Our Return To The Redwoods In 1980

Four years later, in the fall of 1979, a job change for Paul brought us to Paradise from the beautiful Napa Valley, where we had spent seven delightful years. The following summer, we fondly entertained the idea of taking our family back to camp meeting. By then we had accrued two more family members, ages three and sixteen months. Some of the older church folks encouraged us by loaning us their 9x12 tents, Coleman stove and lantern, and other miscellaneous camp equipment to “try it out and see if we liked tenting” (with such a small army). After all, that first excursion in the motel did provide almost all of the comforts of home. “Roughing it” outdoors on the ground would definitely be a totally different experience!

We decided to go forward and embark on this adventure in the great outdoors! We called ahead to the camp headquarters to reserve a spot large enough to accommodate our sizable family of eight. In the meantime, I shopped for duffle bags, canteens, and appropriate camp clothing for the troop’s ten day stint. The third Thursday of July finally arrived, the anticipated date of our departure. We fearlessly and enthusiastically crammed everything we could think of (including the baby’s diaper pail for his cloth diapers) in the old yellow, Ford, station wagon (with it’s laminated wood trim). Then one by one we all piled in and got settled for the seven hour drive awaiting us, punctuated only by gasoline and very frequent “potty” stops along the way!

During the five year interim since our first visit, the camp meeting site had been changed and moved to a new location off of US 101. It was now in a thick forest of Pepperwood trees at the bottom of a narrow, winding road, through a breathtaking and magnificent stand of redwoods called Founder’s Grove. Weary from hours of travel, we finally reached the camp site that had been assigned to us. There we discovered Les Aggers, one of the older Paradise church members, putting the finishing clean-up touches on #7 Walnut. We learned he had spent the better part of that day trimming, pruning, raking, and removing poison oak shoots, in preparation for our arrival. He couldn’t understand what took us so long to get there?! We were deeply touched by and grateful for his kindness and benevolence in our behalf. He had worked very unselfishly to clear our large, shady, corner campsite, nestled under a cluster of redwood trees. We couldn’t have asked for a lovelier location, or gesture of kindness.

We believed God had chosen this beautiful spot for us and were very thankful. By the end of those ten days, we realized tent camping, in the “wilds of nature,” was both enjoyable and compatible with our family, and all too soon it was time to leave and go back home. That was the beginning of our annual ten day retreat into the redwoods, along the north coast of California.