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What Happened Next?

This story is a continuation of this article.

The first day of travel began at 3 am. We had to catch a flight from Knoxville to Charlotte NC, followed by a second flight to Los Angeles (LA). If everything were to occur according to our plan, we would have been in LA in time for lunch.

Mother nature had other plans for us, so she threw us her first curveball of the trip. She decided to lay a very thick blanket of fog over all of East TN. Normally this type of fog would be burned off in a few minutes after the sun rose. Even the airline pilots said that this would be the case, so we taxied out onto the runway to wait for sunrise.

About three hours later, with the fog being impenetrable to sun rays, we returned to the gate to get more jet fuel. An hour or so after that, we finally left Knoxville to face an uncertain future because our flight from Charlotte to LA had already left without us.

It only took us about 27 hours to reach our destination that day. With our rental car telling us twice that we had a really tired driver (me!), I had to relinquish the controls to others better suited for the job. We arrived at the hotel somewhere around 3 or 4 am. That part of the trip took about 20 hours too long, thanks to Mother Nature and her wicked curveball.

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Day 1 – Sequoia National Park

With a few hours of sleep achieved, we awoke with great anticipation to see the majestic Sequoia National Park. This first stop was supposed to be one of the highlights (pun intended) of our trip.

It was forty years earlier when I first met General Sherman (Figure 1). I remember being awed by the size of the sequoias. They are truly massive and inspirational. At the time, there was even a tree with a hole in it that was so big you could drive a car beneath it. I think that tree has now fallen, although I am not sure.

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Before leaving the hotel, I asked the concierge for a map of Sequoia National Park. I asked her if the park was open and if there was anything we needed to know about where to go or what to see. I also asked her why the hotel was so busy at this time of the year (early October).

She gave me two salient responses that are listed below.

1. “The park is open, although there might be an area or two that you cannot see.”
2. “The hotel is busy because all the firefighters and the evacuees are staying here.”

At the time, I thought her last statement was a little unusual. I also wondered why firemen were there and where the evacuees were coming from. Since she said the park was open, however, I hopped into the driver’s seat for the hour drive up to Sequoia National Park. We were all really excited for this day and the drive was pretty special, too.

When we hit the entrance to the National Park, we were met by a National Park Ranger that was equipped with a very loud bullhorn. Upon seeing us driving towards him, he proclaimed:

Turn your car around immediately!

A mean and nasty National Park Range at Sequoia National Park

We felt like we were trying to illegally break into a military base. We were perplexed as to why we were rejected in such a harsh manner with no explanation. We could smell burning brush, but we had no idea that most of Sequoia National Park was on FIRE!

If you have ever watched the “Twilight Zone”, you can appreciate how we felt. Although we could see the helicopters flying in the region (apparently they were dropping water on the fires), it wasn’t until we stopped at a local produce store before the truth became clear.

We met a husband and wife at this produce store who told us the entire tale of the Sequoia National Park fires. They said that the park had been on fire for a month, and the fires were started by lightning strikes.

Mother Nature decided to cease all rain in that part of California for 9 or 10 months (more on this later), so when the lightning appeared, the couple knew that forest fires were likely. Luckily, their house had so far been spared, but apparently, the fires were massively out of control. That is why we were denied entrance to the park. This was the second curveball thrown to us by Mother Nature on this trip.

As shown in Figure 2, we were trying to enter the south part of the park on the road that snakes along the reservoir (look for the Park Headquarters). You can easily see that the fire was essentially at the entrance to the park, which is why we were summarily rejected!

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Since the park had been on fire for a month, and the concierge works at the closest hotel to the park, I have to wonder if she was living in La-La land, or if she has been asleep for the past month! I wonder how she could not know that the park was on fire!

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What Happened Next?

You will have to read the next installment of this series to understand how mother nature threw us another curveball, for the third consecutive day. She already had us down by two strikes, so she definitely wanted to strike us out! Please stay tuned.