May 10 -- Sequoia National Park

I'm in heaven!!! I've had some fabulous days so far this trip, but today was pretty special, and all I did was drive.

First of all, I slept like a rock. Beds are the bomb! I tried to watch TV for the first time in a month, but quickly muted it. Too much noise. The motel had a continental breakfast, so I tanked up before I hit the road.

I headed west from Barstow to Bakersfield on a sometimes two-lane and sometimes four-lane federal highway jammed with long-haul tractor trailers. Thank goodness for passing lanes. On my way, I crossed the Pacific Crest Trail, which heads north between Mojave and Tehachapi. I didn't see any hiker trash anywhere near the roadcrossing, so I went into Tehachapi to find Mama Hillybean's Cafe, a hiker-friendly joint. I sadly discovered that Mama Hillybean's closed down in January. Too bad. Every town needs an eclectic, liberal java hangout. While in town, however, I managed to discover a German bakery and had coffee and a cinnamon crisp. Double yum!

From there, I went to the post office to check out the PCT register (where hikers sign in and leave messages). There were only two entries for this year, and both were several weeks old. Tehachapi (and Mojave) require a hitch into town, so some hikers don't bother and resupply elsewhere along the trail. This might account for the lack of entries in the register. Or, because the post office is somewhat disconnected from the other services in town, hikers who came to Tehachapi might not have bothered to go to the post office just to sign the register, unless they had mailed themselves a resupply package there.

My renewed trail-angeling duties complete, I hit the road again and made my way to Bakersfield. What a beautiful drive over and through the Tehachapi Mountains. Instead of taking the same federal highway north to Sequoia NP, I took a state road (also a truck route, unfortunately), and it was a delightful trip. I stopped for a lunch in Porterville, mainly to visit the library. California is undergoing a significant budget crisis, like so many other states, so many libraries are closed on Mondays or have severely limited hours. I knew from an internet search that the Porterville library was open today. I was determined to upload a week's worth of photos for you all to enjoy (my camera will hold thousands, so I don't have to do it; I just wanted to). Unfortunately, the library's computer wouldn't let me run a necessary program to allow me to upload hundreds of photos within minutes (I think I had taken 200+ photos since the Grand Canyon). Rather, I could upload only five photos at a time, which takes about five minutes. There was no way I could spend that amount of time in the library. I had places to go and things to see and do. Sorry.

I stopped again a few miles up the road in Lindsay (home of the Lindsay olives), but their library, once I found it, was closed on Mondays. You can't say I didn't try, peeps. You'll just have to wait a few more days.

What made the ride up this state road so interesting and exceptional was that I began traveling through the agricultural part of California. I passed through miles of hay fields and/or free-roaming cattle and horse farms. I then hit the citrus belt. I drove through tens of miles of citrus groves. Most of the trees had been picked clean and were beginning to bloom. I used to live in Indian River County in Florida, which is the home of Florida citrus, so I knew well the cloyingly sweet smell of citrus blooms, mixed with the pungently rotten smell of decaying fruit left on the ground. It is a smell like no other.

Mixed among the citrus groves were acres upon acres of grapes, olive, and cherry trees. I had never seen olive or cherry trees, so they were neat to see. Olive trees are really unusual. I was also fortunate enough to find a roadside stand, selling bing cherries that had been hand-picked the day before just down the road. Four bucks bought me a quart-sized Ziploc baggie stuffed full, so I gorged for several miles. They were so sweet!

Just north of Lindsay, I headed east into the Sierra Nevada, a long mountain chain that is host to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. While I was still in the arid desert this morning, with strong winds blowing around the dust that is the top soil for that area, I am now in the lush, green mountains. The air is moist again (my skin and sinuses are grateful), and everything is in bloom here, too.

I arrived at Sequoia National Park at 4:45 pm after a long day of driving, but it was worth it. I'm so excited to be here. It is so different from where I have been for two weeks. The campground had vacancies (yeah, so late in the day), and I am camped next to the raging Kaweah River, which is swollen from the runoff of melting snow in the higher elevations. It's raining somewhat, but I don't mind. I've had a dry two weeks. It's about time it rained. The ONLY annoying thing is the mosquitos. They are out with a vengeance.

Bears have been a problem here lately, as well. I/we have been warned to put anything -- and I mean anything -- with a scent inside large bear-proof boxes that have been provided with every campsite. Although I haven't seen one yet, the bears are supposedly active in the camground day and night and have already broken into two cars in the past week. So I have dutifully stowed all of my smelly belongings in the bear box, as directed.

I'm now sitting out the rain in my car, typing this blog post, waiting for the sun to go down. About an hour ago, I was having a snack at my picnic table when a doe ambled by within 10 feet of me. Unfortunately, she seemed habituated to humans and acted as if she would have taken food from my hand had I offered her some, which I did not. She flicked her ears at me and slowly walked to the next campsite and beyond. That was a pretty cool dinner guest.

Well, I could go on, but I've written a book and have drained my battery, and it's nearly time for bed. The rain seems to have stopped, so I can move about without rain gear. I wish I had more time to spend here. I will hardly be able to hit the highlights, so vast is this place. Perhaps I will be forced to return sometime soon to enjoy it more leisurely.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone