Since Fort Bragg declared their independence from Independence Day by recognizing the 4th of July on the 2nd instead, that left the actual holiday as just another not-so-manic Monday. The town of Fort Bragg was eerily quiet. So I decided to take a drive and check out nearby Mendocino. (Now, it’s going to take me yet another week to get that “Mendocino, Teeny-bopper” Sir Douglas Quintet song out of my head!)
Several of the locals told me, Continue reading
I was supposed to be in Portland for the 4th of July. I’d had reservations at the Columbia River RV Park alongside Jim and Gayle since last April. But all that was not without a hitch….a broken hitch, that is. My 3 week delay while waiting on frame rail extensions derailed that plan.
But as every fulltimer knows when facing a major holiday Continue reading
According to the great George Gershwin, some of my friends and followers may want to call it off after this post. Seems when it comes to “oysters versus ersters,” people tend to disagree. In fact, they fall into one extreme category or the other. They either love ‘em, or they are repulsed by the very thought of ‘em.
I got a taste of my first oyster at Felix’s Oyster Bar in New Orleans on yet another family road-trip. I have been slurping the slippery suckers straight out of their shell ever since. Continue reading
I have a very definite purpose for visiting Point Reyes, and timing is everything. The Point Reyes Lighthouse is only open for visitation Friday through Monday. Though visiting on the weekend is the worst possible time as far as crowds, the weather seems perfect. If I wait until Monday, the last open day while I am here, I could risk being denied the opportunity to visit if the weather turns. The lighthouse sits prominently perched along the steep rocky shoreline known as the windiest point along the Pacific. If the wind gets high enough, they shut down the 300 stairs leading down to the lighthouse. Continue reading
I arrive at the Olema Campground on the outskirts of Point Reyes National Seashore, just 40 miles north of San Francisco on the same day as my new Canon G7X camera arrives via FedEx from Canon Service Repair. It’s an eagerly anticipated arrival! I have been without a decent camera for five weeks now. Oh, sure, I had the trustworthy little $99 Canon ELPHie, Continue reading
In the days of my youth, cross-country roadtrips with my family typically coincided with my Dad having just bought a new car. Dad was a stylish man and always preferred the Chevrolet Impala. My first trip to California at four years old was in a 1957 golden Chevy Impala with the dramatic, sweeping “bat wings” on the tail. My second trip would be in the more conservative 1966 marina-blue Impala Sedan. It was the summer of 1967 Continue reading
After four straight back to back visits in National Parks, I am in bad need of a “city fix.” It just so happens that one of my favorite cities lies in my direct northerly path, San Francisco. Continue reading
I leave the cool, clear, high elevation evergreen forests of Sequoia National Park where I have been running the heater every morning to take the chill off, and drive down over 6,000 ft to the Central Valley where it is hot, dry, and straw-colored. As if that weren’t shock enough to my system, all of California is suffering a heat wave this week. I’ve gone from snuggling under a down comforter to “hot, hot, Africa hot” in under two hours.
I am off to visit our newest National Park, Pinnacles, newly anointed in 2013. The road through irrigated farm land and nut orchards is pot-holed and heavily trafficked by trucks. It seems like I will never get to the turnoff Continue reading
After four quiet, serene nights in Kings Canyon’s Azalea campground where I enjoyed a spacious pull through with my entire passenger side windows and doors opening out into the forest, I move just 18 short miles “across the border” to Sequoia National Park. I figure as a self-proclaimed National Park junkie, I need to sleep in both camps.
But it’s approaching the weekend, and I read online that weekends come at a premium in Sequoia NP, so I go online and find Continue reading
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks are two separate parks managed as one. They sit shoulder to shoulder along the edge of the Sierras. It’s tough to tell where one park ends and the other begins. In fact, it can be a bit confusing, as the first point of entry into Kings Canyon is Grant Grove, a large grove of sequoia trees, and home of the General Grant Tree, “third largest tree in the world.” To an analytical left brainer like myself, I think “Wait, shouldn’t you sequoias be over there in Sequoia National Park? 😉 Continue reading