice RV park in the middle of Los Angeles (who knew?). The East Shore RV Park is high on a hill overlooking the Puddingstone Reservoir. Definitely a great place to stay while in the LA area.

Drove up Highway 1 from Los Angeles to the Betabel RV Park just south of San Francisco in one day. Super windy between Paso Robles and Salinas (the wind is not a friend of a big RV!).

Actually drove the RV through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Went up the 101, cut over to the 280 then through San Francisco on Highway 1 and across the bridge. Wasn't too bad a drive - better than I expected. Narrow streets, but doable.

Always enjoy driving thru the Redwoods and stopping at several view areas along the way up the Northern California coast.

Stayed at the Riverwalk RV Park in Fortuna, CA on the way up to Oregon. Love the views of the coast! Found the Oceanside RV Park near Coos Bay - turned out to be a real gem. Beautiful sandy beach!

Drove only 133 miles the next day with stops at view points and the Sea Lion Caves. Stayed at Premier RV Resort of Lincoln City. Very nice park. We took advantage of their Jacuzzi that night!

Cut inland from Lincoln City through Portland and up I-5 the rest of the way to Seattle (not a fan of I-5. Driven that stretch too many times while living in Portland for seven years!).

June 18-July 5, 2014:

Dropped by Dave's sister's house in Manchester on the way to Seattle. We were blown away by how cool this little beach town is. The view looking back across Puget Sound to Seattle and Mt. Rainier was absolutely beautiful. I want to buy property there!

Bothell's Lake Pleasant RV Park was our home for the two and a half weeks we were in the Seattle area. Very nice RV park built around a lake in Bothell, WA. You couldn't tell we were in the middle of a major metropolitan area because the park sits down in a little valley surrounded by big, green trees. A great place to stay in the Seattle area!

Took a trip over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth one day. Leavenworth is a "Bavarian Village" in the Cascade Mountains. It was a beautiful day for the trip. We had a great time there.

Took another day-trip up to Deception Pass and La Conner. The morning clouds cleared out to let us enjoy hiking around the beaches, then stopped in La Conner for lunch and home-made ice cream!

Went back to Manchester to watch what Dave's sister described as "amazing" fireworks. It truly was! One of the neighbors shot off $37,000 worth of fireworks on one side of the park, and another neighbor must have had at least $25,000 worth of fireworks shooting off from the other side of the park. We've never been so close to fireworks! It was a blast!

Continued on down to Paul's brother's property near Gig Harbor for the rest of the day, then back to Bothell for one more night before hitting the road back to Phoenix.

July 7-8, 2014:

Not a lot to talk about from Seattle to southern Utah. Weather was in the 90s most of the way except going over some pretty high mountain passes where it dropped to the 80s, which was nice!

Stayed at a little RV park in LaGrande, Oregon and one of our favorite middle-of-the-road RV parks (because it has nice shade trees and it's next to the Snake River): Village of Trees, in southern Idaho.

July 8-9, 2014:

The last leg of our journey home included beautiful drive through the valleys on Utah's highway 89 and a stay at the quaint Bryce Zion Campground at 175 East KOA DR, Glendale, Utah. This was a small, unpopulated RV park set in a beautiful canyon with the Bryce Canyon-style mountains right behind the campground. The grandkids had fun petting the horses next to the camp!

From there, we continued on highway 89 to Wahweap Marina and RV park and had lunch overlooking Lake Powell. What a beautiful RV park! We will be making a trip back here again and stay a few days to explore Lake Powell and the surrounding mountains and canyons. The road from Page to Flagstaff had a detour because of a major rock slide, but the detour part of the road was very nice. The rest of the road to Flagstaff was in pretty bad shape with major bumps and rough roadway surface - not the best road to drive an RV on! 

Flagstaff to Phoenix is a nice drive through the the cool, mountain air and pine trees, then to desert. 

After almost a month away, it was nice to get home again!