Hitched and Rolling

Things have been getting little hectic and moving a bit too quickly on hitched and rolling so this post is going to be a little different. We are doing a speed round today, cramming a few days into one post so that I can move on and be caught up.

We woke up at the Cidery in Brady, Washington to a beautiful morning and hit the road almost immediately. We were close to the coast so we wanted to drive down and see the Pacific Ocean. On our way to Astoria we reached our first emergency.

As far as emergencies go, it wasn’t terribly emergent. Let’s call it our first adversity. The van came to us equipped with a rear, external, cargo trunk attached to the trailer hitch. It held extra supplies like camping gear, coveting Hitched and Rolling T shirt inventory, and extension cords for electric hookups at campsites.

Somewhere along the 101 South we kept hearing some grinding noise and Bre convinced me to pull over and investigate. Thank god she did. The bumper itself, which is supposed to be connected to the chassis of the van and supports the hitch, had somehow sagged such that the storage rack was making contact with the road. Not good.

After an hour or so of tool use and a call with Jamie (the van’s owner) we threw the trunk into the bed area (Duke was not amused by the idea of sharing his riding area with a nearly-coffin-sized plastic trunk) and were back on the road. Jamie told us that we were absolved of any ownership of the trunk, as we obviously couldn’t have it occupying our bed for the next 4 weeks, and that we could throw it out or sell it or do whatever we wanted with it. Fair enough.

The trunk itself was in perfect condition (the van’s hitch was the issue) so we listed it on Facebook marketplace in Portland.

We stopped for seafood on our way to Portland where we would visit my friend Franky and have dinner. She lives in a really cool artist-style house, one of those places that is just good for the soul, and it was great to see her. 

In the morning we decided to head to the mountains of central Oregon instead of back to the coast. We sold the trunk to a fire fighter and dropped it at the station. We drove to Bend Oregon and it was a wonderful drive over the Mt. Hood area, a touch of winter. When we got to bend we found a dog friendly patio restaurant with space heaters that also played the Commanders football game. Ideal! Except we lost in overtime.

In Bend we stayed at a really nice state park and sprung for HOT showers in the AM. We walked around Bend and had a breakfast burrito before heading back over the mountains to the coast. The short days are tough because the daylight just gets away from you. Because we hung in bed for a few hours in the AM and didn’t get on the road until 1PM, it felt like it was dark before we knew it. That being said, between Bend and Florence (the coastal town at which we stayed last night) we did get an awesome hike in at a waterfall, somewhere along the McKenzie river.

Hitched and Rolling rolls on.