Apr 29th to May 2nd - Three Rivers to Bodega Bay

Apr 29^th – Tues

After coffee and leftover doughnuts, we went a short way back into town to fuel up the motorcycle and left at 9 for the south entrance to Sequoia Park which is only a few miles from our RV park.  The road is very windy(many “slow to 10” corners) & picturesque as it climbs into the park.  There were a lot of flowering shrubs & trees at the lower levels.

We stopped to see the Sherman tree which is immense but which is by no means the only huge tree in the park.  I got pictures of a small herd of deer right on the side of the road.  As we left the south part of the park and climbed higher, there was a lot of snow on the side of the road but we weren’t cold with long pants & jackets.  When we reached the north entrance I convinced Terry to leave the park, drive back outside the park, have lunch and come back tomorrow to see King’s Canyon park.  The bad news is we followed the GPS to route 245 which is even windier than the park if that is possible.  We were very happy to hit straighter roads and finally stop for a late lunch.

We went to a couple of stores in Three Rivers before relaxing a while.  It was still fairly early in the afternoon so Terry got ambitious (maybe with a little prompt from me!?) and moved the TV cable/antenna connection box as it was behind our big TV and nearly impossible for Terry to push the button to switch between cable & antenna.

We were sitting outside after dinner and our neighbors (Don & Debbie from Seattle) stopped to chat.  They are not retired but can hardly wait to join us old people and travel all the time.  We gave them a brochure for the fall special at Val Vista and they hoped they could take advantage of it this fall.

Apr 30^th – Wed

We took a longer but straighter route back to the north entrance to King’s Canyon this morning.  We stopped on the way for a breakfast sandwich at McDonalds.  We first stopped at the Canyon Grove where the General Grant tree is located.  It is advertised as the biggest tree on earth measured by mass.  The bark on Sequoia trees thickens as long as the trees live so they gain mass every year even though they may not grow taller.

We then took a detour to Hume Lake to get gas in the bike.  The trip into the park was over 70 miles with lots of climbing & curves so Terry needed the comfort of a full tank of gas for the rest of the trip.  We started into King’s Canyon and realized that we had seen a lot of it from the road to Hume Lake.  You also have to come back out on the same road as you go in so we decided to turn around and go back through to Sequoia Park.

Yesterday the road to Moro Rock was closed due to snow but it was open today and I convinced Terry to drive up there.  Moro Rock is a huge rock that sticks up out of the trees and has a man-made path including 375 steps to the top.  Terry started up the path with me but turned back and said he would wait for me.  He has developed a height discomfort in the last few years and hiking of most any kind is not his cup of tea.  In addition to the 375 concrete steps, there are areas with step indentations in concrete and some areas on bare rock.  You feel quite secure with metal hand rails but it is still somewhat uneasy to look over the edge at nothing sometimes.  The views are amazing and someday I will post pictures!  I am quite pleased that I made the effort to climb all the way to the top.

When we got back we chatted with our next door neighbor – Sandy – and after dinner I went and helped her hook up a new printer.

May 1^st – Thurs

We headed north towards Yosemite Park this morning.  I wanted to drive the Tioga Road across the north of the park as it is supposed to be very scenic.  The last time we were there a forest fire prevented us from driving the road.

Well, to make a long story short, the GPS took us on very windy, hilly roads and Terry was not happy with them after driving the same type of roads the last 2 days on the motorcycle.  In my defense, the Atlas did not indicate such continuous bends.  It really was ugly.

We ended up at a Passport park that was scary.  The office wasn’t open and a sign said to pick a site and they would catch up to you.  They wouldn’t catch up to us as we went back the way we came and ended up in French Creek RV Resort & Golf Course.  We were going to stay a couple of nights but by the time they told us about the increased rates for the weekend we said one night would be fine.  We didn’t want to unload the motorcycle so we tested our plan for spending a night with the bike inside.  A little shifting of chairs allowed me to even cook dinner.  So our rainy day plan works!

May 2^nd – Fri

We did laundry before we left today.  I had to walk to the office (quite a ways!) for quarters and then we drove to the laundry room which was nice & clean and had only one other user who also left with fall special info for Val Vista.  We were on the road at 10:30.

We want to drive Hwy 1 up the California coast – either with the truck & trailer or the motorcycle – so we headed west.  We have been on Hwy 1 further south but not north from San Francisco.   Thank you Wanda (our GPS) for getting us here to Bodega Bay using all sorts of small roads that certainly don’t show on the Atlas.

We are settled into a clean RV park (CA prices!!) with not too many other rigs.  Did I mention that the temperature dropped and the clouds/fog showed up?