Merced to Tulare (Friday 19 August)

I head for Tulare today. What for, it’s in the middle of nowhere? Hue, who I met at the Yosemite NP, has offered to take me to Kings Canyon NP where the giant sequoia’s hang out. These trees are the biggest trees in the world and some have been dated over 2,000 years old. I have wondered about these amazing plants since I was a wee lad flicking through library books in primary school. I remember a picture of a huge tree where cars could drive through. Apparently that tree has fallen over but is still there. I will see if i can find it. Tulare is on the way there for Hue.

The day starts with running errands with Larry. Every year they buy a bulk supply of peaches from a grower just out of town for preserving and making jam. My bus doesn’t leave for Tulare until the afternoon so I go along fir the drive. Larry takes me out past the new 5-year old University of California’s campus on the edge of Merced. It’s impressive and gas around 5,000 students at this time. The road takes us past an old disused airforce base. It knocked the town when they closed that down. Next door is a military aircraft museum with some classic old war planes dating back to World War II. There is a B52 bomber, which were used to carpet bomb the Vietnam Cong during the Vietnam War. And there is a B2 bomber spy plane, amazing. From there we pass through a failed housing development that stopped dead when the global financial crisis hit, then through acres of almond trees and other crops.