Day 36 California into Oregon

So, the second half of my journey did not go at all as planned. When we prepared to leave the Lake Manzanita campground, we noticed that the tow hitch and 7-pin electrical connector were hanging very low. We called the nearest RV and trailer repair shop on the way to my next stop, 50 miles away in Redding, and they thought they could help fix the problem. The tow hitch seemed strong enough to make the trip, so we drove carefully to the shop. At first, they thought they could fix it, but on further look, the hitch infrastructure likely needed welding and even then, it might not be the best fix, and the welding would void the manufacturer’s warranty. They suggested I bring it to the local Kia dealership a few miles away and see if they could do a proper fix under the warranty.

The Kia shop said they couldn’t even look at it for a few days, and it would likely need parts which could take a week. It seemed the only plausible solution was to trade in my 2022 Telluride for a used car on their lot. The salesman was a former marine, very friendly, and gave us some frozen bear meat that he had – apparently a normal thing in northern California. More than ten hours behind schedule, we left the Kia dealership in a 2022 Ford F150, certainly a better vehicle than my Kia for towing a trailer.

I had planned to go to the Redwood National Park and see the tallest tree in the world, a Redwood named Hyperion. But there were now two problems. First, I found out they no longer permit people to get close enough to see the tree, and second, I wasn’t going to arrive at the reserved campsite until 10:30. Also, there was always going to be a long drive on Saturday to the next stop in Oregon. So, I changed the plan and reserved a campsite near Medford, Oregon which was a shorter drive from Redding, and closer to the place I wanted to visit on Saturday (i.e., Crater Lake National Park). The drive was much smoother with the F150 and, as usual on my trip, the mountain scenery was terrific.

We arrived at the Valley of the Rogue State Park near Medford, which turned out to be a very nice park, with more amenities (electrical hook-ups and showers). So, at the end of the day, I was much poorer, but I had a better vehicle and was back on schedule.