Previous page Next page

Saturday, October 12, we discover the hotel day when we get up, especially the inner courtyard with a lovely garden and a swimming pool! In summer it must be great to enjoy this little oasis.

The breakfast is quietly (or almost), we meet a bus of french people in the motel. And once the breakfast finished direction of our car. Our evening destination: Modesto. On the road, we stop at Cocoanut Grove, on the Pacific coast in Santa Cruz for lunch, then we visit a park of giant sequoias and we end up at the motel.
On the road that takes us to the side, we see things very different from that found in France. Starting with oil wells: the same as in the movies!

The desert alternating with intensive farming ... water is scarce , one might imagine that American farmers shod everything they can to save and properly used. Except that this is not the case : watering at midday by automated jets that send the water off the uncovered water channel, abundant use of fertilizers, no triennial crop rotation, etc... Suddenly, the ground is drained of its resources, it is the desert... but they insist on wasting water and kill the ground... I confess I do not understand. However, after discussion with Marc (our guide) I kinda understand why this way of doing things. ( This is a matter of psychology : if their imposes a constraint, they take it as a failure but as the usa, we live in the fashion of ''we always say YES, never anything negative'' from that, when there is just something negative, it's not going their way of life and some end (often) to depression. )

And it is the same for livestock (fortunately, as for agriculture, there is extreme intensive production and there are more careful of their land, crops or livestock.) You ever look at your burger as before (mouahahahah)!

It rolls and rolls, cross california to go to Bakersfield to Santa Cruz and must pass through the midst of all cultures ... After a while, we finally go out and a semi-arid landscape offers its beautiful colors of yellow.

On the road, a little nod to one of my passions: paleontology (the science of fossils (especially, dinosaurs in my case !)).

From time to time we passed beautiful properties with large palm trees in the middle of nowhere :

A quick stop at a sandwich shop and start again. We arrived in Santa Cruz around midday (about time!) We'll eat off the beach on the Pacific coast. We lend some help to Marc to wear the lunch, as the tail stretches, I load distribution sandwiches while people sit down gradually. It's nice, it's hot, you're at the beach, at the other end of the world, eating and in a pretty good mood (the moaners being what they are...). As a bonus, we are facing a building with kitsch decor: Cocoanut Groves!

This is not fine sand, the water is not very hot, but I dipped my feet still, for the form. While some are castles (pretty strong the way) sand more... trash loot. There is little surfer (but there anyway) in water, it should not be the season, yet the city is nicknamed ''Surf City'', it should not be for nothing.

The road follows the waterfront has not too much traffic despite the amusement park right next to us. Some buildings have interesting architectures:

Speaking of the amusement park, one is open and there are no entries to pay (only when you want to make rides / attractions) and colors are flashy:

We entered by a side of the festival and we come out the other, after ascending the coast. The mouth of San Lorenzo River preventing us from continuing to rise along the coast, but it does not matter, it will soon be time to go back on the bus. We walk along the San Lorenzo River to return to the bus and I want to take some pictures of architecture and a little flower.

We go on the bus to the park Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, a state park of giant sequoias. These sequoias are older, on average, between 1,400 and 1,800 years.
Some botanical this time.
The Redwood ( Redwood ) is a red bark because of the high density tanon present inside ( tannin is present in all plants in greater or lesser quantity, it is a well-known winemakers molecule. A tree from our regions that contain quantities of Tanin is acacia.) and the thickness of the crust ( 15 to 30cm ! ) allow the shaft to hold up well to fire and insects While not make ignifugeable. The trees are tall... very tall... and the tallest trees in the world, I guessed, sequoias ! In this park, they are ''normal'' and do not exceed 85m in height and 5.20m in diameter. What remains huge compared to what we have trees in Europe.
In Henry Cowell park , we can walk freely on the roads and , besides séqoïas course, we can cross species of wild geese ( walkers, people who jog and a steam train... walks ! ) on the loop 1.3km long.



Once away from the group to walk at their own pace in these woods, we no longer hear the nature and occasionally the sound of the steam train, it is a very relaxing place and I understand that people come to jog. Especially in emerging from the shadows of plants pillars, we are in a small meadow bathed in warmth:

A little behind the parking lot there is a kind of old wooden station with the famous steam locomotive that I heard in the forest. The locomotive was present at that time was the #1 Dixiana 1912. There are 3 locomotives on the route leading from the station to present Bear Mountain 5.23km away: No.1, Dixiana, No.2, Tuolumne (dating from 1899) and No.3 Kahuku (from 1890). There are some other locomotives but little used, they remain in the warehouse.

Thus ends the eighth day, then we go in the direction of Modesto and our motel (Super 8). Upon arrival, a burning smell host us. Bizarre ...

Previous page Next page