The two old buzzards were getting a bit of cabin fever and decided to take a "mini" road trip, otherwise known as a "day trip". We have this Sunset book called "Backroads of California" that is divided up into areas of the state. One of these areas is around Hollister and the Pinnacles National Park. Yes, the Pinnacles is no longer just a National Monument. It became the 59th national park on January 10, 2013.
We decided to take in Tres Pinos, Paicines, Panoche, Mercey Hot Springs, New Idria and the New Idria Mine (a state historic landmark) and take some photos.
Up early and left home at 6:00a.m. Linda, John and Fannie Mae piled into Wilma and headed off. John had done some research on the internet and found that a popular breakfast place in Hollister was the Cozy Cup Cafe. He diligently plugged their address into our Garmin 3590 navigation device. We no longer use Wilma's GPS system. It is/was DVD based and the DVD player became faulty. Minimum repair cost is around $250. The brand new Garmin 3590 with lifetime map and traffic updates was not much more. The other nice thing about the Garmin is that you can enter map coordinates to offbeat locations. Example: John found the intersection of Panoche Road and New Idria Road by searching on Google Earth. Then he just put the cursor over the road intersection and entered the displayed coordinates into the Garmin and save the location. Now, the Garmin can tell you how to navigate to that intersection. Perfect!
We set the Garmin to take us to the Cozy Cup Cafe in Hollister. Thought we were being observant when it said "Destination is on the right". Didn't see the Cozy Cup Cafe. We did see a bail bond business. Figured they had closed. So we used the Garmin to search for other American restaurants in Hollister and found Jerry's of Hollister. It's a Denny's / Cindy's looking place. Stephanie greeted us and was also our server. She was good at her job. And, she should have been as she has been at Jerry's of Hollister for 22 years!
Next stop was the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Tres Pinos. It's a pretty little church which was built in 1892 as a Catholic parish. It was unable to sustain full time clergy and became a mission. Then, in 1935, the church regained it's parish status. We have several photos taken at the church in the photo gallery. You can learn more about this historic church by clicking here.
We went a few miles east on Quien Sabe Road out of Tres Pinos. Saw some sheep and cattle on the hillsides and took some "farmland" photos. Decided that road would not lead us anyplace spectacular, so turned around and went back to Tres Pinos, then on to Paicines .
There is a cute little general store in Paicines and a Post Office behind the store. Stopped for restroom break there and to pick up a few snacks for the next leg of our journey. From Hwy 25 (Airline Hwy) in Paicines, to the New Idria mine is 54 miles of two-lane road. We figured we'd be in the boondocks at lunch time.
This is a beautiful time of year to take photos of farms, ranches and the beautiful rolling green hills. The trees are still bare, making it a stark contrast. One of the intersections John had programmed was that of Panoche Road with Little Panoche Road which is where you turn off to get to Mercey Hot Springs. About 1/2 mile before the intersection, we came across the Panoche Inn. We must have been in Panoche, CA! It was still early so we didn't have reason to go inside. Figured we'd check out their menu on our way back from the mine. We've a few shots of the Panoche Inn in the photo gallery and you can learn more about it by clicking here.
Just 1/2 further down Panoche Rd is Little Panoche Rd and a sign to Mercey Hot Springs....only 8 miles away. Off we went. After a while, there were quite a few potholes in the road. We made it through and found Mercey Hot Springs. Unfortunately, to gain access to the facility (and anything worth photographing) you must be a "registered guest". We weren't going to be "registered guests" and had not interest in today's special Yoga massage. So, we took a shot of an old dilapidated house that is being restored, and the facility sign. Headed back to Panoche Rd and on to the mine. You can learn more about Mercey Hot Springs by clicking here.
Eight miles back to Panoche Road, then headed east. Our Garmin had been programmed to find the New Idria Mine and so took us to, of all places, New Idria Road. There were lots of interesting things along the way. One was stopping at the entrance to the Griswold Hills Recreation Area. This is a Bureau of Land Management area and is open to hunting and target shooting. John had already been aware of the Griswold Hills as he had researched local BLM lands for the purpose of finding a place to do some target shooting. At the entrance to the Griswold Hills there was a parking and rest area with a restroom (ok, an outhouse)...but it was clean! Sadly, some not-so-nice folks had shot up the signs and even shot holes in the map (which is in a glass front case). There are pictures of this in the photo gallery. Linda saw and photographed some of her favorite flora, tumbleweeds! To learn more about the BLM's Griswold Hills, click here.
Continuing on New Idria Road we stopped at several places to take photos. One was an old adobe building. Behind the building was a creek flowing with bright orange, opaque liquid. This seems to be run off from up at the mine. Anyway, you probably shouldn't drink it! There is a photo of this creek in the gallery.
Shortly afterward, we came across a sign cautioning us to drive slow as there were dogs and children around. Soon, this crazy barking dog appeared. He wasn't interested in chasing the car, he was determined that the car would chase him. He took the lead. It took some quick work and the horn to get him behind us so we could proceed.
Next was a sign that San Benito County did not maintain the road past the sign and you were entering at your own risk. OK, how bad can it be. It can be pretty bad! The good news is that there was always a way to avoid "high centering". You just had to judiciously pick your path. Oh, we only passed one or two farm trucks since leaving the Panoche Inn. And, no cell phone service. Finally, we arrived at the "outskirst" of New Idria. There were some old buildings on the left. We explored them and then drove up through the old town (which burned in 2010) and shot photos. The New Idria photos are in today's gallery and you can learn more about New Idria and the mine by clicking here.
The only way out and back to civilization was the way we came. So, back we went. One our way in, we had noticed some cattle pens with barbed wire fencing which had been supplemented with some tall, thin, vertical branches. Almost making a "privy" fence. There are a couple of photos of the fence in the gallery.
We were too hungry for just sandwiches as it was getting on to about 2;00p.m. So, we went back to Jerry's of Hollister for a late lunch. Stephanie was still there but was off duty and having lunch with here little daughter. Linda got the senior chef salad and John had the regular Cobb salad. Both were good.
It was a really enjoyable day. We sent out a notice inviting one person (we only had one extra seat) from the Morgan Hill Photography Club to join us. Unfortunately, we didn't send out the invite until the day prior. So, no takers.
To view the 80 photos in today's gallery, just click here.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Monday, September 24, 2012
Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 26
The old buzzards and Fannie Mae left Sonora, California on Highway 49/108 this morning at 7:59am on the last leg of their 26 Day Yellowstone Road Trip. No one was sad to be going home – just very glad that things went so well and that it has been such a wonderful adventure and so much fun. We'll be wound up and ready to go back to Sonora for Thanksgiving in a couple of month.
By 8:40 we were at the Oakdale Cheese Factory in Oakdale to get some quark for Linda and curds for John but they were not open yet so we will have to wait until we go through there on our Thanksgiving trip in November. We did find a Starbucks in Escalon that was open and were thus fueled up for the rest of today's trek.
Manteca = fat or lard
Escalon = rungs or steps
Milpitas = corn or maize
Thus endeth th Spanish lesson.
Speaking of that lesson, if you've ever read much about Bodie, CA, the ghost town, it wasn't much of a place in which to be situated. In one book, someone going to live there was said to have exclaimed, "Goodbye, God, I'm going to Bodie". But, the author also explained that the person may have been saying, "Good, by God, I'm going to Bodie"! Sooo, in John's twisted brain, one might also say, "Good Lard, I'm going to Manteca!" Or, would that be "Good, Lard, I'm going to Manteca!"
Since we expected the fridge at home to be pretty bare, we stopped at one of many inviting-looking fruit stands along the way to Manteca and got pluots, plums, peaches, nectarines and grapes (all were $1.00 a pound). We also got a few of their interesting-looking heirloom tomatoes since we don't know if there will be any ready in our garden at home. Two of the most unusual ones were zebras and tie dies. The tomatoes were $1.50 a pound.
We were on Highways 5, then 205, then 580, then 680 to San Jose. There was a lot of traffic as we approached the Bay Area but for a while we got to ride in an express lane since we had two people in our vehicle. And we were exempt from a toll charge of $5.50. When we got on 101 to Morgan Hill at 10:02am, we took the Tennant Avenue exit. We had been looking forward to seeing what progress had been made to the Butterfield extension while we were gone. Sure enough, they are still hard at work on it and Watsonville Road at Monterey Highway is closed so we went to California Avenue, Water Street, Easy and finally home where we pulled in and took down the mileage reading so we would have the exact number of miles traveled (for those of you who enter our Mileage Madness contest). Sorry if this paragraph was boring to those of you not keeping up with the mileage. But you are welcome to take a wild guess. It is an interesting total and you just might come close enough to win one of the three great prizes.
"Home again, home again, jiggity jog". We arrived home by 11:30, did our unloading and had lunch with John's cousin Jerry, who has been housesitting. Unpacking will take a while but at least we did remember to take most of what we needed and we have a list made of additional items to include next time, such as binoculars, spotting scope, bird and plant ID books.
In the lost and found department, John lost his beloved teal blue water bottle. It was left on the Yellowstone tour bus and did not get turned in. It was the one he also used on his bicycle. Better replace it! Linda's thermal top was also left on the same bus but did get turned in. Linda got some buffalo earrings at Fort Caspar, wore them a lot and lost one of them two days ago.
And the tomato report is that we did not need to get tomatoes. The bushes are loaded, mostly with a variety of beautiful golden heirlooms that Linda got at a plant sale this spring outside BookSmart. Somewhere among all those vines is a plant label that we really want to take note of once it can be found. The largest one picked so far weighed in at two pounds! See today's photo gallery (by clicking here) for two of Linda's loveliest tomatoes. Our neighbor Pat did a super job of watering and the whole yard looks really nice. Thanks Pat! And thanks also to Josie and the Herreras and the Farnsworths for helping Jerry keep an eye on everything. We have wonderful neighbors!
Speaking of Jerry, he is hinting that he would like to stay around until after Taste of Morgan Hill this weekend, which is fine with us. It seems that he met a sweet lady at the Senior Center who has signed him up to help pour wine during our annual street fair.
Fannie Mae seems especially glad to be home and is delighting in attempting to terrorize the squirrels in the back yard.
Some trails are happy ones
Others are blue
It's the way you ride the trail that counts;
Here's a happy one for you.
HAPPY TRAILS to you,
Keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
HAPPY TRAILS to you
'Til we meet again!
By 8:40 we were at the Oakdale Cheese Factory in Oakdale to get some quark for Linda and curds for John but they were not open yet so we will have to wait until we go through there on our Thanksgiving trip in November. We did find a Starbucks in Escalon that was open and were thus fueled up for the rest of today's trek.
Manteca = fat or lard
Escalon = rungs or steps
Milpitas = corn or maize
Thus endeth th Spanish lesson.
Speaking of that lesson, if you've ever read much about Bodie, CA, the ghost town, it wasn't much of a place in which to be situated. In one book, someone going to live there was said to have exclaimed, "Goodbye, God, I'm going to Bodie". But, the author also explained that the person may have been saying, "Good, by God, I'm going to Bodie"! Sooo, in John's twisted brain, one might also say, "Good Lard, I'm going to Manteca!" Or, would that be "Good, Lard, I'm going to Manteca!"
Since we expected the fridge at home to be pretty bare, we stopped at one of many inviting-looking fruit stands along the way to Manteca and got pluots, plums, peaches, nectarines and grapes (all were $1.00 a pound). We also got a few of their interesting-looking heirloom tomatoes since we don't know if there will be any ready in our garden at home. Two of the most unusual ones were zebras and tie dies. The tomatoes were $1.50 a pound.
We were on Highways 5, then 205, then 580, then 680 to San Jose. There was a lot of traffic as we approached the Bay Area but for a while we got to ride in an express lane since we had two people in our vehicle. And we were exempt from a toll charge of $5.50. When we got on 101 to Morgan Hill at 10:02am, we took the Tennant Avenue exit. We had been looking forward to seeing what progress had been made to the Butterfield extension while we were gone. Sure enough, they are still hard at work on it and Watsonville Road at Monterey Highway is closed so we went to California Avenue, Water Street, Easy and finally home where we pulled in and took down the mileage reading so we would have the exact number of miles traveled (for those of you who enter our Mileage Madness contest). Sorry if this paragraph was boring to those of you not keeping up with the mileage. But you are welcome to take a wild guess. It is an interesting total and you just might come close enough to win one of the three great prizes.
"Home again, home again, jiggity jog". We arrived home by 11:30, did our unloading and had lunch with John's cousin Jerry, who has been housesitting. Unpacking will take a while but at least we did remember to take most of what we needed and we have a list made of additional items to include next time, such as binoculars, spotting scope, bird and plant ID books.
In the lost and found department, John lost his beloved teal blue water bottle. It was left on the Yellowstone tour bus and did not get turned in. It was the one he also used on his bicycle. Better replace it! Linda's thermal top was also left on the same bus but did get turned in. Linda got some buffalo earrings at Fort Caspar, wore them a lot and lost one of them two days ago.
And the tomato report is that we did not need to get tomatoes. The bushes are loaded, mostly with a variety of beautiful golden heirlooms that Linda got at a plant sale this spring outside BookSmart. Somewhere among all those vines is a plant label that we really want to take note of once it can be found. The largest one picked so far weighed in at two pounds! See today's photo gallery (by clicking here) for two of Linda's loveliest tomatoes. Our neighbor Pat did a super job of watering and the whole yard looks really nice. Thanks Pat! And thanks also to Josie and the Herreras and the Farnsworths for helping Jerry keep an eye on everything. We have wonderful neighbors!
Speaking of Jerry, he is hinting that he would like to stay around until after Taste of Morgan Hill this weekend, which is fine with us. It seems that he met a sweet lady at the Senior Center who has signed him up to help pour wine during our annual street fair.
Fannie Mae seems especially glad to be home and is delighting in attempting to terrorize the squirrels in the back yard.
Some trails are happy ones
Others are blue
It's the way you ride the trail that counts;
Here's a happy one for you.
HAPPY TRAILS to you,
Keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
HAPPY TRAILS to you
'Til we meet again!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 25
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost
Here we are on Day 25 or our 26 day road trip. This post needs to start off with a big “OOPS!” A day or so ago Linda referred to “the road less traveled” as being Carl Sandburg's words. Then today when the old buzzards were in an antique shop in downtown Sonora there was the whole quote but (oops) it had Robert Frost's name at the end. Linda has always gotten these two authors mixed up and they may not have even been friends. Sorry about that, Robert, and all you English majors. . .
Today was a very relaxing day. We had breakfast in the Gold Lodge dining area with two delightful British fellows from across the pond. They are railroad freaks (enthusiasts) and their wives did not care to come to The States just to stare at a bunch of old trains. One was a twin and entertained us with tales of when he and his brother were both English bobbies on the same force in a small town. They would position themselves at opposite ends of town and confuse the heck out of people.
We had intended to visit Columbia Historic State Park, a delightful historic mining town, but since we have been there so many times John offered to just spend the day in Sonora letting Linda chase her thrift/antique store habit. Fannie Mae made friends with some donkeys when she was on her morning walk. They were perfectly happy to exchange sniffs with her. Though, it was rather difficult for Fannie to sniff their butts. A ladder was required.
The buzzards made the rounds of some downtown shops in Sonora, mostly antique stores, and found a few treasures. Does anyone remember those canvas water bags that people used to hang on the front their cars in the 40s and 50s? The water would slowly seep through the canvas and evaporate so that when you made a stop you always had some refreshing cool water to drink. No, we didn't buy it but, like lots of things in antique stores, it brought back some old family memories of road trips when the buzzards were just buzzard chicklets.
We ate lunch downtown at a 2-years-new Yo Good Yogurt. Unlike our local Fro-Yo store, they have a salad bar and a serve-yourself yogurt area. The cost is 45 cents per ounce for salad and fixins and 39 cents per ounce for yogurt. And they offer a 10% discount to seniors. Everything was very fresh and delicious. There were 8 flavors of yogurt. John got 3 or 4 and Linda tried a little of everything. Some unusual ones were cake mix, root beer and pomegranate. Others were vanilla, chocolate and raspberry and cheesecake. Yum! Anyone want to open one of these in Morgan Hill for the old buzzards? www.itsyogood.com
Thanks for the nice emails we have been receiving from many of you who have been in the “rumble seat” riding along with us on this road trip. We have even received emails from three much younger couples who tell us that we are an inspiration to them for when they get the chance to travel in their doddering years. It's never been our goal to be an inspiration but it's nice to hear, nevertheless. As of October 1, 2012 we will have been mostly retired for four years and we do love it. When home, we manage to stay just as busy as we want to be with kids, grand kids, volunteer activities for seniors, gardening, photography, book groups, friends, biking, reading, reality TV, unreality TV and then there's always planning our next Road Trip. . .
Dinner tonight was in downtown Sonora at The Diamondback Grill, rated on Trip Advisor as Sonora's number one eatery. We looked for them when we did our initial drive through and thought they were gone but they had just moved across the street to larger quarters since we were here last, six years ago. John got a bacon cheddar burger and a salad. Linda got smoked quail with fig chutney and mustard balsamic vinaigrette. John drank water and Linda drank an Arrogant Bastard ale. Both dinners were excellent. The old buzzards would recommend that you try The Diamondback Grill when you are in Sonora. It's not very expensive. John's burger and salad was $10.95 and Linda's smoked quail was just $9.95.
Only 16 photos in today's gallery. You can (hee-haw) view them by clicking here.
When we got back to the Gold Lodge we made our reservations to come here for four nights over Thanksgiving. Sonora will have the 38th Annual Music and Crafts Festival which is put on by Fire on the Mountain. Check out their website by clicking here. It is held across the street from our motel at the fairgrounds and there is also a downtown Christmas parade during the time we will be here.
Happy Trails!
Here we are on Day 25 or our 26 day road trip. This post needs to start off with a big “OOPS!” A day or so ago Linda referred to “the road less traveled” as being Carl Sandburg's words. Then today when the old buzzards were in an antique shop in downtown Sonora there was the whole quote but (oops) it had Robert Frost's name at the end. Linda has always gotten these two authors mixed up and they may not have even been friends. Sorry about that, Robert, and all you English majors. . .
Today was a very relaxing day. We had breakfast in the Gold Lodge dining area with two delightful British fellows from across the pond. They are railroad freaks (enthusiasts) and their wives did not care to come to The States just to stare at a bunch of old trains. One was a twin and entertained us with tales of when he and his brother were both English bobbies on the same force in a small town. They would position themselves at opposite ends of town and confuse the heck out of people.
We had intended to visit Columbia Historic State Park, a delightful historic mining town, but since we have been there so many times John offered to just spend the day in Sonora letting Linda chase her thrift/antique store habit. Fannie Mae made friends with some donkeys when she was on her morning walk. They were perfectly happy to exchange sniffs with her. Though, it was rather difficult for Fannie to sniff their butts. A ladder was required.
The buzzards made the rounds of some downtown shops in Sonora, mostly antique stores, and found a few treasures. Does anyone remember those canvas water bags that people used to hang on the front their cars in the 40s and 50s? The water would slowly seep through the canvas and evaporate so that when you made a stop you always had some refreshing cool water to drink. No, we didn't buy it but, like lots of things in antique stores, it brought back some old family memories of road trips when the buzzards were just buzzard chicklets.
We ate lunch downtown at a 2-years-new Yo Good Yogurt. Unlike our local Fro-Yo store, they have a salad bar and a serve-yourself yogurt area. The cost is 45 cents per ounce for salad and fixins and 39 cents per ounce for yogurt. And they offer a 10% discount to seniors. Everything was very fresh and delicious. There were 8 flavors of yogurt. John got 3 or 4 and Linda tried a little of everything. Some unusual ones were cake mix, root beer and pomegranate. Others were vanilla, chocolate and raspberry and cheesecake. Yum! Anyone want to open one of these in Morgan Hill for the old buzzards? www.itsyogood.com
Thanks for the nice emails we have been receiving from many of you who have been in the “rumble seat” riding along with us on this road trip. We have even received emails from three much younger couples who tell us that we are an inspiration to them for when they get the chance to travel in their doddering years. It's never been our goal to be an inspiration but it's nice to hear, nevertheless. As of October 1, 2012 we will have been mostly retired for four years and we do love it. When home, we manage to stay just as busy as we want to be with kids, grand kids, volunteer activities for seniors, gardening, photography, book groups, friends, biking, reading, reality TV, unreality TV and then there's always planning our next Road Trip. . .
Dinner tonight was in downtown Sonora at The Diamondback Grill, rated on Trip Advisor as Sonora's number one eatery. We looked for them when we did our initial drive through and thought they were gone but they had just moved across the street to larger quarters since we were here last, six years ago. John got a bacon cheddar burger and a salad. Linda got smoked quail with fig chutney and mustard balsamic vinaigrette. John drank water and Linda drank an Arrogant Bastard ale. Both dinners were excellent. The old buzzards would recommend that you try The Diamondback Grill when you are in Sonora. It's not very expensive. John's burger and salad was $10.95 and Linda's smoked quail was just $9.95.
Only 16 photos in today's gallery. You can (hee-haw) view them by clicking here.
When we got back to the Gold Lodge we made our reservations to come here for four nights over Thanksgiving. Sonora will have the 38th Annual Music and Crafts Festival which is put on by Fire on the Mountain. Check out their website by clicking here. It is held across the street from our motel at the fairgrounds and there is also a downtown Christmas parade during the time we will be here.
Happy Trails!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 24
“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.”
~Ansel Adams, photographer who rose to fame with his black and white photos of Yosemite.
“Yosemite's natural beauty can be found in things big and small, from towering granite cliffs and giant sequoias to diminutive wildflowers. Varied conditions in four geographic areas – HIGH SIERRA, GRANITE CLIFFS, SEQUOIA GROVES and VALLEY – make such diversity possible. Explore Yosemite's many facets, take in its many moods, and enjoy its views, sounds and smells. It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter."
~John Muir, naturalist and early explorer in Yosemite
We had breakfast in the Virginia Creek Settlement restaurant before taking off for a drive through Yosemite National Park. Our lodging at Virginia Creek was 6 miles south of Bridgeport, California and we left at 8:18am on Highway 395 headed south. Right after Lee Vining, we turned west (right) onto Highway 120 which took us to the park and all the way through the park. Way before the Tioga Pass entrance there was a terrible traffic jam on our side of the road for about 30 minutes. But it seemed like a lifetime since we were moving about an inch every few seconds. We thought maybe rocks were being cleared off the road or that there was a wreck ahead. It turned out to be the one lane entry station. Aaaarrrrrggghh! We hadn't expected that kind of seemingly senseless delay. Then we realized that even though it is not their peak season, it is Saturday and almost the last weekend that some parts of the park will be open until spring. Seems like they need to add a second entry station up at Tioga Pass. And make it an entry station for passes only. Heck, everybody has one.
Our route kept us on Highway 120 all through the park which is in the upper part of Yosemite where we had never been during our numerous other trips to the park. Since Morgan Hill is actually pretty close to Yosemite, how many times have you been before, you ask? Well, actually only one trip, which seems pretty amazing since we have lived in California 33 and one-half years. So, even though it is a wonderful scenic treasure, of which we are very proud, it seems that we enjoy going on the roads less traveled (a la Carl Sandburg) when possible. Yosemite is so popular it doesn't feel "user friendly" to John.
Leaving Yosemite at the Big Oak Flat entrance, we stayed on Highway 120 until we got past Groveland and after winding around for a while and coming down, down, down in elevation we got onto Highway 49 at Moccasin and arrived in Sonora at 12:23. It's a drop in elevation from over 9,900 ft to about 2,000 ft from Tioga Pass to Sonora. That's about a mile-and-a-half. Our room was not ready yet at The Gold Lodge so we drove around town to see what had changed since we were last here six years ago. We saw a few new businesses and lots of our old favorites. John thinks it is finally safe to let Linda near an antique store since we are in the home stretch so the buzzards may go exploring tomorrow.
There are 26 pictures in today's photo gallery which you can view by clicking here.
Tonight we headed for one of our old favorites from other visits – The Pine Tree Restaurant. Linda had salad bar, green beans, grilled salmon and bread pudding. John had salad bar, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and tapioca pudding. We were forced to order dessert. It came with our senior meal. That's our story and we are stickin' to it. We had great service and really good food. This place has a great senior menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner and really seems to cater to the older folks. We appreciate that!
And so, it's time to turn on the smiley face nightlight, take Fannie out for a walk around the block and turn in for the night.
Happy trails!
~Ansel Adams, photographer who rose to fame with his black and white photos of Yosemite.
“Yosemite's natural beauty can be found in things big and small, from towering granite cliffs and giant sequoias to diminutive wildflowers. Varied conditions in four geographic areas – HIGH SIERRA, GRANITE CLIFFS, SEQUOIA GROVES and VALLEY – make such diversity possible. Explore Yosemite's many facets, take in its many moods, and enjoy its views, sounds and smells. It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter."
~John Muir, naturalist and early explorer in Yosemite
We had breakfast in the Virginia Creek Settlement restaurant before taking off for a drive through Yosemite National Park. Our lodging at Virginia Creek was 6 miles south of Bridgeport, California and we left at 8:18am on Highway 395 headed south. Right after Lee Vining, we turned west (right) onto Highway 120 which took us to the park and all the way through the park. Way before the Tioga Pass entrance there was a terrible traffic jam on our side of the road for about 30 minutes. But it seemed like a lifetime since we were moving about an inch every few seconds. We thought maybe rocks were being cleared off the road or that there was a wreck ahead. It turned out to be the one lane entry station. Aaaarrrrrggghh! We hadn't expected that kind of seemingly senseless delay. Then we realized that even though it is not their peak season, it is Saturday and almost the last weekend that some parts of the park will be open until spring. Seems like they need to add a second entry station up at Tioga Pass. And make it an entry station for passes only. Heck, everybody has one.
Our route kept us on Highway 120 all through the park which is in the upper part of Yosemite where we had never been during our numerous other trips to the park. Since Morgan Hill is actually pretty close to Yosemite, how many times have you been before, you ask? Well, actually only one trip, which seems pretty amazing since we have lived in California 33 and one-half years. So, even though it is a wonderful scenic treasure, of which we are very proud, it seems that we enjoy going on the roads less traveled (a la Carl Sandburg) when possible. Yosemite is so popular it doesn't feel "user friendly" to John.
Leaving Yosemite at the Big Oak Flat entrance, we stayed on Highway 120 until we got past Groveland and after winding around for a while and coming down, down, down in elevation we got onto Highway 49 at Moccasin and arrived in Sonora at 12:23. It's a drop in elevation from over 9,900 ft to about 2,000 ft from Tioga Pass to Sonora. That's about a mile-and-a-half. Our room was not ready yet at The Gold Lodge so we drove around town to see what had changed since we were last here six years ago. We saw a few new businesses and lots of our old favorites. John thinks it is finally safe to let Linda near an antique store since we are in the home stretch so the buzzards may go exploring tomorrow.
There are 26 pictures in today's photo gallery which you can view by clicking here.
Tonight we headed for one of our old favorites from other visits – The Pine Tree Restaurant. Linda had salad bar, green beans, grilled salmon and bread pudding. John had salad bar, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and tapioca pudding. We were forced to order dessert. It came with our senior meal. That's our story and we are stickin' to it. We had great service and really good food. This place has a great senior menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner and really seems to cater to the older folks. We appreciate that!
And so, it's time to turn on the smiley face nightlight, take Fannie out for a walk around the block and turn in for the night.
Happy trails!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 23
Our good friend, Ashleigh Brilliant, an extremely creative author of more than 10,000 Pot-Shots, has several that work well for our adventures. Here's one of them (#6941):
Last night the old buzzards took some sunset photos at the historic Tonopah Cemetery, and before leaving this morning Linda took a few more during the early hours. Departure from Tonopah was at 7:25am on Highway 6, headed west. More straight roads and barren land but it does have a stark kind of beauty. Within an hour we were seeing Nevada's highest point which is Boundary Peak at 13,143 feet and soon crossed over the border into California. But, just before the border there were some really old deserted motels, service stations and restaurants so John had to shoot some photos of them. You know how he really likes old, delapidated things. We passed through the fruit inspection station with no problem, even though we are from California (land of fruits and nuts). We were all set to tell them about the 2 peaches and 2 bananas from Albertson's in Elko, but they just waved us through with “Have a good day, sir.”
After a very few miles the scenery changed completely and we were in a forested area with rolling hills. Soon we were off Highway 6 at Benton and onto Benton Crossing Road, then Minnow Creek Road then on Highway 395 which took us to a helpful visitor center in the city of Mammoth Lakes. John found his foofy coffee fix in Mammoth Lakes at the Looney Bean Coffee Roasting Company. Fortified with caffeine, we soon found the Devil's Postpile exit off Highway 395. It is not a pleasant drive down into the Devil's Postpile. At least half of the 13 miles or so is one-lane narrow road with signs like..."Downhill traffic must yield to uphill traffic". For you mileage madness contestants it was 13 miles in and 13 miles out. The rest was on foot as we hiked 0.4 miles from the ranger station to where we could see the columnar basalt formations that make up Devil's Postpile. You can see them from both the bottom and the top in the photo gallery.
The postpile was formed from lava that erupted two miles upstream. As the lava cooled it contracted and cracked, forming the columns that were to become known as Devil's Postpile. The symmetrical vertical columns are different geometric shapes. Some are hexagonal, some pentagonal and some rectangular. These formed because of ideal conditions: the lava cooled slowly and its mineral composition was consistent. Then many years later, a glacier flowed down and overrode the fractured mass of lava. The moving ice carved away one side of the postpile, exposing a sheer wall of columns 60 feet high. Some columns fell down later because of earthquakes and erosion and they are in pieces of the talus on the slope beneath the postpile. Fannie and Linda hiked to the top of the postpile where they saw a cross section of glacially polished columns that look like floor tiles. Some have grooves cut in them by rock-studded glacial ice.
The old buzzards had put Devil's Postpile on their bucket list a couple of years ago after seeing Huell Howser feature it on one of his California Gold TV shows. It is well worth the drive and there are lots of other interesting things in the area as well. You can view the National Park Service site for the Devil's Postpile by clicking here.
Our lodging was about 40 miles up Highway 395 just about 5 miles south of Bridgeport, CA. We are at Virginia Creek Settlement which is a restaurant – motel – campground. You'll enjoy their website by clicking here. Our room in the log cabinesque motel is very nice. It has at least 25 framed photos of cowboys from old TV shows and movies. There's an actual saddle and guitar mounted onto the walls. A lamp is carved out of log and is in the shape of a bear. It goes to a high ceiling in the center or there wouldn't be all this knotty pine wall space. It may sound hokey but it is really quite nice. We have an outside porch out back with a table and chairs and a beautiful view of (and the sound of water flowing from) Virginia Creek.
The campground consists of small basic buildings that have beds inside and various names of westerny things on the outside. There's even an Attornies' office called "Dewey, Cheatum and Howe". Grills are provided outside for cooking and there's a campground restroom. It looks like a great place for a group campout or a family reunion. There is also a fish hatchery on site where they raise beautiful, healthy trout in a modified tomato bin using re-circulating well water. For more information visit the Bridgeport Fish Enhancement website by clicking here. It would be a handy place to stay if you are going to Bodie, Yosemite, Mono Lake or Devil's Postpile.
We had dinner in the Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant. John had the Brinn's Burger and Linda had eggplant parmesan. Both were excellent, as was the service. It was so nice to just be able to walk to dinner.
After dinner Linda took Fannie on a walk and got to feed the trout that are being raised for release into Bridgeport area waters.
And so ends another fulfilling day of travel. We saw new vistas and expanded our vision. And, as usually happens, we both took photos from totally different viewpoints. And, you can view those 66 photos in today's photo gallery by clicking here.
Happy trails!
Last night the old buzzards took some sunset photos at the historic Tonopah Cemetery, and before leaving this morning Linda took a few more during the early hours. Departure from Tonopah was at 7:25am on Highway 6, headed west. More straight roads and barren land but it does have a stark kind of beauty. Within an hour we were seeing Nevada's highest point which is Boundary Peak at 13,143 feet and soon crossed over the border into California. But, just before the border there were some really old deserted motels, service stations and restaurants so John had to shoot some photos of them. You know how he really likes old, delapidated things. We passed through the fruit inspection station with no problem, even though we are from California (land of fruits and nuts). We were all set to tell them about the 2 peaches and 2 bananas from Albertson's in Elko, but they just waved us through with “Have a good day, sir.”
After a very few miles the scenery changed completely and we were in a forested area with rolling hills. Soon we were off Highway 6 at Benton and onto Benton Crossing Road, then Minnow Creek Road then on Highway 395 which took us to a helpful visitor center in the city of Mammoth Lakes. John found his foofy coffee fix in Mammoth Lakes at the Looney Bean Coffee Roasting Company. Fortified with caffeine, we soon found the Devil's Postpile exit off Highway 395. It is not a pleasant drive down into the Devil's Postpile. At least half of the 13 miles or so is one-lane narrow road with signs like..."Downhill traffic must yield to uphill traffic". For you mileage madness contestants it was 13 miles in and 13 miles out. The rest was on foot as we hiked 0.4 miles from the ranger station to where we could see the columnar basalt formations that make up Devil's Postpile. You can see them from both the bottom and the top in the photo gallery.
The postpile was formed from lava that erupted two miles upstream. As the lava cooled it contracted and cracked, forming the columns that were to become known as Devil's Postpile. The symmetrical vertical columns are different geometric shapes. Some are hexagonal, some pentagonal and some rectangular. These formed because of ideal conditions: the lava cooled slowly and its mineral composition was consistent. Then many years later, a glacier flowed down and overrode the fractured mass of lava. The moving ice carved away one side of the postpile, exposing a sheer wall of columns 60 feet high. Some columns fell down later because of earthquakes and erosion and they are in pieces of the talus on the slope beneath the postpile. Fannie and Linda hiked to the top of the postpile where they saw a cross section of glacially polished columns that look like floor tiles. Some have grooves cut in them by rock-studded glacial ice.
The old buzzards had put Devil's Postpile on their bucket list a couple of years ago after seeing Huell Howser feature it on one of his California Gold TV shows. It is well worth the drive and there are lots of other interesting things in the area as well. You can view the National Park Service site for the Devil's Postpile by clicking here.
Our lodging was about 40 miles up Highway 395 just about 5 miles south of Bridgeport, CA. We are at Virginia Creek Settlement which is a restaurant – motel – campground. You'll enjoy their website by clicking here. Our room in the log cabinesque motel is very nice. It has at least 25 framed photos of cowboys from old TV shows and movies. There's an actual saddle and guitar mounted onto the walls. A lamp is carved out of log and is in the shape of a bear. It goes to a high ceiling in the center or there wouldn't be all this knotty pine wall space. It may sound hokey but it is really quite nice. We have an outside porch out back with a table and chairs and a beautiful view of (and the sound of water flowing from) Virginia Creek.
The campground consists of small basic buildings that have beds inside and various names of westerny things on the outside. There's even an Attornies' office called "Dewey, Cheatum and Howe". Grills are provided outside for cooking and there's a campground restroom. It looks like a great place for a group campout or a family reunion. There is also a fish hatchery on site where they raise beautiful, healthy trout in a modified tomato bin using re-circulating well water. For more information visit the Bridgeport Fish Enhancement website by clicking here. It would be a handy place to stay if you are going to Bodie, Yosemite, Mono Lake or Devil's Postpile.
We had dinner in the Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant. John had the Brinn's Burger and Linda had eggplant parmesan. Both were excellent, as was the service. It was so nice to just be able to walk to dinner.
After dinner Linda took Fannie on a walk and got to feed the trout that are being raised for release into Bridgeport area waters.
And so ends another fulfilling day of travel. We saw new vistas and expanded our vision. And, as usually happens, we both took photos from totally different viewpoints. And, you can view those 66 photos in today's photo gallery by clicking here.
Happy trails!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 22
“'Can you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?' asked Alice. 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the cat.” ~Lewis Carroll
The old buzzards and Fannie Mae slept in until 7:00 this morning, then decided to delay leaving to do some buzzard nest keeping since today's journey was not a long one. John processed photos and videos while Linda took Fannie for a walk and did a load of laundry and “defrosted” the ice chest. By 9:45 the crew was on I-80 headed west, using John's phone GPS (Margie) and Linda's atlas for navigation. When we got off I-80 there was a sign directing us to go either to Winnemucca or Eureka. We headed toward Eureka. At Carlin we headed south on Hwy 276 for a nanosecond then onto Hwy 278 for Eureka, Nevada.
The road followed along Pine Creek for a while. It had some water but the area looks pretty dry – mostly sagebrush and rabbit bush. We were on an open plains (Sulphur Springs Range) with mostly bare mountains on each side – interspersed with signs of volcanic activity. Once we reached Eureka we turned right (to the west) on Hwy 50 which took us to Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area. Shortly after the turnoff it became a very rough gravel road. Having no idea how far to the Petroglyphs, we made a u-turn and got back onto Hwy 50, but only after Linda found a rock that needed relocating. Some turn offs are golden and some are gravel.
By this time we had been looking for any business still operating where we could get some soft drinks to go with our picnic lunch (leftovers from Pizza Barn). It is 99.44% wide open spaces out there and none of the 3 or 4 itty bitty towns we passed by even had a gas station. We finally found a small store at an RV park near Austin, Nevada. Linda almost took a photo of a dusty display of Fuji film. You just don't see much film for sale these days and it didn't look as if it would be flying off their shelves anytime this century.
Leaving the store we turned south onto Hwy 376. At the turn there was a sign that showed we were headed toward the loneliest golf course in America. How could anyone resist? The two old buzzards are no longer terrorizing others on the greens but still have lots of friends who are. So, they kept a lookout on that barren landscape for more signs to the golf course. The sign was definitely worn so they thought it might not still even be around ("loneliest" is usually a bad word for a business, except for a dating service). Finally they came upon a community, Hadley Subdivision, that is for employees of the Round Mountain Mining Company. A small two-foot sign said “Golf Course”, so Eureka, they had found it. There were actually several golfers on the course and it looked like a pretty well-tended course. Photos in today's photo gallery. We drove around the town – mostly small residences laid out in an odd grid of streets. There was also a nice looking community center, a park and a school. The whole area has a speed limit of 15 mph. Round Mountain is mined for gold as an open pit mining operation.
You mileage madness contestants can add about 5 miles for our loneliest golf course in America exploration. By the way, if you have not been keeping up with the mileage for the trip you can just enter by taking a wild guess if you don't want to wade through all the posts again. There are going to be first, second and third place prizes this time.
We were back onto for Hwy 376 for a short time and turned right (west) onto Hwy 6 and Hwy 96 for a six-mile drive to Tonapah to our lodging at the Clown Motel. We had seen it from the road when we stayed at the Tonopah Station Ramada Inn two years ago (on Fannie Mae's first Road Trip). We thought it looked interesting and since we would never consider staying at that Ramada again, we decided to try the Clown Motel. The photos in today's gallery will tell the tale of the lobby, the motel sign and the doors to the rooms. Our room is very nice. The clowns got it very clean. The only clown décor in our room were a couple of clown drawings, one is of Emmett Kelly and the other is a white-faced clown with a flowerpot hat.
When it was almost time for sunset, the old buzzards went next door to the cemetery to set up a camera on a tripod. Aren't all Clown Motels next door to a quite (and quiet) rustic cemetery? This is the first cemetery in Tonopah and was preserved by the Central Nevada Historical Society. Buried here are many of Tonopah's pioneer residents including the victims of the Tonopah-Belmont mine fire of February 23, 1911, as well as the victims of the 1902 Tonopah Plague. The names are mostly of men and their young ages are sobering. Look for our sunset pics in today's photo gallery which you can view by clicking here.
For dinner we returned to El Marques for Mexican Food. We had been here two years ago during another road trip (to Utah and the Grand Canyon). We both had beef tostados. John also had a chili rellano and rice and beans. Same song, second verse. The food was great but the service was not great. Would we eat there again? Probably. We love Mexican food and there aren't many other restaurant choices in Tonopah.
Hasta la vista!
The old buzzards and Fannie Mae slept in until 7:00 this morning, then decided to delay leaving to do some buzzard nest keeping since today's journey was not a long one. John processed photos and videos while Linda took Fannie for a walk and did a load of laundry and “defrosted” the ice chest. By 9:45 the crew was on I-80 headed west, using John's phone GPS (Margie) and Linda's atlas for navigation. When we got off I-80 there was a sign directing us to go either to Winnemucca or Eureka. We headed toward Eureka. At Carlin we headed south on Hwy 276 for a nanosecond then onto Hwy 278 for Eureka, Nevada.
The road followed along Pine Creek for a while. It had some water but the area looks pretty dry – mostly sagebrush and rabbit bush. We were on an open plains (Sulphur Springs Range) with mostly bare mountains on each side – interspersed with signs of volcanic activity. Once we reached Eureka we turned right (to the west) on Hwy 50 which took us to Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area. Shortly after the turnoff it became a very rough gravel road. Having no idea how far to the Petroglyphs, we made a u-turn and got back onto Hwy 50, but only after Linda found a rock that needed relocating. Some turn offs are golden and some are gravel.
By this time we had been looking for any business still operating where we could get some soft drinks to go with our picnic lunch (leftovers from Pizza Barn). It is 99.44% wide open spaces out there and none of the 3 or 4 itty bitty towns we passed by even had a gas station. We finally found a small store at an RV park near Austin, Nevada. Linda almost took a photo of a dusty display of Fuji film. You just don't see much film for sale these days and it didn't look as if it would be flying off their shelves anytime this century.
Leaving the store we turned south onto Hwy 376. At the turn there was a sign that showed we were headed toward the loneliest golf course in America. How could anyone resist? The two old buzzards are no longer terrorizing others on the greens but still have lots of friends who are. So, they kept a lookout on that barren landscape for more signs to the golf course. The sign was definitely worn so they thought it might not still even be around ("loneliest" is usually a bad word for a business, except for a dating service). Finally they came upon a community, Hadley Subdivision, that is for employees of the Round Mountain Mining Company. A small two-foot sign said “Golf Course”, so Eureka, they had found it. There were actually several golfers on the course and it looked like a pretty well-tended course. Photos in today's photo gallery. We drove around the town – mostly small residences laid out in an odd grid of streets. There was also a nice looking community center, a park and a school. The whole area has a speed limit of 15 mph. Round Mountain is mined for gold as an open pit mining operation.
You mileage madness contestants can add about 5 miles for our loneliest golf course in America exploration. By the way, if you have not been keeping up with the mileage for the trip you can just enter by taking a wild guess if you don't want to wade through all the posts again. There are going to be first, second and third place prizes this time.
We were back onto for Hwy 376 for a short time and turned right (west) onto Hwy 6 and Hwy 96 for a six-mile drive to Tonapah to our lodging at the Clown Motel. We had seen it from the road when we stayed at the Tonopah Station Ramada Inn two years ago (on Fannie Mae's first Road Trip). We thought it looked interesting and since we would never consider staying at that Ramada again, we decided to try the Clown Motel. The photos in today's gallery will tell the tale of the lobby, the motel sign and the doors to the rooms. Our room is very nice. The clowns got it very clean. The only clown décor in our room were a couple of clown drawings, one is of Emmett Kelly and the other is a white-faced clown with a flowerpot hat.
When it was almost time for sunset, the old buzzards went next door to the cemetery to set up a camera on a tripod. Aren't all Clown Motels next door to a quite (and quiet) rustic cemetery? This is the first cemetery in Tonopah and was preserved by the Central Nevada Historical Society. Buried here are many of Tonopah's pioneer residents including the victims of the Tonopah-Belmont mine fire of February 23, 1911, as well as the victims of the 1902 Tonopah Plague. The names are mostly of men and their young ages are sobering. Look for our sunset pics in today's photo gallery which you can view by clicking here.
For dinner we returned to El Marques for Mexican Food. We had been here two years ago during another road trip (to Utah and the Grand Canyon). We both had beef tostados. John also had a chili rellano and rice and beans. Same song, second verse. The food was great but the service was not great. Would we eat there again? Probably. We love Mexican food and there aren't many other restaurant choices in Tonopah.
Hasta la vista!
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