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Shakedown cruise


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#21 jimjxsn

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Posted 02 August 2007 - 04:11 AM

Very nice! Thanks for the pics :)
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#22 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 06 August 2007 - 09:45 PM

At this point in the trip, we began to realize we didn't want to stick to the original plan, because we really didn't have to, and because there was so much to see in such a relatively small radius. So, we made unscheduled stops in Lodi to visit Edna's aunt (spending the night) and Yosemite NP (also spending the night).

What can one say about Yosemite? Edna took over a thousand pictures, weeping and praying, all at the same time. I was struck by the powerful presence of God's Spirit-- as if this was His prototype for all great places of worship.

With so many pictures on file it has been difficult to choose just a few but I have finally selected the ones in this and the next post.

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#23 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 06 August 2007 - 09:55 PM

We even saw the proverbial bear, right in the very valley amongst the tubers and bicyclists--

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--which made us take very serious use of the bear box at our campsite. Fortunately we had brought along a cooler or else we could not have preserved our perishables that could not have remained in the Hawk's icebox.

We consider this a holy place and must return for an extended stay.
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#24 chnlisle

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Posted 06 August 2007 - 10:22 PM

Its a magnificent place. I never get tired of going there. Ansel Adams felt so too. Very nice pix Mark and Edna.
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#25 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 02:56 PM

(It is good to be able to share our experience with y'all; thanks so much!)

After the spiritually uplifting, unscheduled stop at Yosemite, we continued on to a more intellectually stimulating scheduled stop at King's Canyon || Sequoia NPs.

The age and size of these living things is all out of proportion with our common everyday experience. This is easy for one to see in "real life" but hard to illustrate with a photograph. Here for example, the subject tree appears "normal" because our minds adjust the scale of the image to fit with our experience...

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In this photograph however, our minds are confronted with a problem: The "sapling" is perhaps one hundred feet tall, disappearing off the top of the frame; the "trail" through the woods is a two-lane highway; and the "little toy sign" is a full sized speed limit sign, just like the ones in my neighborhood!

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Then there is the confounded age of the things. The oldest specimens have lived about three millennia. Assuming a normally distributed population statistic, the median age of the species is 1,500 years. That means that in a million years there are less than 700 generations of trees. Given the climate changes that are known to have happened elsewhere in that span of time, the tree reproduces far too slowly to have evolved with the changing climate. How then did it survive and how did it come to be?

We will perhaps never know the answers in this lifetime. All the more reason to treat these mysterious beauties with the utmost care and respect.
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#26 simimike

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 05:00 PM

The whole Sierra Neveda Range is one of the most spectacular areas in the world. I never tire of seeing them. Thanks for the great posts.

Cheers,

Mike
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#27 kcowyo

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Posted 09 August 2007 - 05:46 PM

Excellent stuff from Yosemite Mark.

I agree, Yosemite is like another world. Those who can look past the crowds and tour buses will find a place unique to all others.

Glad you're still enjoying your time on the road. Be safe -
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#28 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 11 August 2007 - 08:14 PM

(So, assuming you're not sick of us yet...)

From Sequoia NP we made our way South on the Generals Highway. Google maps shows this amusing squiggle...

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...portions of which we we able to photograph while we waited for one way construction traffic to clear...

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I have circled some the switchbacks that could be seen from the truck window. This is also where we saw the only other Four Wheel camper of the trip, too briefly to get the camera, but not too briefly to wave wildly out the window.

We made our way East to Las Vegas where we visited some members of our church family who had recently moved there, and where Edna won a little extra spending money at the blackjack table.

Then in the morning it was on to the Hoover Dam.
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#29 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 11 August 2007 - 08:36 PM

The Hoover Dam is typically Western in its gargantuan scale. Although no longer the largest dam on earth, it is still shocking in the sense that it was built essentially by hand with no steel reinforcing by guys such as this depiction...

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The crescent shape is compressed inward by Lake Meade, which forces the concrete tightly into the key-ways cut into the canyon wall.

The copper colored structure near the top of the dam is a three story observation tower added on to the structure recently. It has none of the grace and beauty of the original art deco architecture.

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The apparent little white mini-cars at the bottom of the dam are actually Dodge Grand Caravans.

It actually took longer to prepare the canyon bed for construction than to build the structure, partly because four huge tunnels like this one...

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...were blasted through the solid canyon walls.

We sometimes forget that the project was originally conceived to protect life and property downstream, and of course all that irrigation, not to generate electricity and provide an ecosystem for power boaters. I think it's fair to say we wouldn't enjoy California's bountiful produce without the artificial environment this dam helped create. It was all self financing through the sale of electricity, so we are told...

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Next stop, the Grand Canyon... or maybe not...
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#30 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 11 August 2007 - 11:44 PM

I'll admit it-- I like bashing Microsoft™. Every time one of their programs crash, I gleefully send them an error report. But they almost got me back on the way to the Grand Canyon. Take a look at this fastest recommended route from Streets & Trips 2007...

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Notice how those clever Microsofties have routed us through the Hualapai Indian Reservation? Cle-ver, Microsofties! Except that...

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...turning North on IR 19 (That's Indian Route one-niner) we read a sign that says, "Frazier Well, Thorton Lookout, Youth Camp, Supai Parking Area, ..." Nothing about Grand Canyon NP! And look at that road-- You think many tourists pass by that-a-way? So we put the selector in 'R' and backed on outa there.

It was nightfall by the time we finally got to Williams, where all the other pale-faces were having themselves a rodeo weekend. We decided for no particular reason to check out this Mexican Restaurant (well, one particular reason is that Edna's a Mexican girl) but not being too observant even yet, we failed to notice the name of the joint...

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Get that? The senorita is holding a menu that reads, "Pancho McGillicutty's Mexican Cantina!" With a picture of the Gloucester Fisherman?! In... Arizona??

:C&W music: "Uh got some... water-front property in Air, uh, zona, ..."

Well, shoot, even that senorita didn't even speak a lick o' Mexican herself! (I had Edna test 'er out!) The food was real good, though...

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I'll bet there was plenty of Espaniol going around back in the kitchen.

Well fed and lubricated, we camped for the night in a vacant lot next to one of the local motels, it being midnight and all, and prepared for the one hour drive into GCNP the next morning.
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