Day 5 - Ain't no mountain high enough

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Day 5 - Barstow to Lake Isabella, Distance Travelled 133 miles.

Well we thought we were off to an early start with the alarm set for 8-30 this morning but upon opening the door we found that we were just about the only ones left in a campsite that had been packed with 40+ RV's the previous night! I just put it down to Shas's snoring! Still at least it meant the showers and loos were quiet!

Yes we use the site facilities rather than the RV where we can, for 2 reasons: 1) there is much more room in a big camp shower (which have been spotless so far) than in the RV and 2) if you use the camp facilities, then that's fewer times you have to go through the fun and games of connecting and pumping the sewage tank out!

These people do take this RV'ing lark very seriously and there is a lot of trailer envy around the place as seemingly looking innocent caravans turn up and at the press of a button, hydraulic levelled feet come down and the trailer morphs into a funky tower block structure with slide out sides, satellite dishes and other vehicle parts all adding to the look. It makes our piddly 30 foot trailer look like a toy! I'm sure the bloke that wrote Transformers must of had an RV!

Anyway, no Bellagio breakfast this morning, instead it was a bowl of frosties and instant coffee, then detach electricity, water etc and we were off. First stop the petrol station as we had appeared to have burnt yesterday's 100 dollars worth already ( getting about 25 miles to the gallon). No mistakes today, prepaid 140 dollars worth and it all went in so we hit the road.

As today's route was only about 133 miles, we left the comfort of the big interstate very quickly and set off on some single track, dead straight roads across the Mojave desert. Again the scenery was spectacular just for the fact there was really nothing to see....miles and miles of scrub and sand as far as the eye could see. We also ran alongside a few train tracks and one train probably more than a mile long with huge columns of carriages carrying anything from whole lorries to shipping containers stretched behind massive workhorse engines....even the sound the horns made was just like in the films... Being a bloke i just wanted to jump the RV over one of the low cars (Dukes if Hazzard style) as it moved along...being a girl Shas just thought I was silly!

Eventually the desert quickly gave way to hills as we climbed towards the Sequoia National Park...Shas in charge of the maps kept us on the right roads (with a little help from printed MapQuest directions) as bizarrely enough, Cruise America don't have Sat Navs fitted in their RV's and do not offer it as an optional extra!!!! It's too expensive to use the IPhone on roaming charges and I can't find anywhere to get a US Sim....luckily we were well prepared with maps and turn by turn directions from park to park.

Again the remoteness of these 'back roads' means no towns or villages on the way and certainly no service stations or rest stops so it's great to be able to just pullover on the side of the road, use you own loo, have a drink from the fridge, take a few pictures and then set off again...we did this a couple of times to break the journey up.

Scenery today was spectacular and the last part of the journey was about a 10 mile climb to a 6000 feet peak and then a 9 mile journey back down again into the park area. The journey up wasn't so bad with the hills littered with huge cactus trees, but as soon as you hit the top the vegetation changes to more pine like trees as you enter the Sequoia park outskirts but then that was all I saw as it was a bit hairy on the way back down the steep roads...bit similar to taking a 30 foot RV down the steep side of Box Hill, but lasts for 9 miles with lots of impatient truck and car drivers desperate to overtake you all the way down.

Still we made it to the KOA Lake Isabella which usually is probably right on the edge of the lake but today after a long summer of drought, the lake is miles away and not enough water apparently to boat or whitewater raft....so who knows what we'll do tomorrow but I think it might feature 100 giants!

We spent a lazy afternoon by the pool, no barby tonight as we have pasta to use up...mmmm, still seems a long time since those gorgeous steaks in Vegas. just some sightseeing tomorrow as we stay here for 2 nights before heading into killer mouse territory at Yosemite.

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