Blogs from Visalia, California, United States, North America

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 dawned another blue sky day and had me geared up for the drive from Cal Expo RV Park in Sacramento CA to the Country Manor Mobile Home Community in Visalia CA. The drive south on CA 99 is generally flat with an abundance of agricultural endeavors dotting the landscape. CA 99 is about as close to being an interstate highway as one can get without having the “I” in front of the route designation. By the time I arrived, the office was closed (shortened hours during the off season is a common encounter), but the manager saw me pull in, led me to my assigned site and told me we could settle the business in the morning. As I had noted in a previous blog, my southbound itinerary for the 2014 Chapter ... read more

4th July, 2009. Visalia, California. 4th July and it's "American Independence Day", this morning we headed out to Exceter, a small town 12 miles from here to welcome in the day. Exeter has a Pancake Breakfast, Market Day, Fun Run and tonight a Fireworks display, all to celebrate the day. Nice country town feeling, everyone friendly and a great breakfast - two pancakes, two sausages and coffee all for $5, a fund raiser for a local church group, the young ones served us at the table and were extremely pleasant. The Americans don't drink a lot of hot tea and when you ask for it they look at you as if you had just come from another planet, even in the Supermarkets you have to search for Tea bags, coffee is another story, you can take ... read more

1st July, 2009. Visalia, California. Well, big effort this morning, we drove 40 miles down the road to Visalia, a town of about 120,000 and center of a big fruit growing and farming area. Californian Raisins are grown and processed nearby. More importantly to us it is close to Sequoia, and Kings national parks, Sequoia is the home of the giant Sequoia Trees which we plan to visit tomorrow. Today we booked into the local KOA (Kampgrounds of America), we have been booked in here for a while, this weekend is American Independence day (4th July) and most campgrounds get booked out, Friday is an official holiday so long weekend. Lots of Independence Day red/white and blue for sale in the shops and also now being decorated on homes, RV's and businesses. The people are pretty ... read more

We left Silver Spur this morning and intended to get to Fresno in about three hours~~instead it took five and a half! Have I mentioned that there are a lot of people in California, and they all drive? Drive fast! We drove down highway 99, where they had the 100 car pileup last week. We weren’t sure exactly where it happened, but we came to one stretch, several miles long, that had a lot more trash on it than normal, and later we found out that’s where it occurred. It should have been obvious to us, because there was fabric, wood, tires, paper…just everything lining the fences. It made us feel bad that we’d joked about the Fine for Littering $1000 sign in the midst of the trash. We drove past miles and miles and miles ... read more

Only three days left before we leave for our vacation/wedding/honeymoon. It is difficult trying to get everything done, as I still have school and my 2nd job teaching, and both of us are working. Luckily, we do not have a reception to worry about right now, in 2 weeks it will all be about the reception and planning our next vacation. Who knows where and when, we will have to wait to see if we want tropical or what, depends how much we like Belize and Guatemala. So much to do so little time. Can't wait for Friday and on our way, so I can be done with all of this stress. ... read more