California, 7th November, to the West Coast

We left Sequoia NP around 8.00am. The day before the driver's side rear indicator light had stopped working and I did not fancy driving a long distance without it, so we stopped at Three Rivers, the first town outside the park, to see if the garage stocked a bulb. I thought it would be an easy task but we had apparently to go to a Dodge main dealer to get one, the nearest being in Bakersfield a few hours away. We needn't have been concerned though as half an hour down the road it started working again and we were told 'it did that' when we returned the car!!
It was a sunny morning and we soon came across a lake so we stopped for a look. It was Lake Kaweah, a reservoir that was used for boating as well. Mist was hanging over the background hills and we drove all morning in and out of fog.



We went south along the 65 as far as Bakersfield where we stopped for coffee and to swop drivers. We passed orange groves and vineyards although the soil was dry and sandy.
Still moving south on the 99 I asked Mairi to come off the dual carriageway and to go into a small town so that I could get some pictures of suburban US.






We then went west towards the sea. We had decided to miss out Los Angeles and hit the coast at Guadalupe. The westward road was dry and scenic starting with nodding donkeys in oil fields and ending with beautiful arid hills.





We got to Guadalupe at lunchtime and these were the only other people on the beach at the time. 


We followed suit accompanied by a lame seagull keen for crisps.




The guide book told us that Guadalupe had been used as the location for the 1923 film 'The Ten Commandments'. Cecil B DeMille was the director and rather than have the sets dismantled at the end of filming they saved money by burying them in the sand. There are now excavations going on to unearth them.
We did not find the excavations but explored the lonely beach.












For the night we had intended to camp in the resort of Pismo Beach up the coast, but we had not realised it was Labour Day weekend and everything was full. We ended up driving inland to Lake Lopez, a much dried out fishing lake which had a large campsite. We got there late and there were still no showers!

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