It sure is grand and it sure is a canyon

After leaving the less than sunny California coast we blazed a trail for Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Lucky for us our friends the Victory's live in Kingman AZ, which happened to be on the way, and they took us in for the night. We got a good night sleep, had a good breakfast and we were on our way again the next morning.



With 4.5 million visitors every year the crowds are as grand as the Grand Canyon and being there over the weekend during the summer did not help. The good news is there is so much to look at and so many places to look we had no problem getting great views of the canyon. The bad news was that someplace between San Diego and the Grand Canyon I picked up a bug and was sick the entire time we were there. It was a good thing that we did not plan much hiking because it was all I could do to get from the truck to the view points. The canyon must really be spectacular because even in the shape I was in I still found it to be awe inspiring.















Our trip started at the South rim, which is by far the more tourist filled. We spent the first night and the next day between canyon views, gift shops and dodging huge tour groups. We had been told that the North rim was much less crowded so we packed up and head North.
Now the Grand Canyon from the South rim lodge and the North rim lodge is only 10 miles, as the crow flies. To drive from one to the other is about 203 miles of winding desert road which took about 4 hours, but we got to see so many views of the canyon it was well worth the drive.
We pulled into the North rim just in time to snag the last camping spot and get set up right before it started to rain. Now when I say rained I mean poured, we're talking get Noah on the phone kinda rain. At about 3am it started to lightning and thunder. It was a mighty show and the sound of the thunder echoing around the canyon, which was only about 100 yards away, made it worth missing a little sleep. When we actually woke up however, it was still raining and the fog had set into the canyon so bad it covered any views we might have gotten. We would get a glimpse of the canyon every once in a while and one time we got to see all the way across the canyon, but it was short lived and the fog bowl continued.









We waited around until about 2:30 and glumly admitted defeat and headed out of the park toward Lake Powell without getting any great views from the North rim.


To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:Grand Canyon National Park

Lions, tigers, whales oh my.

Ginger and I had the opportunity to crash the vacation of our friends Chris and Liz and their new daughter Addison. They were staying in Palm Springs for a couple of days so we stopped in on our way to San Diego. On our way we paid a visit to the Salton Sea which is the 2nd lowest point in the lower 48.








There really was not much to see at the Salton Sea so we quickly made our way to Palm Springs. We spent some time at the pool basking in the 120 degree weather and it was not long before the sun and the heat got the best of us so we had lunch and headed for San Diego.








We arrived in San Diego around 8 pm and the damp cool weather was a drastic change from the heat we had just been in. My sister Jessica and her family (Jason, Lela and Olivia) live in San Diego and Olivia was super excited to show us her two favorite places, the zoo and Sea World.
One of the exciting things about traveling is you never know what will happen next. In J-tree we snapped a tent pole. So on our way to San Diego we had to pick up a replacement pole, which we could not find. So a $25 tent purchase later we were back on our way. Well the saying you get what you pay for is so true, no more did we get our new tent up in Jessica's back yard and it ripped. The good news was that they had a tent the size of a small town that my father had given them so we were not without shelter for long.
The next morning after a slow start Ginger, Olivia and I were off to the San Diego Zoo. We did not miss a thing, we saw every animal from things that slither to things that would rather eat us than look at us. Jessica met us later in the evening with dinner and we continued our tour of the zoo. It started getting late and we were running out of light and energy so we called it a night knowing that we had a day at Sea World planned for the next day.
Now a trip to Sea World with the Salonen Family requires snacks, lots of space on your camera and 15 good hours. The was no fish left unseen, we even found a small little aquarium that my sister and Olivia had not been to. Some of the highlights of the trip were Ginger feeding the stingrays, the killer whales soaking the crowd and the Pets Rule show. We stayed through the Shamu Rocks show complete with fireworks and were some of the last people out of the park.
Our last full day in SD we spent at the beach, roaming around town and one last BBQ and night of cards in the back yard. There is so much more to see in SD but our time was starting to run out so we packed up camp and headed East. Grand Canyon here we come.
































































To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:San Diego

To J-tree we go

Waking up on the beach was a new experience and driving out at low tide was a lot easier than the drive in, the beach was like a highway on the way out. From Pismo we continued south to Santa Barbara where the sun finally came out. Our entire trip down the coast has been in gloom so far so when the sun came out we stopped and enjoyed the water and the rays. We walked along the beach and out on to Stearn's Wharf where we had lunch and watched a pod of dolphins swim by.
From there we set our sights back inland and headed for Joshua Tree National Park. The drive took us much longer than we had expected and we got into J-tree later than we wanted, but driving through the big rocks and the trees under a near full moon was super cool. We camped for the night enjoying the very calm and very quiet desert at night.
The next day we spent the entire day exploring the fine points of J-tree in the 104 degree heat, but at least we had sunshine. A highlight of the day was a 3 mile hiked to the 49 Palm Oasis which was the first Ginger and I had ever seen. It was truly unbelievable to see the palm trees and plants sprouting in the middle of the barren desert. After our hike and our best J-tree impressions we called it a night, went back to camp made dinner and off to bed.


















To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:Joshua Tree CA

Paso Robles and Hearst Castle

Paso Robles is about a half an hour from the coast and is the home of the Mid state fair for California, a ton of Vineyards, the Firestone Walker brewery and most important of all Jamie, Marty and Keely Smith. Jamie is a friend of mine from college, Marty is his wife and Keely is the boss, she is 9 months old. Jamie works as the marketing director for the Firestone Walker brewery, Marty works as the Manager of the Firestone vineyard. They took pity on us and took us in for the night, fed us a great meal, pumped us full of wine and beer and gave us an extremely comfortable place to sleep.
The next morning we had breakfast in town, visited the Firestone Vineyard and Brewery sampled the products and even picked up a few bottles for our own collection. We hated to leave so soon, but Jamie and Marty arranged for us to take a tour of the Hearst Castle and never wanting to pass up an opportunity to see something we were off, back to the coast.
The Hearst Castle is the standing example of extravagance. Construction started in the 1920's and took 15 years to complete. The castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper mogul with a ton of cash. The castle has 165 rooms, 4 guest houses, two unbelievable swimming pools and even a private zoo. Hearst had the castle decorated with items from all over the world and every different time period, and in the 1920s and 30s that was quite a task. The castle had a private airstrip and a private dock so Hearst could bring in his guests and all of his supplies.
The tour of the castle was unbelievable and looked more like a very high-end museum than a house that someone once had wild parties in, inviting the who's who of society at the time. Hearst eventually died and the trust gave the castle to the state of California who turned it into a state park that gets over a million visitors every year.
We finished our tour and continued south, we made it to Pismo Beach where we actually camped on the beach. We had to drive about 2 miles down the sandy beach and growing up in land locked states made the drive very interesting. We only got kinda stuck once, but we finally found a place to camp about 20 feet from the water. We sat on the beach, watched the waves, ate dinner and watched the sun go down.











































To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:Central Cali...still

Coastal Highway 1, part 1

After leaving Napa we drove well into the night, we were looking to get south of San Fran and onto the Pacific Coast Highway 1. Finding a place to camp that night proved to be more difficult then we had planned. We ended up staying in Half Moon Bay in the Pillar Point RV park which was really just a parking lot near the ocean that people pay a ton of money to stay in. Our little spot cost us $30 and it was literally just a parking spot, but it did the job and we woke up the next morning to the sounds of the ocean and a bunch of people looking at us like we were half crazy for sleeping in the back of the 4Runner. We are used to this behavior by now so we jumped out of the back of the truck and down the road we went. We tracked down a gym, which took about an hour longer than it needed to, got all showered and cleaned up and started our trek down the coast.
The drive down the coast was everything people say it is and more. Sheer cliffs that drop straight into the ocean, the surf breaking on the rugged rocks below and the narrowest, windiest stretch of road you have ever seen. It was awesome. We had read about the boardwalk in Santa Cruz so we pulled over for a while, walked along the beach, rode a roller coaster, played a few arcade games and strolled around the boardwalk.
Back on the road we had our sights set on Monterey, home of Pebble Beach golf course and our stop for the night. We got a spot in the city park for the night and headed for fisherman's wharf. It was great, every restaurant was giving out samples of their clam chowder and there were plenty of tourist shops to peak in and out of. We sat down for dinner right on the water and we were entertained by a colony of seals and an otter while we ate.
The next morning we paid a visit to the old Cannery Row section of town, yet another fine place where a tourist and their money part ways. There were more tourist shops than even Ginger could explore, it was amazing. We saw even more seals lounging in the sun and a few more otters playing in the ocean. Our time and money were both starting to run short so we moved on down the coast. Along the way we saw the Big Sur area, the purple sand beach of Pfieffer beach, the McWay Falls which fall 50 feet straight into the ocean and a colony of elephant seals. Even though it was foggy and cold we enjoyed seeing everything and the coastal views were worth the drive.













































To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:Central Cali

Sonoma and Napa

After an interesting night learning all we ever wanted to know about NHRA racing we were off to wine country. Now we already knew the races were in town, but what we did not know was that the Napa to Sonoma half marathon was also going on that day. The town of Sonoma was really busy for 8 am on a Sunday so we felt lucky that we found a parking spot in town and we found a place to grab a bite to eat. Now there are two things that stand out about this region: one is the obvious vineyards that cover the country side and second, and more noticeable, is how remarkably fast a tourist is separated from their money. Everything from a heavy fee to taste wines to 4 plus dollars for a gallon of gas. Ginger and I knew full well what we were getting into so wallets in hand we spent the day driving around in circles, spending money, sampling the best the region had and really having a good time doing it.
A highlight for us was a little vineyard called Kaz vineyards. The owner is a crazy old guy who goes to great lengths to stand out in the area, in a weird way. In the Kaz tasting room we actually met Kaz and his intern Luke. We got to sample his entire selection and we even got to bottle and cork our own wines. It was a great experience and a great way to wrap up our day of wine tasting. All in all the food was good, the drink was better and seeing miles and miles of vineyards set a great backdrop. We finished up the day outside of Napa with dinner and headed south for a drive down the coast.















To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:Sonoma & Napa valley

Oh the things we get ourselves into.

Having stormed San Fran by foot and by car Ginger and I decied that wine country was our next destination so we headed for the town of Sonoma. On the way we went to the John Muir woods, walked among the redwoods, we even hiked to one of the points of Mount Tamalpais (we could see the fog roll in over the bay, but not the bay itself), and by this point it was starting to get late.


























Now it would not be a true Team Rode trip without a random event, so as we drove through the early evening looking for a camping site we started to realized that all of the camp sites were full. So, on we drove, Ginger calling every campsite and rv park we could find a number for and me keeping a weathered eye for signs of camping. It was about 8 pm and all of the sudden we came upon what looked to be a huge RV park and signs that said camping stay in the right lane, it was like a sign from above. This campsite was not marked in any of our maps, or any of the guide books, but there it was right in front of us.
We pulled into a giant lot full of RVs and we were met by a man who gave us an odd look and asked if we were there for the race? Race, what race, we were here for the camping. He gave me another odd look and I gave him my best odd, why are you looking at me that way look. The man, who we would later find out was named Rosie, walked to the front of our car looked at the license plate then came back to the window and asked if we were really from Colorado. We said yes and then the light came on, there was a NHRA event being held right there all weekend and we had stumbled into the camping area. Rosie considered us for a while and finally said "you can camp over there, just stay out of the way and be gone by 7 am."
That was all we needed to hear, we parked our tiny 4runner in the sea of massive RVs and we did our best to blend in. We met some interesting people, learned a lot about racing and northern Californian politics and good to our word we were out of the camping area by 7 am the next morning.



To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

San Fran

On a road trip like this there are bound to be delays, the trip from Yosemite to San Fran, 194 miles, which should be anywhere from 4 to 5 hours took us around 15. From wandering around looking for a laundry facility that was open, (and in an area we were willing to stop) driving around around looking for a place to stay for the night, finally getting our laundry done and getting to the gym to get a shower, we felt like were were running around in a Three Stooges movie. We were starting to feel like we could have driven to Denver, done all we needed to do and driven back and it would have been easier. Never the less, with clean cloths, clean bodies and a new...um "appreciation" for small California towns, were were finally on our way to San Fran.
We arrived too late to really go out and see much, but we were close to AT&T park and the Giants were in town so we thought taking in a game was a good way to start our stay here in the city by the bay. Mark Twain once said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" and believe me he's not joking. This place makes Iceland feel like the tropics in the summer. We enjoyed the baseball game but sitting in the breezy section in the 3rd deck had us cheering for three up three down innings, the game ended and we shivered our way back to the car and back to camp.





Having learned our lesson the night before Ginger and I dressed for a Colorado winter and headed into the city to sight-see. Since we were camping right across the street from Candle Stick Park we had one sight out of the way and we were able to leave our car and take the shuttle downtown and see the city on foot. We saw all the sights that a good tourist should see, went up Coit tower, ate sea food at the wharf, walked up and down hills, rode the trolly cars, ate in china town, it was great. The next day we attacked San Fran by truck, we drove down Lombard Street, we went to Golden Gate park, drove over the Golden Gate bridge and experienced all of the finer points of California driving.






































To see more pictures from our trip go to www.teamrode.shutterfly.com

Location:San Francisco