A to B: Covelo, CA to Willits, CA

We decided that even though Max was working that day, we should get out of town Saturday night and avoid losing half of Sunday. We would wake up at some campground in the national forest in Lake County early Sunday morning and be on our way.

Buzz of course sensed that a trip was about to begin and chose to assert her independence by sleeping in a strange spot. Emily was able to find her and pilot our 1988 Sportsmobile to the restaurant in town, where she happens to work, by 7pm. Max got a lift there after work, we got our order of salmon to go, and we were off to such an impressive start we stopped to enjoy our dinner at Inspiration Point and watched the sun begin to set over Round Valley.

As luck would have it that night, this leisurely exit allowed us to fall behind an ambulance with a patient that needed to be air lifted to Santa Rosa. Halfway to Highway 101 we were stopped to allow a REACH (medical rescue) helicopter land near the Dos Rios bridge to transport someone to a nearby hospital. The emergency staff on the ground said that because the helicopter was busy when the call came in, they sometimes will drive the person to a closer pick up location in the meantime. The landing was quite dramatic, kicking up lots of dust despite their wetting down of the area. The onlookers who had just finished a day of swimming ran behind their cars for cover. It all went smoothly and we just hope the liftee got the help he or she needed and had helicopter insurance.

After the emergency vehicles cleared off the road, we continued on and arrived at Highway 101 just as it became really dark. We decided to check the very first campground that we saw (only a 15 mile or so drive from where Covelo Road meets the 101) and although pretty steep at $20, we decided Creekside Cabins and RV Park was a good bet with hot showers and a quiet atmosphere for being right off the highway on a Saturday night. We drove 5 miles south to Willits to gas up and visit Safeway so we wouldn't have to stop in the morning, backtracked back to Creekside Cabins and got to bed early and prepared for a real push into the deserts of Nevada on Sunday, if not doing good things for our accommodation budget.

Links: REACH, Creekside Cabins and RV Park

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