Sequoia National Forest - Grant's Grove

Friday May 18th: After finally getting to the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park entrance we drove through to a picnic area for lunch and to let the dogs run on the leash for a few minutes. We had just finished eating when three tour buses filled with folks from France pulled up for their noon meal and potty break. Thank God our timing was good and we had finished so we piled back in the truck and drove on down to Grant's Grove where the "General Grant" Sequoia was located. It is reported to be the third largest Sequoia in the world, the first largest being the "General Sherman" at the other end of the NP. This picture is of Carolyn standing at the base of just a normal sized pair of Sequoia trees. I raised the camera and took a picture of the top so that we could get a perspective on the sheer size of these trees. The area was gorgeous.

We drove back by another route (CA180 to CA63) which was a scenic route through the fields of fruit trees. This is another "must see" NP.

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park

Friday May 18th:
We settled into the Visalia KOA yesterday afternoon. Very nice campground and the people running it are really friendly. The noticed the "Acadia National Park" logo on my hat and told us how they had worked at the Mount Desert Island KOA for a year and how much they liked the area.
Today we plotted a route up to see the Sequoias. The South Entrance specified that the park road in one section at the beginning did not allow vehicles over 22 feet long. Our truck measures out at 18 feet so we just fit under the restriction, but that section was also under construction on weekdays and traffic was only allowed through once each hour so we decided to drive up to the Kings Canyon entrance north of us. I let the Garmin GPS pick the route and it took us across CA-245 which looked like a good diagonal route and the most direct. Very pretty road that wandered through the valley Orange, Tangerine, and Almond groves and had very little traffic, so was a great drive. As we neared the mountains the road went up and up and up and got smaller and smaller and the turns became sharper and more frequent. The last quarter of the drive was done at 15-20 mph just turning through switchback constantly. Very few houses or roads and it looked like the few people that lived on the road stayed away from civilization for long periods. With the curves and speed it took us longer to go the direct route than it would have to gone around, but we saw country that only three other people have seen this decade I think.
We finally arrived at the NP entrance and drove in to a beautiful area.

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.

Leaving the Country

May 15th: Well, here we are no longer in the USA. We gathered our new passports and drove down to San Ysidro, CA which is just on the US side of the border. Parked the truck and caught the "Mexicoach" bus into Tijuana. Crossing into Mexico was a cinch - the bus parked at the Mexican border and the driver got off to let the guards know that we were coming through and how many were on the bus. The guard came aboard and walked down the isle counting noses then we went on our way. I was really glad that we had decided not to drive the pickup down there because it was like a bumper car contest and I was quite happy to be in the biggest bus on the street, especially with someone else paying the insurance. Somehow we came through unscathed, I have no idea how, but my respect for the driver is unbounded. Walking down the Ave Revelucion, kind of the tourist main street in Tijuana, we were accosted at each door,all of which had some little shop selling something. It was still morning so they did look sleepy, but each one ran out to the sidewalk and invited us into their cubbyhole shops. "Come, Come, beautiful real silver necklace, weighs 10 ounces, just $1.00" was the frequent call. They pleaded, begged, cajoled, and demanded that we buy their wares. Best price in town. We went down into a small restaurant for lunch and ordered a beer and enchalada for Carolyn and I had two tacos anda beer. The waiter brought out two beers each, said that they were two for one today only then brought out a couple of tequila shots (double for me) "on the house". Believe me, that old saying "one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, four tequila, FLOOR" is true. I could really feel the effects of ONE beer and that double shot. Meal was good though and reasonable enough. We found Tijuana interesting, but were glad to get back on the bus. This time we had to leave the bus at the border and walk into the US Customs building the show our ID one at a time. Back to the campground.

Polar Bear at San Diego Zoo

While walking through the zoo and enjoying the animals, birds, etc we came upon their "Polar Bear Plunge" exhibit. This was one of the bears laying on a pile of "snow" and just having a ball. Literally as he (I guess)had a red ball on the ice with him and was just pushing it around, bouncing it and having a great time.

Monday May 14th:

We had taken the weekend off to relay and to avoid the expected heavy crowds at the places that we had wanted to see so put the off until today and Tuesday. Today we drove up to Balboa Park in San Diego and stopped in to tour the world famous zoo. It lived up to all of its billing. There were animals there from all over the world. I didn't know which to show here, but settled on the Giant Panda from China. This was a good shot of one walking toward us. We spent all day there and were thoroughly tired when we came back, but still had to go walk the dogs for their exercise period. If anyone gets out here I do recommend the zoo. There is a Wild Animal Park that you drive through about 35 miles north, but we'll probably miss that.

San Juan Capistrano

After driving from John and Patti's house we went over to San Juan Capistrano and parked near the historic mission. I know that I had already described our visit there, but just wanted to fit in a picture of the historic mission also. Carolyn went through the mission while I stayed outside of the walls with the two dogs. I enjoyed walking around the perimeter and sitting in the shade trees while waiting. Danny, Cymy, and I got mixed up with a bus load of school children and had to back out as they were overwhelming the two dogs. Children all love dogs its seems.