Everything was fine there, then he inspected our foods, and he confiscated our orange!! Guess we got away easy.
Tony always calls California "The Land of Fruits and Nuts", so we couldn't resist taking a photo to verify this:
The drive through the Mojave Desert was hot and barren, with the only scenery being the tumbleweed and sage bushes. With it's rolling hills, it is a 'high desert'.
We were told that today was cool - at 96 degrees!!
Since we left Las Vegas early in the day to avoid driving during the high heat of the afternoon, we arrived early at our next campground. It was in a town called Boron. We drove into "town" if you could call it that, and came across The 20 Mule Team Museum.
The mule teams of the 1800's traveled 162 miles from Death Valley to Mojave, CA. There was not a single sign of habitation along the route. One stretch of 60 miles had no water, and temperatures ranged from 135 degrees to 160 degrees. They covered only about 16-18 miles a day, pulling 3 wagons, one for 1,200 gallons of water, and the other two for transporting up to 7,800 pounds of boron. The combined weight was more than 60,000 pounds, and there is no record that any of them ever broke down during the years they were in service. They don't make 'em like they used to!
The mules were chosen for their intelligence to respond to commands - straight roads were relatively easy to drive, but "swinging a curve" successfully was a real demonstration of the training and intelligence of the mules. Eventually, building of the nation's railroads out west eliminated the need for the 20 Mule Teams.
Boron, an ore derived from borate, is mined here, by US Borax, Inc, and it is one of only 2 boron mines in the world - the other being in Palestine. The mine in this little town supplies 40% of the world's boron. It's hundreds of uses include cleaning supplies (Borax), ceramics, even the screens of TVs. We visited the Visitor's Center of the actual mine, which no longer uses deep shaft mining, but instead, terraced open pit mining.
The pit is 2 miles by 1.5 miles, and 800 feet deep, with another 700 feet to go.
As we were relaxing in the evening in the motorhome, all of a sudden, we heard a big BANG!!! We both jumped up and ran outside - expecting to find something that hit the motorhome - but nothing! Three times we heard this strange bang. Tony figured out it must have been the blasting in the open pit mine, a few miles away. It was the percussion from the blast!
We drove on towards Yosemite National Park, and checked into a campground outside the Park. We had called for directions, and somehow got them wrong, and ended up driving well over an hour over a steep mountain pass that had Tony almost reaching for the bourbon. The downhill switchbacks were so bad that I had to stay in first or second gear for most of the way. It was by far the worst ride we ever experienced. When we got to the campground and told the staff of our horrors, they said: "Oh no.....we never would have sent you that way!! Just recently, a local man died on that road after he went over the side of the cliff!" Can you imagine???
We stayed near a great little mountain town called Sonora.
We visited Yosemite National Park, the gem of the Sierra Nevada range. The park is 1,200 square miles, with peaks from 2,000 feet to 13,000 feet. There are about 800 miles of hiking trails, some extremely remote. It is thought that the land was under glacial ice as little as 10,000 years ago, then was formed by rising molten rock, erosion, water and glaciers. In some areas, sixty feet of snow can accumulate in the winter. The National Parks Service uses prescribed fires to stimulate reproduction of trees.
Here are some of the wondrous sights we saw, including Bridal Veil Falls, El Capitan peak, and the giant sequoias:
We even came across Wile E Coyote!
On the way "home", Tony Z got all excited when he saw this sign:
We drove on to San Francisco, Where the temps are in the 60's!! Need a jacket and long pants out here! We are in a campground in Pacifica, just south of SF. Our site is on the bluff, and when we look out of our front window, all we see is Pacific Ocean.
We'll wake up to the scent of the sea and the sounds of the surf. There were some resident pelicans who were soaring in the ocean breeze, seemingly patrolling our campground.
We did the tourist thing our first day - drove around San Francisco, and saw the famous Lombard Street - "The Most Crooked Street in the World", Chinatown and the ritzy Nob Hill section.
The streets are so steep, that we had to drive down them in 1st gear, and we still needed to brake. Now THIS is a good idea for a street sign in this town:
We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, a great skyline, Cable Cars, and Alcatraz...."The Rock".
Fisherman's Wharf was bustling with activity and the tourists were in full swing.
We ate lunch at the famous restaurant Sarella and La Torre, est 1927. Tony needed a bib to go with his dungenous crab dish, and I couldn't resist what San Francisco is also known for - Clam Chowder in a sourdough bowl.
The lines were 3 deep for the seafood at this restaurant.
There was a vintage submarine in port.
These colorful homes are called "The Painted Ladies" - they are wonderfully restored Victorian row homes in the Historic Alamo District of San Francisco.
This may bring you back to the 60's - And the time of flower power and tie dye clothes.
We drove south on the famous Highway 1, along the coast where the coastline is jagged with giant boulders and the ocean a deep blue.
The fog lifted today and we had a beautiful sunset.
We had a great night visiting with Tony's cousin Michele and her husband, Carl.
We left our hearts in San Francisco, amidst the fog that shrouded the Golden Gate Bridge.
We took in the beauty of the Napa Valley, where there are miles and miles of vineyards wherever you look. We visited the Robert Mondavi Winery, and enjoyed the wine tasting and the cellar tour.
When the Winemaker feels there are enough sugars and tannin acids in the grape, the harvest begins. The grapes ferment only for 5-10 days, but the finished product is not ready for 3 years. The date on the wine is when the grapes were harvested. We visited the fermenting room, and the barrels were so huge, that we had to go downstairs to see the bottom of them.
This particular vineyard has been in existence for over 100 years, but Mondavi purchased it in 1962. He died a few years ago, and there was a photo of him wearing a tuxedo jacket made of wine corks:
The vine can last 30-40 years on average, and there is an area in the Mondavi Winery which has vines 65 years old.
We drove to northern California, where the famous coastal Highway 101 winds along the beaches and through the forests.
Although beautiful, the drive was a bit challenging, with the steep declines and tight curves.
We stopped at a clip joint, specializing in carved burl, big and small. Do you see any resemblance?
We chose a campground that was mostly wooded, a welcome change from the "parking lot campgrounds" we endured recently. Our site had huge redwoods, which dwarfed us and our motorhome.
This post won't accept any more photos, so I added a short conclusion of our visit to California on the next post.
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