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Published: October 2nd 2012
Saturday morning and it was time to leave Vegas. I was renting another car for a couple of days, and fortunately it was really easy to get to the Hertz office to pick up the car – it was inside Caesar’s Palace. Although I’d booked another mid-size car, I scored an upgrade to a Nissan Maxima. It was pretty nice. A sticker on the window called it a four-door sports car, but I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. It did go pretty well though, and after working out how to use the keyless ignition I was away.
But I wasn’t quite ready to leave Las Vegas yet. My first destination was well off the strip, and something that I’d been keen to try while in the USA. I went to a gun range. The place I went to is called “The Gun Store” and besides being a gun shop, they also have facilities for tourists like me to come and shoot guns they may not be able to shoot back home. I chose a package where I got to choose three guns and I went for:
· M1A rifle – a modern and civilian
version of the M1 Garand that American soldiers used in WW2
· AK47 – a worldwide favourite, particularly amongst poorer soldiers and guerrilla fighters
· M249 SAW – a light machine gun, variations of which are used in various armies today.
After forking over the cash, I was given safety glasses and ear protectors and taken into the range by my designated range instructor. Understandably, they are very safety conscious which put me at ease, and so did my instructor who has family in Australia and chatted with me the whole way through. Still, I was very nervous because I had never fired a gun before. The first shot surprised me, even though I was expecting a kick. Surprisingly, the machine gun probably had the least violent kick because it has some shock absorbing built in. I think I acquitted myself well, and the targets show a respectable aim – although to be fair, it was only about 20 metres or something. I’m glad to have given it a try but to be honest, I’ll be quite content if I never fire another gun again.
With that done, it was time to
leave Las Vegas. I had quite a long drive to Visalia in California. The drive was through the desert and over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The scenery was nice, if a little boring, particularly through the desert. I’m glad this car has cruise control. The descent on the California side was a really nice drive though, with sweeping bends. However, I was really surprised at the smog! You read about these things, but I kind of thought that may be things were better these days. May be they are, but it was still bloody terrible. As an example, when I was driving, even though it was a clear day, I could look straight at the sun through my sunglasses – they combined with the smog to make it fine to look at. Anyway, I got to Visalia at about 7:30, checked into my hotel, had dinner and then went to bed.
My reason for staying at Visalia was its proximity to Sequoia National Park, so I headed there the next morning (Sunday). The big attract in the park is, surprisingly, the sequoia trees. The sequoia is not the tallest variety of tree in the world (4
th tallest,
apparently), nor the widest, but the combination of the two makes it the largest. Specifically, the tree called the General Sherman Tree, which is 275 feet tall and over 100ft in circumference, is the largest tree in the world with an estimated mass of over 2,000 tonnes!
The drive to the park was short, but once inside it took about an hour to reach the Sherman tree. Partly this was due to roadworks where part of the road is single lane, but it was also because it’s a very windy road with a 25mph speed limit. That was no trouble though, because the scenery was very nice. Not all of the park has sequoia trees though, and I didn’t see any until I reached the Giant Forest. From there it was a short drive to the carpark for the Sherman tree. Once there, however, it was about a 1 mile walk with over 200ft decrease in altitude. Walking down there was fairly easy, but there were lots of signs telling you to take it easy because the air is noticeably thinner (this part of the park is at 7,000ft above sea level) – this is a bigger
issue for the walk back, of course, where you have to walk up 200ft in just over a mile.
I decided not to bother with bringing any other camera lenses because the trees are so big, but I ended up regretting it. Not because of the trees, which are bloody huge and often difficult to fit in the camera frame. But because on the way back up, a she-bear and her two cubs had decided to check out the Sherman tree for themselves. I didn’t want to get close, obviously, but I would have loved to have had my bigger zoom. Oh well, it was still pretty awesome seeing them. Once they were too far away I headed back up to the car and decided to head out. I still had about 4 hours driving ahead of me.
I was staying at a hotel near the Los Angeles airport, so I had to brave the big city. It was a Sunday, so at least it wasn’t end-of-work peak hour. However, it was Carmaggedon II. Essentially, one of the major freeways in Los Angeles was closed for the entire weekend and they were expecting traffic
to be a nightmare. When Carmaggedon I happened a while back, the chaos didn’t eventuate because everyone stayed home. But they weren’t sure what would happen this time. I am not really sure, because I have nothing to compare it with, but the drive was pretty hectic. There were lots of cars, and there were patches where we slowed to a crawl, but by and large the traffic moved pretty well. Anyway, I got the hotel at about 8pm and had an early night.
This morning I was up before dawn and dropped off the rental car at the airport. Then it was a fairly uneventful flight to Honolulu. I flew with Hawaiian Airlines, and overall I was pretty happy. The seats have plenty of room and the only downsides really came down to the fact I was at the back of the plane. The flight was about 5 ½ hours, and we arrived just before midday local time.
My travel agent had organised transfers to and from the airport while I’m in Hawaii, and I was greeted at the airport by a lady that gave me a lei. The drive to the hotel
A little fella
In Sequoia National Parktook a while though, so I began to think that my hope of visiting Pearl Harbour in the afternoon may not happen. When I asked at the hotel, this was confirmed. So I had a bit of a look around before relaxing in the hotel for the afternoon and evening.
I have to be up early again tomorrow for a flight to Kona, on the Big Island. I have checked in online, and an upgrade to Business Class was only $50, so I took it. The flight is only 40 minutes or something, but why not? And tomorrow afternoon I have a twilight visit to the top of Mauna Kea.
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Jenny
non-member comment
Love the National Park and seeing the bear and cubs - wow! As for Hawaii I'm really jealous I would LOVE to go there one day! Enjoy you're on the downhill run now :(