Earthquakes, General Sherman, and Too Much Nature

We left Vegas this morning on time, and I was happy to enter California.  I was also happy to visit Eddie World because there are not a lot of places to stop when you enter the Mojave Desert, and this place looked cute.  We went in, remarked on all the treats they had, and headed to the restroom.  We were waiting, when all of a sudden Kira said "whoa, what was that?"  She had noticed the room moving, and then I felt and heard what she saw.  A low rumble and a sense I was losing my balance.  That is when someone else said "that's an earthquake,"  and I of course, overreacted and said "a whaattt?!?!  It was over as soon as it started and we all had a little laugh about it, until I got a CNN alert on my phone that it was a 6.4 and the epicenter was only about 1 1/2 hours Northeast of us, AND they had felt it as far away as LA, AND it was the largest since the Northridge earthquake of 1994.  All of a sudden, everyone started talking about this being a precursor to a larger one, and how no-one knows when that will happen, but that it pretty much WILL, and I was staring straight into the Sierra Nevada mountains that we were going to have to pass through to get to our next destination of Visalia.

All of a sudden, panic began to set in, and those cool wind turbines began to look like projectile demons of doom, since I was expecting the earth to open up and start hurling them at us.  I informed Anthony that I needed to go to the restroom (again--fear does that), and decided that I could not ride up front any longer.  I put Kira up there, and I reclined my seat in the back, covered myself with an Auburn blanket (War Eagle), put my earphones in my ear, and found the Worship playlist on my iPhone.  I need some Jesus to calm my soul.  The first lyrics I heard from the first song I chose were:  "When the mountains FALL and the tempest roars You are with me.  When creation FOLDS, still my soul will soar on Your mercy."  <sigh>

We finally reached Visalia, but not before I took a screen shot of this:

After dropping our luggage in our room, we decided to proceed with our plans to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, despite reports that they too had felt the earthquake earlier, and that the earthquake actually happened a little bit east of there, and they were still experiencing aftershocks.  I was reminded of a little magnet I had bought a few days earlier in Colorado Springs that says:

Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway  

Welllll......okay.  My stress level was through the roof, until I remembered that the drive up to Sequoia must be sending Kira's even higher.  Several years ago, she admitted that she is afraid of heights when there are no barriers in place.  She has gone sky diving with no issue, will ride roller coasters with ease, but if she thinks someone could plummet to their deaths off of a cliff, it terrifies her.  I put my paranoia about another earthquake aside and focused on getting her through that climb.  It was rough, and again, Anthony was a rockstar driver.  We decided that we would go see the General Sherman tree, which by volume, is the largest single stem tree on Earth and is over 3000 years old.  What we did not know is that once we found the dumb tree, we had to hike down about a quarter of a mile to reach it, which also meant that we would have to hike UP to get back to our car.  Kira noticed that little kids were huffing and puffing, so you can imagine what I was thinking.  We took photos and I will admit that the tree is spectacular and impossible to capture all of unless you lie down and take it from the ground up.  Kira did not do that with Sherman, but I convinced her to with other trees in the area. 

We started the ascent back, and almost immediately, I saw a sign that said, "The air is thin here at 7000 feet.  Take your time and enjoy the views as you climb back up."  That was all I needed to hear, and I decided then and there, that if I had to take the rest of the day's light to get back to the car, I was going to do just that.  It was tough.  Altitude changes are no joke, and all three of us are pretty much over them.  Add a bad knee with a Baker's cyst, and the fact that I am very out of shape, and you can visualize what shape I was in on the way up.  We did see a young buck walking around, and he even looked as if he was going to come down to Kira for a chat, but other people kept him from doing so.  She got some really good shots of him, but this is my favorite.

Once we made it back to the car, we had to figure out how to get a shot of King's Canyon before returning to the hotel.  Anthony drove and drove and drove some more, and finally, we came upon the King's Canyon Overlook.  The day was losing light, and we had no idea how to get back.  The trail map made no sense, and we had no cell service.  I took a couple of shots of the canyon below and it was beautiful.  

We finally made it back to town, got something to eat, and are currently in our hotel room winding down for the night.  Here is where I am going to get really honest.  I am so TIRED of mountains!!!!  I know some of you love them, and we have seen some beautiful ones, but I am done!!!  I am a beach girl, Kira is a beach girl, and Anthony is a beach guy.  If I am going to be a driver or a passenger on another winding road, it had better end at the ocean, with cell service or I am not going.  As we were making our way down those mountains today, Anthony said "I'm not doing this again."  I didn't say anything, but I thought "I am way ahead of you."  

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers in relation to our short-lived (I hope) experience with the earthquake.  I felt them and they calmed me.  In case you are wondering.  I will take tornadoes 

ANY DAY!!  According to the experts, there could be another one soon.  Keep those prayers coming.

Good night from Visalia!

Look how beautiful and FLAT!