3 Monday
Set out for our BIG trip from Half Moon Bay at about 10am after saying our good-byes to Russell & Novey and Novey's brother and her parents etc.  Very misty and foggy and quite cold as we left the B&B.   Filled up with petrol (gas) at Half Moon Bay (with the pump attendants assistance) and headed out on highway 92 then connected to highway 280 and then south east curving around until we met highway 101 south of San Jose.  We later realised that it might have been better if we had gone on the 85 to meet with the 101. We continued down the 101 turning east at Gilroy and then headed off east on the 152.  Further on we pulled off at the junction of 156 and 152 at a rest area/rest rooms/lunch rooms which included a small zoo and childrens amusement area. We had lunch there consisting of a wonderful tasting cherry pie and coffee.

A rest stop along the Interstate 5

The cherry pie was so good we marked it on our list of 'discoveries' and resolved to get some later.  Bought some fruit and then continued on the 152 until we met the interstate I5 just short of Los Banos.  Then 70 mph down the I5 into the San Joaquin valley.   We noticed that the large lorrys don't hold back on the interstate, some of them hurtling along at 75 mph and traveling in conveys of 4 or 5.  After several hours on the I5 we came to the junction with 198, then turned east again through the fertile agriculture areas around Hanford to Visalia, our destination for the day.  Almost by chance we pulled off the 198 highway about 2 miles short of the downtown area to try and locate where the Lamp Liter Inn would be.  Enquiries at a garden center were not productive and we were just starting off again heading into town when Sally spotted the motel on the other side of the freeway about 200 metres away.  Well spotted!  And that saved a lot of potentially stressful searching.  It was very hot in Visalia, probably over 34 degrees with a hot breeze blowing.  We rang Russell on the cell phone to report our safe arrival, the call costing 75 cents and lasting 1m 34s. (Russell thought the cost would have been the same as if he had made it from his home phone). We had dinner at the Inn's Bar and Grill and tipped our first tip after paying close attention to how the other customers handled the big tipping issue.  So, having got over that hurdle we decided to walk off our dinner by walking part way into down town, noticing some very up market houses on the way. The town center turned out to be a bit too far away so we returned to the motel for a cup of tea and to make plans for the following day.  Decided that we should stay two nights at Visalia which would give us time to go around both Sequioa and Kings Canyon National Parks.