US-50 West 2022:
Day 10 - Pinnacles National Park


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US-50 West 2022: [Day 1 - Owensville] [Day 2 - Dodge City] [Day 3 - Cañon City] [Day 4 - Colorado NM] [Day 5 - Great Basin NP] [Day 6 - Folsom Lake SRA] [Day 7 - Lassen Volcanic NP] [Day 8 - Humboldt Redwoods SP] [Day 9 - Portola Valley] [Day 10 - Pinnacles NP] [Day 11 - Yosemite] [Day 12 - Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP] [Day 13 - Picacho Peak SP] [Day 14 - Flagstaff] [Day 15 - El Reno] [Day 16 - Heading Home]

Monday, October 10, 2022: After a very comfortable night in a real bed, we woke, packed our freshly laundered clothes, our gear, ...
... and the additional boxes of stuff that Herb was kind enough to give Debbie, ...
... and loaded everything into the van. With a little bit of rearranging, everything fit quite comfortably.
We gathered for a light breakfast ...
... of Cyl's homemade oatmeal and fresh fruit.
Photos were taken, ...
... including this recreation of a photo from a previous visit in 1996.
Shortly before 9:30 AM, we were bidding our wonderful hosts farewell, and getting back on the road.
Our first stop was fairly close by: the Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara.
We parked in the garage, and walked by these awesome planters on the way to the entrance. We agreed that neither one of us could ever intentionally make something that was asymmetric, but we both loved these.
It was about five minutes before the shops opened, ...
... and we made our way slowly through the mall. These chairs sort of matched the planters, and we both oohhed and aahhed at them.
We really liked these chairs as well, and Tom thought the table looked like a giant chocolate-covered cherry.
Debbie remembered this chain of stores from a 1979 family visit to downtown San Francisco.
A LEGO Store! No way!
Uhhh. The Pick and Build wall was inaccessible due to the stacks and stacks of boxes. We figured that they must have gotten a delivery just before the store opened and they hadn't yet been able to clear it away.
They also had the Select-a-Minifig display rather than Build-a-Minifig. Maybe it is a California thing. It certainly makes sense in a pandemic. Waaaay less germy than the bins of minifig parts.
Debbie settled on another Dots bracelet, and a stamp for her LEGO passport, of course.
After a quick stop at McDonald's for second breakfast, we were heading south on US 101 and Debbie was already sorting through the papers that Herb had given her. Some of the papers were the same as she had seen countless times, but there were treasures as well, including a postcard her mother had sent from Norway.
Roughly sorted and organized, Debbie repacked the papers in some document-sized ziploc bags that we happened to have with us.
We turned off US 101 and headed southeast on California Highway 25, into a drier landscape.
We rounded a bend in the road and were very surprised to see what appeared to be a dead javelina on the side of the road, although it may have been a wild boar. This image is blurred because it was quite a graphic sight. If you really, really want to see it in all its gruesome detail, click on the image to see the unblurred larger picture. You've been warned.
Just a few minutes later, we arrived at Pinnacles National Park, ...
... and made our way to the Visitor Center. Unfortunately, both the park and campground had recently lost power and people were hanging out in any shade they could find as they waited for it to come back on.
We proceeded through the east entrance, ...
... and on to the Peaks View picnic area, where we got out to take a look at the peaks, ...
... and also took advantage of the water dispenser to refill some of our water bottles.
We drove to the Old Pinnacles Trailhead, and then turned around and headed back out of the park. It was miserably hot and every time we got out of the van we were surrounded by what seemed like millions of flies.
Rather than backtrack, we took Herb's suggestion and continued southeast toward Coalinga, California.
The road wound through mountain valleys and was quite a peaceful drive, ...
... even when we came around a corner and stopped suddenly for a cat on the road. It quickly scurried to the embankment and then turned around and gave us a judgmental stare until we drove on.
The road meandered through the dry grasslands. You can see where the road goes in this photo by following the darker line of the fence on the left side of the road.
We could see range after range of mountains off in the distance.
As we neared Coalinga, we left the mountains behind and saw field after field of oil rigs.
This Richfield Gas Station was restored to its 1934 glory and is now part of the R. C. Baker Museum.
We got lunch from Burger King, and then drove though the town. The sign over Coalinga Plaza had an oil rig featured on it, so they must take pride in all of the drilling rigs that we saw on the way into town.
In the town of Five Points, we saw this double-trailer truck filled to the brim with tomatoes.
We headed north, passing miles and miles of orchards, but we couldn't tell what type of trees they were.
That's Fresno in the distance.
We stopped at American Legion Post 509 to check out their Merci Train boxcar. It looked like it was in the process of being restored, ...
... as all of its provincial shields had been removed. It looked freshly painted and was in really good shape, other than the missing shields.
There were plaques at the base of the train from the original dedication on November 11, 1949, ...
... and the re-dedication on July 9, 2021, when the shelter was added.
We took a short detour to go to the Fresno Donut House and were delighted to see that it used to be a Winchell's. You can tell from the distinctive triangular sign, ...
... but it was further confirmed when we saw that the parking spaces were still designated as reserved for Winchell's customers.
The inside looked very much like Winchell's, ...
... including similar pastry selections to actual Winchell's, including buttermilk bars like we saw at a Winchell's in Denver in 2019.
Tom's donut choices are on the left, and Debbie's picks are in the torn-open bag on the right. But remember: there are no right or wrong donut choices. They're all delicious.
After getting donuts, we headed north on California Highway 41 toward Yosemite National Park. We passed some vineyards, ...
... before getting into the more rolling hills and scrub.
Right around 5 PM, we entered Sierra National Forest, ...
... and saw some signs of wildfire activity, likely the Washburn Fire that burned this summer.
A few minutes later, we passed through areas that were completely untouched by the fire.
Around 5:15 PM, we arrived at the south entrance to Yosemite and were absolutely stunned to find no line. We didn't see a sign for the national park, but don't worry, we saw one the next day.
Just before 5:30 PM, we arrived at the Wawona Hotel, our destination for this day. We found a parking spot, grabbed some of our gear, and proceeded to the lobby.
Debbie checked in and found that we were staying in a different building, ...
... so we lugged our stuff back to the van and drove around the back of the building, up the hill, ...
... to the Moore Cottage, which is where our room was. We were on the second floor, ...
... in a cute little room with a queen-sized bed, ...
... a dresser, and a reading nook ...
... with a view of the surrounding forest, ...
... and that's all. The bathrooms and shower are on the first floor near the parking and are shared by all of the occupants of the Moore Cottage.
We were prepared for this, and since we were going to be here for the next two nights, we brought some of our camping gear into the room, including our portable toilet and our camp chairs. The room was a nice, cozy, warm place to be, and we relaxed and settled in.

Day 11 >


US-50 West 2022: [Day 1 - Owensville] [Day 2 - Dodge City] [Day 3 - Cañon City] [Day 4 - Colorado NM] [Day 5 - Great Basin NP] [Day 6 - Folsom Lake SRA] [Day 7 - Lassen Volcanic NP] [Day 8 - Humboldt Redwoods SP] [Day 9 - Portola Valley] [Day 10 - Pinnacles NP] [Day 11 - Yosemite] [Day 12 - Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP] [Day 13 - Picacho Peak SP] [Day 14 - Flagstaff] [Day 15 - El Reno] [Day 16 - Heading Home]

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