Day 9 - Monday, Oct 2 - San Diego to Visalia, CA
Starting mileage: 3092 Starting time: 10:00 am
Ending mileage: 3518 Ending time: 7:00 pm
Travel mileage: 426 Travel time: 9:00 hours
We were glad to get out of the San Diego traffic this morning. We saw something quite strange as we were going out. We were in the express lane going north which is separated from the 3 express lanes going south with "Jersey barriers". We saw a message on an overhead sign "barrier movement in process" but didn't know what it meant. Shortly after that, we saw a strange vehicle straddling the barrier which was moving them over to make 2 lanes going north and 2 lanes going south! The barrier pieces may not have weighed as much as it appeared, but they seemed to be concrete.
The terrain continued to be California "golden brown" until we got to the foothills of the San Bernadino mountains where it became greener and as we moved up the mountain, become populated with large pine trees. The pass at the top is at 8500'. We then descended down to Big Bear Lake at 6500' where we had a delicious lunch at the Big Bear Lake Brewing Company. The water in the lake was still quite low and one area which was once lake is now meadow. We also passed what must have previously been a lake but was now also a meadow - can't be good for the people who had the lake front property.
Reaching the top of the mountain north of Big Bear Lake, there is an impressive view of the Mohave desert far below.
We went through the Tehachapi Pass which is the site of the Alta Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in the U.S. (as of 2014). It is certainly impressive to see hundreds of huge wind turbines on the plain leading to the pass and the mountain ridges on both sides of the pass.
Traveling north around Bakersfield, there is a lot of agriculture in the valley, with grapes (probably not wine), citrus and nut groves. Once again the contrast is striking between green areas and completely brown areas where there is no irrigation.
We were exceptionally lucky that when we had car problems it was only a few blocks from the hotel when there started to be a clicking noise coming from the engine. Pulling into the hotel parking lot, we noticed oil dripping down from the car and opening the engine compartment, it was flooded with oil. The oil filler cap had come off and disappeared. All the oil had come out which could have been serious if we had been going up the mountains. Our 2011 Subaru Forester has a problem with oil consumption and we need to put a quart of oil in every 1000 miles. The filler cap does not always secure well. Unfortunately, the nearest Subaru dealer is in Fresno, about 45 miles away. The local autoparts stores don't carry a replacement.
Ending mileage: 3518 Ending time: 7:00 pm
Travel mileage: 426 Travel time: 9:00 hours
We were glad to get out of the San Diego traffic this morning. We saw something quite strange as we were going out. We were in the express lane going north which is separated from the 3 express lanes going south with "Jersey barriers". We saw a message on an overhead sign "barrier movement in process" but didn't know what it meant. Shortly after that, we saw a strange vehicle straddling the barrier which was moving them over to make 2 lanes going north and 2 lanes going south! The barrier pieces may not have weighed as much as it appeared, but they seemed to be concrete.
The terrain continued to be California "golden brown" until we got to the foothills of the San Bernadino mountains where it became greener and as we moved up the mountain, become populated with large pine trees. The pass at the top is at 8500'. We then descended down to Big Bear Lake at 6500' where we had a delicious lunch at the Big Bear Lake Brewing Company. The water in the lake was still quite low and one area which was once lake is now meadow. We also passed what must have previously been a lake but was now also a meadow - can't be good for the people who had the lake front property.
Reaching the top of the mountain north of Big Bear Lake, there is an impressive view of the Mohave desert far below.
We went through the Tehachapi Pass which is the site of the Alta Wind Farm, the largest wind farm in the U.S. (as of 2014). It is certainly impressive to see hundreds of huge wind turbines on the plain leading to the pass and the mountain ridges on both sides of the pass.
Traveling north around Bakersfield, there is a lot of agriculture in the valley, with grapes (probably not wine), citrus and nut groves. Once again the contrast is striking between green areas and completely brown areas where there is no irrigation.
We were exceptionally lucky that when we had car problems it was only a few blocks from the hotel when there started to be a clicking noise coming from the engine. Pulling into the hotel parking lot, we noticed oil dripping down from the car and opening the engine compartment, it was flooded with oil. The oil filler cap had come off and disappeared. All the oil had come out which could have been serious if we had been going up the mountains. Our 2011 Subaru Forester has a problem with oil consumption and we need to put a quart of oil in every 1000 miles. The filler cap does not always secure well. Unfortunately, the nearest Subaru dealer is in Fresno, about 45 miles away. The local autoparts stores don't carry a replacement.
Alta wind turbines
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