Welcome to the AppalachianTrailCafe.net!
Take a moment and register and then join the conversation

Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      As strains of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue washed over my mind in musical waves, I pondered in amazement how I got to this point. Here we were, aeroblazing as it were on a United Airlines jet over the Gulf of Mexico and headed to San Francisco. It was early Friday morning of a long Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. A week before, I had arrived home from work . Mrs. Grayblazer announced we were going to Sequoia National Park the next weekend. Really? My wife has always had great ideas and husband who can help pull them off. One hour later, we had booked the 2-way flight from Tampa to San Francisco. Amazingly, it left Tampa early Friday and got into San Fran before 2 in the afternoon. I figured we'd have some time to see SF before we took off in our rental car for Fresno and the mountains beyond.


      Aeroblazing

      Sierra Nevadas


      San Francisco




      More to come

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      Oh well. Then you have seen the most massive trees on the planet, but you missed a 30 mile forest of nothing but the tallest trees on the planet. Sequoia are incredible. Some of the branches are bigger than most of our trees on the east coast. California is breath taking. Can't wait to hear the rest of your adventure.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      Well, here we are in SF with no flowers in our hair, but definitely CA dreaming. You prolly remember that I said we would have time to sightsee in SF. Well. going to Payless Car Rental killed that. After spending a coupla hours getting to and renting the car (next time definitely Avis or Hertz-I learrned that lesson) it was getting dark by the time we got to Fisherman's Wharf. We did some shopping, saw Alcatraz from the pier, had a salmon dinner and went to the historical museum of coin operated machines. I thought the Thimble Theatre would look good in the cafe next to the "tater machine. Alas, it was not for sale. Since we had been up since 1 AM we decided to head to our reserved hotel in Santa Nella, a coupla hours south. We headed across the beautiful psychedelic Bay Bridge (those clever Californians) and down the freeway. We were treated to a nearly full moon rising over Oakland as we crossed the bay.

      Thimble Theatre

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      grayblazer wrote:

      Bay Bridge and Pier 26
      When I try to post a pic, I get the fatal error message.


      Post one, then go back and edit it and post the other in the edited post. That worked for me.

      Also, I found if I did it from my harddrive (not SD card or flashdrive), I would have more success.
      Non hikers are about a psi shy of a legal ball.

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      grayblazer wrote:

      Having trouble posting big posts with more than three pics. I will continue tonight or tomorrow. I've got some breathtaking pics of the King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I'm trying to get the report in order, BirdBrain style. Peace out.
      I was havin trouble too. That's a magical place...been there, glad your doin well GB, look forward to the pics.cheers

      My Pop lived there for years and when my wife and I and sisters would visit we'd get a coffee and head up to "Twin Peaks" it affords a really nice view of the city...day or night!


    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      grayblazer wrote:

      Now you tell me. We were prolly close to Twin Peaks.
      You were, I think it's the highest point in the City...it has a ton of Antennas on top...not to worry though, that place is so hilly I'm sure you saw views everywhere you drove.

      ..."San Francisco, not a bad seat in the house" :)

      well, you know what I mean :lol:

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      GB, if your South of the city, there's another place my pop and I would fly R/C sail planes, it's called Coyote Hills, folks hang glide there as well. it's in Coyote Hills park...watch out for Rattlers though! they're there. Wont have views of the city...just a place to hike and gain some elevation....Superdeedupiter windy too.

      http://www.ebparks.org/parks/coyote_hills

      http://www.ebparks.org/Assets/files/parks/coyote_hills/Coyote+Hills+map.pdf

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      grayblazer wrote:

      Well. going to Payless Car Rental killed that. After spending a coupla hours getting to and renting the car (next time definitely Avis or Hertz-I learrned that lesson) it was getting dark by the time we got to Fisherman's Wharf.


      We had excellent customer service from Hertz on January 2. We were staying in downtown LA and only needed the car for that day. My husband walked a short distance from our hotel to the Hertz location in downtown LA and picked up the reserved vehicle within about 10 minutes. When we turned in the car at LAX it took 10 seconds i.e. the time it took to exit the car and the attendant to hand us the receipt that his handheld device spit out. Then we only had to walk about 10 yards to catch the shuttle. Definitely impressed with Hertz.

    • Re:Re: Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      CrazyLarry wrote:

      As I sit here under that photo you took one wintry day up on Roan Mtn I ponder on how much of a jet setter you and the Mrs are

      Sent from my U670C using Tapatalk 2

      Crazy Larry! How the Hay are you! Welcome to the cafe.

      The question is.... with the Mrs's broke neck surgery and knee replacement and my brain tumor, how much of some hikers are we?

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      OK, I think I know what I was doing wrong with uploading pics. I used 2 cameras and one is on a much finer setting. I need to try to reduce the size of the finer pics. I will try to tell the story with some of the pics from the one camera which is too bad cuz I have some of the best mountain sunset shots on the primo camera. I will figure it out.

      Anyways ... now for the rest of the story (when I get on break that is).

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      Day #2-Saturday Jan 18, 2016

      We woke up @ 6 AM to a clear crisp morning. I opened the door and there was that old devil moon again hovering above the CA hills. The Anderson's Best Western Inn in Santa Nella is about halfway between SF and Sequoia National Park. It is 4 star (has no pimps and prostitutes hanging out in the parking lots). The rooms are spacious, clean, comfortable and cozy. They also serve a delicious free full breakfast in the lobby. I highly recommend this hotel if you need a place to stay right off the Freeway. We left there @ 7:30 AM and headed down the road towards Fresno crossing the Central Valley. It was hazy so we could not see the Sierra Nevadas, but I could feel their presence. The drive across the valley was long. I enjoyed seeing the old farm houses and trying to guess what was growing in the fields. I kept thinking about the Grapes of Wrath and the Milk of Human Kindness. Ah, thank you Rose of Sharon. Anyways, about lunchtime we were heading up into the Sierra Nevada`s. I love driving in the mountains! It is my favorite thing to do right behind backpacking in the mountains. We paid our fee and we were in the parks (King's Canyon and Sequoia National Park). We drove right away to the Grant Grove and got out to see the General Grant. What a Daniel Boob I am. We went on what looked like the trail to me and after a mile we were at a horse corral. I knew where we were and we were not at the General Grant, but we did have a good hike and managed to reconnoiter back to the General Grant all the time seeing sights the regular tourists don't see because they stay on the trail. Doing it wrong can be a good thing..

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      The General Grant is the 3rd largest tree in the world which makes it the 3rd largest living thing in the world.

      The General Sherman is the largest tree/living thing in the world.

      BB, we did not go down the Ave of the Giants. Maybe next time.

      BTW ther are 100s of miles to hike and backpack around here including the Pacific Crest Trail and the John Muir Trail.

    • Mr and Mrs Grayblazer's Excellent Adventure

      Still Day 2-Saturday Jan 18, 2016

      After sitting and contemplating and marveling at the wonders of Grant Grove we stopped at the Grant Grove gift shop for some souvenirs for the folks back home. They had all kinds of nice gifts including Indian Pottery, posters and grow your own Sequoia kits. I was a little afraid to get one of those. In 100 years it would get huge. We started towards our reserved room at the Wuksachi Lodge at 7000' in Sequoia National Park. There was a lot of snow on the ground. I was delighted once again to be driving on the twisty mountain road. We took our time and tried to soak in the mountain views.