Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

Sierra View @ Vista Point (Click to Enlarge)

On Saturday afternoon we drove the Jeep to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest which is at about 11,100 feet. Since we started at 4,100 feet in Bishop,CA, that’s 7,000 feet of driving up. We could tell.

Besides popping our ears every now and then, there were those precipitous drop offs along the road (see one of the videos below).

The Trip (Click to Enlarge)

It was a 38-mile, 2-hour drive from Bishop to Bristlecone.

But more than half the trip was climbing those 7,000 feet, and it was SLOW driving.

Near the top we started seeing patches of snow. Nothing much, but in former years we would not have been able to drive there because snow would have blocked the roads.

Welcome to the Great California Drought.

When we arrived at the Bristlecone Forest Ranger Station, we took a short hike down the Methuselah Walk Trail and took some photos and videos of the area. The pine smell was incredibly strong in the clean mountain air.

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Jeepin’ Buttermilk Road outside of Bishop, CA

 We took a Jeep trip into the foothills of the West Sierra Mountains on Thursday morning.

The views were fantastic!

We saw a number of rock climbers, backpackers, and campers. We met a man from Michigan in a 1971 4WD pickup with over 200,000 miles who was camping in the back country. By the way, the man said he was a survivor of four heart bypass surgeries. A nice guy.

After driving higher and higher for an hour, we had lunch at the base of Mount Tom.

Incredible country!

Some photos from our trip . . .

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Who Is This Bald Man by Our Park Model?

Here we are in Bishop, CA, yet a very senior bald man can be seen (on our hidden cameras) “having his way” with our park model.

Shall I call 911???

We’ve Arrived!

We arrived in Bishop, CA on Saturday about 3pm.

John & Wendy, the park managers, left a flowering plant on our site’s picnic table. Very nice.

The 2nd leg of our trip (Barstow to Bishop) didn’t seem that long to me, but I wasn’t driving the motorhome. Jan was, and she was whipped after the journey.

We skipped lunch, so we were really hungry when we arrived. So who you gonna call?

And, yes, they deliver:

Actually, it was a really good pizza.

Parting shots . . .

Our Site 50

The RV Water Pump I Have To Replace (It failed at just over 2 years)

Barstow, CA

On the road again . . .

We’re at Shady Lane RV Camp just outside of Barstow.

It’s just an overnight stop on our way to Bishop, CA.

It was about a 200-mile drive from Crazy Horse Campground in Lake Havasu City, AZ. For many RVers this isn’t much of a drive, but 200-miles is the max Jan & I like to drive in a day.

I guess we’re just wusses as a couple of our Crazy Horse friends drive several hundred miles per day.

Anyway, Shady Lane is a nice stopover. The couple running the place are very gracious.

However, there was a moment of panic when we arrived. 

It looks like the our Jeep’s heating/ventilation fan burned out and really smelled up the Jeep. It was a nasty electrical smell. (BTW, I’m driving the Jeep while Jan drives the RV which is towing our Honda.)

Great. I could imagine trying to fix this POS.

Don’t get me wrong — I love our ’93 Jeep, but it drives like a tank.

After a drive around Barstow to gas up the Jeep, all appears ok. The Jeep’s HVAC fan no longer works, but the AC operates just fine. And there’s no longer an electrical smell. Tomorrow will tell.

Also, when I gassed up the Jeep, I got gas pump sticker shock.

Holy Frack, Batman, things are a bit more pricey on the Left Coast!

BTW, had a interesting drive through Barstow looking for a gas station. Took a wrong turn and did a quick tour of the Railway Museum.

On the other hand, in Barstow we got to change our “local” TV stations from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Bit of a difference — last I checked, Phoenix TV stations were covering an Arizona legislature bill to legalize silencers and sawed-off shotguns. Whereas LA news was covering a transgender protest.

Last year when I told my Texas friend Wally that I was becoming an Arizona resident, he said that even though Texans are nuts, Arizonans are bat-shit crazy. I have to agree.

Here we are at Site 9 in Barstow: