4/5/07 & 4/6/07 - Death Valley, CA

Thursday

On Thursday morning we drove through Pahrump, NV on the way to Death Valley. We stopped at a winery in Pahrump, then checked into the Furnace Creek campground in Death Valley National Park. We parked right next to another Casita owned by some nice people from San Juan Capistrano, CA. After we set up camp we drove through Artist Drive and Zabrisky Point and took some pictures late in the afternoon. The nice couple with the Casita had a fist fight about 10 PM. When we went to bed the temperature was 94 degrees, so sleeping was not easy. We had no power, water, sewer hookup, or internet access.

Friday

We drove to the Devils Golf Course, Natural Bridge and Badwater Point (the lowest elevation in the U.S. – 282 feet below sea level). I took a hike on the Golden Canyon trail (Carolyn stayed at the car), then we drove through the 20 Mule Team Canyon loop. Then we explored the old Harmony Borax Works and Salt Creek, home to the rare heat tolerant and brine water adapted pupfish. When we got back to camp at 7 PM the temperature was 104 degrees (but it’s a dry heat).

4/7/07 - Kingsburg, CA

Not a good day. We left Furnace Creek Campground to drive through Death Valley on our way to Sequoia National Park. While driving down the steep mountain pass our brakes overheated and started to smell. We stopped to let the brakes cool off and dumped our tankfull of fresh water. Just as we got to Panamint Springs we had a flat tire on the Pathfinder. After much hassle of finding out how to remove the spare tire and work the jack we finally got the spare mounted. Then we drove to the nearest town, Lone Pine, CA to get the tire fixed. Spotting a tourist, the shop charged $50 to fix the tire with the excuse that the tire has a pressure sensor. Then on the road going into Bakersfield we ran through high winds which threatened to topple us. Then the low tire pressure light came on, We pulled over into a closed weigh station where two other RVs were sitting out the wind. I added some air to the tires (all of which seemed to have OK pressure). We visited with the other RV people in a big motorhome. One of them called the California highway advisory phone number and got a report that the high winds should end about 5 miles down the road. So we continued on (despite more low tire pressure warning lights). The drive into Bakersfield was gorgeous – rolling verdant hills which looked like a Grant Wood painting. We arrived at the Viking RV Park in Kingsburg about 9 PM. This place was a real dump. The grounds were nice, but the bathroom (only the women’s was open) was filthy, and only had one shower and one toilet operational. The place was also next to a train track with loud whistles all night.

4/8/07 - Kingsburg, CA

We drove to Sequoia National Park. The scenery was beautiful, but when we got to the high elevations where the giant sequoia trees were, we ran into split pea soup fog so bad the visibility was about 20 feet. If you got close enough to one of the trees you could almost tell that it was there. As we exited Sequoia National Park and entered Kings Canyon National Park the fog lifted somewhat and we were able to see and photograph some of the big trees. The largest tree in Sequoia National Park (the General Sherman tree) is the largest living thing on earth, and the General Grant tree which is the third largest. On the way back to the trailer we stopped at an Olive Garden restaurant in Clovis for Easter dinner.

4/9/07 - Greeley Hill, CA

We called Yosemite National Park to see if any camping spaces were available. None were, so we drove to the Yosemite Westlake Campground and RV Park in Greeley Hill, CA. We almost ran out of gasthe famous Iron Door Saloon on the incredibly steep hilly road. The campground is pretty and remote, but again the bathrooms are old and dirty. This must be typical of the campgrounds in the half price Passport America Catalog. We arrived in the afternoon and elected not to drive into Yosemite National Park until Tuesday morning. Instead we chilled out, updated the blog, drove to nearby Groveland to have a beer and upload the blog on an open WiFi hotspot after having a few beers at the local bar(the Iron Door Saloon which has been in continuous operation since 1852), and Carolyn cooked garlic scallops over pasta for dinner.

4/10/07 - Greeley Hill, CA

We drove to Yosemite National Park. Several of the park roads (such as Glacier Point) were still closed for the winter, but we drove into Yosemite Valley and took the shuttle bus to see the sights. The weather was perfect and the waterfalls were peaking from the snow melt.

4/11/07 - Orinda, CA

We left Greeley Hill and drove to Orinda, CA to meet our good friends David and Lorna Neill. Since they live at the top of a steep hill I had David meet us with his SUV so we could transfer some of our heavier cargo to his vehicle to reduce the strain on our Pathfinder going up the hill. We got the trailer into David & Lorna’s driveway and unhooked. We went to the Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek to sample their beers, and then we had dinner at Strings, an Italian restaurant.

4/12/07 - Orinda, CA

We took the Pathfinder to a Nissan dealer in Walnut Creek to have the transmission fluid flushed and changed -- some of the hills we had climbed had put a strain on the transmission. Lorna was working so David drove us over to San Francisco to see the sights. We sampled the beers at the Rogue Public House, then we went to Fishermans Wharf and had lunch at Bubba Gumps. We checked out the sea lions sunning themselves on some floating platforms. We drove down curvy Lombard Street and through Golden Gate Park and the Presidio and took pictures at the Golden Gate Bridge. We had a drink at the Cliff House and Carolyn ran out on the beach to stick her toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. We stopped off at Alamo Square on the way back to Orinda.

4/13/07 - Orinda, CA

We picked up the Pathfinder and then drove to the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. This was the home of John Muir, the early conservationalist who was instrumental in founding the national park system. Then we drove to the Muir Woods in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area north of San Francisco. We walked though the pathways through a grove of primordial redwood trees. Then we had a beer sampler at the Broken Drum brewpub in San Rafael. After that we visited the Rosie the Riviter National Historic Park. This was where Henry J. Kaiser built freedom ships during World War II. That night we went to a Mexican food restaurant with David and Lorna.

4/14/07 - Orinda, CA

We drove through the Napa Valley and visited several wineries and a couple of brewpubs. It rained early in the day, but slacked off later and there was a beautiful rainbow.