Park of the Sierras

     We originally planned to stay 3 nights here giving us a day to rest up after going to Yosemite Park, but after looking at our schedule, we figured we could add in a couple more nights and leave on Monday instead of Saturday. This allowed us to go to church with a couple in the park. It was a great Palm Sunday service and I was very refreshed.
    This park is very beautiful with some elbow room between sites, lots of trees and rolling hills. And grass. Lots of grass. Grass that they need to keep mowed and cut back because of the drought and county regulations. This is not the best environment for someone with grass allergies, so we will take that into account when we time our next visit.
     We happened to be there for two  potlucks so we were able to meet several people and that is always informative and fun. We also went to an Open House of a couple that have just finished with their custom built 5th wheel. It includes several innovative ideas and I was inspired to see how they went about this.
     After 6 nights we are on the road again, driving a longer leg to get to Rolling Hills Casino to park for the night. Another day's drive should find us in Oregon.

Yosemite Park

     We were excited to be able to visit Yosemite Park for the first time. I have seen many pictures of Half Dome and had hear of the park, so was looking forward to seeing it with my own eyes. It did not disappoint! It took us about an hour and a half driving from Park of the Sierras where we are staying. Curvy road. Very. Curvy. Road. 

     After the first half hour, I recommended we stop and switch drivers knowing that my enjoyment would be severely curtailed if I didn't drive. We stopped at the Sugar Pine Railroad. We didn't ride the RR, just looked around and took pictures. It was very picturesque and a refreshing stop.

     After another 45 minutes or so of driving, we came through a tunnel to a view point with lots of parking where we got our first glimpses of The Big Three of Yosemite Park; El Capitan on the left, Half Dome just over Jerry's head, and Bridal Veil Falls on the right. It was a spectacular view where you could see the whole valley spread out below.

First view of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridal Veil Falls

When you are standing under Bridal Veil Falls, it's easy to see why it's named that as the wind blows the water and it cascades down like a veil. There were many people on the Thursday, making us glad we were not here at the height of tourist season!

Me in front of Bridal Veil Falls. I am told it is less spectacular than usual from low water volume.

Jerry in front of El Capitan (check out the bird in flight).

Remember the Star Trek V movie with Kirk climbing El Capitan?  It's hard to visit there without remembering how Spock saved Kirk's bacon with his jet-boots!  It is 3,000 feet high and was successfully climbed for the first time in the 1950's.

The view below of Half Dome is one I remember well from a picture my Grandmother painted. It was an awesome thing to be standing there seeing it from that same vantage point, causing me to wonder about that picture and my Grandmother's trip there.

Half Dome from Yosemite Village.

After leaving the Yosemite Valley behind and heading back, we stopped at Mariposa Grove of the Giant Sequoias. We did a bit of hiking to see the trees and it was well worth it. Even though you know they are big, it is still awe inspiring to look up, and up, and up! Grizzly Giant, although not especially tall, has the most massive branches larger than the trunk of other trees.

Grizzly Giant Sequoia, whose lower limbs are 7 feet in diameter!

The Surviving Tunnel Tree, the opening is wider than his arm span.

Both of us in the tunnel of this huge Sequoia.

Getting a picture of us here is sort of touristy, but a fun way to prove we were there!

Vista del Lago and noisy pipes

Driving through the LA area to our next stop from Morongo Casino, we knew it would be a longer leg than we preferred, so we planned a stop at Vista del Lago Visitors Center. It had a beautiful view of Pyramid Lake.

Vista del Lago Visitor Center view from back deck.

It is run by the California Dept of Water Resources. We enjoyed the many varied displays and seeing how they are managing the water in this drought situation. I learned more about the geography and locations of things in California which had been pretty vague. It made a great stop to eat, rest, and see something interesting. And they had enough parking space for us!

     By the time we arrived at Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, CA, it was clear that a hole had developed somewhere near the front of our exhaust system. It was quite loud! We made a stop at a handy AutoZone for patching materials and Jerry got out the tool box and went to work. He was visited by a fellow RVer offering help as well as a security guard who wanted to talk about Washington weather and said we could stay and long as we wanted to.

    The patch helped tone down the noise, but by the time we neared Fresno, it clearly was not working any more and the sound was deafening! We had to yell in order to be heard. So we made some calls and ended up at A to Z Muffler who got us fixed up and back on the road in a couple of hours. If our rig had been as much as 5" longer, it would not have fit on the lift. It was a little unnerving to see my rolling home lifted up in the air, but interesting to be able to look underneath. When we left, it sounded SO much better!

   We were relieved to be able to pull into Park Sierra in Coarsegold, CA and stay for a few days. It was so much fun for me to pull in and have a site with a view of trees!

Hwy 41 north of Fresno, CA on the way to Coarsegold

The drive from Fresno was beautiful and it was fun to see the different trees and rolling hills. It reminded me of the South Salem area and the oak trees of the Willamette Valley. I did find out that many of the trees in the area are Blue Oak.

Our boondocking site at Park of the Sierras.

We got the full tour of the park and met several really friendly people. I made good use of their laundry facility and shower as well as visiting the library.

Standing in front of the Coarsegold creek. Because of the drought the water level is very low.

Casinos

     We have stayed at several casinos on this trip. Not only is it free (yes, free!) but security is generally making periodic sweeps so it feels pretty safe. Plus they are usually paved lots, mostly level, which is a plus. And one can sometimes find friends there! On a few of them we have gone inside, but I find the inside to be rather depressing and fail to see the attraction of sitting at a machine feeding it money. Plus people can smoke inside which I prefer not to inhale. I am appreciative of the fact these people feeding the machines is what builds these places and we get to park there. For free. Thank you.

Morongo Casino

     On our way homeward, we stayed at a very LARGE casino. Morongo Casino and Spa in Cabazon, CA. This is the largest one we’ve seen yet. The hotel is maybe 15 or more stories high and looks like something out of a Sci-Fi film with the top part all lit up as a moving bill board at night. In the daytime it just looks blue.

    They also have a huge water park next to it, a parking garage several stories high, and acres of parking including an area just for RVers to park. While walking around the parking lot for exercise, it’s fun to see the other rigs that people have and to wave at fellow RVers. Some casinos have big rig/RV parking areas and the trucks are in and out and run their diesel motors, so they can be noisier. This one was pretty quiet.

    We stayed an extra night for rest, plus we finally caught the rat and had to clean up after him. He made quite a mess under the sinks and under the dashboard. When I heard chewing sounds from the dash area, I knew he was still with us and we had to get rid of him quick before he did some serious damage! Fortunately the banana-in-the-rat-trap worked. We knew he liked them from the large hole he’d left the day before in the bananas; an undeniable clue that he was still aboard.

Desert Diamond Casino in Sahuarita, AZ just south of Tucson where we went after Escapade.

    

Oh, Rats!

    Some mornings you just want to climb back into bed and pull the covers up over your head and pretend that you don’t have to face the day. What made me want to retreat to my bed this morning was discovering rodent droppings on my table. IN my favorite cups, no less. Judging from the size of these dropping, no mere mouse did this. I then heard suspicious rustling under the sink. Great. A rat. This is not how I wanted to start my day. I couldn’t even get a cup of tea first to fortify me against this brash intrusion. I stifled the urge to run off to the RoVers Roost Clubhouse (where we are boondocking) and find a sympathetic ear and maybe some good advice as to how to vanquish this foe. Instead I stood and stared at my blissfully sleeping hubby until he woke up so I wouldn’t have to deal with this alone.

     I realize that in times of crisis women want to clump together (hence my urge to run off and find someone sympathetic), and men prefer to solve the problem on their own. Since I didn’t feel so awake and chipper, I decided to support my husband’s method and gave him the facts. We did some investigating and found where the rat had traveled from under the kitchen sink behind the stove and fridge to the bathroom sink. Pulling out drawers and stuff, we saw the evidence of his presence including a chewed up plastic bag.  I saw my neighbor walking her cat and quipped that if he was a hunter, I had a job for him! She offered me some Irish Spring soap bars to put under the cabinets since that is known to drive critters away. I decided to give it a try and whether it was that or our banging around in the recessed of our kitchen, he appears to have exited.

    We also were alerted by our neighbor that her cat had discovered a diamondback rattlesnake who was near us, but fortunately on the other side of the wall. We even got to hear his rattle. It was our day for critters!

The Blogging begins...Piviotal point

Finally, I have arrived in Blogger Land. 
   After doing posts on Facebook in a private group and then making a PDF to email to those not on FB, this cumbersome method, although it gets the travel info out there, slows the process way down. 
   Today I took a seminar on making a travel blog and it cleared up some things for me, giving me the confidence to plunge right in. We are currently at the Escapees Escapade in Tucson where there are hundreds of RVers gathered with activities and seminars for a week. Here is an aerial shot. We are having a great time and learning lots of great RV related stuff and meeting wonderful people.
   I am going to start posts where we are and gradually go back and bring what we have already posted/sent to this one place and continue from here. 
   
NOTE: Be sure to check out 'Older Posts'!