Blog 4 20^th to 27th June 2014   Sacramento, Lassen Volcanic Park, Springfield and The Spruce Goose.

We said goodbye to Cath at SF airport. She’s now in Arizona on a horse called Tonto, having a great time looking for tumbleweed and Titan Missile Bases. 

Museum Poster

We moved on to Sacramento so Rick could enjoy the Sacramento Railroad Museum; and he did just that.  The trains were classic Union Pacific locos, cow-catchers and all. He was particularly taken by the superb interpretation by retired rail workers, from the dining waiter to the sleeping-car attendant. He was very interested in how Western America was transformed by the huge expansion of the railroad and how the government and entrepreneurs carved up the land (becoming very rich and resulting in 0% income tax in late 1920s).

Old Sacramento....needs some horses!

I, who don’t always share Rick’s enthusiasms, chose to spend the morning pootling round Old Sacramento, an area by the waterfront that is as it was in 1850s, with boardwalks and old, balconied buildings. Many of them are eateries, with the ubiquitous burgers and chips, but it was an interesting area to meander around on a hot day. Downtown Sacramento appeared to be struggling a bit, its high street area rather empty, with many closed shops even in the malls .

Comfortable living! Can you believe the price on that microwave?

Suitable for parties? Spot the slideout. bit

Drive on in.  Convertible Balcony deck!

 We also found an RV show in Sacramento, so simply had to visit it. We were amazed at what’s inside these giant behemoths – space in which to drive your car, fold-out balconies, 50ins TVs, fully-equipped kitchens, his-and-hers bathrooms. There’s enough room in some for all the Tallentires to party!  This one evn had an external kitchen, toilet and shower. It's called a 5th wheeler as you need a big pick up truck to pull it.

Volcanic Gloop

hot stuff

Our thanks must go to the chap who recommended Lassen Volcanic National Park. He described it as a ‘hidden gem’and so it is, coming a very close second to Yosemite. The area has such an amazing variety of terrain, all created by its volcanic geology. It’s one of the few places in the world to have all 4 types of volcano – shield, cinder, plug dome and composite, with exciting rubble fields, lava beds and erratic rocks. We walked up to the magnificent hydrothermal area, Bumpass’ Hell,  named after the owner who fell in (115deg) and didn’t swear, we’re told. At 6500 ft, we reached the fumaroles and mudpots, with steaming pools and rivulets of boiling water – and snow. It smelt pretty strong too.

Cinder Cone challenge.  Spot the helical footpath on this 35 degree slope

just started and just about exhausted

Rocky path to Bumpass

Cinder Cone conquered

Our greatest challenge here was climbing the Cinder Cone volcano, a 4 mile, high altitude treck on a cinder ash trail (like walking through sand and gravel), with the last half mile being a 750ft climb to the top. I could only do 20 paces then stop, all the way up. Hard going but worth it – magnificent views of mountains, The Painted Dunes and the Fantastic Lava Beds, beautiful colours and shapes, topped with lava rubble. Looking down into the volcano was simply amazing.

We bypassed London and avoided Lebanon and Drain on our way to Springfield (actually, the Simpson’s version is in Indiana, but we did find Moe’s Tavern). Somehow Lumpy’s Grill didn’t do it for us, so we chose to eat in Plank Town, a restaurant/pub and micro brewery. Rick enjoyed his Riptooth IPA, although he could have had Bart’s Best Bitter. As space was limited, we inflicted ourselves on a group of unsuspecting strangers – and what a splendid evening with 5 lovely people! We nattered and chatted about all sorts, from metric and imperial systems, cruises, trips, elections and health services. When the conversation turned to trains and planes and other engineering things Rick was treated to Quinton’s handheld video of a 200 horsepower lathe that can turn a 1.5 metre diameter tree trunk into thousands of metres of veneer for plywood.

Good food, good beer and good company, what more could you want?  Thanks for a memorable evening, and also for suggesting we visit the Evergreen Aviation Museum, to see the Spruce Goose (which is actually mainly made of birch ply) with the longest wingspan of any plane ever built at 97.5 m (320ft).  Designed to carry 750 troops or a couple of Sherman tanks, it was flown only once, in 1947, by Howard Hughes owner/designer/financier/multi-millionaire. What a machine, and we’ve now been inside it

Sugar seems to feature highly in American cuisine – breakfast toast with fudge sauce, Rick’s last Denny's burger came with maple syrup on it, and we watched in wonder as a young family in Waiaka dipped seasoned fries into their chocolate chip icecreams for a late afternoon snack - unusual?

     

Signs continue to be interesting - you need to be sure where you’re going here! or you'll 'likely end up some place else' (Mark Twain?)

     

We’re now back in Olympia, collecting our passports (I forgot them!), because tomorrow, we’re on the ferry to Canada.

If you've time, more pictures at:

Old Sacramento  and the Railway Museum

https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030575416212677745

Sacramento RV Exhibition

https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030577081586657697

Lassen Volcanic National Park   https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030578890416249937

Climbing Cinder Cone

https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030580661070900209

Canyonville and Springfield

https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030582366474760753

Spruce Goose and Evergreen Aerospace Museum

https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030171184086005889

Blog 3 10th – 19th June Highway 101 to Yosemite

Blog 3  10^th – 19^th June. California

We’ve been doing so much, as well as meeting up with a sister, that we’re a bit behind with this - but here’s our latest review of our travels in California.

The Avenue of the Giants is a 31mile detour from Hwy 10, through Humboldt State Park, where we saw the largest remaining old-growth Coast Redwoods. And they are giants, up to 340ft high and 40ft girth, ancient and gnarly with twisted bark. As we walked through the forest, there was an eerie silence around them and a sense of timelessness….. as inspiring as some of Europe’s cathedrals.

The magnificent Route1 Hwy took us through some incredible scenery and lovely little clapperboard towns, round twisty-turny roads and along the Pacific Ocean. We kept going ‘wow!’ and ‘gosh!’ and ‘let’s go there’.

On 16^th June, we met up with Cath, in San Francisco, 3000 miles from home.

We had a great 6 days of fun sharing the space in the van and the tent and our maple syrup pancakes!

San Francisco is an absolute delight – attractive, inviting and vibrant, with so much to see and do. Rick’s face was a picture when we hopped on a cable car, holding on to the outside rail – yes, it was fun! His grin was even wider when we reached the Cable Car Museum, where we watched the 4 huge cable and sheave systems, which pull cars up the hills. They’ve been doing this since 1873 - incredible engineering that even I could appreciate.  We watched one being turned at the bottom of Mason St

Cath and Rosi

Playing Cable Cars

Nightmare when someone breaks down!

SF waterfront has a nice feel to it, lots of people jogging and wandering and coffeeing.  The famed Pier 39 is a cacophony of fast food outlets, souvenir shops and tourists, but it’s attractive in its own way. There’s a good mix of old and new buildings and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge (which disappointingly turned out to be red) and which we saw from the top of a hop on – hop off bus.

Alcatraz Times Square

 The Alcatraz tour was so booked up we only managed to get one ticket which Rick used while Rosi and Cath toured Golden Gate Park.  The ‘Rock’ tour included a visit to adjacent Angel Island, once a Military Base for guarding the entrance to the bay (never fired a shot in anger) it became the ‘Ellis Island’ Gateway to the Western USA for the millions of enthusiastic, imaginative, immigrant entrepreneurs that fired up the American Dream.  It is now a State Park where school kids are sent when their parents don’t want them around.   I felt rather sad on the Alcatraz tour as most of the inmates were basically insane, like Al Capone who was severely affected by syphilis which wrecked his brain.  Being incarcerated within the sight and sounds of a bustling City like San Francisco was a torture for some.

Rosi tried hippy-hunting, but saw nobody with flowers in their hair, only those with long grey ponytails…but we did find beer and live music at the 60^th North Bay Festival and observed  lots of Chinese gambling in a park.

Most of SF looks well-kept and fairly affluent, but there are quite a few rough sleepers with their shopping trolleys of wordly goods. Why, we wondered? Apparently SF has a strong support network and lots of soup kitchens.

One of our days went horribly wrong – our last ferry (8.30) across the Bay to Vallejo broke down in front of us. 100 people got cold, weary and short-tempered as we waited, and waited, and waited, but no information was forthcoming. By 10.45, the crew tried another ferry – that too broke down. By 11.00 we gave up and had a wonderful night’s sleep in a nearby hotel, at vast expense.

 

Robin's Next Bike...and Helmet?

We’ve been entertained by cruising cars at sundown – there must be a name for these cars …? Other intriguing methods of transport were spotted too. SF earns $98,000,000 from parking fines, mostly from the clever tourist-trap of a requirement to park with your wheels turned in on a hill. Equally staggering is the income of $65,000 for a dog-carer, and the $15,000 for a child minder – they have more dogs than under-17s (only 12%).  As SF is the 2^nd most expensive place in USA, this shouldn’t be surprising. 

 

Cath and I had a grand trip to Golden Gate Park, especially in the Japanese Garden (ideas for Ade?)  - serene, orderly and tranquil. We should all have some of that!

At last, Yosemite. WOW! We ran out of superlatives as we rounded bends and climbed steep mountain roads, each time to a more spectacular and wondrous view. Glacier Point (7100ft) is the pinnacle of stunning scenery, looking down on to the Valley Floor 3000ft below; just breath-taking. The sheer size and shape of the mountains, from Half Dome to El Capitan, is truly awesome. The dramatic geology in this landscape is a privilege to see – and you really do contemplate the smallness of yourself!

There was also the evidence of last year’s devastating fire, caused by a Hunter's illegal campfire. Lightning fires are a common and important element of regeneration and the Rangers set controlled fires, but not like this one - 400 sq miles was destroyed including several structures and 11 homes.

Our campground was 6000 ft up  at Crane Flat (yes it took a lot of puff to walk up the slightest incline!) It was pretty basic, but in a beautiful setting. Cath became fire-monitor with the pokey stick, Rick was chief cook, and me – the general dogsbody with the wine. For a change we were allowed to forage for firewood, normally forbidden...and much better value than buying it from the shop at £6.30 for enough to fill a carrier bag!

We had early morning starts (7.00), to beat the crowds and the heat. Even so, it hit 96deg as we walked/climbed the 5 mile trail round Hetch-Hetchy (what a name!). Few others were up there – it seems many visitors to the park don’t venture far from the ‘sights’. Peaceful for us and worth the walk through the beautiful wild flowers once we arrived at Wawona Falls

We continue to see puzzling signs. This one tempted us to try speeding to see what happened. And we really like the advert for SF University!

Rick's Tree 'Newt'

An interesting tree newt was exposed by Rick’s rotten bark-ripping (pic) and his patience paid off with this shot of a hummingbird in a hot poker bed next to the van.  We were later informed a bear had been cavorting while we were out wandering through yet more trees - darn! Haven’t seen one yet……

 

Hummingbird on our pitch

Much to our own surprise, we’ve walked a total of 67 miles so far, much of it along superb trails in stunning places. Maybe we’re trying to keep up with our friends currently doing the Dales Way!

We've uploaded dozens of pictures with the links below if you busy people can find the time to look at them!

https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/California10thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCMyw2NbBxvy4gQE

https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/California11thJune02?authkey=Gv1sRgCIn61Pyv8bm8-QE
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https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030096682527622401
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco14thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCOq_5MnU4OHrygE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco15thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCMf_4-rz-92T2gE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco16thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXi2LzThNHpjgE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/Yosemite18thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiKrK705fWtOw
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030225412060854353

Blog 2 3rd – 9th June Oregon Pacific

3^rd – 9^th June   Coast Route from Oregon to California

Atago Peninsula near Coos Bay

We’ve become rather fond of Highway 101, as we’ve travelled down it through Oregon and into California. While tracing the Pacific coastline it passes through many beautiful State and National Parks. Our campgrounds continue to be in some stunning locations …lagoons, Ocean beaches and sequoia forests.

We loved the glorious Gold Bluffs’ Beach (so named because of the gold ‘rush’ that wasn’t), along a dusty 8 mile track away from the rest of the world. It was also the location for the opening scenes in Jurassic Park 2.

Rick on a Salt Eroded Rock

Shore Acres, near Coos Bay on the Oregon coast, was a stunning spot for this formal garden, overlooking some of the ‘most dramatic geology on the West Coast’ The 45 million years old Coaledo rock Formation tilts at 45 degrees as the Juan de Fuca Plate collides with the North America Plate and occasionally causes an earthquake.  The especially interesting rocks are created by salt erosion and demand closer examination.

Shore Acres, once a grand home,  now has quite a large team of gardeners – one was weeding the lawns and to pass the time of day, Rosi observed to him that he’d certainly got a life-time job there…… it was only later that we read the back of their overalls the word ‘Inmate’ – oops!

Junior Barn for $4335 (£2600) Any Orders?

American Humour

We’re puzzled by a number of things – the sign offering us a ‘Van Worming Service’ and the one informing us the Freeway was having a ‘seismic retrofit’ (any ideas? All we could see was grasscutting). We’ve also learnt that sheds are also known as ‘junior barns’  - very appropriate for this one we found outside Home Depot which would look great in Heather’s back garden.  And is this a good example of American sense of humour … Oh, and we’ve found Hard Scrabble Creek for Rick and Laura, and just for Betty a travelling library is a bookmobile. We also spotted Bear Butte Creek….

Wonderful trails include the magnificent  Fern Canyon, in Prairie Creek State Park; a shady canyon with 50ft high walls draped in ferns showering in gently cascading water, while the pebbly stream below was criss-crossed with fallen logs to walk on and over – soooo beautiful. 

Wildlife features much on our walking trails (32 miles so far). Rick managed to photograph the chipmunk cleaning up our campfire griddle, and  seals at Simpson Reef – it’s the largest ‘haul-out’ on the Oregon Coast. We’ve watched Brown Pelicans, sea eagles, red squirrels and excitingly, we’ve also seen one of the 19,000 whales that move up the Pacific Coast at 3 mph.

We have been stalked by an elk – seriously. She crept up on us so quietly that we didn’t see her until she was only 15ft behind us. Did she have a new calf nearby? We took no chances and moved swiftly back into the forest. As we moved along, so did she, keeping parallel with us for a good 10 minutes. Rather unsettling!

We nattered to the owners of a German van and learnt they’d imported it from Hamburg to Halifax 2 years ago at a cost of 3500 euros… a plan to ponder!   They fly over every six months or so and take it on another expedition, this time they are circumnavigating the USA.

American Staple Food

We found a WiFi  laundrette in Eureka (and I’m sure there’s much more to discover there ….). On the American scale our bag of pants and pyjamas felt very small and insignificant in comparison with other loads but it was the cheapest wash and dry we’ve found in Europe (and I assure you, we know about these things). Rick found an amazing coffee / doughnut shop nearby run by a lovely Japanese couple – spot the bear’s claws donuts which run red with strawberry jam when you bite them.

In 1895, the mailboat used to travel up the Rogue River from Gold Beach, Oregon to Agness. It still does, but now takes passengers wanting to experience the journey in a bright red Jet Boat, travelling at 50 mph attached to three Chevrolet V8’s = 1 mile to a gallon.  with frequent spins, sharp turns and speedy acceleration. It was great fun getting so wet!  Pilot Tim Bruekner kept us well entertained on the boring straight bits. Mind you, the scenery, herons and eagles mostly kept our attention…no bears though!

We had a home fried chicken lunch in Agness (pop 85)  in the homely Lucas Lodge which Garrison Keeler could have been very droll about and didn’t have a road ‘til 1964. It now boasts an airstrip which looks remarkably like anyones front lawn…slightly bent, and the last place I’d want to put down my Cessna..

Our guided  trip round the Battery Point Lighthouse at Crescent City was Rosi’s first introduction to a Fourth Generation Fresnel lens  - what a beautiful piece of engineering.  Apart from rocky wrecks the city has recorded 34 Tsunamis in the past 33 years. The one in 1964 was the worst ever recorded along the West Coast and “took out 5 city blocks”…size of a couple of football pitches which are now a park.

Look for a Little Rosi

On through the World Heritage Site in the three California State Parks that  hold 95% of the old-growth Sequoia sempiverens (ever-living), the tallest trees in the world and only found on the West Coast. Only 5% of these wondrous trees remain – the rest were logged between 1850 and 1920 (approx 2 million acres). Coastal Redwoods can grow up to 390ft, with a girth of 40-50ft. They can weigh 500 tons and have no killer disease. Many are around 800 yrs old, with some reaching 2000 years. Walking through a forest of these giants is truly awesome. It feels quite mystical and humbling.

They grow in ‘families’, with the young saplings tapping into the root resource of the mature trees – sound familiar to parents?

We had a feeling we were in Ewok country when walking through the Redwood forests in Humboldt State Park– and yes, Spielberg turned it into the Forest Moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi.

From the sublime to the ridiculous - if you have 3min 52 seconds to spare you could watch our railway journey on the Oregon Scenic Railway…hmmm (yet to be uploaded 'cos we don't want to upset Starbucks by gobbling up their bandwidth...

Links to more photographs below in chronoogical order from the 6th....only if you are interested!
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https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6021648199590181073
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6021658213738718497
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/Oregon6thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCIX33JSf6L7S5wE
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024528019384816881
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024529964360057249
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6024531093040341281