Heading back to the heat

Well, this portion of the Stark Family Reunion has wound down.  We took time yesterday to drive out the back roads to Vacaville, CA and just enjoy the vineyards.  The pictures here are of the Domaine Carneros winery and the surrounding groves.

We've certainly enjoyed our time here in Petaluma, but it's time to move on.  Unfortunately, that means we're going to get hot, again.  Currently, stops are planned at Redding, CA; Crescent, OR; Culver, OR; and Richland, WA before stopping for the weekend in Spokane, WA to visit the Starks that couldn't make it to the Healdsburg get-together.  More on that later.  David

Petaluma, CA

Under the redwoods at San Francisco North KOA

Donna and I are really enjoying our stay here in Petaluma and visiting with some of the west coast Starks.  It's a big group here - some 20+ at one point.  I particularly enjoy the "deer-in-the-headlights" look when we're introduced to the younger kids.  I remember being introduced to the older members of the Driver/Whitlock family as a kid.  I'll bet I gave the same look when my parents tried to explain to me who those folks were!

The cousins

This is a vary diverse group assembled in Healdsburg that includes relatives & friends of friends.  There's probably a cliche somewhere that says friendship is thicker than blood or something like that.  It's true here.  For me it can be confusing just who is friend and who is relative.  That's the way it should be.  Of course, I'm eating all the food...

Organized group, too.  Would make a navy load master proud!

We're actually staying some 30 or so miles from the family gathering.  We've taken a stroll around Petaluma and Schollenberger Park.  For those unfamiliar with the area, it's hilly (it is near San Francisco). It's prime cattle farming (ranching?) and wine country.  Grapevines here are like the corn fields of Iowa.  

Historic Petaluma, CA

Petaluma, apparently, is famous for surviving the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.  Consequently, there's older buildings and homes that represent the architecture of that era.  We've taken two walks that show off the town and homes.  Some buildings are better taken care of than others, but all are quite striking.   

Residential area

One rumor that we've always heard is just how environmentally minded California is.  We visited Schollenberger Park which is built around sludge dredged from the Petaluma River.  To me the sludge pools weren't all that appealing but, man, did it attract the birds.  And, boy, did those birds attach the bird watchers.  And these are serious bird watcher, too!.  Just based on the equipment I saw, you'd thought they were trying to find and photograph wolves in Hayden Valley (Yellowstone Nat'l Park).  There's some significant money being spent to photograph those sludge pools!

Petaluma River as seen from Schollenberger Park

Well, that's it from here.  Looks like I have to go back and eat more food this evening.  Bummer!  :)  David

Swan on the sludge pool (Schollenberger Park)

Travel to Petaluma, CA

Traditional San Fran cloud cover to the west

Today we traveled about four and a half hours from Coarsegold up to Petaluma, CA (San Francisco North KOA).  This is the week Donna reunites with her cousins who she hasn't seen since 1968.  We're looking forward to it. We'll see who recognizes who first.  (That's a joke!)  Unfortunately, I don't have any real interesting pictures to post today.

My plan was to travel east of Oakland and cross westbound on Highway 37 to US 101 along the San Pablo Bay Nat'l Wildlife Refuge.  As soon as I could get the satellite radio tuned to the San Francisco traffic (as we pulled out of Park Sierra), the traffic announcer was noting how heavy traffic was along Highway 37 due to the races today.  (I have no idea what "races".)  So we moved on to plan B - follow the GPS.

Entering San Quentin

Sam - our trucker GPS - routed us through Oakland and crossing through the middle of San Pablo Bay.  Worked well as it's the truck route to the Oakland docks.  Definitely not scenic, though.  No pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I could see it, but couldn't get a got shot of it with the camera phone.

It seems the changes we made to the truck while in Coarsegold have made a difference.  Still a rough ride on rough roads, but it's not as intense.  Changing to the Michelins up front did change the truck's handling, so we're getting use to it.    The guy who actually did the front end alignment had a F450 and towed a 43 ft toy hauler.  He recommended some changes in the toe settings which helped the drive-ability with the Michelins (in my opinion).  Removing the airbags really made a difference in the rear (ride-wise).  Again, when it's a rough road you know it, but the intensity of the bounce has calmed down.

We've got a wheel tire combination on the rear that seems to give everyone a fit when balancing one of the outside rear tires.  (Most people that are familiar with tires will make a comment when they see the wheel weights on that wheel.)  Only the guys at Pro Trucks in Stafford, VA seemed to be able to get it to settle down.  But that only lasted a few thousand miles and we were back to annoying vibrations at 40 mph (and it seemed we're were always driving 40.)  With the addition of the Centramatics that's now gone.  Only time will tell if putting Centramatics on the front axle was worth it.   

So here we set at the San Francisco North KOA.  It's packed!  Kids everywhere.  I'm told there's redwoods here.  We may be next to one, but I wouldn't know it.  Some type of fir is alongside the dinning table window, but I have no idea what type.  It's definitely cooler here that in Coarsegold!  Cool enough to start grilling outside, again.  Later, David

Anniversary

Yosemite Valley looking west

Deer day @ Yosemite

Today Donna and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary.  She's still the only person I know of that could have tolerated me this long!  We spent the morning in Fresno finishing off the truck maintenance, the afternoon napping at the trailer sleeping off lunch at In-N-Out Burger, and enjoyed a fantastic meal at Ducey's (Bass Lake, CA) this evening. 

Like most other weeks we've gone for another bike ride around Yosemite Valley and drove out to White Wolf & Olmsted Point off of Tioga Road (Hwy 120).  While we've had a great time at Yosemite, it's not been a good week for Yosemite.  You may have read that they lost three people at Vernal Falls this week.  What's not being widely reported is that they also had one person killed when a suburban ran off Tioga Pass Road near White Wolf on Tuesday.  Nope, not a good week for Yosemite Natl Park.

This week also represents our one year anniversary without owning a stick & brick house.  I think it's still refreshing to not have a house hanging over our heads.  While I'm not tolerating purchasing new stuff that doesn't work right out of the box very well (there's been a lot of that since last summer), everything else seems to be doing OK.  Donna says she still needs to work on connecting with people.  While we're hoping the addition of a iPad2 will help, connecting for Donna is vastly different than connecting for me.  Two sentences over a quick chit-chat via Facebook is fine for me.  I don't think that'd work for Donna.  Time will tell.

We're rapidly approaching the end of our stay here at the Park of the Sierra in Coarsegold, CA. Sunday we move to Petaluma, CA for a week where we'll visit with some of Donna's cousins.  We're looking forward to that (and the cooler weather).  Hmmm...Guess I'd better get out and check the heaters before we leave.  Later, David.

Lewis S Eaton Recreation Trail

River Center complex

Jensen Ranch

Today was bike ride day.  While Donna was disappointed that I didn't want to return to Yosemite Valley, she found a great ride in Fresno along the Friant Parkway just above the San Joaquin River.  While the bicycle trail runs from Woodward Park to Lost River Park, we chose to just travel from Woodward Park to the end of Old Friant Road (just past the River Center and private vineyards.)

Woodward Park

River Center

River Center

Much of the trail runs along Friant Parkway.  We passed on that section as I was uncomfortable mixing with high speed traffic.  It's a great bicycle trail for any skill level, and we recommend it to everyone. Hope you enjoyed the pics!  David

Mist Trail to Vernal Fall

Vernal Fall

Mist Trail (the easy part)

Today's visit to Yosemite included a beautiful walk along the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall.  Don't let that name "Mist" get lost in your thoughts.  We'll revisit it in a minute.  But first, some history:

When we were here in 1999 with Doug and Katie, we discussed a hike to Nevada Fall, but chose to do something else due to the hike's length and our limited time in Yosemite Natl Park.  Had I known then what I know now, we may have chosen to do the walk we did today.  Wasn't aware Vernal Fall was along the way.

Fast forward to today.  If you'll revisit our Sunday's blog post, you'll see that Vernal Fall is the lower of the Nevada / Vernal Falls drainage into the Merced River.  The Mist Trail takes you for a walk to a foot bridge that crosses below Vernal Fall.  A little further up the Mist Trail the Muir Trail breaks off.  From this point it's a steep climb into the Vernal Fall mist (hence the "Mist Trail" name) up to the top of Vernal Fall.  We didn't make it to the top.  

Illilouette Fall

The mist was so thick you couldn't use your camera.  The trail was wet. Puddles of water were all along the climb up the trail and in a sense, the trail was becoming part of the fall itself as water constantly ran down the rock stairs of the trail.  A rainbow followed us all along the upper trail (see last picture).  Speaking of those rock stairs: The NPS and its volunteers have build an outstanding trail to walk to the top of Vernal Fall.  Donna and I will try it again when we can visit in a drier time of the year.

On the mundane side, we've removed the air bags from the truck suspension.  As far as we can tell, there's no change in the ride quality empty or with the trailer attached.  Our nagging tire leak on the trailer turned out to be a bad valve stem.

Vernal Fall (from the foot bridge)

 One of the changes we made when moving into the trailer was that if you bought something - say a new shirt - then a piece of clothing had to "leave" the trailer.  In this way, you didn't load up the trailer like we had our houses.  Apparently, things working on the trailer follow the same rule.  After getting the tire repaired, our TV satellite antenna quit working.  Interestingly, to get replacement parts (not just warranty work - REPLACEMENT PARTS) you must provide proof of ownership.  Since it didn't come with a title, then you have to send in a copy of your original receipt.  Well...we don't have it.  Turns out the warranty card we sent in was really just to get us to sign up for emails from the antenna manufacturer (Winegard).  Definitely useless for warranty service.  So we call the store where we bought it to get a copy.  They find it on their computer, but can't print it in order to fax it to the antenna company so we can order any parts we need.  I guess the navy isn't the only organization with an incompetent IT system.

The Rainbow!!

Well, that's it for today's happenings and my daily rant.  Hope you found it entertaining!  David

Glacier Point

Nevada Fall (top); Vernal Fall (bottom)

Today we tried a new tactic:  Get up early and beat everyone else into the park (and it worked well!)

This was Donna and my first trip to Glacier Point.  So everything from there was completely new to us.  We can finally say we've seen Nevada Fall, Vernal Fall and Illilouette Fall.  Plus we finally got to see Yosemite Valley from above.  And...are you ready for this?...I finally got both upper and lower Yosemite Falls in one picture frame!

We got some good bicycling in, too.  We stayed toward the back of Yosemite Valley riding from the campgrounds to Mirror Lake & the Happy Isles Nature Center.   Plus a visit to that wonderful Hotel known as The Ahwahnee that reminds us oh so much of Walt Disney World  - the attention to detail, the crowds, the prices...  But, it is such a beautiful place to visit and eat lunch!

Upper & lower Yosemite Falls (in one picture!)

Things on our "to do" list are getting checked off.  The 50,000 mile service for the truck is complete, and we have the parts necessary to remove/replace the truck's airbags.  We've gotten the new tire pressure monitoring system for the trailer and it's up and seems to be doing fine.  We have a plate to install & repair one of the brackets on one of the trailer storage doors, but it needs holes drilled and pop-riveted in place before we can reinstall one of the door struts.

Mirror Lake

So this week we continue to work on the "to do" list.  Airbags come off the truck Tuesday.  We've got a nagging air leak on one trailer tire, so we'll run it down to Fresno to see if they can find out why & repair.

Merced River

Oh, and Donna is now the proud owner of an iPad2.  We've finally gotten the Verizon 4G MiFi to an acceptable level that we can use it to connect both the laptop and the iPad using it.  Part of our issue is that the laptop AVG anti-virus, firewall, yada, yada, yada, sees the MiFi as an intruder and kicks it off.  Switching to the Windows firewall seems to resolve that issue.  Our current tech inventory consists of a laptop, an e-reader, a "smart" phone that now thinks we're in New Mexico, an iPad2, and one regular cell phone.  Yep, folks, I think we might be finally gettin' into the 21st Century.  

Well, gotta go - there's Oreos on the table!  Later, David

Merced River

Illilouette Fall

Mariposa Grove / Wawona Historical Area

Those gentle giants (Sequoias)

One way to lift a big rock

They're just big!

The Grizzly Giant

The Wawona Tunnel Tree

There's that Yosemite blue sky

I see you!

The old Yosemite Transportation building

South Fork of the Merced River

The covered bridge over the river

Today we took a stroll through the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias.  To get there we had to park at the Wawona Historical Area support buildings, walk through the historic area and take a shuttle.  Like most of the park, it was packed though we found few people were really taking the longer walking trails through the Sequoia grove.  This was a new area for us. When we were here in 1999, we walked through the Tuolumne Grove near Crane Flat.  



While we enjoyed today's walk, if you really want to see Sequoias we recommend Sequoia National Park.  Here's a few pictures of today's walk.

Waiting out the crowds

Just an update.  We're sitting out the crowds and heat of the July 4th weekend at the Park of the Sierras.  After a full day in Yosemite Valley on Tuesday, we sat out Wednesday as the rain passed through and then got down to business on Thursday.  A new trailer tire pressure monitoring system should get here this Tuesday.  We now have new tires on the front of the truck.  We have an off-road shop lined up to remove the rear airbags from the truck, but had to order some rear springs bumper stops to replace the airbags.  I did have the ones that came off the truck, but gave them away.  Oh, well, it happens.  Once they're in hand, the airbags come off.  Mid-month we take the truck in for it's 50k service - a biggie as axle fluids get changed on this one.  Oh, yes, let me add that we've ordered Centramatics Automatic Wheel Balancers.  If you don't know what those are you can read about them here: http://www.mrtruck.net/centramatic.htm  Those should be here in a couple of weeks.

The bicycles two month check up & adjustments are done.  Still have the Verizon MiFi.  We visited the Verizon corporate store in Clovis, CA where I asked why the MiFi wouldn't work, but the tethering to the cell phone worked just fine.  (Both are 4G units).  Verizon showed me how to set the MiFi for just 3G and set it so the battery never shuts down to conserve battery power.  So far, so good, but the MiFi shut down completely this morning while recharging.  We'll keep watching that.

For those few RVers who follow us, you do not have to be a member of Escapees to stay at the SKP Co-op Park of the Sierra.  You'll be limited to 14 days/yr.  But if it works for your itinerary, do come and stay.  Estimated costs including electric is about $20/day (we'll know exact amounts at the final meter reading when we leave.)   If you do come and stay, read all the park rules.  We caught at the last minute that you were not to use the clothes washer in the RV.  Has something to do with the limited sewer system. The park has a huge laundry room with its own septic tank, so it's no big deal.  However, it did leave me with that lingering feeling that the guy who designed fresh water systems for our navy destroyers may now have retired and started designing septic systems.

Well, Donna and I have both been retired a year.  So we're celebrating with lots of naps.  We're caught up with mail.  The blog is now up to date.  I think it's time for another nap!  David