On to California

Written April 11, 2015

Mojave Desert with more salt flats and then a whole lot of nothing.

Leaving Pahrump, Nevada, we headed towards Death Valley and hung a left through the Mojave Desert. Beautiful desolation, however, for your reading pleasure we did experience a minor gut wrenching, butt puckler. After 26 miles of down mountain driving to a crossroads named Shoshone, we turned left onto California 127 towards Baker, CA. A large road sign, just onto 127, told us there was no service for the next 55 miles. Not thinking anything about that since those kind of signs are located all over the west, we headed on. About five miles or so down the road the truck started to buck and jump, the engine started to slow down, the turbo needle dropped to nothing, and we looked at each other wide eyed and Julie reached for her phone, but as should be expected in the desert NO BARS. Whoops! The engine was (sorta) still running so we pressed on. About ten hours (maybe five minutes) later after revving, missing, huffing and sputtering the engine sounded like it coughed up a fur ball (probably a desert sand ball in the turbo) and everything started to work and sound proper again. Up and down a couple more long grades and we finally made it to Baker (a crossroads with a truck stop and nothing more). With everything still working and sounding alright we pulled onto I-15 west and trudged on, heading towards Bakersfield. Whew! Isn't it amazing how quiet and unnoticeable an engine is until you are in the middle of a quiet, foreboding desert, with no traffic around and no cell service, so no means to contact anyone else! Then every sound, or every bump in the road, or just a change in the wind is magnified about a 100 billion percent!

Entering Bakersfield, California from the east is a route you will want to experience if you ever venture out here. After traveling through the Mojave Desert, a flat, pretty uninspiring landscape, you are suddenly surrounded by beautiful grass carpeted rolling hills with long vistas back to flatlands. These hills are dotted with oil well pump jacks, the first we have seen since New Mexico.

     

Sorry about windshield reflections - wind turbines just into California

   

Save the tree, build around it!

 Just south of Fresno, California, Bravo Farms Roadside BBQ, and Ice Cream Parlor

Next to an orchard, a very unique bus used by the pickers.  I see the 60's!

Our next place to park our home was in Coarsegold, California, a little mining town located at the southern end of the 1849 gold rush area.The town got it's name for the big coarse gold nuggets found there by the 49'ers (no not the football guys), instead of the cute little flakes found elsewhere in this area. In fact the campground where we stayed (Park of the Sierra) has Coarsegold Creek passing through and some of the residents have actually found small amounts of the shiny stuff. Not us though! Bummer

A carving of a Coarsegold Miner in town

Beautiful "Little Church on the Hill" in Coarsegold.  Historical with very old grave sites.

Our first day-trip was to Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park to visit the HUGE trees. OMG – had heard they were big, but just like the Grand Canyon – seeing them in person is totally incredible and seemingly unbelievable. We were timing wise, very lucky to be at the right place and right time to take a tour through Grant Grove, led by a passionate and very knowledgeable young Park Ranger, Dominic. The twisting and turning park road was built into the side of the mountains with incredible vistas looking out over the tops of the trees down, way down, in the valleys. Then you round a corner and head down to the valley floor to look back up. Then you head back up again. Exciting!

Sequoia National Park.  Note the height of these Sequoia by the Parking lot - wow.

Jim walking past one of the giants

Sequoia are naturally fire resistant, but note the fire scars at the base of this tree.

This fallen tree was hollowed out and used as a living space in the 1800's.  It is still sturdy and in good shape.

It is so hard to capture the Sequoia's size!

Ranger Dominic teaching us about the Sequoia pine cones.  They seem tiny for such a giant tree!

King's Canyon Lodge with snowy peaks in the background

In the Lodge - always prepared for weather changes

After a day of rest it was off to explore Yosemite National Park. Seeing these parks during the off season is really the only way to go. 3.5 million people visit there each year and there are only two, two lane roads into and out of the parks. With very few other visitors in the parks it sure was nice to be able to stop, look around, and then move on between view points, without fighting bunches and bunches of traffic. In rereading some of this it seems to the writer that his interpretation of the massive beauty of the parks does not do the actual scenes justice. But, in my defense there are only so many Ooohs and Aaaahs and Wows and OMGs a person can explain properly. We are not going to quit going though, we will just keep adding to our memory banks and hope our travels inspire you to do the same. It is a great big beautiful country out here and even the little things keep us in total amazement.

Yosemite's Bridal Veil Falls

It was another beautiful day for us to enjoy yet another National Park, Yosemite.

Half Dome

El Capitan

The dogwoods are opening everywhere

The Sierra Chickaree is the Rangers favorite.  They are a very playful species of Red Squirrel

From Bakersfield to Coarsegold we followed California route 99 north for 161 miles through flatlands, passing through massive farms producing, oranges, lemons, pecans, walnuts, almonds and grapes, plus many more crops just in the planting stage so as of yet unidentifiable. Julie said there should be some kind of rule making the farmers put up signs along the highway telling us what is in the fields. Right after she said this there started to be signs at the edges of the groves saying, Walnuts or Pecans or Oranges etc. Just goes to prove what a powerful woman this guy is living with!!

After the parks we took a few days rest and then it was back down the hill from Coarsegold to route 99 again for 173 more miles of various crops lining both sides of the highway to Roseville. Roseville is home for Julie's great friend Terry Z, who opened her heart and her home for some great meals, and lots and lots of cookies!! Julie and Terry spent many hours of “girl talk” between themselves and with other friends. Luckily Terry has three sons, Matt, Jared, and Jay, who graciously spent those “hours” entertaining those of us who's forte' is certainly not “girl talk”!! Terry chauffeured us around to see “the area” with many interesting sights like Folsom Prison, Coloma (where gold was first discovered in California), Sutter's Mill, and the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park. It was interesting to get a “local” persons view of the traffic out here in California. She lives in the suburbs of Sacramento. Every road/street is at least four lanes wide in each direction and filled with vehicles. When we mentioned the traffic, she said “Oh, we don't have traffic, this is nothing compared to the city”!!! Guess it is just what you get used to.

Terry and Julie in front of the sign for the location of the original Sutter's Mill

Sutter's Creek is where the gold was found that started the Gold Rush in  1849.

School children on a Field Trip are panning for gold along Sutter's Creek, now a State Park.

Terry and her handsome sons, Jared, Matthew, and Jay

Terry's gorgeous Pergola that shades a large portion of her patio

Terry's stunning backyard, private and peaceful

Speaking of getting used to. While hanging out in traffic one afternoon Julie and I were cruising east on I-80 when we saw a police helicopter circling up ahead over the highway. We were approaching an on ramp when a car came racing off the ramp right beside us, traveling at a high rate of speed. He cut in front of us, then passed the car on our left and then cut back towards the right side, passing a car using the berm. Next in the rear view mirror we saw coming up behind us, a CHiPs car (yep CHiPs – you remember Ponch and John) with lights flashing and siren blaring in “Hot Pursuit”! They both got off at the next exit. I think Julie and I were the only ones paying attention to the scene, everyone else just kept driving like nothing had happened! Wow, our very first California style police chase and there wasn't even a white Bronco in sight!!!

And speaking of traffic, I guess we have seen some. It is 933 miles from Benson, AZ to Roseville, CA. The manual says the truck needs serviced every 7500 miles. We had the truck serviced two months ago while in Benson. Upon arrival in Roseville it was time to have the truck serviced again. Guess we must have done a “little” sightseeing along the way!! P.S. When the truck was serviced the mechanic checked the computer and everything was OK, so he figured the problem in the desert was most probably water in the diesel instead of a fur ball! So it's off for more adventure down the road.

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