The Sequoia Sequestration - Day 1

Work has been a new flavor of insane the last month or two, which to some extent explains the lack of blog entries of late. I've been pretty burnt-out so when we had a relatively quiet period last week I took advantage of it to get the heck out of Dodge and burn a little vacation time. Stacy is a beach girl at heart, but she graciously humored my pleas to get away from it all and agreed to my vacation ideal, a trip to the mountains. Mind you, we didn't limit ourselves to the San Gabriels or the San Bernardinos, though they do afford a reasonable get-away if you aren't particularly picky. We set our sights on the big-time: The Sierra Nevadas! More specifically, the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks! I went online and booked a campsite for 4 days and 3 nights - our longest camping effort heretofor attempted. I secured a spot at the Princess Campground, not exactly the most brawny and rugged of campground names, but it was recommended by a friend at work who assured me that the camp ground shouldn’t be judged by its less than manly name.

N conducting pre-field gear check-out 

The kids had been pumped on the idea for several weeks prior. Every night was a plea for a pre-camping campout in the backyard to “practice”. The most I agreed to was a livingroom crash-out with their newly acquired “big kid” sleeping bags. When the fateful morning actually arrived, the kids were packed and sitting in the car a good half-hour before Stacy and I were ready to leave.

Stacy has some very good friends, Larry and Barbara Allard, who live in Porterville, CA, just shy of the mountain roads that climb up to the sequoias. A strategic lunch stop provided a great opportunity for Stacy to catch up with them while the kids decompressed from the three hour car ride. Typical of Larry and Barbara, who have an enthusiastic fan club that would be the envy of many an L.A. celeb, we were actually the second set of southlanders to come crashing on their hospitality that day. Walt and Michelle Bertleson had already secured admission to the Allard compound, but Barbara insisted that more was merrier, so we were encouraged to swing on through. We spent a great couple of hours relaxing and stuffing ourselves and swapping stories. Larry and Barbara are so engaging it isn't hard to see why it's challenging to catch them without someone up for a visit.

A So-Cal version of the Great Plains, complete with palm trees!

At lunch N managed to lose or drop his fork half a dozen times, prompting poor Barbara to scrounge him a never-ending set of replacements. I was eventually compelled to ask him if he thought they grew on trees. Larry, never missing an opportunity for good natured teasing, immediately warned N to keep his eyes open wide when we got to the park because he was sure there were indeed a good number of fork trees to be found there. They were so plentiful, said Larry, that there were likely to be even forks in the road. N, grinning from ear to ear, agreed to keep watch for any trees bearing cutlery.

Larry and Barbara Allard, flanked by the Bertelsons

After lunch we said our goodbyes and hit the road again. We got to the Sequoia National Park entrance about an hour and a half later, but it ended up taking us considerably longer to get to our campsite. There was some construction being done on the loopy, mountain-hugging road heading up to the sequoia groves and the Princess Campground beyond it. Once the traffic broke we plowed straight past all the trees and tourists and made a bee-line for the campground in order to get our tent up and dinner started before darkness fell.

At least our view was tolerable while waiting for our shot at the one-lane road under construction!

No sooner had we pulled into our campsite when L and N trumpeted simultaneously, “KIDS!!!” Sure enough, at the campsite immediately next door a boy and girl were peering sheepishly at us from behind the fir trees. Any hope of getting L and N’s help in setting up camp quickly evaporated as they disappeared into the trees with their new best-friends-forever, Nick and Bella. Stacy, having waited a little too late to take her mountain road Dramamine, wasn’t a lot of help either.  She and Dramamine had their own thing going. She just stood in the middle of the campsite with a glazed look on her face like her mind was off orbiting Mars. Any requests for help with tent poles or water for cooking were answered with a sudden but brief focusing of the eyes, a “huh?,” and a quick return to Martian air space. It was well into the witching hour when we finally sat down at our picnic table to eat our first camp fare – a perfectly wonderful slop of ground turkey, instant potatoes and creamed corn!

Transplanetary Stacy!