Jelly Beans!
We had been talking about this one for a while, so we couldn’t get too far out of town before stopping at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. Bode insisted.
The tour is pretty interesting and you need to go on a weekday when all the machinery, robots, and people are busy working away on the factory floor. The amount of sugar in this place is mind-boggling and the pure tonnage of jelly beans can’t fully be appreciated until you see it first-hand. Bode was impressed. There were only two rules on the factory tour. Always wear your hat. No photos. We wore the hats.
Below are the never before seen top-secret inner-workings of the Jelly Belly candy company. Shhh…
After the tour we headed due east out towards our final destination: Bodie, CA. We took it slow and made frequent stops for Icees and the like. Every time we made a stop, someone wanted to come over and talk about the bus. My favorite introduction was…
I don’t care where you’re going. I want to come!
-unknown couple in parking lot
After chatting a bit, it turns out they’ve made dozens of kayaking trips down the Baja peninsula. If you’re reading this, send us some tips!
Anyway, back to not being in a hurry – it’s no surprise we didn’t even make it over the Sierras. We were headed out towards the Sonora Pass (arbitrary choice) in nearly 100F heat and the bus performed admirably, other than donating a hub cap to the mountains. If you live just south of Angels Camp and find a VW hub cap in your front yard… sorry. We got out and looked for it, really we did. Once it got later in the afternoon, we pulled over to a campsite for the evening and called it a day. Beardsly Lake looked good on the map, and kind of an appropriate choice (only realizing this now in hindsight) for Red Beard’s first night camping. Little did we know we would have to descend 2000 ft to the lake, but the price was right – free. The lake was nice enough, quiet, and the long descent put us in some pretty mild weather for the evening. Tonight’s dinner was PB&J, followed by roast marshmallows. Both Angela and I have lost almost 10 pounds over the past few weeks during the trip preparations, so we don’t feel to bad about caving in so early 😉
Hi guys,
I remember the climb and descent of the Sonora Pass. A couple of years ago I decided to take my 87 westy over the Sonora Pass to get over to Bridgeport (twin lakes) for some camping. I had my westy loaded down with all our camping gear and 3 dogs, it was a tough climb. Take it easy on the climb and make sure to use the low gears on the long downhill. Have a save trip over the hill.
This was the campground that we stayed in once we got over the hill. The campground was really nice and relaxing, they have a full service store and diner.
We finally made it to Bodie a few years back & thought it was a great destination. You gotta take some pics of Bode in Bodie 🙂 The Dardanelle Resort, before hitting Sonora Pass, is a neat place to stop & you can get gas, food, etc.
Glad to hear Red Beard is running like a champ. Going over Sonora Pass makes for a good shakedown. I’d be feeling pretty good about everything, after topping out & then heading downhill to 395 🙂
Looking forward to your next post.
Take care & have fun!
M&M
Supper of all the main food groups: fat, sugar and salt. Bodie must be lovin’ this…
Congratulations on a wonderful day, looking forward to tomorrow! Makes me wish I would of brought my Childs Cot from Daisy and joined you….. Peace 🙂
I’m leaving for San Felipe in a couple of hours. I’ll be sure to ask around about kayaking — though I can assure you my relatives have never done such a thing!
I can’t wait to hear about the Bodie adventures and see photos.
Be safe, y’all!
sugar, candy, candy corn, syrup and JELLY BEANS.
these guys actually do make candy corns too!
Right on! San Felipe is definitely in the plans for later this fall. Be sure and let them know we’re coming!
How was your drive over the pass?