Big Pine to Three Rivers, California

Also, these are going to get posted out of order, so bear with me. It may be several days between internet connections, and even more days between times that I have enough energy to write. Days like today when I do have time, it’s easier to write about today than to go back a week and recollect. Anyhow, I am trying to edit a few photos, too, so check them out.

We got up fairly late this morning, about 07:00, packed up, and had breakfast at an old diner in Big Pine. Two pancakes, sausage patty (should have been two patties), and an egg, over medium, with some sourdough toast.

It was ok, but not mind blowing. Then we hit the road down 395 for several hours before turning right and heading up into the mountains. I had tried to get over these roads six years ago, but they were all blocked by forest fires.

It was interesting to see the territory and the effects of the fires (and nice to have saved several hours by not driving practically to L.A. like last time).

I did some calculatin’ this morning, and we seem to be averaging 20mpg in our Hyundai Santa Fe. We’ve had to pay $2.65/gal today, which I think is the most expensive – it was $1.98 back in the mid-west. And the score is now Lindalee: 8, Mark: 13. Woot.

Every once in a while I check out Lindalee’s blog to see her take on things, and oh the funny stuff I read there. For example:

We drove a lot through the mountains and I made Mark drive.

…that’s what she thinks. I knew what the roads would be like, so I enthusiastically volunteered to drive. :-) Actually, I’m amazingly comfortable with her driving, but I knew that she doesn’t like the mountains – or snow – much, and that she’d have a lot of talking on her cell phone for some personal business, so it made sense to do all the driving today.

Made it to Woodlake where we had a great burrito dinner, only marred by the lack of a tasty Mexican beer. Why waste good food on Pepsi? The salsas were awesome, especially the green stuff that lit my brain on fire for a bit. Lindalee finally concluded the negotiation phase of selling her house, so we spent some time getting to an Office Max to print, then later a Staples to fax the contract of sale back to her realtor, and it was dark well before we would have entered Sequoia National Park.

I wasn’t real keen on setting up camp in the cold dark, potentially with snow, and definitely with bears, and probably with a… concerned Lindalee, so I proposed stopping just outside the park here in lovely Three Rivers.

I keep wanting to call it Three Pines, since today we’ve been in Big Pine and Lone Pine, and passed by Seven Pines and Pine Flat. My favorite town today, though: “Dunmovin”… say it out loud and you’ll get it. And that’s what I am for now, after 350 miles driving on mountain roads between 300ft and 5300ft, and trying to drive docilely enough that Lindalee doesn’t grab the OSH (Oh Shit Handle) at every curve.