TravelStream™ news feed for member arealhighlander on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/arealhighlander en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:37:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244136420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244136420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244136420/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:37:27 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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Inverness, United Kingdom

We woke up just as the flight was coming into the NW of Scotland, about 11am UK time. Unfortunately there were no good photos as there clouds were too thick below. Breakfast was a bacon roll and fruit. We were delayed getting in due to traffic and then another delay on the ground as our slot at the gate was already in use. In the end we got off 45 minutes late at 1.40pm. We breezed through Immigration in about 10 minutes, though we had to wait for our bags, there seemed to be no priority for Business class bags at Terminal 5 which is strange. We stopped in the terminal for a coffee, I checked the BA Arrivals lounge but it closes at 2pm - do they not expect anyone to arrive after 2?? We caught the National Express bus round to Gatwick getting there at 4.15 just timed perfect for checking in for our final flight to Inverness. After check in we went through and went to a new lounge in South Terminal - No.1 Lounge. It used to be the Continental lounge up to a year ago. It is now a pay to enter lounge, £18 a visit. This includes all drinks (apart from champagne and cocktails) and small bistro type food. There is Wifi using Spectrum (you need the password "n01wiFi" to access). We sat and had some food and drink while catching up on the UK news on the BBC. We left the lounge at 6.45 to go to the gate for our FlyBe flight to Inverness.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244077860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244077860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1244077860/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:26:37 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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San Francisco, California, United States

We woke up at 8am as usual. Force of habit from being in the RV. Breakfast is provided free at the HiEx, they have coffee, orange juice, pastries, bagels, bacon and omelets etc. It was a bit of bedlam when we went down. After breakfast we headed out for a walk down Pier 39. On the way I called into Wallgreens with my cameras SD card and arranged to have 30 of the best photos printed out. It was about $8.30, ready in 30 minutes.  We went on Pier 39 and wandered through the shops, watched the ferries go by and viewed the noisy, smelly seals honking and barking at each other in the sun. We collected the photos and walked some, making up for our lack of hiking. We walked through North Beach, through Chinatown, round Nob Hill and down to just north of Union Square and stopped for a Starbucks.  We then got the cable car back to Powell and went back to the hotel. After lunch we went back down to the pier front for a sandwich before returning for a final shower, change and packing.At 3.15 we were collected by Lorries Airport Shuttle and were out at the airport by 4pm. British Airways check ins were poorly manned. At the Club check in there was only one open, we had to wait 15 minutes before being checked in. Our bags were 19kg and 16.5kg! So we will be fine on our next flight. We went through Security, using the snazzy full body scanner. They had to take stuff out of my backpack and rescan it all as there was too much stuff in it for them to scan it properly (they were probably after my bags of Reeses chocolates that were in there!)  In most countries in the world, you can go and claim back the tax on items you buy and take home with you, we looked in SFO to see where we could do this only to discover you cannot. In the States the sales tax is specific to each State; there is no Value Added Tax to be reclaimed. Oh well. We went into the BA Lounge and settled down on the comfy chairs. After 3pm they also serve soup & sandwiches. There is also free Wifi (you need the password "London" to access it though) as well as the usual drinks, tea/coffee, newspapers and showers. At 6.10 we got a call to board the plane, you can board directly from the lounge. I had already checked in online last night and chosen the same 2 seats on the Upper Deck as we had on the way out. We got on, put our stuff away and got our Champagne (well, we are still on holiday till we get home!)It was 7.15 before we actually took off but the flight time was due to be shorter than on the way out and routing almost the same way as we came out - over Canada, Iceland and down back over NW Scotland. The service was better than on the way out. Catriona watched the film Milk and I watched Valkyrie. After our meal and movie we settled down about 10pm to try and get some sleep. The plane was very hot and stuffy though, so sleep was very intermittent and not very good. But we got what we could, tomorrow we wake up over the UK and on our last leg home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243991340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243991340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243991340/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:53:25 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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San Francisco, California, United States

Up at 7.30am, finished off the last of the coffee and breakfast cereal and then cleaned up the insides of the RV. I did the final dump of the black and grey water and filled up the water tank. On the way out we stopped by the RV South lot to use the toilets but they require a keycode to get in the doors, no mention was made of keycodes when we checked in so we had to abandon that idea. We joined the Freeway and took the 680 north, then onto the 580 West. It was busy getting busier, when we joined the 880 North it was nose to tail for quite a bit. Rush hour traffic was grim with people ducking and diving and overtaking on both sides at the same time. We got to San Leando about 9am, I found a nearby filling station and topped up the gas tank - took $100 to fill it. The sat nav took us to the location of the Moturis station Ok and I recognised it from viewing it on Google Earth and Google Streetmaps, both great services. It cost $410 for the extra miles and generator usage (they charge 40c a mile but I had prepaid 760 of them). All together in 13 days we had done 1600 miles!   Moturis gave us a lift to the Sa Leandro BART station which was just down the road. You buy a BART ticket in the machine there, it was $3.75 each from there to Embaracadero in San Francisco. The train arrived quite quickly and we jumped on. It wasn't till we had reached a station north of where we were supposed to be that we realised we had got a train going to Richmond, oops! We jumped off and got on the right one. At Embracadero, following TA advice, we came up to ground level and went to the taxi rank at the Hyatt minutes away. The taxi driver was Ukrainian - are there any born in the USA taxi drivers in San Francisco? The fare was $8.10 plus tip up to the Holiday Inn Express up by Fishermans Warf, checking in at 10am. This had been booked using Catrionas HiEx points and as she had a Platinum card we were allowed to check in early and also have a late check out tomorrow. We dropped our bags in the room and then headed out. The weather was a bit cloudy with occasional sun - no sign of the fog yet.  We walked along the Warf front to the start of the Hyde line of the cable cars and bought a 1 day MUNI pass for $11. It is well worth getting this pass as it allows unlimited use of any MUNI transport - the cable cars, trolleys and busses. We hopped on the cable car and took a ride through the centre of the city up and down till we got to Union Square where we got off. As we had been to San Francisco the same time last year we kind of knew where everything was and had seen most of the touristy things.  We went to the top of Macys to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We had lunch portions of Spicy Thai Chicken Pasta and the Four Cheese Pasta washed down with a couple of Anchor Steam beers. I'm glad these were lunch sizes as they were huge. We ordered our cheesecakes to go, Dutch Apple Caramel Strusel and Chocolate Tuxedo Cream.  We went down to Market Street and hopped on a Muni bus heading West with the plan of going to Alto Park, eating our cheesecakes ands viewing The Painted Ladies (these are Victorian style houses). We got there and sat in the sunshine of the park and watched the world go by (and took photos for other tourists who were also there to view the houses). I thought one of these houses had been used in the film Mrs Doubtfire but looking it up afterwards it turns out the house was further down on Broadway & Steinar. We walked back down the street and headed east, taking us straight through the area known as the Tenderloin. It is one of the poor areas of the city with homeless people, drug dealers, pimps, ethnic minorities, all sorts. An interesting, colourful and urine-soaked place to walk during the day - not to be attempted at night! We got back to Union Square about 1.30 and waited for the next cable car. And waited, and waited. 2 cars went down the way, then a third. In the end an hour had gone by and 6 cars had gone down and none came up. Then a tow truck appeared to tow a car which had obviously broken down, away back up the road.  After that, there were more cable cars than you could shake a stick at all coming past to clear the queues at all the stops. We got on and I got some video of us going back down the road to Hyde. We then went for a walk round Ghiradelli Square, the smell of chocolate permeating everywhere you went. By this time it was 5pm so we went back to the hotel. The HiEx at Fishermans Warf has free high speed cabled internet in each of the rooms and free WiFi down in the lobby area. I updated the blog and sorted pictures etc. and we got ready for this evenings extravaganza - dinner at Gary Dankos. I had booked this 2 months ago the earliest time that I could make the booking. The place is sold out most nights well in advance. It has been rated no.1 restaurant out of 3,030 in San Francisco for some time. We had a table booked for 8pm so arrived at 7.30 expecting to sit at the bar to wait but we were taken straight to our table. The menu is extensive. You can buy the Taster menu or choose 3, 4 or 5 courses. We started with a glass of champagne and were given a small taster dish of duck in coconut soup. We decided to go for 4 courses each ($83 each) plus wine pairing. This way we would get a glass of wine with each course that complemented the food we were eating, we asked that the wines be local domestic rather than French wherever possible (no point in coming all the way over here and drinking French wine!) The food we had was:-(Catriona)Dungeness Crab Salad with Citrus, Avocado and Meyer Lemon-Chive VinaigretteRisotto with Lobster, Rock Shrimp, Asparagus, Morel Mushrooms and CornLemon Pepper Duck Breast with Duck Hash, Asparagus Purée and Poached RhubarbTrio of Crème Brûlée with Assorted Cookies (Ray)Risotto with Lobster, Rock Shrimp, Asparagus, Morel MushroomsPan Seared Tuna with Piperade, Artichokes, White Anchovies and Caper BerriesRoasted Loin of Bison with King Trumpet Mushrooms, Glazed Cipollini Onions and Herb SpätzleBaked Chocolate Soufflé with Two Sauces The service was good, when you ate your bit of bread a new one would appear. Whenever your water would run low it was soon topped up. When the wine arrived for your course, the waitress would explain about it, where it was from, what it consisted of etc. Anytime anyone got up to go to the restrooms, someone always lifed their napkin and folded it up on the table. I was a bit disappointed that our wines - especially the first one - arrived at the table 10 minutes before the food did, I would have rather the wine arrived either with or close beside the meal otherwise you were tempted to drink it before the food. The whole point of wine pairing was to drink the wine with the meal to get the most out of it. We were also give a small lemon soufflé with Happy Anniversary written on the plate in chocolate, and finished the meal off with coffees and petit fours. Overall the meal was nice, I know people say the portions are small but we were both full afterwards so anymore would have been a waste. It was tasty, there was one Rose wine that I found a bit too watery for my taste, the Fennel oil in the risotto I found a bit too overpowering, but the Bison was cooked perfectly and the duck was most excellent. The nearest that I have to compare Gary Dankos with is The Generals Daughter up in Sonoma which we visited last year (which has since been sold and renamed). There we had the same excellent food and I believe better service. The sommelier came to the table and explained the wines that arrived with each course, they even go as far as ironing the tablecloths once they are put on the tables. It was also half the price.  So experience wise I would say it's worth it. Value for money wised I would say there are better. We got finished and out the door by 1015. On the way out we were given a list of the wines which we chosen and a copy of the menu signed by Gary Danko itself. We walked back down the road to the hotel, it has been raining but was fine when we went down.  We got back to the room and collapsed in a heap, fed and watered.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243897260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243897260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243897260/tpod.html Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:46:14 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States

I awoke to the sun rising and the birds chattering. Sod them, I'm not getting up at 5am, so I went back to sleep and we got up at 8.30. No sign of bears or cougars having had any parties round about us overnight. I did notice a woman early 20's across the way stop at one of the benches and spend 30 minutes putting on make up and sorting her hair. I can just imagine her having a hissy fit if she were to break a nail whilst hiking. Poor dear. Cooked breakfast with the last of the bacon, eggs and pancakes. Put the chairs and the wood that was left over away and we prepared for todays hike.  The drive from Sheep Creek to the start of the Lewis Creek Trail was only about a mile. We parked up, got our water etc. ready and off we went up the trail, the skies were blue and it was a beautiful day. There were some quite sharp switchbacks towards the start as we climbed up going up 1000ft in the first section, The overall trail lead up to Frypan Meadow, some 11 mile round trip hike. Now, it may seem from the blog that we yomp about all over the place but we only do this hiking malarkey on holiday. At home we take the bus or drive everywhere like most others, so there is no way we were doing 11 miles return trip! Our aim was Comb Creek, some 3 miles up the trail. As we went up the switchbacks we met todays creature of the day - Catriona screamed, and I looked round, to find a small snake on the path that I had just walked over. It didn't rattle so I figured it can't be THAT bad!  I had been too busy watching out for Mountain Lions and Bears! We gave it a body swerve as it scuttled on in to the undergrowth and carried on up, 1hr 20 minutes, 1.3 miles and 1100ft elevation later we met up with the junction with the Hotel Creek Trail. From this point on the path was very narrow but not as steep as it meandered along the Lewis Creek drainage area into grassy areas with trees that looked like perfect Bear territory, but none appeared. We had gone through half our water and had our Trail bars, we crossed over a bit of the path that appeared go have turned into river. The clouds had started appearing and the flies that were millimetres from my face were getting REALLY annoying. We got to Comb Creek about 1130. Satisfied with this, we turned about to head back down. We stopped at the junction between Lewis and Hotel Creek paths and had our sandwiches. It was so much easier knowing that all the switchbacks ahead of us were all downhill. As we approached the bottom of the switchbacks we met a group of 5 others heading up the trail, why do they leave it so late in the day to hike?? We got back to the RV in the car park about 1.30pm, it took 30m minutes less to hike down the last section as it took to go up it, maybe the vertical switchbacks had something to do with it! When we got back to the RV, we stripped off and had showers - the advantages of taking your room with you! It was great. By this time everything had clouded over and there were a few spots of rain. We had been going to spend a second night in Kings Canyon but decided to head back towards Grant Grove instead. Kings is very nice but all the trails are up the side of the canyon, there's no such thing as an easy trail (apart from the river walk one). Off we went, through a torrent of rain as we climbed the snaky road to the West out of the Canyon, thunder and lightning going on around us in places. We got to Grant Grove about 2.30. We had a load of laundry to do but when we asked, we were told there are no laundry facilities at Grant Grove, nearest one is Lodgepole! Even the one down at Cedar Grove in Kings apparently was shit due to water restrictions. We went into the restaurant at Grant Grove and had Turkey Melt sandwiches with fries and an Ice Tea ($25 with tip). Grant Grove visitors Centre, shop, restaurant etc. all have free Wifi available, so I updated the blog and photos etc.  The John Muir Lodge and cabins are also based here. Similar to Cedar Grove, the restaurant here also doubles as dining area for the Lodge and cabins. The general store here has a better choice Than Cedar but still not as good as Lodgepole. We still had our dinner reservations  at Gary Dankos to do for Wednesday but could not get any of the payphones to dial the number for whatever reason. I ended up using the Wifi to top up my American calling card from Zaptel which I have used when I was offshore Egypt working on an American rig, and we used that to call to reconfirm. We pulled into Sunset campground which is just along from Grant Grove visitors centre. It is another self registration campsite $18 in an envelope place with toilets and fresh water. There were a few people here but not too busy, we picked a spot and parked up. We gathered some wood from a nearby cut down tree for this evenings fire. Their fire pits look very nice but as we found out they are too high up and block off a lot of heat from the fire. Tonight's evening delicacy is whatever we have left. I finally figured out how to get the damned oven to light so I made Cinnebon buns with icing sugar and for main course it was smoke salmon with coleslaw and microwaved chips/fries. AQ fine combination, but the buns with icing sugar were the best bit of the meal! By 9pm the campsite was nice and quiet, the wood we had gathered had just about burnt out, so we went inside, I updated the blog while Catriona read and we ate a pack of Poppycock. I went to transfer today's photos off the camera but for whatever reason all the ones from this morning and all up the hike of Lewis Creek Trail have all disappeared, bugger. Tomorrow we head for Pleasanton to Alameda Country Fair campsite for our last night in the RV before San Francisco and our last night before flying home. Boo!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243888920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243888920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243888920/tpod.html Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:44:38 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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Pleasanton, California, United States

Up at 8am, the rest of the camp was awake at 8.30 because that's when the truck went round emptying all the bins and making a heck of a racket. We drove down Highway 180 descending 5000 feet down in third gear for about 45 minutes. It got warmer as we headed down. No sign of fire engines this time! We got to Fresno about 10.30 and put in $70s of fuel,  North on Highway 99, we stopped just south of Merced off the road and toasted the last of the bagels, cheese and turkey along with a cuppa before getting back on and heading north.` On the Interstate on the way back I tended to stick to 55-60MPH to try to conserve fuel as we had more than enough time. The roads are not in very good condition, we bounced, banged and jostled our way along the road. At one point I was in lane 2 overtaking a lorry. On the inside lane ahead was a car who had his hazards on and started slowing down. The lorry in lane 1 started moving out to lane 2 - into me, I swerved from lane 2 into 3, just as another car was coming past me (didn't see them!). There was a bank from le left side - luckily it was just our mirrors hitting so there was no damage. All hairy stuff. We arrived at Alameda County Fair RV park, Pleasanton, about 3.30pm. It was $28 for a full service site. We got a spot in RV North, they also have a South site. We were disappointed to find the North site has no toilets, no laundry and no showers - they are all in the South section which is nowhere near. They do have free Wifi which you need to get the code for at check in. We walked through the fair to the west to main street in Pleasanton. It is what you may consider a typical mid-america downtown street, lots of quaint shops, lots of places to eat. Having looked up the town on TA we went to no.1 on the pubs/restaurants, the Redcoats British Pub.We arrived during Happy Hour so I had a pint (American smaller one) of Stella for $3 and a wine for $4.50. Their beer list (apart from the Stella and Guinness) is mainly English beers only.For food we had R&B Chicken with ranch and Crabcakes with a Caesar Salad side. The food was obviously commercial prepackaged and deep fried, nothing home made or special about it at all.The locals at the bar were busy gambling playing a game with dice while baseball played on the TVs, not very atmospheric. For a so called British pub there was very little British about it, it didn't even have a Union Flag anywhere. At best it may call itself an English pub.Overall I do not believe it is worth the TA rating it has, I'm sure there are much better (and most definitely better restaurants) in Pleasanton.This is a pub that serves food, it is not what I would call a restaurant.We waked back down the street and back over to the RV park. We started packing stuff away, throwing out what was left and cleaning the place up. We were in bed by 11pm, heading to San Francisco tomorrow and our last night in the States.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243720920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243720920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243720920/tpod.html Sun, 31 May 2009 18:50:44 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States

As it's the weekend we had a long lie, up at 8.30! Cooked breakfast again today, our supplies are running low but we only have a few days left. We left the site 9.30 and it was Catrionas turn to have an RV dump - but only greywater so not so bad. We topped up the freshwater - it had only lasted a couple of days here, probably because we were showering in the RV rather than in the camp block which was too far away from our site. We turned north on the Generals Highway and made our way out of the Sequoia National Park and into the Sequoia National Forest. It's all very confusing as all the guides say there is no Fuel in the Park - which there isn't, it's in the Forest. The Sequoia and Kings Parks and Forests all run into each other here. We stopped at Grant Grove on the way to Kings. There is free Wifi available in the Grant Grove Visitors Centre and shop/accommodation check in, I used it to upload the latest updates. The general store here has a very poor selection of food especially fresh meat etc. its all tins and packets. We went down a mile or so to the General Sherman tree. This sequoia is taller than the General Sherman but not as big (volume wise). There were two bus loads of German and French tourists here - with the amount of people over here on holiday I'm surprised there's anyone left in Europe! Further on, the road started dropping down, we turned off to visit Hulme Lake, the road to it snaked about all the way there. The Lake is set up as a large recreation area with fishing, a beach, canoes etc. It was fairly busy with it being the weekend, but the weather was quite overcast. Back on the road we dropped down from over 6000ft to 400ft on some long switchbacks round a hillside as we dropped towards Kings Canyon. The weather was very overcast with occasional rain. The Kings River flowed alongside the road as we went along, there was some tremendous amount of water flowing through it. About 2pm we pulled up in a layby and had lunch of a roll and coffee. We arrived at Cedar Creek about 3pm and called into the store/hotel/shop/snack bar. It used to be a one horse town but I think they shot the horse. Another tip for anyone coming here - bring food. Same as the store in Grant Grove, they do not sell any "basic food" - no salad, no cheese, no pork, chicken, beef. They have tins of spaghetti and beef stew, but no basic meat ingredients to make food if you want it for BBQ etc. so remember to stock up before you get here - unlike us! There are also shower blocks and laundry facilities here by the car park. Showers are £3.25 and laundry $1.25 a load to wash. You buy tokens for these from the shop. We asked at the local Ranger station about the campgrounds. There are 4 or 5 grounds here, they are all self-registration. What that means is you go and pick a spot, then at the entrance is a notice board which contains an envelope that you fill your details in and put in $18. You then post the envelope in a sealed box and post the receipt stub off the envelope on a post by your camp slot. Presumably someone may or may not go round every now and then to see if people have registered, I never noticed anyone do this. If you did this in the UK not only would no-one pay they would try and rip the box out of the ground to try and get the money out of it! With a choice of campgrounds we decided on the only one that sounded like home - Sheep Creek! There were about 5 other groups using the site, not exactly mobbed at all. If you are coming here with an RV make sure you empty all your waste as there are no dump facilities anywhere around here. There was a water tap I noticed in the campground so I assume you could get fresh water I you need it. Having bought a few meagre supplies in the store - including firewood which was about $6.75 which was cheaper than Sequoia - we paid our money, left our portable chairs out and headed down the canyon and parked at the start of the Don Cecil Trail which runs up somewhere I want to tell people I've been - up Sheep Creek (without a paddle!). We parked up and started off up the trail. Now Kings Canyon is not only Bear Country, but it is also Cougar Country. So not only have we now to watch out for Bears, but we now have to watch for overgrown pussycats. We hiked on up, it was rather warm as the sun was out but clouds soon rolled in. We made it up to Sheep Creek Cascade where a wooden bridge goes across a big waterfall on Sheep Creek (which also supplies the drinking water for Cedar Grove). It was a mile or so hike up. We continued on up the trail to see if it would open out onto a suitable clear area to get a photo of the valley but as we did so there was a roll of thunder - a sure sign to run away! So we headed back down the trail. As we approached the bottom we stopped to gather firewood for this evenings campfire to go with what we had bought in the store. We got back to the RV and continued down the Canyon and stopped off at Roaring River Falls to view the huge waterfall there. The area on the north side of the road all along here was busy being burnt by firemen to clear the ground. There were small smouldering fires going on all over the place but no-one there to supervise them. I wonder if any of these "controlled burns" ever get out of control and cause a lot of damage, it didn't seem well managed. We continued on till we got to Roads End. This is where the road, err, ends! |From here trails up into the High Sierras start. We turned round and headed back, we stopped at Cedar Creek and I decided to try the Wifi and found by good luck that the Cedar Creek Lodge has free Wifi! So I did a few updated on the travel blog. By this time it was getting on for 7pm so time for food. We got back to Sheep Creek and I lit the fire and BBQ. This evening's delicacies are what's left in the freezer and what we got from the store. So it was chicken wings (pre-done in the microwave to ensure cooked) and slices of Spam done on the BBQ, with coleslaw and potato salad. Followed by Ben & Jerrys Sticky Toffee ice cream.  The skies had cleared and this time we managed to see THREE satellites going overhead. Obviously USA has much more to either talk to or be spied on as we never see any satellites at home (tho to be fair it is usually raining!) By 9.45pm it was pitch black, most of the wood had been burnt, so we retired inside the RV to update the blog and read books. Using the trail maps we calculated how far we had hiked in Sequoia National Park. Over the 2.5 days it works out at only 16 miles but that excludes the verticality (is that a word??) of some of them because it certainly felt like a heck of a lot more! We went to bed about 10.30pm with plans to go up the Lewis Trail (purely because of the name, we come from the Isle of Lewis) tomorrow morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243622040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243622040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arealhighlander/3/1243622040/tpod.html Sat, 30 May 2009 14:35:29 -0400 Viva Las Road Trip 2009

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Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States

Awake at 6am and up at 7am. Pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast - I made the bacon so crispy I managed to set off the smoke detector! As we had to vacate this site today as I could only get 153 for 2 days and have to move to 205 tonight, we stowed away all our stuff, or chairs, firewood etc. and headed on out of the camp and down to the Museum to park up. Just before we turned the corner to the museum car park, there was the telltale sign of a car stopped by the side of the road taking photos - bears! We slowed down to see what was there and here was a mummy bear and baby bear chomping away in the grass. We got some photos and video footage and headed off to the carpark, parked up and went back down to the bears. There were some other tourists there by then. The baby bear was having fun running up trees and back down again. A couple of Rangers noticed everyone down there and came along and shoed us away saying that we needed to be at leat 50 yards away and we were only 20 - spoilsports. We went off to start our hike up Bear Hill, as we went past on the path people were still slowing down and being chased away by Rangers from the 2 other bears. Up we hiked, round Bear Hill which apparently was named because people used to come up and throw their trash off the hill and watch bears fight over it. The trail leads over towards Moro Rock. We descended down and into Moro Rock to use the toilets. We got there just as the sewage wagon was about to empty them out (they are cesspit type toilets). We got away just in time before the odours wafted about the place.  The next trail we took after that was the Soldier Trail leading from Moro Point towards the Log Tunnel, this is a big tree that has fallen across the road that they have chopped a section out of so cars can drive under it. As we watched, people would turn up, drop someone off, drive round the bypass and then be photographed coming back through the tunnel. That was OK when there was only one car but when several people tried it at once there was chaos. We continued up the Soldier Trail. After all the times going round on trails, this time we actually met 2 other couples coming the opposite way. If anyone else fancies this trail, I would highly recommend south to north the direction we did it in because there is an awful drop at the north end and some severe switchbacks that would bugger you up for the rest of the trail. We joined onto the Hazelwood Loop Trail and went round that before coming out at the Round Meadow trail. Here we did a pit stop and then sat and had our sandwiches and Reese bars (yum!). It was just after midday by now. We thought we would go on the Sunset Rock Trail as it was just beside Round Meadow and along the side of where mummy and baby bear had been this morning so we might see them again. Off we yomped along the trail and up the hill. About 20 minutes into our walk, I spotted a black bear off to the left in the trees. He appeared to be coming in our direction! Now I know we have been trying to get photos of bears this trip, but there's something about several hundred pounds of furry creature with claws that can run like buggery if it really wants to - I kept the camera on maximum zoom. I had already decided if he took a run at us the best place to go was down the really steep side of the hill, I doubt he would have wanted to run down there after us. He was sniffing and rummaging in the ground and roots trying to find bugs and grubs to eat. We tailed along with him for almost 20 minutes making sure we kept a good distance. He came over and crossed the trail over to the other side and continued along, stopping to devastate some tree root for some bugs before going deeper into the undergrowth. We daintily continued on the trail, looking off to the side to the last place we had seen him, hoping we wouldn't suddenly come bounding out towards us. 10 minutes later we were at Sunset Rock - it's a big rock and you can sit and watch sunset at it. We started on back, watching the side of the trail as we went passed the last known location but he seemed to have gone.  So off we strode back down the path happy in the knowledge that we had survived our close encounter of the bear kind. And then we had a close encounter of the second kind - a brown bear! He was on the right hand side of the path and was obviously coming straight across the path till he seen us. He stopped and looked us over while we looked him over. He slowly made his way towards the path but swung away from us a bit, we kept well back again until he had crossed and then got some good shots of him as he went along the other side and away. So, 2.5 days here we have now seen 7 bears, that's damned good odds! And there's still tonight and Kings Canyon to go, Today is Day 15, it doesn't seem that we have been away 2 weeks. I think next time it will have to be a month anyway. We got back to the Museum, had another pit stop (I don't know why they say you have to drink all this water, all it means it you wee more!) and caught the Shuttle to Crescent Meadow. From here we did a gentle stroll along the Crescent Meadow loop, along the Tharps Log route and back to the car park. Tharps Log is a cabin that a man (called Tharp!) built and used to stay in - except it is PROPER Log cabin - the hollowed out inside of a log. Imagine all the bugs... We caught the Shuttle back to the Museum. It was now 3.45pm so we went back to the RV and drove back up the road. On the way we stopped at the Pinewood Picnic area and stocked up with fallen wood for this evenings fire as we know the campground has been picked clean. We stopped at the gift shop on the way into Lodgepole for some tourist tat and then checked in for this evenings site, 205 which was just along from where we had been. There is no-one at our old slot, I bet it remains empty, the swines. Sitting outside catching up with the blog and photos, there were a lot of black flies and midgie looking wee files buzzing about, never noticed them before, it may be because there was more of a breeze before. Come 5pm we started up the generator to charge the laptop and batteries and Catriona had a cuppa (I was on my second beer by then). The clouds had cleared as it as been dull most of the day so it looks like it may be a nice evening. The campsite seems quieter but I think that is just because the weekend rush has not yet arrived. At 6.30 I started up the fire which got going well with the wood we had collected. By 6.50 the clouds had closed over and it started to rain - as in chuck it down. This was very closely followed by loud rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. This went on for about 45 minutes. Food tonight was ribs, wings and a salad bowl which we had to have inside the RV. After the rain had stopped I went back out and restarted the fire. The chairs were quite wet but we sat outside reading books till it got too dark. Meantime people kept arriving and filling the vacant slots, obviously people starting to arrive for the weekend. The fire burnt well till we ran out of wood about 9.45 when we retired inside and I finished off the Carrot Cake while Catriona munched on Jelly Bellies. We went to sleep about 11pm, with us moving location to Kings Canyon tomorrow.
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Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States

Awake at 7am, no early morning bears about unfortunately. Had cereal and a toasted bagel for breakfast. Walking boots, backpack with water and trail bars and walking sticks in hand off we went - only to find the shuttle busses round here don't start till 1015, lazy buggers! So we took the RV down to the General Sherman parking lot (up from the tree, there is only disabled parking down by the tree itself) and parked up. The place was very quiet, as we hiked down the paved trail down to the Sherman tree. On the way we found a Chipmunk that must have been to Yosemite for lessons, as he posed for the camera for us. We got to the tree, it is the largest (by volume) in the world, being 11 metres across at the base and about 2,200 years old. A "branch" of it (huge big thing) had fallen off some years back and was laid across the path round it. As we were at the tree, a mule deer (big ears like a mule) appeared, hopped over 2 fences and settled itself down by the base of a nearby Sequoia. Obviously a cool spot for it. We continued down on the Congress Trail, it was very peaceful; we met no-one else on the path. We continued down going on the Alto trail for parts, going passed other large Sequoias such as the President, the Senate and the House and switched onto the Rimrock Trail so we could call into the Pinewood Picnic area for a loo stop and then back on it down to the Museum. We wandered through the museum for a few minutes and then caught the Shuttle back up to where the RV was and drove it down. We stopped off again at the Pinewood Picnic area and had lunch. Chinese noodle soup and a toasted bagel with cream cheese and turkey. We then took the RV down to the Museum car park. On the way down a large pick up truck towing a big caravan stopped on the road ahead as they seen a bear off in the woods. We managed to slow down ad get a view of it - it was a small black bear - but it was quite far into the woods and then a bus appeared on the road behind us so we had to start moving. That same pickup and caravan then went passed the museum heading south out the Three Rivers road - a road supposedly limited to 22ft vehicles. Wonder how he will manage that? We parked and caught the shuttle round to Moro Rock. I can highly recommend visiting this rock - there are 400 steps all the way up to the top. The way civilised mountaineering should be! There was a cracking view of the High Sierras to the West as well at the southern entrance route from Three Rivers right up to just south of the museum. It is a very windy road, we even caught sight of the pickup who seemed to have made it passed the worst bends in the road though goodness knows how.  We made our way back down the steps just as a rain shower was coming in from the Sierras. After it had passed we started on down the Sugar Pine Trail which goes between Moro and Crescent Meadow. It was quite a good trail, a "proper" trail as we called it, none of you paved rubbish here. Again, we met no-one on it until we got close to the end. As you walk along these paths, it is quite easy to think you are in the middle of no-where surrounded by nature.  And then the bloody US Air Force comes overhead with their jets. They seemed to stop round about lunchtime but apart from that every hour or so you would hear jets roaring overhead on their way I assume to one of the ranges to the East. Kind of ruins the atmosphere. We stopped off at Bobcat Point and got some good photos of the top of Moro Rock and had a good glug of water and a trail bar. Feeling rather puffed going up the trails, I blame the 6000ft altitude not the unfitness, noooo sir. We got to Meadow Crescent and waited for the shuttle bus. While there we spoke to an Australian who had been here 4 days and had not seen any bears. We got on the bus and headed back towards the Museum. On the way we passed by Tunnel Log which is a huge tree that had fallen across the road so they hollowed out the bottom of it to allow vehicles to drive under it. Just as we approached the museum stop, we noticed a car stopped in the road - always a sign that they have seen something. And sure enough, there was a black bear off to the left down the hill having a scratch. We couldn't manage any decent photos and the bus wouldn't let anyone off there, so we had to carry on down to the stop. Some of the others went back up the road to try and see the bear. We decided to take the Moro Rock Trail which leads in the same direction but further down the hill. We walked along it to the point we though we had seen the bear and hung around for about an hour but there was no sign of him. On the way back another mule deer jumped out and started eating, he didn't seem phased by us at all so got some goof photos. Arriving back at the museum we picked up the RV and headed back to Lodgepole. The score today was 2 bears, 3 deer, oodles of squirrels and chipmunks and 4 sore feet! We went on a forage for some firewood of our own but the place has obviously been picked clean by all the other campers, we managed to get some though and used that for our fire for the evening. We both sat soaking our feet in a bowl with a Lush bathbomb, bliss. As we sat outside I noticed 3 or 4 times the Rangers driving round, they are on the lookout for bears I believe. Hope they don't scare them away! This evenings food was chips and dips, salad bowl and pasta with pesto sauce. As the sun went down the skies had cleared and we had a quarter moon. Dessert was carrot cake with sticky toffee ice cream. We washed it all down with a 1 litre tetra pack of white Zins wine. As the sun set and the stars began to come out, there was a lightning storm to the South West, it was partially hidden by trees but there were still some spectacular flashes. The clouds seemed to be becoming towards us but only a little. Yet another satellite flew overhead, coming from a different direction this time. We retired inside about 9.45 when we ran out of wood for the fire and put lights out at 10.30pm ready for another days hiking.
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Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California, United States

Up at 8am, good sleep the trains didn't disturb us which is good. I dumped the greywater and topped up the fresh water. Left 0830, using TomTom we went via a Vons/Safeway for groceries, got fuel at an Amco filling station $2.63 a gallon compared to the $2.76 at Shell directly opposite and then north on I99 for a good while. Turned off at Visalia heading east, as the RV is over 22ft we decided not to risk the Three Rivers entrance to the parks and come in on the 180 Generals Highway.  On the Interstate we had good radio reception and several dozen stations to choose from (mainly KGFM I think it was from Bakersfield with all tunes from 70s-now). When we were in Death Valley, or as we passed through the hills round Lake Isabella, we got very poor radio reception - except from God Botherers or Country (or on one a God Bothering Country station!). It seems no matter where you go, you will ALWAYS pick up one station telling you how great God is in a modern pop way, or another about how his horse has died and his wife has run away with a cattle rustler. They just seem to have the strongest signals.  Can you imagine the Free Presbyterians of the Western Isles at home having a radio station? The suicide rate would increase 400%. As we headed towards the park entrance another fire engine shot out onto the road ahead of us - hopefully the park is not going to burn down before we get there. We stopped for food at 3pm, not quite a roadside diner but Clinigans Junction restaurant. We had some BLT sandwiches and fries. Apparently both the owners are volunteer firemen but only one could go off to the fire as the other one had to stay and cook! We climbed and weaved our way up and entered the park at 3.45pm, a few showers on the way up, it was a steep climb up to 6000ft, $20 entry fee again, you turn off to pay at booths. We drove in a few miles then turned right heading south. It was a rollercoaster road down to Lodgepole, there is fuel available for $3.30 at Cedar Grove as we drove past. We got to the campsite at Lodgepole. As you enter there is a visitors Centre and store, laundry, and toilets. You drive straight on till you reach the booths to enter the campsite. The Ranger said that there had a been a lot of Bear activity and to watch out - he said it as if it was a bad thing, Catriona went "woohoo!". We drove in and set up at site 153, a reverse in slot with picnic table and fire ring After making sure everything was put away (we put our Lush products we had in the bear proof locker outside as they really smells scented) and closed all the blinds and windows (they sometimes jump up to look inside), we went for a walk up to Tokopah Falls, about 2 miles.  About 3 minutes up the Trail we saw our first bare arse! Sorry, that should be Bears Arse. As we were walking up the path a cinnamon coloured bear was just walking off it and back up into the woods, we hung about a bit but he didn't reappear. Apparently he did come out later and crossed the river to the other side but we were well up the trail by then.  Further up there were ground squirrels, chipmunks and close to the falls at the top, a Marmot who didn't seem that bothered by us. We got to the waterfalls just as it started spitting rain. We made our way back down  to the camp and started the BBQ and camp fire using wood we bought in the store. You are allowed to gather fallen wood to burn round here, we seen several people make forages out and come back with bundles. Tonights food was chicken wings, Burgers and salad. We pre cooked the wings and burgers as we didn't fancy food poisoning and then finished them off on the BBQ.There was a shower late evening but by 8pm the sun had set and the skies mainly cleared.Camp fires were going all around as it went dark and we sat and got sizzled on beer and wine. Catriona seen her first satellite going overhead though the clear skies.  We retired into the RV about 9pm and were in bed by 10pm hoping that the bears come down and have a midnight picnic so we could get some photos - but they didn't (or they did but we were fast asleep!)
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Bakersfield, California, United States

Well, getting up for sunrise was more in hope than expectation. We did waken at 5.15am but as sunrise is about 5.30 there was no point cos it would be over by the time we got there. So we had a long lie till 8am instead! Full cooked breakfast, prepared everything for leaving and stopped in at the Chevron petrol/gas station just outside of the Ranch. It is $3.47 a gallon here (note these prices I give are for 89 octane, the mid-range of the 3 unleaded petrol/gas types available), we topped up with $66 to get us out of the Valley and back into civilisation where hopefully the price would be $1 less. And a note for others, I could use my UK credit card to pay at the pump OK, some other places require a Zip code and hence we cannot use, but it was fine here.    We passed through Stovepipe Wells and turned off to the left on the graded gravel road to Mosaic Canyon. We had to drop our speed down to 10MPH for the 2.5 mile drive to the start of the Canyon as it was so bumpy. When we got there there were 3 other cars there already (no RVs funnily enough!)    We got our water, applied our SPF30 and headed on in. There was a school field trip of Geologists just at the start discussing the various rocks - oh the exciting life of a Geo! It was 10am and the sun was partially covered with cloud luckily. The first part of the Canyon is very narrow and full of layers of different types of rock, some if it was obviously mud and stones, others were a strange smooth granite type. We walked through the canyon up about a mile or so. The temperatures were getting up and the clouds disappeared, so we headed back down to the RV for much coolness and a shower!     We bumped and shoogled our way back down at 10MPH and went back to Stovepipe Wells for an ice cream. I looked at the RV parking there, it appears to e a bunch of lots out the back of the General Store with no shade or cover at all. We didn't bother going to the sand dunes by Stovepipe - I've spent 4 years working in Egypt and seen so much better!    Off we went west on the 190, it was a slow haul uphill passing the 1000,2000, 3000 and 4000 foot marks till we peaked at 4956 at Town Pass. The sign at the start says to switch off your AC to stop your vehicle overheating, but we took a steady 35-40MPH over and had no problems. It was a fair hike over the Cottonwood Mountains, I had to drop to 2nd gear on the way down over some spectacular views.   We got to Panamint Springs Resort the other side of the valley about 1pm, the use of the word Resort is stretching the truth quite a lot! The RV park is a scrubland with a toilet block. The "resort" may boast selling 130 different beers but it's a one horse town, basically consisting of the hotel and a fuel station (which is even more expensive than Furnace Creek!). I had made a reservation for here but we decided that as it was still early in the day we should just push on to get closer to Sequoia Canyon, we decided to aim for Bakersfield. Panamint Springs has free Wifi via their satellite; it is very slow, but at least free. We used it look up some RV parks in Bakersfield.   We continued west, over the top of Argus range of mountains, stopping at Father Crowley point for some photos. Here, I did my good deed for the day for a tourist, Dutch I think, who could not get his car started. He had left it in Drive, so the ignition wouldn't turn over, was fine once I shifted it to Park. Again, going down the slope I had to downshift to 2nd gear for some of the way as it was quite steep. It was strange to see a snow plough drive past us! I'm not sure what he was going to plough, maybe they use it to clear rocks from the road in summer.    We carried on, joining the 395 at Olancha and carried on south. We had our first view of the east side of the Sierras as we approached here, still some snow on top and rain clouds abound, even had a few splashes of rain!    We turned down I-14 and then turned off onto the 178 towards Lake Isabella. On the way there just as we approached Mountain Mesa, we noticed a big fire off to our left. At first we thought it was some kind of controlled burning of the land, but the black smoke coming off it showed it was something more serious. A dozen or so fire trucks passed us as we continued towards Isabella over the next 30 minutes. A news item on it is at http://www.kvsun.com/articles/2009/05/26/news/doc4a19ae6280d2d896849301.txt.   We got to Isabella about 4pm, as we hadn't had any lunch we stopped at the local MacDonalds for an Angus n fries. Note that when you buy a Meal here, this does not include the drinks as it doesn't in the UK. Any sodas you buy, however, include refills.   We carried on down towards Bakersfield, while we went down by the side of the Kern River, the road here was very narrow and winding.   We arrived in Bakersfield about 6pm and used TomTom to direct us to the Bakersfield Palms RV Resort. It was $27 all in for the night which includes full hookup for water, electrics (up to 50A), sewer, even cable TV if you want. They also have free WiFi access (but you need a code from them), which was very good and fast. Fast enough to download a couple of tv programmes for us to watch tomorrow. The park also has a small pool and hot tub, laundry etc. It is, however, only a few hundred yards away from a railway line, we did hear 2 or 3 trains rumble on by horns a blaring, we will see how bad it is overnight.   Catriona caught up on the laundry while I caught up on the travel blog and uploading photos. This evenings food was frozen pizza slices which were to be done in the over, but buggered if I could get it to light. Something else to add to the snagging list for when we return the RV.   Tomorrow is onwards to Sequoia Canyon.
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