Yosemite is a Must-See - Day 11

Today we trekked on to San Francisco. In doing so, we passed through Yosemite National Park. Are route took us through Tioga Pass This is one of the higher points of our 7500 mile journey. It was nice an cool on this part of the journey so we were able to open the sunroof and let some sunshine in without getting sandblasted or pressure cooked.



If you haven't visited, Yosemite is a must-see. When you are there, be sure to stop by the Visitor Center inside the park and speak with Jenny. She was very helpful and gave us a heads up on on the great spots to see when you are short on time. You really can't do Yosemite in one-day, this is a place that spending a few days hiking and soaking it all in would be the minimum experience.



One hike we did do was a two mile hike to
see the Sequoias. The one mile hike down was easy. The one mile hike back up was a bit much for Oliver. He has much work to do to prepare for our hike of the Grand Canyon that he's planning. The sequoias we visited were not as impressive as the Redwood Forest, but still worth the hike. Just plan some extra time. Distances on maps can be deceiving.

We spent three more hours in Yosemite than planned. We could have spend three more days or even a week.

Our first evening in San Francisco was spent getting situated with a smaller room than usual and exploring our interesting hotel, Hotel Zephyr This is a boutique hotel whose theme is fun and games. It's in the spot we like to hang out when we visit San Francisco and had a surprisingly good parking setup. In fact, the Tesla had a great view of the bay! We had dinner at Boudin's.

Tomorrow is the big day! The Tesla factory visit. We won't be able to take pictures, but I'm sure we will have lots of stories.

Death Valley isn't really that hot, is it? - Day 10

Today we travelled through Death Valley and then then on to Mammoth Lakes. We drove below sea level and then up to 8000 feet above sea level. This was a new test for us as we haven't take the Tesla on many mountain trips, we were fully loaded, and had no idea what to expect in terms of energy usage. Other than charging stops, our planned stops were the bottle house in Rhyolite at an entrance to Death Valley, Stove Pipe wells, and some place called Vista Point. Well, it turns out that there are lots of Vista Points. We had much to see.

Our first stop was Rhyolite. The first time I visited Rhyolite was on a band trip in 1977, in 40 years the place has changed a bit. I believe the house has been rebuilt and items rearranged. It's also now fenced and received the national park treatment. Oliver was intrigued by the construction of the house and the artifacts contained within.

Our next stop was at the sand dunes of Death Valley. This would be the hottest stop of the trip so far. The reading in the car indicated 123 degrees. So, pretty much a typical summer day in Las Vegas. It felt good to be in the heat, but Oliver wasn't having it. He wanted to get back into the air conditioned comfort of the and out of this furnace. We spent just enough time to look around, get a few pictures, and sand into our shoes. That sand would end up staying with us for a few days.

After the dunes, we stopped and had lunch at Stove Pipe wells. We had lunch in the car as it was too hot for Oliver, the North Carolina native. After lunch, we continued onward through the valley and stopped at Vista Point...a few times.

Our last charging stop before Mammoth Lakes was Lone Pine. According to our Tesla navigation system, the chargers were functioning intermittently. In Beatty, before entering Death Valley, we called Tesla customer service to assess situation. The agent indicated that it was because there was intermittent power in the area and not an equipment failure. So, we went for it rather than go around Death Valley. Fortunately for us, the chargers in Lone Pine were working great and we had no issues. While there, we visited the Cowboy museum and I was able to tell Oliver some things about his Grandpa Hines. It was a good stop.

We reached Mammoth Lakes in time to get a nice swim in the pool. After our swim, we ran into Oliver's cousin Cash and his mom Michelle. It was just a happy coincidence that they were vacationing here at the same time.

Traveling through the mountains produced some very interesting energy curves. While we used more power than usual going up the hills, we regenerated gobs of power going down the hills. In one downward trek, we travelled 13 miles but had more range at the end of that portion than the beginning. Perhaps we should have kept more accurate records so that Oliver could have data for a future math project.

Day 10 was a very memorable day!

Vegas Vacation - Day 9

Day 9 finds us in Las Vegas for the entire day. This is because we arrived from Arizona the night before and will not be moving on to California until the next day. Yes, we spent two nights at the Hines Ranch Resort and recuperate a bit from the rigors of our 7500 mile journey.

We got to hang out with Chris and Louis in the morning before they had to get off to work. Chris setup Oliver with a load of Quarters to search through for National Park and State themed quarters to finish out his selection. I don't believe we ever worked out what Oliver was supposed to trade for them. I am sure Uncle Chris won't forget and will hit him up for something at a later date.

We spent the rest of the morning hanging out at the ranch and checking up on the improvements that were in process. We also visited with Loki the goat. Because it gets pretty warm as the day progresses we went to visit the Airplane Shop (Airplanes are Oliver's other big hobby besides Teslas),  have some lunch, and see Star Trek Beyond.

In the evening, we played a big game of Monopoly - Hines Ranch Edition. This is a version of Monopoly that Oliver created for his Uncle Chris last year. Interestingly, the ranch has been changing so much that some of the properties don't exist in the same form any longer or don't exist any more.

Overall, we had a great time getting ourselves together for the rest of our journey. As usual, thanks to Uncle Chris and Aunt V for taking care us during our stay.

A Grand Adventure! Yabba Dabba Doo!- Day 8

When we arrived in the Grand Canyon Village on the evening of Day 7, we were greeted by a deer grazing in the motel parking lot. If the place is good enough for him, we guessed it would be good enough for us. For some reason we ended up getting the largest room I've ever had in a motel, this was more like a Las Vegas resort room. We ended up sleeping in a bit the next morning, but that isn't too much of an issue since we had a short jaunt to Vegas planned for later in the day.

We chose to drive into the Grand Canyon park instead of taking the shuttle. We ended up in what turned out to be the slowest lane. This ended up being the theme of the day. After we passed through the gates, we had a bit of trouble finding parking in the first two lots, but lucky in the third with an easy to remember spot right next to the visitors center.

We started by watching the video in the visitor's center. This was a great introduction for Oliver. her really enjoyed the video. Oliver was a bit nervous about being close to the canyon edge as we explored the rim. At Mather point, he hung out in the center of the outcrop for most of the time.

We ended up having lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge. Our wait for a table was short, but it took quite a while to have someone take our order and ultimately deliver the order. The food was pretty good however and it would keep us satisfied until our dinner stop on the way to Las Vegas.

On our way out of the Grand Canyon, we ended up getting stuck in a traffic jam caused by a couple who decided to stop in the middle of the two lane road, get out of their car, walk 400 feet to see a herd of deer, take some photos, an then casually walk back to their car. There were plenty of angry campers in that line of cars.

There was one important stop left on this portion of our journey, that was Bedrock. Yes folks, we had to stop in and visit Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty, Dino, Bam Bam, and Pebbles. This property is for sale should you be interested. In it's day, I'm sure this was a stop for many fans. But with the show losing ground to all the comic properties that have come since, it's mostly just a fun stop for us oldies the reminisce. Oliver's favorite part was some of the vehicles on the grounds and he made sure we got some pictures of him sitting in them.

The ending with our making our way to Vegas for a two night stop at the world famous Hines Ranch.

The Boneyards! - Day 7

As we arrive at the end of our first week of travels, we embark on a visit to the aircraft boneyards in Tucson, Arizona. Oliver has been looking forward to this visit for about two years now. This will be a very special visit for him. As you know from our day 6 post, we've picked up a new passenger. Mom will be with use through Reno, NV. We look forward to having her join our road Monopoly matches and our explorations along the way.


There are two boneyards that we are visiting, a military base and a commercial operation. To to see the military base facility, we need to take a tour bus bus form the Pima air museum so we'll get the bonus tour of the museum as part of the package. The commercial operation doesn't really do tours so we'll have to be satisfied with looking over the fence from the public roads.


We took the tram tour of the Pima Air Museum first. It was pretty warm out and the facility is quite large, 80 acres, so this was a good choice. Our tour guide was very knowledgable and thorough. This was a bonus for us as we were able to learn much about the aircraft that we wouldn't have learned otherwise. Oliver was most intrigued by the planes that had propellers that were placed in a row and spun in opposing directions. One of Oliver's favorite planes turned out to be the Bumblebee, one of the worlds smallest working aircraft that will carry a person.


After the tram tour, we took the bus tour of the military boneyard. There were over 4000 aircraft in various states. Some were in type 1000 storage. These were complete aircraft that could be made ready to fly with little effort. The other aircraft were there to supply parts as needed for other aircraft,  to be on display to prove to other nations that we've decommissioned them as part of a treaty, or to be crushed and have the metals recycled. I was most intrigued with the stealth fighter, it was very difficult to see from the bus but I am sure the technicians have a special way to view it. Oliver's favorite were the A10 aircraft of which he's an expert flyer in his flight simulator.

In the end we spent 5 hours at the Pima Air Museum and Boneyard tour. More than originally planned, but well worth it.

The commercial boneyard was on the other side of Tucson on our way to the Grand Canyon. While we couldn't go in, we were able to see a slew of 747s and others in various states of storage and disassembly. Oliver was a bit tired at this point but still interested in the various carriers and aircraft represented.

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