Seattle to Nevada

5-9 to 5-12
Arrived in Seattle 5-9 and went to my brother Bob’s house. The day was so clear we could see Mt. Rainer from his deck. We had a great visit with Bob’s family. And great time playing with my 6 month old Great Nephew, Carter. One of the things we were glad to see was the abundant blossoms. On 5-10 we went shopping. We bought a new Jeep [Red] Liberty. And then we shopped for Travel Trailers. We ended up finding the one we liked and made the deal. On Tues 5-11 we did a walk-thru to make sure we knew how to operate everything. Then we went shopping to by a few household things so we could live comfortably in the trailer for the next 6 weeks. My brother is a great cook and he made several great meals for us.

On Wed 5-12 we loaded up our jeep and went to Verizon so we could get an Air card so when John needed to work on the way home we could. Then we went to pick up our trailer. This took longer than we thought it would. Finally about 4:00pm we got on our way. We had decided to go directly over to the coast. We had been advised that traffic would be impossible on Interstate 5 and we certainly didn’t need our first experience with pulling a trailer to be more difficult. Our first night we stopped at Bay Center, WA. Our first set up went well so we took a little trail that led to the beach and we took a walk wearing only a light jacket.

5-13-10
We left Bay Center and traveled Rt.101 along the coast of Washington. We crossed over the bridge to Astoria, OR and continued down the coast. We hadn’t gone far when we saw a herd of Llamas. It was nice seeing the many beaches with large rocks protruding out of the water and the cliffs. We saw an eagle soaring overhead. It was warm and we rolled up our sleeves and rolled the windows down. We saw 2 lighthouses. This night we stopped at Bandon, OR. John is getting the hang of pulling the trailer.

5-14-10
We slept late and left Bandon at 11 am, with our eyes on the Redwood Forest as our next stop. As we continued down the Oregon coast on Rt. 101 we saw cliffs with gigantic rocks protruding out in the water. It was a bit foggy. We saw deer and Ravens.

We stopped in the Redwood Forest National Park. I have to say I was in total AWE. These trees were so large, so tall that it was hard to see the sky. The road was only 2 lanes with many pull offs. I had always wanted to see this. John & I took pictures of each other and we were but small creatures next to these trees. Since the trees were so tall and dense the forest was dark in a Grimes fairy tale kind of way.

There were Elk feeding in a field along the redwood highway. We passed through a canyon where there were wild flowers. As we turned inland the land was rolling hills. Tonight we stayed at Willits, CA.

5-15-2010
We left the trailer in Willits and drove the Jeep to see Napa Valley. There was vineyard after vineyard of Grapes as far as you could see. It was neat for a short time but got very old. Rt. 29 was a two lane road that went through some towns that specialized in wine business with gift shops, restaurants, wine shops and anything grape you could imagine. We found some wineries that we recognized and did some wine tasting. The whole day otherwise was spent fighting traffic. We both agreed that it was a day we could have done without. We were glad to see the area and to have been able to shed out jackets since it got up to 81F.

5-16-2010
As we left Willets we passed more vineyards and left behind the gently rolling hills. The animals were out for us, we saw deer and a herd of Bison that were fenced in. The road over to I-5 after we left the Valley became like a roller coaster then a wide valley and farmland. We began to see groves of fruit trees. Something else we noticed that we hadn’t experienced in a year and a half is dead skunks. We drove I-5 to get to the other side of Sacramento. The median on I-5 was filled with Azalea bushes of many colors. 85F. Then we turned off and headed for Yosemite National Park. We saw more and more mountains and kept getting more elevation. We experienced some difficulty getting up the inclines. We stopped at Mid Pines, CA for the night.

5-17-2010
We got up early and went to see Yosemite. Thinking that we were going to several national parks we decided to get an annual pass. The Merced River flows thru the middle, we were at 1266 feet. Both sides had tall rock cliffs 6000 – 10,000 feet. Some had waterfalls flowing from them. This place was awesome. The river was calm some places and other places it was rushing over gigantic boulders. We found that there was several different looks to the orange-brown bark of the Sequoia tree. The young ones were elongated strips while the older ones were flat ovals, similar in look to a snake skin. Our hikes were short but worth it to see the waterfalls up close. We had to put a baggy over the camera lens because some of the spray from the falls was like being in a rain storm. We made a long loop going on each side of the River. It was spectacular. Afterwards we went back to Mid Pines and spend the night again.

5-18-2010
We left Mid Pines and headed southwest. Our goal today was to get to Mojave. Retracing our earlier path we reached lower elevations. The deer were out feeding in the morning and we started seeing farming and cattle. Hawks were flying overhead a good part of the day. Did you know that Fresno was the raisin capital of the world? Bakersfield has lots of Oil refineries, tank farms and wells. As we near Mojave we see windmills across the mountaintops as far as we could see. Going down into the desert we stayed at a campground right beside the airport. Nothing was flying because the wind was extremely strong.

5-19-10
We left Mojave early and it was already 82F with a light breeze. We saw a lizard cross the road but the neatest thing we saw was Joshua trees. Another neat area we went through was an area called Boron [Borax- Twenty Mule Team}]. And can you imagine we ran into, what looks like frost heaves in the middle of the desert. Guess it works just the opposite down here. We also went through the Cajon Pass by San Bernardino 5310 ft. It was very steep, very hazy and very windy. We have definitely found where most of the cars are—here in southern CA. The hills south of Riverside going toward San Diego have light colored rocks all over them which make them look like dots. I guess that over time the winds have eroded the dirt away and left the rocks sticking out. Reminds me of MASH. Well the temperature is now 87F and we couldn’t be happier.

The plan is to stay the next five nights in San Diego. We are here to attend John’s son Philip’s graduation from College. Phil was busy with school and exams and work so we rested and got a few things done. We added a cooler for the jeep to help us with the steep hills. As we traveled and had time we put things in order inside the trailer but now we had time to put in rubberized shelf paper, buy groceries and do laundry. Philip’s graduation was nice. They had 10,000 graduates done in 5 different ceremonies. Phil’s was on Saturday 5-22 at 8:30 am. That night we went to dinner with Philip’s bride-to-be’s parents and sisters. It was a great time. We are so glad we got to meet them before the wedding. On Saturday 5-23 Phil & Kristina showed us where they were holding the wedding, a Hotel that looks like a Spanish Hacienda. Wow it is going to be so nice.

5-24-2010
It’s time to retrace part of our steps and head north. Instead of Mojave we head to Barstow. On our way toward Las Vegas we see lots of electric towers going through the desert, I guess carrying all that electricity from the wind mills. Another neat thing I notices was old fashioned water tanks like we see in the cowboy movies near railroads. And again, just like the movies the police cars are black & white and also we saw motorcycle police. We decided to stay off the strip at a campground in Las Vegas. Gambling wasn’t something we wanted to do, we just slept. We are on to Utah…