Breakfast wasn't included at the John Wayne hotel, so we went over the road to a local cafe. Claire had the most ridiculous breakfast ever - pancakes with chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, maple syrup and bacon. Weird, but she seemed to enjoy it. A small boy on the table next to us had the same, which involved quite an amusing syrup spillage, and I imagine, the small boy's shorts being thrown in the bin.
We had quite a long drive today, because there was a huge mountain range in the way. It was one the nicest drives we've had since leaving the coast. Once we made it to the bottom of the mountain range, we started heading back up the other side of it, into the Sequoia National Forest. There didn't seem to be many sequoia trees around, but there were loads of other trees, and hills covered in lush green grass, which we haven't seen for a while. We got the driving the wrong way round, because there were lots of corners. I like driving on bendy roads and Claire doesn't, and I get car sick when Claire's driving me along bendy roads.
Anyway, we made it through the forest without any breakfast being wasted.
It was very hot today. We had the roof down for a while, but had to put it back up and turn the air conditioning on as we were overheating. The temperature gauge on the car said it was 101 F outside, which we were starting to doubt until we got out of the car as a gas station, and immediately felt like we were melting.
American gas stations are great. Not like the petrol stations in the UK where everything is overpriced, the toilets are like portaloos on the last day of Glastonbury, and you want to spend as little time as possible there. The ones here are more like motorway service stations but without the overpriced shops.
Our favourite thing about them is the drinks. You can get a giant soft drink (think UK large then double it) in an insulated polystyrene bucket with loads of ice so it stays cool for hours. There is also good coffee, available in many sizes, including something that really does look like a bucket. But the best thing is the price of these monster drinks. Whereas at home, you'd expect to pay through the nose for being thirsty at a petrol station, here, these giant drinks are cheaper than ever. Especially today.
We took our huge cup of diet coke to the counter to pay. The cashier was very friendly, and we soon learnt, from Syria. He spent a few moments finding out where we were from, before saying "England huh, your president is Cameron, yes?" We replied in such a way as to confirm that was correct, but also that we had nothing to do with his rise to fame.
Our cashier then asked us if we liked Mr Cameron. We said no, which turned out to be the right answer. He replied "that's good. I will only charge you a dollar". I asked him how much drinks were for people who liked David Cameron, and he said 5 dollars or more!
So, at last, the Conservative government has inadvertently saved me some money instead of taking it off me.
We drove into Sequoia national park through a town called Lemon Cove, which was full of orange trees. The temperature at the entrance to the park was about 95 degrees. We drove up a very bendy road (me driving this time), through forests of Giant Sequoias, up to the visitor centre at about 6,000 feet, where the temperature was a far more comfortable 65 degrees. Well, I thought it was, Claire was complaining she was cold. The roads were clear but at 6,000 feet there was still a lot of snow left.
We arrived at the visitors centre at 4.32pm, only to find that it closed at 4.30. So we made our way all the way back down to 95 degrees, and managed to find a motel for the night which has bear and elk pictures on the bathroom wallpaper and the duvet cover.
We've only taken one photo today apart from the breakfast one. Well, actually, we've taken about 20, but they were all different versions of the same view.
Tomorrow there will be more photos. We're not entirely sure what we're going to do, but I think there will be enormous trees and waterfalls involved. And maybe bears.
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Location:Sequoia National Forest and Park
Hooray for Cameron for once!
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