Our RV Adventures

Unfortunately, at least for you readers, today was just another coffee, clients, and dinner day.

Like yesterday, the only new thing today was dinner. On the way home I stopped off at Monterey’s Little Mexico to pick up some salsa and pico de gallo to top off our Chicken Tortilla Soup to have for dinner tonight.

I added the salsa, pico de gallo, some more poached, shredded chicken breast, and another box of chicken stock to our leftover soup from the other day and heated it up in the slow cooker.

Then into the bowl with some shredded Monterey Jack cheese and crumbled tortilla chips and you’ve got some good eating, especially on a cold, windy evening like this.

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Thought for the Day:

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” – H. L. Mencken

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Since this was another not-much-happened day, I thought I’d repost our visit to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park in California in April 2010.

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Some Really Big Trees . . .

Originally posted on April 30, 2010

Today we headed out to visit Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. Leaving about 9 am we drove 70 miles south thru Fresno to the entrance to Sequoia National Park.

But before we left we set the crockpot on a timer so that when we came home we’d have a big pot of Tuscan Chicken Spaghetti waiting for us. Then we hit the road, heading toward Fresno, about 30 miles south.

Leaving Fresno, which is at 300 ft elevation, we starting the climb up into the Sierras, with some great views along the way. Click to enlarge the pictures!

And just like yesterday we ran into snow. We started encountering it about 4500 feet, and it just got deeper the further up we went.

When we got to the Ranger Station at Grants Grove at almost 7000 feet, we really saw the snow in deep drifts.

There was a lot more snow here in Sequoia than in Yosemite yesterday.

After checking in at the Ranger Station and checking out the Gift Shop, we had to change our travel plans. We had planned to drive the big 60 mile loop thru the park and come out down south near Visalia. But we found that loop was closed due to the heavy snowfall and would not be open anytime soon. That meant we would not be able to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world. Bummer!

But we would be able to see the 2nd largest tree, the General Grant tree, so we headed over to Grant’s Grove a couple of miles away to take a look.

This is the first big tree we saw right in front of our truck when we parked. It’s hard to convey how really big these trees are. The pictures really don’t do them justice.

And across the parking lot were these twins.

And here is the General Grant tree. It’s 267 feet tall and about 35 feet in diameter. It is estimated to be over 1600 years old.

And here is an internet picture of the General Sherman that we didn’t get to see. It’s about 275 feet tall and about 40 feet in diameter at the base. That’s bigger than our RV ! It’s between 2300 and 2700 years old. The spread of the branches at the top is almost 110 feet wide.

After viewing the trees, we went back to the lodge for a really good lunch at the restaurant, much better than the one at Yosemite yesterday.

Then after lunch, we drove out into the forest for about 10 miles just taking in all great scenery along the way.

Then it was time to head home. Coming back down thru the mountains, we went thru several cloud layers, but by the time we got down to the bottom, it was clear and sunny again. And going from almost 7000 feet to 300 feet really makes the ears pop.

We got back about 3:30 to a coach filled with wonderful smell of our dinner cooking away.

We ate about 6 pm and it was great. It’s the first time Jan’s fixed this Tuscan Chicken Spaghetti, but we’ll definitely have it again.

Tomorrow is a take-it-easy day. We’re going to get together with some friends, George and Sandy, who we’ve corresponded with for awhile, but didn’t actually meet until the Nick Russell’s GypsyJournal Rally in Yuma this past March. We discovered yesterday that we’re both in the same park here.

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Today was the usual coffee, clients, and dinner.

But at least the dinner was a little different. Jan and I left out for Fuddrucker’s about 6pm to meet Chris, Linda, Piper, and Piper’s boyfriend Casey for dinner.

Fuddrucker’s is one of our two favorite national burger places, along with Five Guys, of course. The last time we ate at one was with Nick and Terry last October in Hershey, PA. In fact we ate there twice in two weeks we liked it so much.

One reason I really like them is that they have an 8 oz. Ribeye Steak Sandwich. Not ground, but an actual piece of Ribeye steak. Really, really good.

But in addition to the good food, we had a really great time, talking and laughing. In fact we didn’t leave until about 8pm.

Since today’s blog is a little sparse, I thought I’d repost our visit to Crater Lake in Oregon in June 2011.

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Crater Lake . . .

Originally posted on June 14, 2011

Jan having gotten up earlier as usual, this morning started at 8:30 for me, since we were leaving at 9 for our daytrip down to Crater Lake National Park.

But our first stop was at the park entrance at Big Jim’s Coffee Wagon, a coffee and pastry kiosk that’s open everyday from 6:30 to 10:30 am, and gets a lot of business from outside the RV park, as well as park residents. Jan had a Hazelnut Hot Chocolate and a breakfast sandwich, and I had a Snickerdoodle Latte and a bagel w/cream cheese. Both very, very good. We’ll go back.

Then we were on the road heading about 100 miles south to Lobert Junction where we would pick up SR 62.

Along the way, we saw Mt. Scott which is right next to Crater Lake, and blocks it from our view.

Right before we turned onto SR 62 we stopped for gas and a pitstop at the Crater Lake Junction Truck Stop, and then it was back on the road for the 35 mile trip up into the park.

We started out about 4000 feet, and by 4500 feet we were seeing snow.

And more snow at 5000 feet

And even more at 6000 feet.

Then we see this. Oh, Boy!

But finally at about 7200 feet we pulled into Rim Village, and seeing a lot of people on top of a hill taking pictures, we decided to join them.

And this is what we saw! Be sure and click on this panoramic photo to see it full size. Be sure and use the slider bar at the bottom to see it all.

If ever a view was breathtaking.

Crater Lake is 6 miles across and 1949 feet deep, and from where we were standing on the rim, it’s 900 feet to the water.

This ‘lump’ is Wizard Island, formed from lava eruptions after the volcano Mount Mazama exploded in 5700 B.C., and then collapsed into the crater we have today.

Here’s an Internet photo showing it from a better angle.

And this Internet aerial view gives a better perspective of the entire crater.

The water in the crater, formed from snow melt over thousands of years, is some of the purest in the world, and really acts like a mirror.

Since it still goes down into the low 20’s here at night, you can see a sheen of ice around the edges of the lake.

And here’s my Sweetie, showing up the view.

While we were at Rim Village we checked out the gift shop and café. The first thing we noticed were these ‘snow tunnel’ entrances leading out to the street.

And it’s really a long hallway leading into the building. It turns out that these are done this way so you can get into the building when there is 30 to 40 feet of snow covering up everything. Crater Lake gets a average of 44 feet (FEET!) of snow a year, and this way the snow plows can clear the entrance right along the edge of the road, so you can get inside the building.

Even the outside restrooms are done the same way.

A little after 1pm we drove about half a mile along the rim to the Crater Lake Lodge to have lunch.

Originally built somewhat shoddily in 1915, it had deteriorated to such an extent that in 1989 it was condemned, torn down, and rebuilt from scratch, with only the Great Hall being saved. And they did a beautiful job.

Jan and I had great Reuben Sandwiches in the dining room,

and then went outside to take in another great view of the lake from the lodge porch.

We even had a Steller’s Jay taking in the view with us.

All during the day, we kept bumping into this group of motorcyclists, who asked me to take their picture with their camera. So the last time I saw them I took a picture with mine.

If it had been a little later in the year, we could have taken the 31 mile loop drive around the crater. And we could have also come in the north entrance and saved ourselves about 100 miles. But the loop is still snowed in.

It takes 10 men working for 4 months starting in April to clear the loop. They can do about 1/4 mile a day to clear 30 feet of snow from a roadway 30 feet wide. That means they’re moving over 1 million cubic feet of snow a day. That’s over 25 million pounds. A DAY! But because they had so much more snow than usual this year, they’re running even further behind.

After getting our National Park Passport stamped, we headed back toward home, after having a great day.And then to top it off, after coming through the tiny town of Fort Klamath on SR62, we had probably our last view of Mt. Shasta, about 90 miles away. What a sight!

We got home about 6 pm, after a 9 hour trip of about 275 miles. A long, but really nice day.

Tomorrow, who knows?

But I know I’m sleeping later.

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Thought for the Day:

“Whether to shoot someone once is a moral, ethical, and legal question. How many times to shoot them, well, that is a tactical question.”

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