our 2011 road trip

[Bruce Wayne]

Did our annual road trip the last couple of weeks. this year took us to Canada. it had been a few years since we had been up there,so it was time.
Started out from Creswell,OR. drove straight through town up over Hamm Road and took the "back way" to the coast. arrived in Florence and drove up 101. first stop was Otter Rock,popular surfing spot. a few years back me and my friend were surfing here and he got sucked out by the current and had to be rescued by two younger surfers,funny now,not at the time. you can see the lineup in the pic.

next stop was Oswald West State Park,another very popular surf spot. you have to hike back in about 3/4 mile to get to the beach,so we just stopped and snapped a couple of pics.

our first night we stayed at Barview Jetty Campground,nothing really special,just a place to stay for the night. did put on the Wasser stopper.slight sprinkle that night.

drove on up the coast the next day across the Astoria bridge and into Washington. stopped to see Jake the Alligator boy,he owed me money.
continued north to Olympic National Park. stayed at Willaby Campground on Lake Quinalt. we had stayed here years ago. just an awesome day that day.got a great site overlooking the lake.

drove on to Port Angeles and to Dungeness Recreation area. a fellow Samba member suggested this site,and I'm glad he did. another great spot,with about a 50 foot walk to the trail. there is a light house out on the spit that is 5 miles one way that you can walk to. we got there a little to late to make that trek,but did walk down to the beach which was still a nice little walk. tried out the Bus Depot awning for the first time in the field.

on to the ferry to Victoria. a friend at work has a time share for various places throughout the world,and Victoria is one of them. she got us two nights,(at $60 a night!) for a two bedroom condo. it was a nice little treat. two nights was enough for us,get kinda bored of the city after that. did take Mrs. Wayne to Butchart Gardens.if your planning on going,dont'. it was way expensive and not nearly as big as I thought it would be.
a pic of the condo.we were in a building to the right of the red van.note our Vanagon behind the red van.

a pic of the ferry from our room.

a nice bus parked downtown.

John Lennon's Rols Royce at the Museum.

after our two days in Victoria we drove over to Sooke and up to Port Renfrow to find a road that a couple of other Samba members told me about. don't think I found it though. the only paved road I found was past Fairy Lake and on to Lake Cowichan,and it sure wasn't new.
stayed at Englishman River Falls Campground. very nice. walked around on the trails to the falls.nice and relaxing day. slept until 11 a.m. the next morning! longest I have slept in years.

on to Ucluelet. stopped at a place called Butterfly World (or something like that) it was pretty cool actually. all kinds of butterflies from all over the world,and a little orchid garden (Mrs. Waynes favorites)nice drive out there. we stayed at Uclulet Campground for two days. nice and relaxing.
see how happy Mrs. Wayne is with the site.

first night we went out to the lighthouse and walked around a little.

drove to Tofino the next day.what a tourist trap! not at all like a remember. walked around a little and then headed back to Uclulet.stopped at the beach and went for a nice long walk. about 70 degrees,very little wind,just awesome!
went for a walk on the lighthouse loop trail. very nice walk. got back to camp and the surfers camped by us gave us some cake,mmmm!
this thing parked a few spots from us tonight. its a Mercedes Benz.

left the next morning heading towards Nanaimo. saw a small bear on the side of the road eating trash.
drove to Courtenay and stayed at Kin Beach for a couple of nights. loved this town! don't know what it was,but I really liked it. not so sure I would buy a guitar there though. $325 for a used Squire Strat,ouch! we were camped right by Comox Air Base. they have a museum there that is very interesting,and it's free. did the walk through of the museum and just down the road are several planes that you are able to walk around. very cool.
maybe dogpilot can shed some more light on these pics,I can't remember what exactly they are.

our campsite at Kin Beach. set up our Zodi and shower room here. worked great! not like your shower at home,but it gets the job done.
(the showers main attachment point for the poles was all messed up so I had to clamp it. took it back to Wally World when we got home and got a new one.)

heading back to Nainmo to catch the ferry back. saw this little fellow.

drove to Cultus Lake to get a spot for the night. another tourist trap with waterslides,arcades etc. looks like a big water ski lake. sacked for the night and left in the morning,to many skeeters. drove to Hope and took Highway 3 through the mountains. what a beautiful drive! tried to get a spot at Osoyoos Lake,but it was packed. BC Days,not sure what that is,but all the campgrounds are full.the lady said there was another campground 35 miles down the road and 15 miles off the road. get to the border and we happen to be the ones for the "random search" two other Westy's go through customs while we are waiting to get "searched". I'm thinking they are going to come out and start going through the van with a fine toothed comb. the border agent comes back,gives us our passports and says we can go. maybe he saw that my brother is a lawyer for Homeland Security when he was doing the check on us. back on the road. we drove 10-12 miles down the road and see a sign for the "Many Lakes Rec. Area." certainly no 35 miles like the lady at Osoyoos Lake said. drive another 5-6 miles and I'm about to turn around when I see the sign for "Sun Cove Resort". it's late,I'm tired of driving and getting low on gas. so we drive another 6 miles back in thinking we are going to be paying premium price for a campsite at a resort. this place was great! beautiful little lake,great sites,little store,cafe. we payed $42 for a site,2 pieces of real homemade pie,a coke and an ice cream bar. nice and quiet at night and the stars were amazing,wish I would have had my telescope!

Sun Cove Resort Lake Wannacut

drove to the Grand Coulee Dam the next day,

and then on to Goldendale and stayed at Brooks State Park. just a place to sleep for the night,nothing special.
drove home the next day. to much stuff and to many pics to post. Van ran great except for the headlight going out,(fixed,oxidized fuse was the culprit) and exhaust leak the last couple of days.(fixed) 2281 miles by land and 50 or so by sea.

[0to60in6min]

very nice.. thanks..

I wish that you resize the images before posting.. . They are so big that they choke my computer..

[Bruce Wayne]

[carterzest]

[0to60in6min]

hi Bruce,

we will try to help you to re-size your images... what software do you use for post processing your images?

[Bruce Wayne]

[Bruce Wayne]

[campism]

I've found paint.net to be hand for resizing pix to post on Samba. This time last year we were doing the Olympic and Victoria area in a rental, sadly not in our Westy. You might want to post your giant elf pic in the Roadside Attractions thread, too.

[j8]

Thanks for posting your trip report Bruce! Always good to see the travels.
_________________
Julia
'89 2WD Westy (No end to names...)

[Bruce Wayne]

[climberjohn]

Hi Bruce,

Very nice Trip Report (TR)! I will try a few of your suggestions in a few weeks when I head up for much the same trip.

It's a good lesson of travel to often toss out your pre trip ideas and plans of what and where and follow the breeze and the locals' tips. Look like you did a but of both.

Cheers,
CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[brianu]

[0to60in6min]

here's how to resize images in Adobe Photoshop..

- open the image
- got IMAGE -> IMAGE SIZE (on top nav. bar)
- change resolution to 72
- change the longest side to 8 or 10 (either Width or Height)
- keep Constrain Proportion checked - Resample Image checked
- click OK
- go to FILE -> SAVE for WEB & DEVICES
- chose JPEG as format (left side)
- chose Quality between 50 and 75
- click Save

now...

save this new file in ANOTHER folder or add something to its name for example P1020999.JPG become P1020999_2.JPG or P1020999_Lores.JPG

you need to save this way to keep the original file intact for printing purpose. The new re-sized file will be too small for printing later on. The new one is only good for WEB, and you do not want to destroy the original file.

good luck and have fun..

[Bruce Wayne]