oltruntoltrunt
July 12
Hello all! A lot of water under the bridge. An old work injury as promised began to pay dividends. one of the carpel bones in my left wrist gave up the ghost leaving me with a painful and useless left hand, The old saw bones said he'd have to remove two adjacent bones and that I'd need physical therapy to recover 70% usage of my hand. He was right and I am now able to do much of what I used to do--so I (we) went camping.
Our trip to Sequoia was a great success. I made sure that both the bus and the toad had been given a through once over to hedge our bets. I checked all the fluids and belts and tested out each safety system including the proper operation of the Blue Ox brake buddy for the toad. I even inspected all the brake lines for leakage, rust and rot. Lorna insisted on testing the stove and oven—which I happily did looking forward to fresh apple pie!
The passage through California’s central valley was hot at 110 degrees bur fortunately no trouble came of it. As we headed East out of Visalia the temp dropped a bit and the open stands of California live oak came into view their dark green foliage a beautiful contrast to the now golden hue of the spring grasses. As we climbed up the mountain range we left the oaks behind in exchange for stands of pine and eventually a glimpse of Sequoias. With all our rain this year the forest was lush.
We were told that the park’s Northern entrance (the easy way in) was closed and that we would have to enter via the Southern entrance. That route is a steep hair pined route allowing only vehicles under 22 feet but fortunately no restrictions on trailers—besides, who would be dumb enough to haul a trailer anyway. The little bus is 22 ½ feet long so I figured we were good to go close enough. We went from near sea level to a bit over 7000 feet in about 35 miles at between 20 and 35 mph pulling to the side often to let the 40 mph speed freaks fully exercise their death wishes.
We set up camp in Azalia campground just a hike from Grant’s Grove and settled in. The day time temp was around 72 degrees with night temps about 50 degrees—perfect by my standards. Groups of deer wandered about nibbling on the low growing Manzanita as if we two- leggeds weren’t even there. It’s bear country though none were spotted. I nibbled on fresh apple pie.
Much to my relief the Northern entrance reopened though with makeshift solar powered stop lights at either end of one lane road sections. That route isn’t nearly as steep and windy as the other way and since it’s easy to overheat the bus brakes it made the trip back down to the valley much more pleasant.
The trip home included the semi killing “Grapevine” on hwy 99. Its about 20? Miles of freeway at an 8% grade and 100 degrees. My bus sports 205 HP and 450 ft lbs of torque from its 5.2 l turbo diesel—enough to haul both the bus and the 2700 pound toad up and over at more than 50MPH. Good enough for me. Total mpg for the trip was 14.2. Without the toad the mpg hovers at about 17. Jack
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