Tuesday, November 27, 2012

More Days in Paradise; Sequoia National Forest

November 19-26, 2012

Monday:  We arrived at the internet café around 8:30 am…but sadly they were just closing up for the day.   Some kind of emergency coupled with a lack of back-up staff, I guess.   It kind of put a damper on our careful plans.   We decided to just go ahead with our shopping plans in Lake Isabella, and return to the café the next day.   We did stop at McDonalds to use their weak wifi for a little bit.   Then we filled a propane tank and got a new camp chair at True Value.   There, I was told that our propane tank was too old and past it’s inspection validity date.   The guy still filled it, but we’ll have to do a tank swap next time it’s empty.    After that stop, we went to the grocery store.  It was insanely busy.   I’m not sure if it’s because it was lunch time or if it was related to being Thanksgiving week, but we were glad to get out of that crush.    Since we got home earlier than expected, we went on a bike ride to explore the ends of the forest service road.

Tuesday: Luckily, the café was open today.   (BTW…this word processing program is autocorrecting to put the accent on the word café.   I would never be so presumptuous.  I would, however, be so lazy as to not undo it).  We spent about 6 hours again and got a lot accomplished.    Still wish there was good wifi at a library, though.  We’re spending guilt money on coffee and snacks to justify our time in the café.  Got back to the RV and discovered that Cassie had daredeviled herself access to a shelf she had previously left unmolested on ALL prior trips left home alone.   She and Buddy helped themselves to all of Missy’s mini-cinammon-coffee-cakes.   I was fairly annoyed at the dogs, but found it funny how sad Missy was at the loss of her snacks.    Lesson learned by humans.   From now on, we’ll put all the food away.  Even if it seems out of reach.   Sheesh.   Had a campfire after the sun went behind the mountain.

Wednesday: WINDY…that’s the word for the day.   Holy mackerel!   With no protection on our awesome bluff, the winds really buffeted us and the RV.   No matter how tightly we tried to close the windows, we still had howling in unseen cracks.    I hope this is the only windy day we’ll have to endure.   Apparently the military doesn’t practice flights on windy days, or else they’ve taken an early Thanksgiving holiday.   No air show today.  Bummer.

Thursday:  Happy Thanksgiving!   Missy snuck into town to see if she could sit in the parking lot of the (closed) café and get some more shows.   Turned out to work!  So she was gone most of the day.   I went on a walk with the dogs.   I got 2 loads of wood from a recently (but not too recently) downed tree by the main dirt road.  I’d say it’s about 100 yards from the clearing.    The wood is fantastically dry and makes for great fires.   I pretty much cleared it of what could be carried or dragged.   Now we’ll have to see if Missy gets around to using her chainsaw on the big trunk pieces. 

The weather today was perfection!   Sunny and upper 70s.  Perfect day to lie out in the lounger under the sun umbrella.   And we’re still lucky with the overnight temps.   Usually they end up in the upper 30s/lower 40s.  We haven’t had to use the furnace overnight for a good bit now.   (We do run it 10-15 minutes in the morning to warm up the rig when we get up).

Friday:  Well, it was tough to do, but we found a flaw with this campground.   Since it’s in the National Forest, people get to hunt here.   Suck.   Last weekend we heard shotguns a long ways off.   But today, there was a lot of activity close to home.   I saw hunters just across a gulch when I was out with Cassie.  I guess we’ll have to use our orange vests on future walks.   Twood suck if one of us got shot.  I don’t even get what they’re hunting.   Until yesterday, we hadn’t even seen any deer.   Actually, on that point, we didn’t actually hear any shots fired near us today.  So perhaps the hunters will figure out the “no deer” situation and move on.   Other than the increased “traffic” near us (defined as more than 2 cars), it was a great day.    We had a morning bonfire, helped out by Mother Nature doing the fanning.  Once the campfire was done, the wind died down and the weather was perfect.  

Saturday/Sunday:  Busy days for hunters.   We kept a low profile and hung around camp all day.   Still having great weather…sunny and warm/hot.  

Monday:  We left camp early to get water at a nearby Nat. Forest campground.   It was completely deserted.   Strange.   Today was shower day.   We’ve finally figured out the right recipe for our hair (with the no champoo technique).   Everybody has different needs with regards to strengths of the baking soda and vinegar rinse.   You’ve just got to be patient and mess around until you find what works for you.   The trouble for us is, we’re on restricted water use.  So each time we get it wrong, we have to wait until the next shower day to try again.   However, that’s the good thing about having a twin.  Double the experiments!   Each time, we’d both do something different.   So that made it easier to nail down what works.    Hip, Hip, Hooray!

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