Day 24

 

July 10 (Sunset Bay State Park, OR)

We made it almost exactly half-way through our trip before our first major hurdle. Matt walked down to our camp this morning to let us know that Lucie tested positive for covid-19 this morning. Obviously, covid disrupted our company for our first stop in Ohio (Catherine, Steve, and their crew), yet we hadn't given the pandemic much thought since (we even took to not masking as we moved off the east coast - no one else was at all…). We all feel so bad because this is not how we thought this part of the trip would go. Matt offered to let us stay and tried to brainstorm possibilities, but we knew it would have been tough (especially if Matt gets it too). I know my experience with covid was not pleasant, and I didn't want to be around anyone at all. Ultimately, we understood the best decision for all of us was to give them some space for a few days so that they could figure out their deal (the impact on Lucie, if Matt gets it, etc.) - with the intention of returning by the following weekend. I'm feeling confident we will see them by Saturday (I'd really like to see them at one of their markets), but Cassandra isn't as much - only time will tell…

We had already planned an overnight trip to the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, CA for July 12, so, for now, we needed to figure out the next two nights. Since we desperately needed some fresh clothes, we drove out to Value Clean Laundromat in Roseburg, OR to regroup and plan. This was the moment our Road Atlas came most in handy so far - it showed us that the west coast of Oregon was full of state parks and national forest with lots of camping options, so we mapped a route and headed for Coos Bay, the closest coastal city. We tried our luck at Sunset Bay State Park and we rewarded with the last vacancy on a pretty solid site location. We were so relieved and felt that the universe rewarded our decision! This campground has a trail that leads directly to the beach, and there are kids everywhere around here! 

Ev and Til are taking this change of plans so well and are just going with the flow. This could have gone in such a different way if they weren't so awesome and flexible. They were having such a wonderful time at harbinger farm and were so excited to be farmhands for our time there, yet they were strong enough to put aside their disappointment and pivot, and we all benefited through it.

This campground is a haven - we all immediately felt relief and comfort here. We still didn't know where we would be staying the following night because the campground wouldn't know its availability until 9am the next morning (and our site was occupied tomorrow night), but that didn't matter as much anymore - we were here now. We chose to sleep in the camper that night rather than set-up the tent and unpack too much gear.

 

Our neighbors came right over to introduce themselves and talk about our camper. They seem really nice and it would have been great to stay at this site longer so we could get to know them better. They told us about a place in Crescent City, CA where Jurassic Park was filmed that we should consider exploring on our way down (or back up) the coast. This interaction was par for the course on this trip: we've encountered so many nice, helpful, caring people who are so happy to support us on this trip. This interruption to our schedule could have been much more challenging without the kindness we received along the way so lots of different people across the country. We felt increased gratitude as this trip unfolded. 

We spent the evening at Sunset Bay, which is a beautiful, calm cove along the Pacific, playing in the water, making friends, and watching the sunset. None of us could have imagined this was how we'd end this day: feet in the sand, sun in our face on the Oregon Pacific Coast.

We went to sleep eager to wake up and find what the next day had in store for us!