Here we are, on the road: We’re in Visalia, CA.

September 7, 2014 Lorraine’s Report

Hello once again from Visalia, CA, a nice sunny town in CA. Thanks for stopping by. Well, this week we were unhooked from the modern day world, meaning-- no phones, no internet, we got television, but had to park in the middle of an open field to get it. The trees would have made that impossible to receive, so we parked in the middle of an open field. I sure wish Thousand Trails had better campgrounds for its users. They are so old, power is iffy and yet they want a lot for their membership. Go figure..

So this week we spent our time visiting Yosemite National Park. What a very nice park! The ride up to this park was something else. We went up to around 10,000 feet above sea level. Now, those who don’t know me think this is normal for me, but I kept telling Chuck, I was a sea-level type person. I don’t like going up that high; it’s harder to breathe, and the heights make me a bit scared. Especially going up that high in our motor home. You see all kinds of people texting or not paying attention to how they are driving. Chuck had to use his horn a bunch of times to wake people up so they stayed in their lanes. That was the worst part.

But it was wonderful to visit the area. I liked visiting the Sequoia National Park. I think I liked the Sequoia National Park the best. I loved the trees; while it was nice to see all the rocks and such, nothing beats it for me than looking at a piece of living history. Those trees are something else. All worth it to me!

This week, on September 11, my son will be entering the hospital in Anchorage. Rick has to have a heart stent put into his vein in his heart. I hope everyone will remember him in their prayers, hopefully all will be okay for him. Please pray for him. He is still so young and has many more years ahead of him. He has been and always will by my sunshine and heart!

Guess that is it for me. When we came back to civilization, we had over 100 e-mails, and it took me most of one evening to catch up on facebook. It was 103 degrees when we came into Visalia, CA.

Until next time- Hugs,

Lorraine

9/7/14 Chuck’s report

We are back in the HOT Sacramento Valley once again with both air conditioners running mostly all the time. We’ve been up in the mountains for the past few days and it’s a bit cooler there but we were out of contact with no/very little cell phone or internet service so its nice to be back in civilization again. But we have kept busy exploring both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.

Last Sunday and Monday we finished up our time in Reno by visiting a couple more casinos, nothing much to report from those two days. We both mostly stayed even, I think Lorraine left town with more money than she started with, yea.

We knew we wanted to explore Yosemite but I wasn’t sure of the roads there, it would take more time/miles to head back on I-80 vs going through some of the “back roads”. I called our friend Mike to pick his brain and luckily he heard the phone and answered. His suggestion was the back roads would be just fine although we would be driving in the mountains.

So Tuesday that’s what we did, headed South on 395, mostly 4 lane and good road conditions too. A good start to our trip. Then we turned onto 1-20 and entered Yosemite on the East side. Mike was certainly right, we had lots of hills to climb/descend and this was mostly 2 lanes, sometimes with narrow lanes. There were a few times that Lorraine was holding on for dear live with her eyes closed. I didn’t have too much of a problem except for a couple of times oncoming drivers tried to cut their corners short by driving into our lane when I was already hugging the right edge. One time I even had to hit the air horns to get a driver’s attention, I think they would have hit us if I hadn’t done that.

This wasn’t the worse road we’ve driving the coach on but it was one of the narrowest for sure and some of the hills were really steep. I am sure glad we waited until after the Labor day holiday to do this part of the drive, can’t imagine doing this with 5 times more traffic. And yes, I was using the pullouts so traffic behind us could go around, a couple of drivers even waved with their full hand as they passed.

But it was nice scenery, at least Lorraine said she enjoyed it, I was too busy driving to really enjoy the views. We were just driving through the park and staying at a 1000 Trails park on the West side. Our plans were to park the rig and explore the park over the next three or four days driving the car vs the motorhome and one day we would return back to visit what we had just pasted through.

Once we got to the park and checked in, we headed out to unhook the car and find a spot. It was hot enough that we wanted a 50 amp site so we could run both air conditioners. But the only ones left were in the trees and would have been very hard to back into. Plus we knew there was no way we could get satellite reception on the TV antenna through the trees there. We also didn’t have any cell phone or internet access so we wanted to try to at least get TV while we were there.

There is a nice, open field with 30 amp service and they have shared service with two rigs, one facing one way, the other just opposite. With this being after Labor Day weekend and the majority of the campers having left the day before, there were lots of open sites. So we picked one and I tried using our “cheater” electric box. This allows us to use two different feeds and connect them into one feed to our coach.

I was able to connect to both site’s 30 amp power as they were both on the same post, just different sides. This allowed us to have 2- 30 amp services, basically giving us 60 amps. All that just to say we could run both air conditioners although we did turn them off when we ran the microwave, just in case.

And we did need them, it was in the high 90s and we were in a valley so there wasn’t any hint of a breeze to help. It sure would have been hot with only one air conditioners.

After that tiring drive I was ready to just rest for awhile, didn’t even want to drive into town. We had a roasted chicken and Lorraine fixed up a good dinner for us and we just took it easy, didn’t even wash the bugs off the front of the rig. We did return to the guard shack to use their phone to call our daughter to let her know we were ok but out of cell service for a couple of days and gave her the phone number at the guard shack just in case.

Next morning I was going through the basement storage and found I couldn’t move one of the sliding beds with our totes on it. I first thought it might be some of the leveling boards I store under it might have moved and gotten into the track but that wasn’t it. Finally I found a rubber doorstop I carry down there had moved and got caught in the outside portion of the slide just enough to keep it from moving. Yea, an easy fix, not too common on these motorhomes sometimes.

After breakfast we got in the car and headed out to visit Yosemite for my first time. We headed for Yosemite Village where the visitor’s center is located and some of the reports say is the best part of the park. Boy am I glad we were driving the car on this section, it had some real tight, narrow corners that would have been tough if we were in the coach.

We drove around the area to check things out then parked and got in line for the shuttle ride to the visitor’s center. That’s right, you can not drive to the visitor’s center in a personal car, you either have to walk (half mile or so) or ride the shuttle. We waited in line for about 15 minutes without seeing a shuttle so decided to walk instead. About a block away we saw another shuttle stop and asked the driver about her route. She said she could drop us off about a block from the center and also said the shuttle to/from the parking lot wasn’t running after Labor Day. Sure would have been nice to if they would have posted a sign informing all the folks in line that the shuttle would never show up, ya think!

I asked about the waterfalls in the park as we hadn’t seen any yet and the gal said it was too late in the year, all the water falls were dried up, shoot. The waterfalls are some of the nicest scenes in the park according to brochures I’ve read and now we couldn’t see any. After we got back to the car, we continued with our tour of the area before returning returning back to our rig.

Thursday we headed out once again, this time to retrace our drive when we drove the motor home through. It sure was a much nicer drive in a car and even then there was a couple of times someone cut their corner short and almost ran us off the road. And it was sure steep but the scenery was nicer on this portion than around the visitor’s center, at least we both though so. We drove most of the way back through the park before deciding to turn around and head back, really only one road in this area.

Our return trip was mostly downhill, from 9000’ down to 3500’ and with the speed limit 40 MPH or less, I really had good gas mileage. The computer calculated we hit an average of 80 MPH for the last 25 miles, wow. Of course, I’m not talking about the mileage going up though.

After we got back to the rig and took Misty out for her walk we headed into town, and I use that name loosely. We were about 15 miles from Groveland so that’s where headed, needed to make a couple phone calls and wanted to stop by a grocery store. Town is about two blocks wide and four blocks long but they did have a nice city park where we stopped to use our phones and a small store to pick up a couple items.

We did make it back in time to turn on the TV and watch the Seattle Seahawks first regular season game, in defense of their winning it all last year. They were playing Green Bay and although most said the Seahawks should win, it would be a hard, tight battle. But win they did, going away by 20 points. They looked pretty good, sure hope they continue with their winning ways, it would be nice to see them win back to back Super Bowls.

Although we had planned to stay in the area for 4 nights, we decided to leave the next morning, having seen most of the park over the past three days. Once again, without having internet service, I couldn’t check on parks in the area we were headed so decided to do that the old fashioned way, use the books.

We wanted to explore Sequoia National Park a few miles South, neither of us had been there. I found the Elks lodge in Visalia had RV sites available so that’s where we headed. I set our GPS and found it wanted to send us off the main road down some small roads so I knew we couldn’t blindly follow those directions but instead would follow the paper map.

Even then we soon found ourselves heading down a 10%, five mile long down grade. I wish I would have counted the number of turns on this portion but it had to have been way over a hundred, I was constantly turning either left or right to go around corners. And steep, sure glad we have real engine brakes, even then I used the service brakes lots to keep our speed down. Boy was that a white knuckle drive. There is a new road to bypass this section but it had a big sign saying no vehicles over 7500 LBS, our rig weighs 36,000 LBS so we couldn’t us that route. But most cars/pickups were using that route so there was very little traffic on the section we were driving, that was a good thing.

Finally we made it down to flat land, whew. Lorraine commented a couple of times that she was a “Sea Level Girl” and didn’t like to travel those steep roads, ha.

So on we drove, heading to the Elks. Our GPS headed us through some back roads once again but nothing too bad, all but one was on our map. But when we got to town, it led us through two residential areas, not sure what was going on there. Finally it said we had reached our destination and we were in the middle of a residential area. We didn’t have the phone number of the lodge but did find the street address so I entered that and it led us around a bit more before taking us to the Elks Lodge. Always an adventure when we are in a new town/area and have to follow the direction from the GPS.

But we made it and went inside the lodge to register. They told us to just pick out a site, park and come back inside to fill out paperwork and pay for our stay. So that’s what we did, backed into our site and was pleasantly surprised to find it was 50 amp power and water, there is a dump station available but not at each site.

We got semi setup then went back inside to pay. We had to pay at the bar as that was the only section of the lodge that was open so we decided after the long, steep drive down the mountain, driving the back roads and through residential areas that it just might be “MILLER TIME”. I ordered a beer and Lorraine asked for a “fruity” drink, this before we even talked about paperwork or paying, ha. After our drink, we went back outside to the hot (it was over 100F) and continued with our set up.

We were disappointed that the lodge wasn’t having any dinners over the weekend. We had leftovers for dinner, neither of us wanted to venture out again after that drive.

Yesterday morning we got in the car and headed up to explore Sequoia National Park. Once again, I’m glad we didn’t attempt this in the motor home, I’m sure we couldn’t have make it through a couple of switchbacks. But the trees are really something to see, glad we saved them from the loggers and made it a National Park.

Some of the trees are visible from the roadway, most have a nice pullout area so you can walk closer too. We stopped a couple of times, the most significant was at General Sherman area, the largest tree in the world. It isn’t the highest, however, that would be the Redwood trees in Northern California. I guess I thought Sequoia and Redwood trees were the same, learned that is not true. We continued on through the park, then through Kings Canyon before heading down off the mountain. Once again we had a steep drive down the mountain but not as long as leaving Yosemite.

Once we got back and walked Misty and rested a bit, we drove into town so Lorraine could get a few things she needed. We also stopped for dinner at Black Bear restaurant, thought of you Joe and Alice while we were there.

A couple of personal items here. Our son, Rick, called us last week to let us know he was going in the hospital on the 11th. He had been experiencing heart pains and got checked out. They found he has some blockage in his heart and needs to have a stent put in. We are asking for everyone to keep him in your prayers and send all the good wishes you can his way for a successful surgery and recovery.

Secondly, while we were driving through the mountains the past few days, we’ve been listening to the music Dave and Sandy we so nice to give us on a USB drive. I don’t know how many songs are on the drive but we didn’t get through them all in 5 days. Thanks for the music, we think of you two every time we use it, especially nice when we don’t get reception for regular stations or even on Sirius Radio.

Like I mention earlier, it has been HOT, over 100F for the past two days. I used to work with a guy, Curtis, who grew up in Bakersfield a few miles South of where we are now. He always used to tell me how glad he was to move to the Pacific Northwest, even with all the rain there. I can sort of see why now although not having to work outside and only being here for a few days, it isn’t that bad. But I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t want to live here, especially in the summer.

We need to make our travel plans, I’ll be working on that after we get this finished and posted. I told Lorraine she had to pick out next spot and she decided she would like to return to the coastal area, somewhere around Pismo Beach. Last time we were there, we stayed at a nice Elks Lodge RV park in Santa Maria and found another in Elks Lodge in Pismo Beach with RV parking. I also need to contact 1000 Trails to see what Encore or associated parks are in the area that we might be able to use.

Now to go through all the pictures Lorraine took of our tour though the National Parks and pick some to add here.

Traveling from Reno to Yosemite.