California - Day 15 - to Salinas via Merced

Salinas/Monterey KOA, Salinas

Tuesday, 15 March 2022

When I was walking the dogs around the campground area this morning, I noticed what I'd missed yesterday - that we were nestled between several extremely large chunks of rock - mountain size.  I guess they're just so big that I didn't even see them, the way we don't see walls in a building; they're just there.  But they were so big I couldn't get any kind of angle for a photo, and once we'd driven out of the campground, the rocks didn't look the same.

A family of foreigners rented an RV and camped not far from our site.  I say "foreigners" because they spoke a language that didn't sound like either French or Spanish - more like a Scandinavian language.  It looked like 3 generations of family, and I thought how clever it was of them to think of renting an RV to tour the US.

today's route

As I was leaving the area of the campground and Yosemite Lodge, I saw park service signs saying to expect heavy smoke due to the "managed fire" they were conducting.  They weren't kidding - in places the smoke was so heavy I couldn't see even a quarter mile down the road.  And I passed areas where the fire was actually burning near the road.  I didn't see any people anywhere and hoped the fire crew knew what they were doing.

Here's some typical Yosemite scenery, with views unhampered by the boatloads of tourists I saw yesterday:

I don't know which falls these were, but even without
a name they're pretty.

You can see how hazy it is from the fire.  Otherwise,
this is a common sight here in Yosemite.

This might have been one of the mountains looming
above the campground, which I think is around
the left side of it.

When I came to a crossroads, I saw a sign saying vehicles over 45' were prohibited on CA-140 (the road I was taking this morning) beginning 10 miles west of the park exit.  (I guess giving large vehicles a chance to take the alternate route.)  And I soon found out why.

The next 10 miles were a constant series of double s-curves, steep hills including one 8% grade, outcroppings of rocks and huge trees growing right at the roadside, making me dodge into the oncoming lane to avoid being sideswiped by a rock or tree, plus beautiful Yosemite scenery including the Merced River with little rapids and still pools, other waterfalls and beautiful huge trees.  Because it was a 2-way road, there was oncoming traffic now and then.  And it started to rain, limiting visibility and making me worry about slippery road surfaces.  It was a long 10 miles.

Then I came to the town of El Portal, pop. 635 and elev. 2,100' (meaning I'd lost a whole lot of elevation in a short drive).  There I saw a sign saying there's a $270 fine for any vehicle over 45' beyond the South Fork of the Merced River.  And the road continued to be as exciting as it had been so far.

From there, the road went up and down quite a bit - the town of Midpines ("Pride of the Sierra"), pop. 431, sits at 2,405' and the nearby Midpines Summit came in at 2,962'.  And that was followed by Mariposa, at 1,953'.  So up and down.

I thought I saw some Stellar's Jays, which I've always thought were beautiful, and dramatic.

Wikipedia says they're the only crested jays west of the Rockies.  They really are as deeply blue as that photo shows.

The scenery changed on its way downhill and I found myself in cattle country - with some sheep thrown in.

And I passed acres of white flowering trees near a sign saying "Sunsweet."  I always connect that name with prunes and raisins, but I thought plum trees had pink blossoms so am not sure what these white flowers were for.  I also saw signs advertising local almonds, pistachios and honey (from all the bee boxes I saw near the orchards).

It took 2½ hours to get to Merced, and by then the rain had turned into a steady downpour.  Great timing, since that's when the dogs and I needed to get out for a walk.  Oh well.

I didn't see a highway sign announcing Merced, but I can tell you that it had 86,333 residents in the 2020 census.  Nice, mid-sized town.  I stopped in the city's public parking lot where I saw Slater's Furniture across the street had a sign saying, "Celebrating 100 Years."  That impressed me, because much more commonly I've been seeing "liquidation" signs, plus people aren't patronizing local furniture stores these days.  Covid had a severe impact on local businesses, but this one seems to be flourishing, and I hoped it was a reflection of the town.

Across another street I saw 2 murals which weren't at all in a style I'd've connected with a town this size in farming country.

Kind of offbeat for a farming town, don't you think?

As I was leaving town on CA-59, I saw a sign saying, "Turn On Lights - Dangerous Highway 59."  Not a sign to inspire confidence, though it turned out to be no worse than any other I've been driving.

And I saw another sign: "Pray For Rain."  It worked.  It was still raining off and on for much of the day.

That odometer turning to 100,000 miles had an unexpected consequence: I'm now having a hard time following Google's directions because the odometer no longer displays tenths of a mile.  The tenths place is needed to record whole numbers.  It took me most of the drive up to the General Grant tree before I figured out what the problem was with following directions.  

Then I had to figure out how to solve it - using the trip odometer instead, which turns out to be even less accurate than my odometer is.  And then I had to establish a new habit of looking at the trip odometer instead of the regular one which, after four years of driving almost daily, was a big habit to change.  

So now, several days later, I'm still having a really hard time with it.  You might not think this matters much, but it can be a real problem because I'm switching highways so often as I drive along.  Today, for instance, I drove on CA-59 for 14.7 miles out of Merced.  Then I switched to CA-152 for 55.7 miles, followed by CA-156 for 18.3 miles, and then joined US-101 for 8.3 miles.  

Trying to calculate all those distances and turns using the odometer just didn't work because I kept mentally using the last 3 digits as if one were the tenths digit.  Which put my expectations for turns way off.  I'll get it figured out, but driving downhill on country roads in the rain and drizzle isn't the best time to establish a new habit.

I continued to pass huge orchards and more of those stop-dumping-dam-water-in-the-ocean signs.  At an intersection in Los Banos, I noticed dozens of bee boxes on a flatbed truck next to me.  And I couldn't help but see dozens of bees flying around the bee boxes.  Do you think they're able to rejoin their colonies?  And if not, what do you suppose happens to them?  Los Banos, by the way, had a population of 44,263 in 2020, a considerable increase over its population of 25,869 in the 2000 census.

I passed a sign for California Dairies - Nunes Brothers.  I looked it up and yes, it's the family company that former congressman Devin Nunes used to work for.  The guy who sued because he didn't like the sarcasm aimed at him from the Devin Nunes' Cow Twitter account.

I had trouble sleeping last night for some reason, so today I'm so sleepy I'm afraid to drive even at my normal speed.  It's been tough navigating some of these roads while I'm having to slap my face to stay awake.

I continued to pass agriculture fields and a strong smell of garlic came into the cabin.

Finally I came to Prunedale, elevation 92'.  Substantially lower than this morning's 4,000' in Yosemite.  Prunedale is where tonight's campground is actually located, though it claims an address in much better known Salinas a few miles further south.