Below are our travels from 4/19 to 4/30.

4/19/05
We left Barstow area and headed on Highway 58 with a destination of Bakersfield Wal-Mart Parking Lot. After leaving Barstow we saw many fields of fruits and vegetables. Then soon we saw no more towns or fields, only desert again. We saw a few wildflowers along the way but not much of anything else. We passed through Boron, Ca. where Borax is manufactured. Borax has been mined here for many years. Go to http://www.borax.com/index.html to find out about this mfg.and the uses of Boron.
We did finally come to a mountain range around Mojave, Ca. There we discovered a wind generating farm. http://www.tehachapi.com/wind/ This is supposed to be one of the windiest places in the world. We were heading into the wind so it did not seem to bother too much. Some information we have states there are over 4000 generators on these hills. We stayed this night at the Wal-Mart in Bakersfield. A little interesting point about Wal-Mart in California: There are no super Wal-Marts in California. They do have a few groceries but not much. Also there is no Wal-Mart in San Francisco or many other larger cities. We will be unable to stay in any more as there are none on the west coast.

4/20/05
As we leavae Bakersfield we went through about 25 miles of agriculture, even lots of cotton. But then all of a sudden we are in the desert again. Now we are approaching the Tembler Mountain Range and seeing lots of oil wells. It is a very winding road as we make our way over the mountain and down into the narrow valley below. The mountains are lush with vegetation of many colors. Oil wells are all over, even on top of peaks. We are in a high meadow where crops are being grown. There are no rocks visible on these mountains and very few trees. The vegetation looks like a carpet. Now we are up quite high and just passed an area where we could see the valley we just came from and are climbing even higher in an area with sharp hair pin curves. The view now shows a very long curvy road that is still rising. The wild flowers here are very different from what we saw in the desert. As we begin to ascend into this valley we see it is being used for grazing. On to the west is another rather high mountain range with some snow on it. However we are passing on to the north of it. Woops!! We found we were in a high meadow and now we are going down again. This is a very narrow road and not any pull-off so we are unable to get pictures of the many, many wild flowers in the area. There is a very large grape vineyard in this area and they are using wind generators to irrigate them. We are passing through an area now that looks like Kansas with green fields and crops, trees and cows. But, alas, we see mountains ahead and beginning to climb slowly. This mountain appears to be mostly covered with trees and wildflowers of every color. Finally we are able to stop and could take pictures of three of the pretty flowers. We bought gasoline in Morrow Bay priced at $2.59 per gallon. We have made it to Highway 1, our route to head up the coast through California, Oregon and Washington. For a short time we could see the beautiful ocean, the waves rushing in and around huge rocks. Now we are inland just a short distance with big hills to our west so we are unable to see the ocean. In a short time we are back by the ocean and it is just like pictures you see in the movies. But much better because it is “in person” and God is here. Praise Be to God. In a couple of locations we saw seals or sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. The mountains are beginning to get close to the ocean now. It is an amazing sight to see the
mountains and the ocean in the same glorious view. We hope the pictures we have taken will help to tell the story of the beauty around us. It is 5 pm and we are still driving. Campgrounds reasonably prices are few and far between. The campground we have reserved is a county campground, Laguna Park in Morro, Ca. It has only water and electricity and $28 per night. We have arrived. The campground sets on a high hill. The road up to it is a 16% grade and we wondered if could make it up. The main attraction here is a large International Race Track. When there are races being held the campground is reserved for the race fans. Here again I was able to take pictures of several wildflowers we
have not seen before.


4/21/05
As we make our way back on Highway 1 and out of Morrow Bay area we are inland. We pass by miles and miles of fruit and vegetable crops, mostly artichoke and strawberries. The road sides are covered with a succulent with yellow and pink flowers. The small towns now are pretty much one after another we get closer to San Francisco. Just past Santa Cruz we are again out by the ocean and in a rural setting, hilly to the east that levels out to flat land next to the coast. We see some crops growing in this level area. The road again gets very close to the ocean. Sometimes there is a beach and sometimes high cliffs overlooking the ocean. We stopped at a beach to look around and of course take some pictures. We found a couple of shells and something that looks like coral. Our next stop was to buy gas again. It is still $2.59. Driving through San Francisco was very easy compared to some big cities we have driven through. We plan to spend some time here on other days so we did not stop anywhere. The highway took us through a large section on the edge of China Town. As we approached the Golden Gate Bridge it was foggy so we were afraid we would not be able to see anything but as we got out over the water the fog cleared. It is an awesome sight. We could see many sail boats and some ferrys heading to Alcatraz and of course the bridge. Crossing was very easy as there re 6 lanes of traffic as well as a pedestrian/bicycle lane. After leaving San Francisco we got back on Highway 1 and immediately saw a sign warning us that vehicles over 35 feet are not recommended for travel on this highway. We immediately became concerned but continued on as turning around was nearly impossible. The road was very narrow, very curvy and very, very beautiful. We went up, up, up and down, down, down the mountains several times. Sometimes we were in rolling hills you could see forever and sometimes in forested areas; sometimes on a high cliff overlooking the ocean and sometimes next to a beach. It was a beautiful drive but very tiring for Gene. We made it to our destination, Olema Ranch Campground in Olema, Ca. It is about 50 miles North of San Francisco. We plan to stay here a week to explore the area and spend some time in San Francisco.


4/22/05
We rested up in the morning and then went into Point Reyes National Park. We stopped by the Visitors Center to get information about the area. We chose to go to a beach which is about 20 minutes away. Again we traveled over the same kind of mountainous roads as in past days. The beach is in a secluded area and is a site for watching whales that travel through here during Jan through April. The sand on this beach blows up into dunes and is very hard to walk in as you cross over it to the beach. We did see some very unusual sea creatures on the beach. They were a pretty almost translucent blue color and seemed to have a fin on top for swimming. We also saw another just like it but it was white and smaller. We will go to other areas in the Pt. Reyes Park another day.


4/23/05
We headed towards San Francisco on Sir Francis Drake Highway. It is not quite as winding and steep road as Highway 1. For the first 10 miles it is in a rural setting and part of it is a state park which is wooded with big Red Wood trees. Then it passes through several small towns that are one right after another all the way to San Francisco. It is heavy traffic in these little towns. Our first stop in San Francisco is to a Visitors Center. We had a hard time locating it, so in the process, we passed through China Town and saw some of the sites of downtown San Francisco. At the Visitors Center we picked up brochures on several things we could do and sites to see. Then we headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf. It is
quite an experience. There are many places to eat there and all kinds of food. Also lots of shopping areas are located in this area. They really cater to the tourist here. We walked around trying to decide what we wanted to do, what site seeing tours to take and where to eat some seafood. We ate at a sort of fast food (sea food) place at Pier 39. We had fried shrimp and calamari with French fries. We decided to take a City Bus Tour. When inquiring about it we were given an offer we could not refuse! For listening to a 90 minute talk (sales pitch) we could get free tickets to the City Tour and the Alcatraz tour. We set that up for Monday morning. It was getting late so we decided to
head for home taking the same route home as when we came

4/24/05
Sunday after breakfast and our walk we decided to go to Pt. Reyes Light House. It is about 20 miles from our campground. It was a very pretty drive. There were several old historic farms in this area. Most of them still had the old out buildings and several even still had the original farm house. We did not find out anything about the history behind them. Pt. Reyes sits up on a high bluff. The old lighthouse is no longer in use but it is open to the public to visit. It is 300 steps down to the light house AND 300 steps back up. It was quite a walk. While down at the light house we found out there were whales in the area that were passing by on their north for the winter. We were very lucky to be there at just the right time to see 2 pairs of mother whales and their babies pass by. It is a beautiful area and seeing the whales just made it more special. I continue to say God is so awesome and really good to us and for us.
Pt. Reyes Light House Mama whale

4/25/05
We were able to go on the Deluxe City Tour at 2 pm. It was a 3 ½ hour tour and really informational. We took lots of pictures and saw some awesome buildings. We had opportunities to get off the bus and take pictures of the skyline, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and others. The driver who was also the narrator was very knowledgeable so we learned a great deal about the area.

4/26/05
It is supposed to rain today so we have decided not to go to San Francisco. We had planned to go on a cruise to tour Alcatraz. We think it would not have been fun in the rain. In the afternoon we went to stock up on groceries since we are leaving the area tomorrow. As it turned out we did not STOCK up because the price of everything was way out of line. We will try again at another town to get some things.

4/27/05
Today we are making our way to Willits, Ca. We again took Highway 1. We traveled through several small towns that are either on the ocean or on a bay connected to the ocean. All of these towns seem to have the sea as their main source of income. There are literally hundreds of twists and turns on Highway 1. Some are sharp hairpin turns and most of the time we are either going up or down the mountains. We saw evidence of mud slides from the winter rains. The west side of some trees are battered from the strong winds that blow along the coast. The campground we are staying at is Sleepy Hollow Campground about 8 miles north of Willits. It is a very small campground and most of the RV’s are here on a semi-permanent basis. We will be here in Willits for 3 days. We plan to do laundry, buy some food we did not get a few days ago and just hang out. There is a Wal-Mart in a town about 28 miles south of here so on Saturday we went there to buy some things. Found a Food-4-Less (now FoodMax) so we stocked up on groceries to last a while.