Yosemite, Squaw Valley and San Francisco

Yosemite

Carol asked why are we going to Yosemite

and what is there to see there. I said rock and left it at that. We stayed a couple of days and left in awe. It is a special place. The Pics say it all.











Squaw Valley

I got a days skiing in at Squaw. It was a little cold and overcast at times but the snow conditions were excellent for the Sierras in late March. The piste marking was not however.

The yanks seem happy to let people loose on the mountains with only minimal guidance.






Carol came up on the big mountain Gondala for lunch. It was a pity but we had to eat inside as the wind was blowing hard so it was cold. We left in driving snow and were glad to get over the pass and down to warmer climes.






San Francisco

We managed to get parked by getting there early on Sunday and finding a rare free street parallel park site. It filled up quickly and before long all the $25 a day lots were full as well. Half an hour later and we would have been stuffed. There were many street people some Chinese but lots of police presence so we left the RV, took the cable car trolley
up to China town and walked back down. The community is alive, well and speaking and writing in Cantonese. Truly it is a little piece of China.

The cable car system dates from 1873. A Mr Hallidie who owned a wire- rope manufacturing business saw an accident that killed 5 horses. From this came the idea which became a full blown-a cable car railway system to deal with San Francisco's fearsome hills. The design is little changed today and requires considerable skill and huge upper body strength to operate the levers clutching the car to the cable or operating the manual brakes. In 1998 Jan. 15 Fannie Mae Barnes became the first female ' driver' after developing the great upper body strength needed for the grip and brakes and we mae have seen her at work.










After a wander round the piers we were out of SF across the Golden Gate Bridge
to posh Marin County.









Charro’s bit

I don’t know, into snow, down to warm weather, back to snow then more warm weather. Grow more hair or shed some, that is the question. I am fooling the mistress into giving me more ham treats by not eating my dried stuff until she puts some in there. The fat one is getting to push me around as well so he is getting some exercise.

USS MIDWAY, MUSEUMS, PALOMAR RC FLYERS and L.A BABY then on to the BIG TREES

DUE TO SHORTAGE OF TIME AND A SLOW CONNECTION ALL PICS ARE AT THE BOTTOM

We have had a good time in San Diego visiting Carol’s friends who live in a beautiful suburb of San Diego called Carlsbad. Their house has a fantastic view over a canyon leading to the ocean and with the mountains on the right.

I really enjoyed the tour of the USS aircraft carrier the Midway. Built during WW2 with a straight flight deck and rebuilt since then to incorporate an angled flight deck and steam catapults for fast jets. The guides or docents as they call them here were almost all ex Midway crew and it was quite special to listen to someone who had fought during one of the wars describe how flight operations went. I had met in St Lucia a navy pilot who had flown Crusaders and his description of night carrier landings came flooding back to me as I listened to a flight controller tell stories of night operations in the south China sea. There was a wide range of aircraft on show from a WW2 Dauntless to F4s 14s and 15s all in carrier spec.

The museums at Balboa Park in San Diego were good in parts.

The automotive museum included the Cadillac that had been driven non stop around the USA. It had been modified to allow wheel changing on the move [essential] and it was fitted with a iron and iron board in the rear seat [why?].

The museum of man had a good section on the Mayans, but little was original. It included some nice baskets and pottery work many centuries old, however they are mixed in with stuff produced in the last five years.

The thing I enjoyed most was the Japanese garden. The cherry trees were in blossom, the koi were huge, the Bonsai tiny and twisted and the sense of tranquillity was everywhere.

After San Diego I had a mornings flying with the Palomar RC club [ Thanks to Joe Buko for showing me the ropes ] at their premier flying site, Johnson Field. Two things stick in my memory. This was another club just about the size of my old club at Offley with their own field which sports a 600 x 40 tarmac strip, shaded pits with ali. topped starting tables and a small grandstand. The second thing occurred when I was talking about how nice it was to be flying on a perfect cloudless sunny day with no wind, and some one asked how often that would happen in England. Perhaps I was only remembering the bad days but my answer was one or two days a year, they said that this was their normal, expected flying conditions.

After flying we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles. The surf was up and the beaches were fairly busy. We stopped at Huntington beach for lunch and it was vignette on Californian life. Bikini clad teenagers jogged past us stopping to hug trees. [Yup real tree huggers.] Bald headed 40 somethings were running into the sea carrying surfboards. Shiny faced ladies of indeterminate age in colour co-ordinated clothes, power walked past carrying bottles of designer water, sometimes with a matching dog.



We visited the freak show that is the board walk at Venice beach. A grey haired rasta was skating along playing good guitar jazz with an amplifier in his back pack. Some hard bodied gents worked out in the open air gym and oiled each others pecs. A reasonably well dressed man with a funny hat stating “ Support my alcoholism” panhandled for dollars, being honest about his need for beer. Several sidewalk musicians played for tips, including a grey haired old lady belting out Beethoven on a baby grand piano. Kids on skateboards, 40 year olds on skateboards and rollerblades whistled past, many with a serious tattoo habit. Amongst the tat we did find some good Mexican cotton and Carol was tempted.


Carol’s bit.
Got to Los Angeles, a nightmare to drive around, not RV friendly but we managed to drive down Rodeo drive. Full of designer shops and people with more money than sense. We parked at the other end of it where all the houses are and took Charro for a walk. Nice houses and gardens but they all had big time security measures in place, so I guess that is the price of living in a famous area. We drove through Hollywood and Bel Air, didn’t see Posh and Becks. Some of the streets are obviously named after stars, we went past Hayworth avenue and Bronson avenue. A lot of the old film studios are derelict now as production has been moved to a different area.
These areas are very much have ,and have not, mixed in together. Not like England where the areas tend to be separated.
We moved onto to find the Autry museum, which is the history of the cowboy. We saw all the old names, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Cisco kid ( remember him and his horse galloping at a rate of knots to wobbly music ) and loads more. It was very well presented, but reminded us of our ages, as it was our era.
It was good to see all these famous names and places that you see on the television, but it was good to get out of the city, and into country again. Going from one to the other is a good balance of interest, and now we are sitting in Sequoia National park
waiting to see if we get raided by black bears in the middle of the night.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

After the giant urban sprawl of LA we headed up into the mountains to see the “ Big Trees”. We climbed from the valley floor to 7000 feet and found 3 to 6 foot of lying snow, however the sun was shining and it was warm enough to walk around without a jacket. We camped at altitude amongst the snow and enjoyed our best nights sleep for a while. It was absolutely silent up there in the mountains and the air was crisp, clear and fresh. The rangers were very active and we got a ticket for not having an entrance fee receipt showing. The ranger was a short**** and missed it on our windshield. There were a surprising number of people camping in tents on the snow.

This was an absolutely great experience and I got to make contact with the largest living thing on this earth, the General Sherman.











Charro’s bit

I don’t know what is going on. One day I am walking along the beach worrying about bikini clad, rollerblading, California air head teenagers and the next day I am walking in the snow looking up at 6 foot high banks of the white cold stuff and worrying about out of control sledgers. The rangers were really busy stopping them. To cap it all the trees here give a fellow an inferiority complex. How can you cock a leg on something 300 feet high and a 1000 years old.

Back in the USA

We are in San Diego and Carol is cleaning the dust of the Baja from the inside of the RV and I need to get some work done on the exterior and to get the grit off our undercarriage. We are also reflecting on our time down in Mexico. We saw so much investment in infrastructure, so much work done on hotels, RV parks, restaurants, marinas, tourist information centres, beach buildings and roadside rest areas but to no avail, nothing was working. Everywhere we went we saw abandoned facilities and dilapidation. It is not clear what went wrong but I guess the “Norteamericanos” stopped coming south. We looked at an idyllic housing development on a long sand spit just south of Ensenada. Beautiful houses in a fantastic beach location with a good landscaping and a strong security presence but nearly all were empty and many had for sale signs on the doors.

Most of these facilities had no evidence of vandalism or graffiti and quite often there was a caretaker doing some kind of minimal maintenance, usually without getting paid, but nothing would work and nothing was earning money. What a contrast to the USA, here everything works and earns money.

On several occaisions we stayed in a beatiful location, in a well designed RV park
with a water tap, electricity outlet and sewer connection and a campground building with a cafe, showers and loos, NONE OF WHICH WOULD WORK. Some nights some one would turn up to collect a few pesos but mostly there was no one.

We spent yesterday getting a culture fix in San Diego’s Balboa Park. 13 museums and lots of proper grass. Charro got a good walk on the green stuff for a change.

We parked at a fairground park last night in Del Mar just north of San Diego and found a dog show by accident. Guess where we are going this afternoon.

March 7th Beaches Bikes and Birds

Beaches. We have reached the part of the Baja where the beaches get better, the weather gets warmer, the bikers gather and the birds hang out in numbers. The Bahia Concepcion is a huge shallow bay with some of the best Baja beaches, many of which are colonised by RVers from further north every winter. Some arrive with a small car pitch a little tent and others come with the kitchen sink, building this sort of thing. On some beaches waterfront access is now completely blocked off by these structures. At Buenaventura beach I checked out that I can still snorkel. The bay was full of scallops including the giant Lion’s Paw. I could easily have picked up dinner. There was also a healthy fish population which did not seem gun shy so I guess spear fishing is not popular here.

Bikes. Two types have got our attention. The first is pedal powered and carries some hardy types who are cycle camping their way down the Baja. The second are off roaders loaded with luggage who come down to use some of the desert sand rods used in the BAJA 1000. [ Look it up on the internet – this is serious lunacy ] I have never seen so many KTM 660s and even the odd 990 on the road. It was amusing to hear the “ There I was stories “ from the wannabees around the campsites in the evening.

The whole idea of riding a motorcycle the length of the Baja Peninsula against a clock belongs to motorcycle racer-turned-Hollywood stuntman, Bud Ekins. And it was American Honda Motor Company (AHM) who supplied the vehicle to make it work. Actually, it was AHM Sales Manager Jack McCormack and Western States Sales Manager Walt Fulton whom Bud convinced a "Baja Trail Ride" with Honda's brand new CL72 Scrambler would be a great way to kick off sales for Honda's first dirt bike.

In 2006, the last running of the full race 1000 miles plus, on dirt roads was won by a bike with a time of 18 hours 17 minutes beating all the cars even the unlimeteds.

TO MY 42 LANE FRIENDS "Yup bikes rool"



Birds. We have stopped before in our travels at US state parks that claim to be bird sanctuaries and bird hot spots.
However I saw a bigger variety of species including hummers on many of our morning dog walk/trolley push outings down here. One that is common throughout USA and Mexico is the Turkey Vulture. If this guy was rare then people would travel thousands of miles to see him. I have watched and marvelled at how skilled they are at working the tiniest of thermals, ridge soaring in the roughest of conditions and staying up without any apparent effort when everything else is flapping madly. They are striking in the air with their two tone wings and effortless flight.

Charro has a new girl friend. Well she is anyones friend. Mexican dogs have been well behaved and friendly, so far.

Feb 18th to the 28th. Carrots Turtles and Whales

West coast Baja to East coast Baja and back to the West coast.

We drove across the high plain of the central Baja down to the bay of Angels. Leaving El Rosario, we made sure we are full of fuel because there are no petrol stations for 200 miles. The tarmac road is narrow and really scary when a big rig with the driver on bonus and wakey wakey pills barrels past. The old gravel track which was the only way south till recently runs alongside the new road for long stretches and is a magnet for off road racers.

The climate and growing conditions favour a really bizarre cactus, called cirios or boojum trees. It was described to us as a giant upside down carrot. When I saw the first one I thought “Yup, carrot!” However these warm dry conditions were replaced by a wet, cold, windy and foggy day as we climbed to the abandoned camp site we planned to stop at.

We drove through the Catavinia region next day. A giant jumble of boulders with the an amazing variety and concentration of cactus before hitting a dryer desert as we rolled down to the Bahia De Los Angeles. Our first glimpse of The Sea of Cortez was a pristine vision of clean islands and blue sky, then the reality of Mexico returned, abandoned enterprises, shacky dwellings and everywhere litter and rust.


We enjoyed most of what was there but the turtle rescue operation left me with mixed feelings I am sure this guy just wanted out.










Carol’s bit

Went whale watching in the Scammon’s lagoon near Guerrero Negro. We were out for about an hour and could see them from a distance, spouting and breaching the water. Looked like we were stuck with long distance filming. Then from nowhere appeared mother and baby Californian grey whales. They stayed for about an hour whilst we stroked them and took pictures.
Every now and them they would spray us for fun or roll on their backs to be stroked. Whales carry parasites, which could be seen clearly. They are like little mouths that kept opening and closing to breathe, quite sci-fi and very unpleasant.



The whales will rub them off on any available surface, which happened to be the bottom of the boat we were in. Quite unnerving, if she had misjudged the pressure.

They were completely non aggressive, and very calming. It would be easy to slide over the side of the boat and swim with them, without feeling threatened.
When it was time for us to go, they seemed to know and backed off from the boat, they gave us a final bow and drifted away.
When we got back to shore the tide was out, so the boat couldn’t tie up at the jetty.
So it was shoes off, trouser legs rolled up and over the side to walk back to shore in the sea. Wasn’t very deep and the water is very salty as the lagoon is situated in salt flats, so it was a very healthy wade back to shore.
It was a privilege for these beings to allow us to make friends with them, they are under no threat from humans here and hopefully never will be.

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO CLIP.

John's bit

"Life history: Unlike other large whales, gray whales concentrate in shallow protected lagoons to have their young. The most famous of these is Scammon's Lagoon, named after the whaling captain who first discovered the calving areas. Breeding occurs mainly in late November and early December on the southward migration. A single calf is born in late December to early February of the following year, after a gestation period of about 13 months. Most females bear calves once every two years. Newborn calves are about 16 feet (4.9 m) long and weigh about 1,500 pounds (680 kg).

Gray whale calves grow very rapidly on their mother's milk (which is over 50 percent fat) and are about 28 feet (8.6 m) long by August when they are weaned. Growth slows as the whales reach sexual maturity at about age 8 but continues until the age of 40. Adult whales are about 36 to 50 feet (10-15 m) long and may weigh 16 to 45 tons (15-41 metric tons); females are larger than males at any given age. Although some may live as long as 70 years, 40 or 50 years is the usual lifespan." Author Kathy Frost

Our female looked to be one of the larger ones there and was a lot longer than our speedboat.

Charro’s bit.

Now where can I bury this lot?

Bufadora in the Baja

Carol’s bit

Got to Mexico yesterday, Tecate, went through as fast as possible, you don’t drive at night here or park in vulnerable places. Parked at a nice little RV park, and we found GRASS the real stuff, so Charro had lots of smells this morning. We had a frost too, I thought we were coming to the warm sun.
Went into Encinada today , quite a nice shopping precinct very clean and guess what !
I know where C & A went.
Got down to Bufadora, a peninsula off the main road. There was a nice little market there,
and the market traders are genuinely friendly and there were some nice things on sale. We try not to buy stuff because there is nowhere to put it and we don’t need it. We sold most of our stuff before we came, no sense in collecting more. We are personalising the RV though, so we got a small wall plaque that depicts the Mayan calendar and put it over the door. We bought some Churros for breakfast ( sugared doughnut sticks ) very healthy. The ground is rough here on the Peninsula but we managed to park for the night next to a field in the market car park, and managed to collect some nice wild flowers. There are some very attractive plants here, but we dare not keep any permanently in the RV they will be taken from us at the US boarder.
Someone was selling Bassett pups, one of them was just wandering around the shop. I gave him a cuddle and he wouldn’t let go, I don’t think Mexican dogs get too much affection, they bark , therefore they are useful for guarding what little the people have.
There are packs wandering around, but I think they belong to different people, they are fed and have to find there own bed somewhere on the property, and it the law of the fittest and smartest.

John’s Bit

Bufadora was good with the blowhole being pretty spectacular.
We only had a 5 foot surf yet we were getting 50 foot plus blows, just like a giant breating.

We have a free to air satellite system but it has been really hard to get it to set up and working. We are at the limit of our dish’s ability to capture the signals so anytime we move around or a butterfly flaps it’s wings we lose the signal. That plus some software issues has had me tearing my hair out and picking wildflowers to mellow out from the stress of working out from a badly written handbook what to do next.

Still last night was a breakthrough, we got 400 channels [and still nothing to watch]

San Diego to Mexico

Santa Ana Mountains It has been SNOWING!

San Diego; We had to go there to pick up a box for our satellite system and made a few other stops but we are both glad to get out.

Too many clones/people/cars/shopping malls and almost everybody was rude or disinterested. It was quite a shock after the excellent service we had had through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and the south east corner of California. There were exceptions, the staff in Vons a branch of Safeways were first rate as were the ladies in WalMarts Tyre and Lube department who diagnosed a fault in our house batteries and produced a replacement while dealing with a customer who had had her purse stolen and was in full, Hollywood, nervous breakdown mode.

Portero State Park As we drove up to the Mexican border we could see the effects of the wildfires that have ravaged this area in the last few years. Even the park itself had not escaped.


Some trees showing fire damage but with new growth and others were just cinders and blackened shards.

Mexico

Carol’s bit

Got to Mexico yesterday, Tecate, went through as fast as possible, you don’t drive at night here or park in vulnerable places. Parked at a nice little RV park, and we found GRASS the real stuff, so Charro had lots of smells this morning. We had a frost too, I thought we were coming to the warm sun.


Went into Encinada today , quite a nice shopping precinct very clean and guess what !





I know where C & A went.








Charro's Bit
I want to know where the grass has gone. We are here in gravel again.

The fat one said it is nice and safe here but I think it is just because it does not cost much. He is sooooo cheap.


OK it is quite funky here but I want my grass! The view might be good and the local house a bit different but there is NO GRASS.