Greetings from Sequoia National Park! We arrived at Lodgepole Campground about 5pm yesterday after driving about 6.5 hours. I had not realized that the campground was an hour-long, hairpin curve drive from the entrance. And to make it an even more hair-raising journey, we arrived here running on gas fumes. The drive up the mountain took way more gas than I had anticipated. The nearest gas station is 22 miles from here and I don’t think we have enough gas to make it!
There are 2 options as we see it. We can call AAA or we can ask our neighbors to use the gas in their gas can and replace it when we fill up. Or maybe a third option–we can steal the gas while they’re sleeping! HA! I’ll talk to the neighbors later today.
Our campsite (#176) backs up to the forest and is quite scenic. It’s not really secluded but certainly more secluded then the sites in the interior of the campground. It’s quiet and peaceful. We had a nice, easy and delicious diner last night: crab-stuffed avocados.
There are many signs indicating that there is wildlife in the area. At the check-in kiosk there was a group reporting bear activity in the campground. They were eating at their picnic table and a bear approached them. Yikes! Our doggies might look tasty to the resident bears.
We drove through forests of giant sequoia and past a cave on our way here but I hardly noticed since my eyes were glued to the gas gauge. Once we get gas we can spend time seeing the sights. Howard would like to get some dedicated photography time in.
The days, and especially the nights, leading up to our departure have not been calm. I guess we have been unsettled about leaving. We both have awakened at about 3am in the nights leading up to our departure and remain awake for hours. One night I had so many “to do” items marching through my brain that I got up 3 times to write them down. I suppose partly it’s because we will be gone 2 months but in large part it’s because we are leaving our niece, Patty, once again (the first time she was abandoned was this past spring when we spent 3 months in France). This is Patty’s last chance to get serious about school. If she gets any grade below a B or drops a class, the “Ducey Dorm” is closed. School started 2 weeks ago and she has had periods of intense study interspersed with too much job time. She is working 37 hours a week which is TOO MUCH. My pleas for her to cut down work time fall on deaf ears. I am tired of being a nag so I am happy that we have left. She will either sink or swim on her own.
So after many sleepless nights we enjoyed a wonderful, restful night here. It was a little colder than we thought it would be; we made the bed up with the blanket instead of the down comforter and left one of the back doors open. We were confused about the weather. When we checked the forecast prior to, leaving it said that we should expect temperatures of 100 and hotter! Now that we’re here we surmise those temperatures were for the park entrance; the campground is at 6,700 feet. It is much cooler here. I also think our new, memory-foam mattress topper aided in our restful sleep last night. It’s very cumbersome and it takes a lot of effort to make up and tear down the bed (and to store it during the day) but we both said it was much more comfortable than the mattress alone.
It’s 9am. We have enjoyed our morning coffee and some delicious yogurt with sweet nectarines and we are relaxing in the “dog pen.” The dogs have on their sweaters because all of them were shivering and they are now snuggled in their crates. The neighbor has been running his noisy generator for quite a long time now–what on earth could they need that for? Maybe it’s for the dishwasher. HA! I’ll tell him that in exchange for listening to his generator, he needs to loan us some gas!
Later: Our neighbor came through!! The gas station was a mere 22 miles but it took us 30 minutes. We NEVER would have made it on the little gas we had left. Thanks goodness for good Samaritans. We gave him a gift of a full gas can and some tasty snacks.
We had a delicious salad for lunch: greens, arugula, tomatoes, tuna, avocado, feta cheese, cucumbers and the grain Farro. The avocados I used last night and for lunch are “Nabal” avocados. They are about 3x the size of Hass avocados and they are incredibly yummy and buttery. Our resolution on this trip is to live a healthier lifestyle. Wish us luck! We have already started the increased activity part: our campsite has quite a hill to climb to reach the picnic table and the area where we’ve placed the dog pen. We must hike up that hill 20x a day. And the high elevation is evident!