Day Five - Travel Day

We left early (for us anyway) at 8:30AM for the KOA in Midpines, California. The plan was to stop in Fresno and get groceries for the next few days. Our fridge and cupboard are much smaller than at home, so about three to four days of supplies is about all we carry. The fridge can only hold one gallon of milk! Meal planning is a different for me when we travel.

Goodbye awesome campground! I hope the next one is just as good. That's Tom unhooking the lines.

 On the way up the road, we started to see signs for "Bravo Farms" which stated that we just had to stop for cheese, nuts, and candy...so we did.

Easy parking for the RV and bug!

This rooster was ginormous!

We tried to get these two to talk to us, but they were busy eating.

I wanted to pet this guy but he was too far away.

They have a little cafe and bar.

I love this sign.

 There was lots to look at, but we weren't overly impressed with the selection of goods, mostly over priced antiques like you'd find on a "Pickers" show. And the food stuffs were disappointing considering that we are in the middle of all the farms, but we did pick up some cheese, salami, and bread. We also bought some chocolate (from a big place in Colorado) that we found to be the ultimate in deliciousness.

On to Fresno! We got off the freeway in Fresno, looking for a grocery store but found nothing we liked. I didn't want a Whole Foods or Win-co. The Walmart there was not a grocery store, so we shook the dust off our sandals from that place and headed up to Madera. We found a nice Food4Less, loaded up, got lunch at Taco Bell (one of our favorites), gassed up, and headed for the hills!

This is Jake's "I just totally ate my favorite burrito." look.

When we got to the KOA, it was hot, like 95 degrees. Yuck. We pulled into the first space they assigned us, but it didn't have sewer hook-up. We walked back to the office to see if we could change that and they were super nice about it. Our next spot was much nicer, near the trees and a bit shadier.

The boys worked on hooking us up and leveling out. They do a marvelous job!

This is the arcade. It was impressive because of the train car, but the games left something to be desired. The machines ate $2 worth of quarters and only one actually worked. The boys didn't go back after that.

The boys spent the afternoon swimming at the pool. I did the laundry, got a post card at the little store and mailed it. And Dan caught up on some snooze time. We had taco salad for dinner and then played Pinochle in our air conditioned RV! After the sun went down, it cooled off a lot though, so we didn't need to run it all night but it was nice to have something to help cool if off!

Day Four - A Day of Rest

There's been a heck of a lot of driving and walking the past few days and we intend to do more in the next couple days, so we decided to take today off. Yep. we stayed at camp...pretty much. Swimming, reading, sleeping, Pinochle playing, and eating. That was about it. It was good. It was a bit hot with a high of about 95, but between the swimming hole, our shady spot by the river, and the new A/C in our RV, we were fine!

A lot of time was spent here chasing fish and listening for birds. Tom likes to lay out on a rock and sun himself warm like a lizard. Jake likes to go to one end and peacefully float down to the other.

Pretty nice.

We talked to some of the neighbors. One man that lives here stopped with his very sweet beagle. He does tricks like "saying his prayers". It was adorable. Another man and his wife stopped to look at the bug. He used to live in LA, but moved to West Virginia. His new wife is from Ukraine. They are touring to show her places he used to go as a child. She showed us this tree next to our RV that has berries. She said you could eat them and that they were similar to a tree in Ukraine by her mother's house. The boys said they tasted like plant.

The look like red and blue raspberries, but it's a tree.

The people that were next to us live on a houseboat in Huntington Beach. They just bought the giant brand new rig and tow vehicle they were in and were thinking about retiring and touring the country. Sounds like fun to me!

There was a rope tided up high in a tree near us that all the kids kept coming over to swing on. It didn't go out into the water, just over the grass, but everyone seemed to have loads of fun on it.

I love RV parks and camp grounds. We have the most fun meeting people. It seems everyone is just more friendly when they are on a trip.

Our shady spot. Perfect for a chair, a book, and a big glass of ice tea.

The boys wanted to eat at the Pizza Factory that we saw on the way up to our camping spot. It was good! I was happy because it was very nice and cool inside. We spent a couple hours there playing video games and eating a lot of pizza. Then we decided to drive around the town and see if we could find a post card or something. Most of the shops are closed after 5pm though. We found one, but it didn't have much. I did find a "Three Rivers" postcard and a cute magnet that says "Home is where you hook up!"

We drove over this bridge on the way in and out of the park. It was so pretty and has a funny name so I tried to take a picture. There was no good place to stop though, so this is what I got.

It's ok though because this picture helped me remember it and I looked it up when I got home! Here's a better picture of the actual bridge. It links to the website where I got it.

 

We came home and made a camp fire and finished the evening off with a few roasted peeps. It was a very relaxing day for all of us and we're looking forward to tomorrow's adventure.

Day Three - Crystal Cave

We had to get up early for this one! Ha! Not really. We got to the Foothills Visitors Center at 9AM and got our tickets for an 11AM tour. It takes about an hour and half to get there. We got there a few minutes early, so we sat and snacked for awhile.

Here's the sign!

This is the entrance to the walkway down to the cave. The have a shoe washing station because they are trying to stop the moldy nose disease from the east coast from spreading. Someone should tell them to move this thing beyond the bookstore though. Most of the people on the tour, including myself, walked around the washer to the bookstore to look around while we waited for our tour. Then we washed out shoes and walked over the place we had already been with our dirty shoes. I don't think it's going to do any good.

Down the walkway! It's about a thirty minute walk down to the cave.

Approaching the cave entrance.

This is the only picture I took inside the cave because it had enough light on it. You can't use a flash. I had planned on getting a book of pictures of the cave, but the cave bookstore wasn't working, and none of the other bookstores had any.

We made it out alive! Last time I was very nervous inside the cave. It was my first one. This time, I was fine!

Dan took this picture of me taking a picture of the boys. It came out way better than mine!

Pretty waterfall on the path back up to the parking lot.

This climb wore me out, but at least we didn't have to carry anyone this time!

Me!

I was imagining zombies digging their way out of this wall as we walked past. Tom wasn't amused!

Afterwards, we had lunch and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed to Lodgepole to see their visitor center and the General Sherman tree.

Day Three - Part Two

And then on to the Lodgepole Visitor Center! We planned on hiking down to a waterfall that someone told us was a nice hike, but found it was a five mile round trip and we weren't up to it. We hiked a LOT for us yesterday and Crystal Cave was more walking. We also wanted to see the General Sherman tree and we know that is a long walk up hill as well. So, the water fall will have to wait until next time. We are thinking about doing a short tent camping trip up here over the summer. Maybe we will do it then!

Jake being an Information Exhibit!

The best part about the visitor center is a flush toilet, ice cream, and they had postage stamps! We stopped here because the map said there was a post office and I forgot to bring stamps for my postcards. National Parks don't have stamps at their bookstores...go figure. We found the post office and the sign said it was open, but no one was home. I asked the ranger at the Visitor Center about stamps and he directed me to the post office. I told him I was there and it was closed. He was confused. So we went over to the little store next door and they had all kinds of good things! We got a sticker for the RV, a pin for Jake, and a shot glass for Tom. We collect those things. And we got ice cream. Yay! Energized and ready for the walk to the General Sherman!

This isn't it, but it was cute.

 

The boys talking about burn scars and how the trees heal after a fire. Really.

There it is! They are a bit bigger than the last time we were here. Again, no one needed to be carried...except me.

Look up! I love that view!

Aren't we small?!

Very cool picture Dan took with his phone!

 And then back to camp and the "swimming hole"! The RV park we stayed at didn't have a pool but it had a river running along it and the perfect place to swim. The boys love river swimming the best. Pools are nice in a pinch. The ocean is fun but rough. But rivers are perfect! They spent a lot of time here. Jake jumps right in. Tom is a bit more timid, mostly because the water is cold. Luckily the air was VERY warm. It was 95 when we got back to camp!

That water is COLD!

Jake daring Tom to jump in. Jake found a from in this corner as well and spent a lot of time "talking" to it.

Jake found that he floats extremely well. This is his "Ophelia" impression.

Hamburgers for dinner and, of course, more Pinochle. Tom and I were winning for awhile there!

Day Two - Part Two

Next stop, Moro Rock! We saw it driving up, remember? Little did I know, you can walk up to the top! Dan said he did this when he was a kid and wanted to bring us up there. It was a good climb but worth it. I wish I had my camera out when we arrived. There was a group of German tourists there, smiling and taking pictures of our car. Crazy.

Yep. I took a picture of the sign. After going through my Grandpa's videos, I found out how helpful this is!

Here we go!

This one is for Grandma Shelly. Tom does this at every high place he finds and wants me to take a picture for her.

Already a pretty good view and only half way up. I kept thinking the top was right around the corner and it just kept going.

Couldn't pass up this postcard photo op! All it needs is a little animal or bird.

Still not the top, but very cool. This is where Dan and the boys discussed bringing back some tennis balls to throw over and then go find at the bottom. Probably horrified everyone around us.

Jake at one side of the top. Pretty nice.

We're on top of the world!

That's the road we came up on! That tight u-turn is a turn out where you can stop and take a picture of the rock from below.

Spiffy panorama picture. I'm impressed by this function on my camera, but I saw several times a person taking a boat load of pictures all over (seemingly at random) with an iphone and then it spits out a huge picture. Cool.

Us! I made sure that the boys took a least a few pictures of us. People of the future are going to wonder what we looked like!

This park is full of danger! Eek!

Jake is probably describing some kind of rock monster idea. I'm not really sure.

And back down! This is a better picture of the tennis ball area. You can see why it would be fun to watch.

Bambi! This young buck came down the hill and nibbled at grass right near us. He didn't seem to mind the people much. I showed him to a couple little kids near by and the they wanted to throw rocks. Ha! At his house, the deer are pests eating their garden so they throw rocks to scare them off. Too funny! And then I watched another boy come down the hill and around the corner. They were both surprised and jumped! I swear I could sit and watch people all day if I lived here.

On the way back down from Moro Rock, we stopped at the Giant Trees Museum. It's another small museum specifically about the trees in this grove. I like the old pictures of the tourists. And I learned about the roots of these giants. They are super shallow for how tall the tree is but they go out shallow to the ground in all directions picking up as much rain water as they can.

Here's Jake's super pose with the Sentinel.

Then we went for one more walk even though our legs were about to fall off.

Dan saw this marmot!

And this one came out to pose for me. Can you tell I like the animals? I think that was my biggest complaint about this park. I didn't see enough animals!

We stood talking at this tree for a long time. You could see how it had grown over the rocks when it was alive.

Another pretty meadow. We were imagining the life cycle of these trees. Which ones were here first? How long had that log lain across the meadow?

Pretty nice huh?

A much needed drink of water isn't going to happen. We found no water fountains that worked.

After that, we were beat and headed back down the mountain to our camp. Jake complained that he wanted to go bowling and eat ice cream...not sure where he got that idea but Pinochle and hot dogs had to suffice!