Lake Tahoe

We had heard so much about Lake Tahoe over the years from friends and the ski community that we were excited to see it for ourselves. Tahoe does not disappoint when it comes to the raw natural beauty of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, our stay here fell during the Memorial Day holiday, so we had what felt like the majority of the California population also visiting the area. We started with checking out the views from Emerald Bay at the south end of the lake. We hiked down to Vikingsholm, which is a great vacation home built in 1929 by a very rich lady who also liked the views from Emerald Bay, took a tour of it and hiked around the area at the water level. We then took a nice bike ride down to a beach area on the east side of the lake and drove the full circuit around the lake. We set aside a day for Danelle to be able to have a full afternoon on the beach soaking up the alpine sun on Pope Beach. We had the beach nearly to ourselves and set up the BSU pavilion to get our weekly dose of vitamin D. We are already looking forward to coming back to the area to do more hiking, biking, boating and skiing.

Carson Valley Inn

Small and tight park that is associated with a casino that sits right next to the park. The sites are asphalt and the roads very small. Each site has a small grass area with a picnic table. The park offers an OK bathroom and shower facility along with decent wifi and access to the casino hotel for the small workout room. The location is great to see Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area. Minden is a very nice place and the RV park is close to shopping, city parks and easy access to the major roads to get to the lake or to Carson City and Reno. We would have no problem staying here when we visit the area again. We rate this park a 3/5.

Sequoia National Park

My pictures from Sequoia.

Yosemite Nation Park

As we make our way north through California, one of our expected highlights was our stop at Yosemite National Park. The sights and activities did not leave us disappointed. The number of people and the traffic, however, were the downside to visiting this park at the beginning of the high tourist season. We started off our stay in Yosemite by doing our biggest single hike of the week to the top of Yosemite Falls. This hike has 3200 feet of elevation change over ~4 miles with two long switchback sections. Doing these hikes is always a good reminder that I need to spend more time at the gym. The views from the top of the Yosemite Valley, the rock formation highlights of the valley like half dome, el capitan and sentinel dome were amazing. Our recovery day consisted of several of the smaller hikes and sightseeing around the valley. We walked to lower Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil falls before driving out to Glacier Point to see the valley from the opposite side. The falls are all amazing right now due to the amount of snow this area received over the winter. Our final day in the park was spent doing a couple of the mid range hikes that I had on my list. We hiked through some significant snow to get to the top of Sentinel Dome and then drenched ourselves going to the top of Vernal Falls along what they call the Mist Trail. I imagine it being a nice mist during the summer and fall, but it is a shower this spring. Our rain jackets were put to good use. After doing some errands around the town of Ahwahnee, we are ready to move on to Lake Tahoe.

Sierra Meadows RV Park

For our time in the Yosemite National Park area, we stayed at the Sierra Meadows RV Park. The park is on the small side with ~40 RV sites and 20 cabin sites. The RV sites are asphalt with a grass living area between the sites. Most of the sites have a picnic table. The park has a small laundry room, bathrooms and showers in one building at the back edge of the park. From this park it is a 30 minute drive to the Yosemite NP south entrance. The Yosemite valley area is another 30-45 minutes further, when there is little to no traffic. The wifi was reliable and decent speed. The location has a mountain feel, which we loved. The road in is winding, but we had no problems with our 43' rig on it. Just go slow and watch closely for oncoming traffic through the hairpin turns. We rate this park a 3/5.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

After a somewhat stressful time in Phoenix due to the coach having to be repaired, we set off for Lemon Cove so we could visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I knew there would be gigantic trees but beyond that, I wasn't sure.  Boy, when they call the trees "giants", that isn't even an appropriate word!  These trees are massive, ginormous, gargantuan and just plain freakin' HUGE!!  ;)  The Sequoia side of the park is full of the famous trees and wonderful waterfalls and hiking trails.  It is beautiful and breathtaking and really makes your mind work.  Some of these trees are over 3,000 years old!! Just think about that for a few minutes.  They have survived multiple fires and other setbacks that have tried to destroy them.  This park and these trees are where authors of sci-fi and fantasy books must go to gain inspiration.
Kings Canyon is the park that shares a border with Sequoia but the terrain is very different.  It is mostly hiking trails and WATER.  Oh, the water!!  Just absolutely wondrous!  We took the better part of a day and just drove all over the park and stopped off at various sites where we were rewarded with the views.  We would love to come back to this park and hike some of the trails.  Since we lost 5 days due to our coach being repaired, we had an abbreviated time here.  We still managed to do a few hikes.  They were short compared to our standard 6-8 mile hikes but we did see some things that a lot of people don't get to see.  We saw mule deer, a snake (bleh!), and a Yellow Bellied Marmot! :)  We will for sure be back someday!

The kid graduated and our home was broken

After spending time in Palm Too Much Wind (Springs), we drove further south to Newport, CA for a much appreciated break.  My favorite place in the world is on the beach.  A week on the beach = Heaven!!  We just relaxed, went to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, went for a bike ride and had a great time.
Then, it was time to get back to the Phoenix area for the kid's graduation (Magna Cum Laude) from Arizona State!  Yay kid!!!  :)  The time with her was irreplaceable and so memorable!  We had one thing scar our time there though.  As we were driving to AZ the check engine light on the rig came on.  Since we were already taking it in to Camping World we asked them to check the source of the light.  They couldn't so we took it to Cummins Diesel.  We were hoping for something simple but alas, like everything else with the Gilliams, it was anything but.  When the rig was being built, the pipes used for air intake were dirty.  That debris was feeding into the fan that cools the turbo on the engine and it damaged the fan.  Who was going to pay to fix it? Cummins said not them, Winnebago said not them but luckily Freightliner admitted it was them and said they would pay for it.  Cummins said they could get it done in 2 days if Freightliner got them the part (only one of these parts in the entire country).  This was on a Wednesday and we were supposed to get the coach on Friday.  Friday comes around and Freightliner didn't order the part in time!!  Luckily Gary called them and told them of our "great disappointment" in this news and they agreed to pay for our lodging until the rig was fixed.  WHEW!  Cummins ended up fixing it by Monday of the following week.  They were excellent!  I can't say enough about them!  They kept the coach plugged in so our food wouldn't spoil, they kept us completely updated during the entire process and they even went to Freightliner and picked up the part instead of waiting for the part to be delivered to them.  We got on the road by 7 that night and drove for a few hours just to get a jump start on the long drive we were going to have to do the next day.  And it was our very first time we spent the night at a truck stop!  It actually was kind of fun and it was good to know that we can easily do it in the future when we need to.  :)