An Off-schedule day

Yes, gentle readers, we are back on a daily routine for the blog.  Though today's won't be long (really!).  You see, your intrepid writer spent part of the day trying to survive the curly roads of Sequoia National Park -- and dramamine helped.

We started the day in Fresno, in a nice Radisson.  Kudos for us picking it at 1130 the night before.

After breakfast there (Michael and Barb were trying to cope with a 5 o'clock PST phone call), we hit if for the Sequoias.  Michael wanted to see the big trees.

No one actually says "the road will be unbearably curvy", but the fact it leads with "15 mph" and one of those snakes on the yellow sign.

Notably, though, Fresno sits in California's central valley.  It is flat.  To make it to the sequoias, which live between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, you go through dry foothills (all the grass on them is yellow, making for interesting viewing), then climb quickly into the mountains.

The sequoias were grand.   Here's the largest tree by weight in the world, the General Sherman tree (in Sequoia National Park):

While the other three took the shuttle to the tree, I laid in the back seat of the car, two Dramamine in my system, in the fetal position and fell asleep.  I felt better after.  And even ended up driving!

From the sequoias we did this 270 degree circle -- it turns out, southwest, then east, to find the pass across the mountains, and into the Mojave desert.  Here's the only picture so far of that, which is quite different -- dryer, no trees, some cactus-like vegetation --

LOL!  That one's upside down!

Here are the pictures with the link, now separate (I changed the ones on the other page, which I was told didn't work, but worked for me): https://goo.gl/photos/V4YFLdaj3QkyvGmH7

We had lunch at a nifty place along the Keweah River that did subs -- they were pretty good.  

We had dinner in Ridgecrest (in the desert) at a steakhouse -- as Michael said "who needs a picture of this...it's routine!?"

Barb and Karen discussed ("") playing us in euchre and the guys won in two games.  It must be noted to be fair that neither B or K caught any cards.  Like most card games, you can't win without cards. 

We changed our schedule -- we were supposed to bolt out of Ridgecrest tomorrow morning, having already been to Death Valley -- but instead are going to Death Valley first, ending the day in a lodge back on the coast (we will get awfully close to Nevada tomorrow), and we will pick up tomorrow's site early Saturday morning.  If you follow.  

And now to sleep...dramamine is still in my system. zzzzzz