Onward Again

Thursday May 17th:
Well, we packed up the trailer again and headed the truck north toward Visalia, CA. Visalia is a few miles south of Fresno on CA-99 and have named themselves as the Gateway to the Sequoia National Park. We basically connected up with I-5 along the coast and into the maze of roads the comprises the greater Los Angeles area, which seems to stretch from San Clemente up to San Fernando/Simi Valley. Even though we were traveling on a Thursday mid-day while schools were still in session, the traffic was VERY heavy. Carolyn wondered why all of these people were not at work somewhere instead of driving. I have already mentioned the driving habits here so I won't go into our trip in this section. Carolyn did get the hiccups again though. North of LA we started up the Tehachapi Mountains on I-5. Long long uphill road, then over the top and down what they call the Grapevine, which is the downhill side. Truck speed was limited to 35 mph because of the grade, and there were a LOT of trucks. They basically took the two right lanes. I generally stayed in the third lane and held 55-60 mph. The engine brake that Chevrolet has really comes in handy out here. It held our speed, even with the trailer with not too much help from wheel brakes. We had experienced the same thing coming down out of Flagstaff, AZ at 6000 ft to Phoenix so I had confidence in it already.
Coming into the Central Valley we began seeing the California agriculture, of course it was also accompanied by a lot of signs "Food Grows Where Water Flows" along the canals and irrigation pipes. Finally arrived at the KOA in Visalia and relaxed for the evening.