Beautiful Downtown Turlock, CA...

...closes down on Sundays....trying to find a local restaurant was, well...trying. But we spent an economical night in a motel, so the bones are rested.

The first day of the journey (Saturday) didn't start out until 3:45 p.m. and we made about 400 miles. Details like time and gas mileage are available by request only. We stayed in Castaic, CA...just north of Santa Clarita...or for those who need landmarks...near Six Flags Magic Mountain. Saturday morning, Mike had his final training for Princess from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and I packed a few things. Then he came home and we packed the car. We thought we had scads of room in the pickup, but then when everything was staged in the driveway, it was uh-oh time. And then it all DID fit with a little bit of room to spare. We had a few last minute good-byes with a few folks and then we were off.

We stopped for gas at the last Arizona opportunity where a guy in a beat-up van was sitting around with some dogs lying about. He had a hand-lettered sign: "Too hot. Out of gas. Pit bull puppies 4 sale." How sad! And no...we didn't buy a puppy. Speaking of pets, Arnold is doing great with her foster family...even with the kids.

I-10 to Los Angeles is I-10 to Los Angeles and not a whole lot to say about it. We had originally thought to look up oddities via http://www.roadsideamerica.com but I lost that piece of paper and really don't want to have the laptop open at all times looking for the next oddity. And too bad it was too late to stop at the General Patton museum. How sad...for Mike. So, on we zoomed. We got to Palm Springs just after dark and then through the northern part of the L.A. area. No thank you. Just...no thank you. And we were mighty tired when we reached Castaic.

An early morning got us up as we headed towards our first...of only two planned...destinations. The second destination that was planned is, of course, Skagway. I've always wanted to see giant sequoias. In fact, this was even on my Bucket List. Don't ask why...I won't ask you why you have what's on your Bucket List. That's the great thing about a Bucket List...it's entirely your dreams and wishes!

I did remember...ok...looked up...one oddity which was a stump house in Porterville, CA. No one lives in it now and it sits in front of a mobile home park. Still, it's a funky idea of taking a giant sequoia stump and turning it into a house. We then went off in search of another "roadside attraction" which we didn't find. What we did find was a farm stand. I had to tell Mike, that no...we do not need a bag of each produce because it is only the two of us that has to eat all of that before it goes bad. So we bought the largest grapefruit I've ever seen, a few Cara Cara oranges, some tangerines, freshly picked strawberries and almonds. We passed up the avocados for 4/$1.00. Yes, four avocados for one dollar.

We motored on up through Three Rivers to the south entrance of Sequoia National Park...discussing whether we buy the 7-day (shortest one available) pass for just that park for $20 or the annual pass for $80 for the year for all national parks/monuments. And guess what!?!?!?!? This week until the 24th is Free Fee Week in the National Parks! So, bookmark this blog and beat out of there ASAP and get yourselves to a national park....it's FREE this week and the best things on the planet are to be found there.

Three Rivers is a destination of itself. Beautiful rivers...beautiful scenery. Then up...Up....UP we drove. Up the winding road...up...up. Lots of winding. And we were the consummate tourists. Stop here for a photo. Stop there for a viewpoint. Lament that it's too hazy for a good shot. Take someone else's photo so they can all be in the picture. They take ours. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Sequoias only grow in a 260+ mile long by a maximum 15 mile wide strip along the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas. They're not the tallest, nor oldest trees...but the largest by volume and weight. Redwoods grow along a narrow strip in the Northwest on the Pacific coast. Sequoias are located in distinct groves surrounded by sugar pines. The pine cones for the sequoias are about 2" long. The surrounding sugar pines have cones about 12-16" long. I will reserve comments on cone envy.

There is a lot of conservation going on to deal with previous generations' over-love of being amongst the sequoias without regard to their fragility. Hard to think of these behemoths as being fragile. They actually look at the bottom like tree trunk bottoms from a fantasy movie or something out of Disneyworld. But the fragrance...and all the snow...let you know that it's real. There were actually tourists in t-shirts, shorts and sandals....with one parent yelling at his son for going through a big puddle. These kinds of people seem to find us on our travels!

By the way, most of the other roads besides Generals Highway in the parks were closed because of winter. The visitor center near General Grant Tree had snow up to and over the roof line. The path to the General Sherman tree and the trail in the Grant Grove are the only trails that get cleared and even those had a couple of inches of packed snow/ice/slush to walk along.

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park (also insert Forest/Wilderness) certainly rank up there as places that we'd like to return to to get some backpacking in. Wildlife sightings included squirrels and a coyote.

Eventually, we did have to motor on after we did our obligatory stops at the General Sherman Tree, General Grant Tree, the tree that fell down and has been used as shelter for over 100 years and a few more trees. We returned down to the San Joaquin valley having been at 7400 feet. If you want to know where our food comes from, visit California. Alternating smells of fresh cut hay, manured fields and orange blossoms.

En route, we made another decision about where to next. There was some discussion of going on to San Francisco, but somehow it seems that San Francisco would require more than a day. So, we're reserving that for another trip. Alcatraz will have to wait for me. Can't say it's actually a Bucket List item, but it is something I'd like to see. Guess it could go on the list....along with Lombard St. and eating in Chinatown in S.F.

So, we're leaving CA-99 today somewhere between here and Sacramento and heading northeast to Lake Tahoe and a night at Harrah's in the Biggest Little City in the World, aka Reno, NV. After that....who knows? We don't have to be in Skagway for 10 more days.