Sunday, August 8, 2021, Day 62.
The drive from Flag City RV to Visalia, KOA was a short, but smoky drive. In just under three hours, we made it to our destination. The smoke was so visible we had to keep blinking our eyes and Hubby washed the front windshield. I guess it is more of a habit to blink your eyes thinking you would get a clearer view of what your eyes are seeing.
Our GPS takes us in circles but we eventually make it to the KOA. Were you ever on an interstate and the GPS tells you to take a right hand turn and there isn’t a road. I hate when that happens, especially when I have to explain to Hubby what is happening. Usually I just tell him to trust that I know what is happening. It’s easier this way. I just tell him to relax. I got this.
We pull into the KOA. This KOA is located in a huge industrial area full of huge buildings without names on the buildings. One building was the size of eight or ten football fields.
I go to the reservation office. Hmmm! The reservation office is closed until 2 pm. It’s 1:20 pm and I’m hoping we don’t have to wait in the truck for 40 minutes. I see a note on the door telling me to pick up my reservation packet from the Overnight Box. Sure enough, a packet with my name on it was waiting for me. This park is smaller, only around 100 sites. I find it is easier for me to walk to our site and check it out before directing Hubby to the site. I quickly find out site and give Hubby the hand signal to come to where I am.
This is the campground in a previous post where I was concerned about fitting in the site. We just fit and are able to unhitch. California is so dry it is hard to find green grass. At least in the park, we have grass. BooBoo is the only one that likes to poop outside. We have a bathroom for them inside in the garage area that I change daily.
It was 99º when we pulled in. Knock on wood, our air conditioners quickly cooled down the inside of the RV. I even had to turn off my air conditioner in the garage area when it got too cold inside.
A little after 2pm, I go to the office to finish the reservation process. I have to tell you, I really like the lady in the office. She knew who I was right off the bat and said “I told you that you would fit in your site”. I looked around the store for a few minutes and I saw these really nice, fluffy bed pillows. Out of curiosity, I asked the price. If they were under $30, I was buying two. One for me and one for Hubby. We each could use a new, fluffy pillow. She said the price was $6.97 each. I asked if she was sure that was the price. She asked me if I wanted her to make the price higher. We both laughed and I said I was buying two. Hubby and I both love our new pillows. If I had room in the RV, I would buy two more. I have a bad habit of over buying when I find something I like. I have to quit doing that.
Monday, August 9, Day 63.
Today we head to see the General Sherman Tree.
From Google: General Sherman Tree at the north end of Giant Forest. The General Sherman Tree is the world’s largest tree, measured by volume. It stands 275 feet (83 m) tall, and is over 36 feet (11 m) in diameter at the base. Sequoia trunks remain wide high up. Sixty feet above the base, the Sherman Tree is 17.5 feet (5.3 m) in diameter.
Hubby asked me to google the difference between the sequoia and the redwood trees. The giant sequoia is the largest tree in the world in volume and has an immense trunk with very slight taper; the redwood is the world’s tallest tree and has a slender trunk.
We put the fur kids on their seats in the Big Boy Truck and head out on our adventure.
I don’t know if these are trees or just very tall shrubs. They are tall and skinny and I see them all over California. You can’t say they are privacy shrubs. They are much too skinny. They are so tall I can’t get the whole tree/shrub in the picture.
Once we get near the Sequoia National Park, this road is the straightest road and leads to the National Park.
Once in the park there are miles and miles of winding road and hairpin turns. There are some turns where you see the back of our truck as we go around the hairpin turn. Maybe that is an exaggeration, but not much of one. We’ve been on the Tail of the Dragon and the Million Dollar Highway, but they don’t even compare to the miles of curves on this road. The pictures below were mild curves. I was too busy holding on while trying to breath to take pictures on the hairpin curves.
Everything out west is so dry. I’m not sure if this stream running through the rocks and boulders is always this narrow or is it because of the drought. You don’t see much green grass. Everything is brown and boring.
We are getting close.
Our America the Beautiful pass gets us free entry again.
I wonder how clear my picture would be without all of the wildfire snoke in the air.
There is plenty of parking for the Sherman Tree Trail. Hubby waits in the Big Boy Truck with our fur kids while I venture to see the big tree. I will scope out the trail to see if it is something Hubby can easily walk. The sign says 0.4 miles. That is doable. What the sign does not say is it is all downhill getting there. What goes down, has to come back up. I think it is 0.4 the way the crow flies. There were more twists, turns and steps on the paved trail. Hubby would never make this trail.
I finally get there.
The tree is huge.
When beginning to walk the trail back to the parking lot, a sign reminds you to take it easy. No worries here. I will take it easy. What I didn’t think about was the smoke in the air. Even though the wildfires were many miles away, the smoke was still in the air.
We see a bear. This is the first sighting of a bear we had since the start of our Wild West Adventure.
On our drive out of the park, we find a parking lot. Hubby takes the fur kids out for a walk. They’ve been cooped up in the Big Boy Truck and they needed to get out and take a short walk.
We are in our third phase of our Wild West Adventure. Phase one was our journey west with our destination being the three states we never visited during our motorcycle traveling days. Washington, Oregon and California. Phase two was our time spent in Washington, Oregon, and California. Phase three is our journey back home. I love my RVTripWizard application. This program is what I use to plan our route and campground reservations. Each circle in the map (from RVTripWizard) below signifies a campground reservation. The map below is the beginning of Phase three. The last circle on the very right of the map puts us on I80. From this point, I will make reservations based on how much we want to drive each day on the last leg of Phase three.
God Bless, Stay Safe, Be Kind to Every Kind and remember to think of Theodore Roosevelt whenever you go to one of our National Parks. Did you know he was called the conservation president?
Glamping in my RV 