Week 174: Delhi, CA
May 29 - Jun. 04, 2022
Sunday, photo editing and trip planning took up most of the day. I try to make reservations no more than about 6 weeks out but like to plan about 12 weeks out. That way if we change our minds or learn about something fun to do I don't have to change too many reservations. The weather sure is nice, even though it has gotten into the mid 90's, our site is nicely shaded and shade works out here LOL.
Monday, we did nada.
Tuesday, we tried to visit a lavender farm today, Pageo Farms but they were closed. We still got some good photos of the blooming lavender. Next we visited the Hilmar Cheese Company. They had some displays about their process but there wasn't any real tour we could take to see the actual process. Oh well, we got a couple selections of their cheese and I found a cute little cheese board and tea towel as well. We enjoyed another visit to Javi's Mexcian Restaurant. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a little quilting outside and chatting with our neighbor next door while he was preparing his coach for their departure tomorrow.
Wednesday, we returned to Yosemite but this time drove the northern route, Hwy 120. It was different and a much longer drive. Once we exited the park on the east side we stopped in the the little town of Lee Vining. On the way up to an overlook or Mono Lake we passed a gas station with incredible gas prices. I'm very thankful we didn't need to fill up there! The overlook was pretty amazing and Mono Lake is very pretty. We drove down to the visitor center there and learned that High Plains Drifter was filled here. One of my favorite movies. The lake is fed by 5 streams and some fresh water springs but no streams leave the lake. It has some interesting caracteristics. One being that the minerals from the springs and the streams form calcium mounds that look like stalagmites. When the water evaporates they are revealed. We stopped at a picnic area overlooking the lake and enjoyed a snack while overlooking the lake. Then we headed back across the park to home. In the little town of Merced Falls we noticed these huge piles of rocks on both sides of the road. Turns out they are from the mining process of digging up the river to find gold. The Merced river was one of the richest places where gold was found in 1849. It was worth the long drive but I think Elard may be getting tired of the switchback driving LOL. We topping off the gas tank back in Delhi, CA for $5.69 rather than the $7.29. Not sure why it is $1.60 more on the east side of the park. Anyway, thank goodness for Gas Buddy. We ended the day with some Popeye's chicken and Seinfeld re-runs.
Thursday, you know its always something! When we got home yesterday Elard noticed that the air compressor, which keeps the leveling system and slide out seal systems working, was coming on way to often. This morning he found the issue, the rear slide out seal has a crack in it. We had the front one replaced as a precaution a couple of years ago. Guess we should have done both huh. We will have to find a place to get that one replaced. There are some places out here that can do it so we don't have to return to Nacogdoches at least.
We enjoyed a visit to the Forestiere Underground Gardens. An immigrant from Sicily bought 80 acres just north of Fresno to create a citrus farm. It is hot here in the summer so he decided to dig down to create his home. He did it all with a pick axe and 40 years later he had created a cool retreat from the harsh sun and an interesting place to visit. He created it all from the stone onsite and found objects. He passed away after catching pneumonia after hernia surgery. He had never married and fortunately his brother saved most of the property. His brother's children got it registered as a historic place and their children still own and operate it. They are having a '20s costume ball in the ballroom later this month. We made a grocery run on the way home and enjoyed the rest of the day at home.
Friday, Elard spent most of the morning taking care of getting our repair scheduled. Luck is with us, Foretravel had the part needed in stock and will ship it to us at our next campground. Elard found a repair shop familiar with Foretravel in Eugene Oregon and they had an opening in their schedule July 5th, the same time we were planning to enter Oregon. After that was settled, I made a couple of adjustments to our schedule and we headed out for lunch. We went up to Modesto to a Triple D restaurant Bauer's 66 Downtown. I tried the lamb burger (called the lamburgini LOL) and enjoyed it very much. Their fries were good too, a little sweet and a little spicy. There was a young man at the table next to us who was from Bastrop, LA! Small world. We did some shopping, and stopped at the Dust Bowl Brewery on the way home. The beer was just okay. I ordered a tasting flight and they have hard seltzer that reminded me of a Sonic strawberry limeade. I spent the rest of the afternoon outside stitching on the travel quilt.
Saturday, we just chilled out today, doing laundry, stitching, and photo editing.
Adventure On Y'all!
