From Alpine to Desert

Barstow
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Our day started off leisurely.  The first night in the RV as a group was a learning experience for all - working out what was the correct order to do things in, what the new beds were like, where to put all the stuff.

We awoke to a what can only be described as a beautiful day - cloudless blue skies, perfect temperature, a hint of alpine freshness in the air.  We ate breakfast, repacked the RV and began our trip through the 'Giant Forest'.  The first stop was the area around the General Sherman tree - which is the largest living thing in the world.  You begin from the carpark and descend down to where the tree is growing.  From strategic positions along the way you can see the tree at the different levels.  Given it's over 80m tall, there's a lot of different levels to see.

From the Beautiful High Sierra to the Mojave Desert in one easy step

Finally at the bottom you wind through a beautiful grove of Giant Sequoias- each tree larger than anything you've ever seen.   And then you walk up to the bottom of the largest one- the 'General Sherman' tree.  This tree weighs the same as 1,000 small cars.  It has 1,500 cubic metres of timber in it, enough to fill the boot space of 3,000 medium cars.  It's big.

After marvelling at the size of these massive, majestic trees for a while, we got back in Shep the RV and started to descend back off the Sierra Nevada.  The map indicated that vehicles over 22 feet were not recommended. Coming in a paltry 8 feet oversize, it was good enough for me.  So we set off in low gear, only to come across some major roadworks where they stop all down traffic for 15 minutes until all the upcomgin traffic is through, then vice-versa.  This gave us 20 minutes of doing nothing but looking at the spectacular view and brewing up cups of tea.  We then made a guy on a harley look jealous as we admired the view and munched on biscuits and tea.  This is why I maintain RV's are so civilised, much different than the popular opinion of them, which is a vehicle popular amongst the great unwashed.  Not true - it has a very nice shower so we are always fully washed!

After an hour-long descent we finally hit the flat part of Central California again, and headed south until reaching Bakersfield, then swung east and crossed the mountains, finally descending into the Mojave desert.  I was so busy pointing out the Mojave spaceport and aircraft graveyard I missed the exit for fuel, and sure enough 60 miles later the fuel warning light pinged at me.  So I took the next exit that had a fuel sign on it - and we landed in hicksville, CA, which shared the name of a mineral, like bauxite or borax or preparation H or something.  The only fuel stop in town was a full-service joint with about half a dozen old boys sittin' around.  It was complete with a hot-rod sitting in the garage, a faded old fascia and a gum-chewin, smokin' lady who took the money who talked real slow.  Their price was also the highest yet seen - at $3.30 a gallon.  The guy running it thought he had hit the jackpot when the RV pulled in, thinking he was about to sell $150 worth of gas. But I disapointed him by ordering a mere 10 gallons worth.  He was a bit miffed I think, but still poured it for me and even put the cap back on.  There was no danger of us runnin' off with his missus'.

After that  we were on the home run to Barstow, our final stop for the night.  Only I programmed in the wrong address into the sat-nav, which made us lost, and then I fixed it incorrectly, which made us even more lost, which ended up a disaster.  Finally we got to the campground I was after - and man, was it hot.  I saw 105 degrees F on a roadside sign, and sure enough my thermometer recorded 39 degrees in the shade.  Fortunately the capmground shop sold 1 pint budweiser cans for the bargain price of 99c each, so we downed a couple of those  and went for a swim.  That knocked the edge off the heat, and managed to get me to the point of sanity where I could be bothered turning on the computer and writing this entry.  Easy!