Wineries and Fruit Stands

April 19, 2015April 19, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Charlene celebrates by picking two wines after our first tasting today. A red for Ed and a muscato for Charlene.

Today was a day of unplanned discoveries. We started by going to one winery and had so much fun enjoying a flight of wine samples that we had to try a few more.

Another tasting at a second winery…….nice!!

Along the way we discovered fruit stands with freshly picked strawberries and blueberries.

These fake fruits are placed out front to encourage drivers to stop. The real fruit is on the other side. Notice the sign.

We were amazed we could buy 3 packages of fresh strawberries for only $5

Yummy blueberries for a great price

We are so famous buying wines and fresh fruit that they named a street after us!

Charlene is enjoying FREE strawberries and cream. This winery was giving it away to people visiting their store.

At a third location called Simonian Farms we bought more strawberries and also tried fruit wines like pomegranate, blackberry, mango, apricot, and plum. Ed really liked the blackberry so we bought a bottle. Charlene tasted and picked a bubbly Moscato D’Asti, an import from Italy. Now we have enough wine for at least a day. 😉

Kings Canyon National Park

April 18, 2015April 18, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The national parks east of Fresno are simply amazing. Today we went to Kings Canyon National Park which is part of the High Sierra. We were amazed at the beauty of the Sequoias and the vistas of the canyons. There are many places for wilderness hiking – but not for us on this trip.

We cannot get over the Sequoias. They are larger and wider than any tree we have ever seen. Everyone stares in awe of their majesty. They certainly stand out in a forest!

Downtown Kingsburg, California

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

For our wedding day 35 years ago this month, a wise person gave us a great cookbook called More With Less. It is a Mennonite cookbook and for years we enjoyed Liza’s Tomato and Rice, Pakistani Kima, and Sweet and Sour Soy Beans. Somewhere along the way, we lost our cookbook. We went into a Mennonite Quilt Shop today and lo and behold we saw a new edition of our old favorite cookbook. It still contains some of the exact same recipes. We had to buy a copy. It was like getting a wedding present 35 years later!

Kingsburg, California has a strong Swedish link and is well known for their water tower near downtown being in the shape of an antique Swedish coffee pot! We have never seen that before.

Sun-Maid Raisins

April 15, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

A lovely bonnet for Charlene! Would you buy raisins from this lady?

We visited the headquarters of Sun-Maid in Kingsburg, California today. They had every type of raisin you can imagine. Many were covered with chocolate, caramel, or yogurt. Free samples of many types were available.

Chocolate covered walnuts are hard to find, but they were available at Sun-Maid!

All kinds of Sun-Maid items were available. Mugs, pins, and yummy snacks were everywhere. After extensive negotiations, we left with 5 different snacks to share.

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.