The return trip ...
The same way we pondered before driving through California and Oregon along I-5 on the way up, we had to make a choice for the drive back. Take I-5 south back the same way we came or take I-84 east along the Columbia River and head towards Salt Lake City and Las Vegas ? There were wildfires along both routes and the fires in southern Oregon and Utah seemed to be producing the worse air quality. So we opted for the Washington > Oregon > California route using I-5 south.
We tend to use rest areas to stop and sleep at night as there are usually open spots and we can run the generator if needed as the truckers usually keep their engines or generators running too. The rest areas are also split into Trucks/Trailers one one side and Cars on the other. Occasionally, you run into that one dork that does not understand the signage and parks in a trucker/trailer slot pretty much blocking 70+ feet of parking space meant for a tractor/trailer, RV, or travel trailer with a 15' van. We were able to squeeze in behind him safely with enough room to back out in the morning if needed. Apparently the rest area filled up during the night as there was a car now parked in front of the van, which was still there. After we made some coffee we decided to get on the road ... the truck next to us had just left which meant I only had to back up a few feet so I could swing into that lane and head out. Easy Peasy.
One of the things we did about a month before the trip was to join the Harvest Hosts program. Harvest Hosts costs about $100 per year (We got a discount code from a friend that was already a member) and ours was $85 for the first year. There are almost 2000 hosts across the states with about 600 more if you add the 'golf' package to your membership. As a member you can stay for free for one night at any of the hosts listed on the website or app. You are expected to visit the host's store, wine tasting, gift shop, etc. and make a purchase of about $20. So to be perfectly honest, Harvest Hosts is really more for people that are not on an itinerary while traveling with their RV/Trailer. Many of the hosts have specific hours of operation, a lot of them are not open on weekends, and a 24 hour advance notice request to stay is pretty standard. The hosts also require 24 hours notice of a cancellation as well.
This did not work out for us too well as we tend to drive until we get tired and then stop for the night. The hosts are usually closed by then and making a reservation without knowing if we are going to make it there before 5pm didn't make much sense for us. We had a certain amount of days to get to Gig Harbor (Depart Friday after lunch and arrive at the RV resort on Monday after 1pm) so, three days to get 1,600 miles. On the way up we only used one HH, the General Patton Museum at Ciriaco Summit in California. We got there late in the evening, and left early in the morning.
On the way back we did manage to get into one of the Harvest Hosts, the Van Ruiten Family winery located in Lodi, California. We were the only ones that stayed that night. The lot was really big and could hold 4 or 5 RVs easily. We parked, freshened up, changed clothes, and went to check in and do a wine tasting. We ended up buying four bottles of wine after each of us tasting five different ones, Sue prefers Pinot Grigio so she got two of those, I'm into sweet wines and grabbed the dessert wine that I sampled earlier. It was pretty warm, the hosts allowed us to run the generator so we could kick on the AC in the trailer. A good night's rest and we were on our way.
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