Sorry for the delay in blog posts but we've been having too much fun.I'll keep this brief but post a few pics and a link to a nice drive out of Kings Canyon (the highlight of the driving for the trip so far).
We relaxed three days in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks, then went to Yosemite for one night -- very crowded but worth the visit, see the pic of the Vantom with Bridalveil Falls in the background.
The drive out of Yosemite was very nice. We climbed out of the valley and over Tioga Pass (over 9900') with no problems at all, on the climbs the highest the water temperature rose was to 92C, and of course at the air temperatures this part of the country my vapor lock issues aren't present. The only sketchy time was as we were about to leave Yosemite right at the top of the pass. More people were entering the park than leaving, so they were generally using both lanes for entry into the park and just holding up all the exiting traffic. They even had folks staged there to survey those exiting the park: "What is your zip code? What is your final destination? Do you stop at small towns for more than fuel? ETC." As I watched the water temperature climb from 90 to 91 to 94 to 96 I asked how long the delay would be, because soon I'd have to shut down the car. They said just five more minutes, and when we left the water temperature was 99C, and two miles later as we were gliding down the mountain it was down to 78C.
We took a detour south to visit Devils Postpile National Monument. This reminded us of a miniature Devils Tower, but on this you could (and were allowed) to hike onto the top of the columns and see how they fit together. In the picture here, all the rocks are actually broken off columns. Pretty neat!
We finally set off on our final leg of the journey to Lake Tahoe, finally arriving around 10pm or so. The next afternoon we registered for the meet. A fellow member had driven his Phantom-II from Alberta, Canada well over 1,000 miles (our final mileage was 3,898). We both debated whether we should just leave the bugs who had made their final resting place on our fenders and radiators, but in the end I was the one who broke and chose to wash the car off from all the dust and bugs from the previous almost 4,000 miles. Before doing that though, we took some pics of the cars pre-wash:
This trip has been way too cool, congrats!
ReplyDeleteWhat an accomplishment! A definite trip to remember for you and your family (and Dad). Keep on having fun!!!
ReplyDeleteHell Matt,
ReplyDeleteI love your photo essay/blog. Your lines, "The drive out of Yosemite was very nice. We climbed out of the valley and over Tioga Pass (over 9900') with no problems at all..." reminded me of time in 19899, when we rented a car at the airport in Izmir, Turkey, and drove to Ephesus. A few miles outside Ephesus, is a mountain where, according to tradition, Virgin Mary's last home is located. (St. John had brought her there some years earlier.) Our rental car overheated by the climb. But filling up radiator with sacred water from a nearby spring revived the car, and we were able to continue.