San Joaquin Valley




We're having a good time in the San Joaquin Valley.  We got to Kingsburg on Monday, September 20th and stopped right away to see Uncle Jack. He's living in a nice retirement complex where he has his own apartment.  The complex has a dining room where he has breakfast and lunch, then dinner is on his own. He's doing well and is a pistol as always.

Katy, Hannah, Uncle Jack, and Mickey at Uncle Jack's place.



Right now we're staying in the RV area at the retirement community Uncle Jack lived in before moving into the apartments.  We have a pretty park with roses and a horse shoe pit right out our door, and lots of manicured grass which Sophie loves.



Uncle Jack, Mickey, Bennie

We met Uncle Jack's dear friend Bennie Gonsalves, his wife Delores, and three of their seven children, Barbara, Brandon, and Terry.  What a nice family.  He's certainly been blessed to have such great friends.  Uncle Jack and Bennie have know each other for about 50 years.  

Bennie gave us a tour of his dairy and of his fabulous family museum.  He's really put together an impressive place.  How nice to be able to display such precious family memories and to share them with others.  We really were amazed.





Bennie, Hannah, Katy, and Mickey at the museum.

Katy and Hannah in the milking barn.

Along with dairies, this area of California produces nuts, fruits, and tons of grapes for both table use and for raisins.  Having never seen how raisins are dried, we were surprised to see them laying out on paper in the fields to sun dry. Back home the fire ants would have a field day this that. 

 The grapes are hand picked and placed on paper trays on the ground to sun dry.  At the right time, the papers are rolled into packages and left on the ground a few more days before going to the plant for processing.  We also visited and Sun Maid Raisin plant and had the most wonderful chocolate cherry raisins, Yum.



We'll be here in the Kingsburg area through the weekend.  We plan to visit Sequoia National Park tomorrow or Saturday, then Mickey and Uncle Jack are going to the casino.  The weather has been so nice, warm but not hot during the day and cool in the evening.  For us it's like Summer has barely arrived, except it's already Fall.

We thinking about you all back home.  Love and miss you.  We'll post again soon.