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Hi Everyone, I know I have not been in touch much in the last week but you will understand why when I tell you that Rog and I have driven from San Francisco to Lincoln City Oregon, via Yosemite National Park, through western Nevada and the High Sierra Nevada mountain range, in to Oregon via Crater Lake and are now back on the west coast.
Quite a hike which started when I left Vancouver on Thursday 12th last week. I left the airport an hour and a half late which got me into San Fran airport exactly 10 minutes before Rogers flight was due to arrive from the UK. This gave just enough time to get round to International arrivals and meet up, which went according to plan.
I travelled on Alaskan Airlines and my travel companion (Chris) and I shared 3 seats, plenty of space, leather seats - just the job. Chris works for a software company in Silicon Valley and had a great little lap top computer with him which started the converation. He is clearly very well travelled with his work and we shared some amusing stories and had a good chat during the flight.
He is off to Toronto (well actually today as I type this) but was going to be in a weeks time when we met. I have of course directed him to my favourite Club and have told him to say 'Hello' to Quinn if he is there. I hope you make it Chris because you WILL have a good time.
Hopefully he will be back in San Francisco when I eventually return on the 11th July. if he is around i will call and have a beer with him.
Roger arrived looking very skinny and with a crew cut. Heaven only knows what Downtown San Fran will make of him. All being well he will take the heat off me! We picked up the car successfully and upgraded to a V6 Rav 4. When we got to the parking lot the Lady told us to take our pick of a line of SUV's. I was immediately drawn to a 4.2 V8 Chevy but common sense kicked in. Boring I know but the Toyota was actually very nice and plenty of room for the 2 of us and our kit, well mostly mine actually. We had to kit Rog out the next day and then we were on our way.
We stopped the first night at a place called Merced, ever heard of it? No. Nor had we. The Motel had a pool which was a real bonus because the temperature had just climbed and climbed all day. It was just under 100 when we arrived, straight in the pool went I.
The following day we set off for Yosemite National park which was approx 80 odd miles further down the road. We got into the park with a million other people! It was facinating but packed. I know it was the weekend but you would not have believed just how many people were there. We saw what we wanted and then tried to get to the Glacier, unfortunately the roads were closed, we saw a massive land slide which had completley obliterated the road and temporary bridges had been put in place. The power of nature was clear to see. El Capitan was completely worth the effort. It is just completely unmissable. I hope my photos do it some justice.
We then venture up into the Sierra Nevada mountains and started an incredible drive through magnificent Redwood forests where trees so tall and so wide stood like sentinals by the side of the road, not just the odd one or two but thousand after thousand of them. It was very spectacular. The High Sierra Nevada's are volcanic and erroded by Glacier actions, there are many rivers and still a lot of snow, the temperature dropped steadily towards 60 degree. We stopped several times just to admire the view and take more pictures. eventually we cleared the mountains on the Tioga pass, I dont think we dropped below 5000 feet. We decided to keep going to Carson City and found ourselves a motel. After a thrifty bit of bargining with the owner we had a good room and decent beds after a very long day. We walked up to several car dealers on the way to get something to eat. SUV's and other cars are so cheap here. A new Ford Mustang is less than I sold the Lotus for, crazy.
The following day, Sunday, we drove through Carson City joking about finding Doc Holliday, Wyatt Erpp and his bros. We didnt find them until lunchtime! We pulled off the long and dusty road into a town called Adin, ever heard of it? Nor had we.
There, not five minutes after we had pulled up at the one and only 'tap and grilll' pub to you and me, was a reinactment of Holliday being taken down by Wyatt! Honestly, we could not believe it. We watched as about 100 rounds were emptied into the outlaws, I'm sure some of them didn't take their shots!, then the town was declared safe and all the Cowboys retired for a well earned pint or ten. We found out that actually these were real ranchers who had arrived for the annual Rodeo the coming weekend, I was going to ask if we were near Brokeback Mountain but as they were all 6'10, kitted out with proper guns, massive leather boots and all the rest of it, I thought better of it! We just got on our horse and mosied on out of there. Well, we got back in the Toyota actually.
The next part of this journey got a little bit fraught because we landed at a place called Klamath Falls, one interesting fact about Klamath Falls. It doesn't have any Falls! Yep we were had over. It does have some very nice houses on the lake though and it does have a little place called Black Bear restaurant which was exceedingly good when you havent eaten for many hours. It was when we were driving back to our motel that the car went wrong. Oh didnt I say! Yep it sounded like the rear offside wheel was going to drop off and caused not a little concern to its occupants and anybody we passed, which wasn't many!
You can find out what happened next time. See you soon, keep well and take care, Chris.
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