Giant Sequoia National Monument

April 14, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The width of the Giant Sequoia trees is incredible!

We had the opportunity to drive to the Giant Sequoia National Monument today. We started off less than 300 feet above sea level in our RV Park and climbed to over 6,000 feet to see the Giant Sequoias. We were NOT disappointed! Check this off the bucket list!

Charlene found a huge pinecone.

Although it was over 70 degrees on the mountain, there was still snow in many areas.

The width of the Giant Sequoia trees was simply astounding. They are huge. The oldest trees are certainly tall, but their width is enormous.

Charlene is the little person on the lower left of the photo.

When the trees have fallen over, their roots form a maze of pathways.

Moss grows on the north side of many trees.

The bark of the sequoias is reddish and the striations run vertically with deep creases.

Relaxing on a bench admiring the beauty of the Giant Sequoia trees. It is simply amazing to stare at them.

Great Food!

April 13, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

With a name like the Arizona Cafe, we had to stop and have a bite. There are many great Mexican food restaurants in Bakersfield with the large Hispanic population. Wish we could try them all. 🙂

Bikes, Blossoms, and Bees

April 10, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Charlene found a large bike path in Bakersfield, so we decided to make that our big activity today. We were going to start at one end of the path, but had trouble finding it, so we headed into town and started at a community park. It was beautiful and very smooth and level. We stopped several times along the way to see various sites. We rode about 10 miles round trip.

We could not get enough of the local fruits, vegetables, and jams. After our bike ride, we stopped at two different family farm vendors. Ed loved the taste of the sweet Valencia Oranges, so we bought a 10 pound bag of oranges!

We were also amazed at the size of the Pummelo grapefruit!

Chocolate covered bacon soda – no thanks!

However, Charlene found a chocolate covered bacon soda that did not seem too nice. We decided not to try it.

Local redness and swelling from bee sting

We also learned the downside of staying in an orange grove beginning to blossom. The blossoms attract bees and sometimes the bees get scared from rapid movement. A bee landed on Ed’s arm and when he moved, he was stung. There is no shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, but locally there is plenty of redness, swelling, and itching. Charlene was able to pull out the stinger with tweezers. After being stung by the bee, we made sure to buy some honey.

On to Bakersfield!

April 9, 2015May 14, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

We used to live on Orange Grove Road, now we are staying in an actual orange grove!

We left Barstow and headed west toward Bakersfield. Ed had a conference call at 11:00 am and originally we had hoped to be in Bakersfield before the call. However, we did not make it all the way to Bakersfield, so we pulled into a family-owned farm store pullout. Ed set up his laptop for the call and Charlene went into the store to buy some yummy strawberries, oranges, and fresh cherry and strawberry turnovers.

After the conference call was over, we headed into Bakersfield and pulled into our RV park that was built right in the middle of an orange grove! With the trees beginning to blossom, it smelled fantastic! The sites were nice and wide and long, so we had quite a bit of room all around us.

There are orange groves all around the RV park and a vineyard right across the road. It is sort of strange, but there are also oil rigs interspersed between the orchards. This is a very fertile area of the country and it is apparent that almost everything grows very well here.

Right next to the grove behind us is a shop that specializes in selling oranges, dates, and nuts. Charlene bought all kinds of things in their store including avocados, apple butter, several kinds of dried fruit including kiwi, and dates. They also gave us some navel oranges for free because the manager said Charlene looked just like the manager’s sister.

When we got back to the motorhome, Ed headed out on his bike to explore the area and get some exercise. Charlene started planning places to visit nearby. Stay tuned to see what she comes up with!

On to California

April 7, 2015May 14, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

We hit the road this morning and headed back through southern Utah, a brief corner of Arizona, through Nevada, and into California. When we left in the morning, we did not know where we would spend the night. We decided to stop in Barstow. It is quite fun to live without a schedule.

We found a recommended steak house that welcomes RVers, so we are boondocking in their parking lot tonight. We never thought we would sleep at a restaurant, but this is a great spot we cannot pass up. We asked in the restaurant if we could stay overnight in their RV parking lot and they were happy that we wanted to spend the night. With their sign in this photo, we knew right where to park the coach. They invited us to eat lunch with them tomorrow too. We had a wonderful meal of pork ribs and vegetables. We also split some homemade cherry cobbler with a scoop of ice cream!

This sign made it clear where we were supposed to park for the night!

Drive from Arizona

I discovered that the updated Google Maps limits each map to 10 destinations and we have now reached that limit. Bummer. We wanted to keep an aggregate map, but I guess we need to start a new one beginning tomorrow. The frustrations of technology. 🙂

Easter

April 6, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

One of the nice things about traveling is you are able to visit a number of churches. We found a Bible church near our RV park. We drove by the day before to see when their services were held and went there Easter morning.

The Easter service was very nice. The worship songs were beautiful and the message emphasized the importance of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. It was refreshing to join them for Easter morning. We said hello to several people and afterwards headed to a restaurant for lunch.

After eating, we saw a movie theater and went to an afternoon movie that Charlene heard was good. When we got back to the motorhome, we started looking at our campground books to plan where we should go next. We still need to finalize our plans as we head back through Nevada and into California.

4X4 Day!

April 5, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

We are having so much fun! Our week pass to Zion National Park expired yesterday, so today we decided to let our Jeep enjoy what a Jeep is made to do! We asked for some recommendations for 4-wheel drive roads and had fun driving all over enjoying the Jeep. It was a blast! Southern Utah is beautiful and it was wonderful to drive around in the middle of nowhere enjoying the sites. Charlene put on a classical channel on Sirius radio and we had a wonderful time. Several times the roads were crisscrossed by mountain bike paths and bike riders were going everywhere. We also found several RVs on a couple of the smooth back-roads enjoying some boon docking locations. This is a very nice area to visit. We must come back and spend more time here.

After the 4-wheel driving, we headed back to the coach to watch the Final Four basketball games. We love March Madness (even though it is now April). We are rooting for the underdogs!

Kolob Canyons

April 4, 2015April 4, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Today we drove back to Interstate 15 and north to Kolob Canyons. This is a second section of Zion National Park that is only 19 miles from Cedar City, Utah. Neither of us had been to this section of Zion. It is noted for its high red-orange cliffs. It is not as large as the main section of Zion, but the red rocks are especially beautiful. There were significantly fewer people here, so it was very peaceful and majestic.

We had a picnic lunch in the Jeep while we admired the setting. We drove the scenic drive and kept pulling into the pull-offs to enjoy the light changing on the cliffs. After we finished the scenic drive, we drove up to Cedar City. We went into the Ace Hardware to buy some zip-ties. Charlene noted on their sign outside that not only did they have hardware, but they also sold sporting goods. We thought it was especially unique that they sold handguns at the Ace Hardware and that they had a gun of the week special advertised on their sign. Unique.

Emerald Pool Trail

April 3, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Another beautiful day in Zion, another beautiful view of red-orange mountains, green trees, blue skies, and the flowing Virgin River. Today we went on an easy hike to the Emerald Pools. Very spectacular setting with amazing views 360 degrees around us.

We went under two waterfalls and had the water splash as we ran underneath.

Zion is such an amazing place to visit! The only real negative is there are so many people here for spring break that all the shuttles are cram packed and there are long lines waiting for the shuttles at each stop. The weather has been very pleasant.

Angels Landing

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Ed went with Kathryn and her family on a strenuous hike to the very top of Angels Landing. It has been 40 years since he has been on that hike. The last time, they stopped before the very top because of strong gusty winds and the narrow trail. Check this item off the bucket list!

This is Angels Landing – the goal of this hike.

It was beautiful too see so many different rock formations along the trail.

Walter’s wiggles is a series of switchbacks built into the cliff.

Although most of the trail was steep, the last half mile was treacherous as sections were only 2 feet wide with cliff drop offs on both sides. Six people have died since 2004 from falling off the edge of the cliff.