road trip USA

A walk in the parks

We apologise for the break in transmission...

The news over here is all about the Clinton/Obama battle, which has just resolved itself as I write this. Occasionally the news programs move momentarily to tornados and floods, but these lapses are rare, and quickly rectified. John McCain also adds diversionary moments, and will obviously figure more prominently as Clinton becomes less the lead but we remain a world-news-free zone.

San Francisco has retained its status as our favourite world city - eccentric, cultured, visually striking, and easy to get around. Unusually for the US, the public transport is good, and the grid layout of the streets helps immensely if you are a newcomer. The 49 mile tour (self-driven) gives a great round-up view of the place. The weather continues to be all over the place, from roasting during the day (a few days back, the city "enjoyed" its hottest ever May day at 116f) to bitterly cold at the Friday evening ball-game, where we watched the high-flying San Francisco Giants lose in overtime to the previously unfancied San Diego Padres. The game went on so long, and we had got SO cold, that (whisper this quietly) we left at the end of the 12th innings, grabbed a cab (blessed relief) got back to the hotel, turned on the TV, and were still in time to see the infamous moment when the home Pitcher (that's the bowler, Mum) hit the Padres batter, giving away the decisive run. Poor pitcher looked suicidal and his teammates looked murderous. Oh well, muttered Tripper-Nipper II, it's only a game... (West Ham ticket sales unit should take note of this new-found nonchalence.) Meanwhile Mr T was offered meaningful employment entertaining the hotel residents at the keyboard. As I say, eccentric...

It seems like eons ago that I mentioned the superiority of American parks. If Windsor Great Park were American, it would have a Visitor Centre, Park Rangers leading interpretive meetings, Comfort Stations, and those lovely car parks in Windsor that have been padlocked by petty-minded Brits would be open and available to our citizens.

On to Yosemite N.P. America's National Park system is the Bees Knees. An annual pass costing $80 (say £40) gives the family of 4 unlimited access to all of America's national parks, and many of it's national monuments and state parks, for 12 months. This must be the bargain of the century. The only tincy wincy little disadvantage is the absence of wifi, hence the temporary silencing of the blog, and the enormous phone bills, about which more another time.

Yosemite is huge, and blessed with such variety of mountains, valleys, giant sequoias, giant waterfalls, giant granite escarpments, meandering rivers, picturesque meadows and forests.Oh, and did anyone say bears? At last, the elusive bear spotting.

Apparently, this is a black bear, although it looks remarkably brown to me (and apparently could have been red or blond, whilst retaining its Black-ness). Clare Bear of the Eagle Eye was the triumphant spotter, and has hereafter become known as Bear Clare.

Fire is a big issue for Yosemite, and other forested parks. For decades, the park service fought to prevent fires - resulting in a gradual build up of combustibles leading to giant uncontrollable and hugely destructive infernos - before thinking evolved to an understanding that fires are a natural and routine part of the wilderness cycle. A small scale fire with limited ground-based material clears the forest floor but stays at floor level, and helps the giant trees' cones to open and germinate, whereas the big fires create such high temperatures that the fire migrates to the forest canopy and destroys every living thing. Today, small "prescribed burns" have become an integral part of the management process, and by happy coincidence, a planned burn is scheduled for the area around our holiday house on our 3rd day of residence. We get to see the fire house and local fire team preparing for their 75 acre burn, which is designed to prevent a recurrence of the 1990 fire that ravaged this area, and destroyed 45 houses, including this place. As it happens, a slight freshening of the wind means that ignition is delayed until the day of our departure.

Oh, and another interesting snippet on TV. Arnie (Schwarzenneggar) on TV (as Governor of California, he is one of the most powerful politicians in the US) promoting his proposal to add $1 per month to the insurance premium of householders to raise the $100m the State needs to pay for the extra firefighting planes, trucks and men to deal with the increasing problem of wild fires. Arnie has come on a bunch. I used to think him somewhat incoherent: here on live TV on location, he is joking and in a knock-about easy conversational way, he bats back the objection of the opponent standing next to him (who is arguing that this is an additional tax). Arnie is articulate, fluent, engaging and persuasive, and his argument sounds like an open and shut case to me...

Death Valley NP is another gem in the Park Service collection. At over 3.3m acres, the Tripper Crew calculated (using only their fingers and toes) that this is ten Berkshires, or around 10% of the size of England. It's also consistently pretty much the hottest place on earth (1C below the Saharan world record) with 154 consecutive days recorded at 100f+ (we don't do metric in America, as one Park Service employee remarked). In the laundry facility (which is hotter than Hades) I bump somewhat sweatily into Joe, a construction manager who is supervising the installation of reverse osmosis equipment on the new boreholes just outside Furnace Creek. He tells me that the natural spring produces 1400 gallons per minute, but they want to reduce visitor pressure on this, and his 3 boreholes are capable of generating several thousand gallons per minute, relieving the pressure on the natural spring.

Furnace Creek Ranch is quite large and has loads of facilities (including the hottest outdoor swimming pool imaginable) but unfortunately their tennis racquets are all broken, which is pretty poor, and denies relatively sun-tanned Mr T his only realistic chance of regaining the Tripper Tennis Title from the current holder, the younger, stronger but much more sun-challenged Tripper Nipper II.

There is only one honourable alternative: the Annual Aztecs Allcomers 1-on-1 Tournament, postponed from AGM day, is held instead. Despite wide marketing of the event and the offer of free Club t-shirts, only 2 entries are received, and both competitors make it through to the final, held on an outdoor court hot enough to fry the proverbial egg.

CORRECTION - Clare was a late but significant entry. This is Mrs T speaking, I have had a chance to get to the keyboard whilst they are playing their game. I am pretty sure it will not be a full game (the current temp. is 100 degrees F) so my entry will be pretty brief.

We have had a fantastic couple of weeks. Loads of fun and seeing some breathtaking sights. Although Philip and I have seen many of them before, they lose none of the original magic.

Charles you will be pleased to hear that we spend a lot of evening time playing cards. Clare has become a keen biddies participant. Philip had won 2 in a row and was going on and on and on....... about being reigning champion. I am pleased to say that last night he lost the crown to guess who? Girl Power is gaining momentum - me at cards and Clare at basketball.

We had a great lazy afternoon in the cabin at Yosemite playing American Monopoly last Sunday. David was the out and out winner this time. The whole board was covered with his hotels which resulted in the bankruptcy of the rest of us. He was so pleased with himself that a picture of the board had to be taken before it was packed away.

Euan and Sarah, if you are reading this, as you can see from the mention above, we are making sure Philip is keeping up the piano practice ready for your big day when we get back. It was very funny when a few guests obviously thought he was employed by the hotel in San Francisco.

We are off to Vegas in the morning and leave David and Clare there to fly home later in the week. We will miss them.

Well thats it from me. They are just returning from their game and David is HUNGRY!!!! Some things never change.

Bye for now. Mrs T.

Basketball hasn't been this hot since Nairobi 1993. Honours are even, after the Hot Shot(!) title predictably went the way of youth, whilst the 1-On-1 trophy went with Experience. Much interest from those on the poolside, who must have felt this demonstrated the truth of the old adage about Mad Dogs and Englishmen...

...and clearly I am going to have to change the password on my laptop!

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