LDRS 2018, Local Advice

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MClark

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Last year I asked about local restaurants recommend to go to (and avoid). Turned out to be useful due to weather.
Looks like the hotel is the place for a steak, what about other places, no fast food places please..

Mark
 
Taco Tren is a food truck that comes to the launches some times. Good price and great tacos! Maybe some one in the know will know if it will be at LDRS.

Tony
 
My understanding is that Taco Tren will be there on site. I've gone to multi-day launches were I never left the site and I ate Taco Tren for almost every meal... I'm not sure if it will be there every day and for all meals this time, but i will ask around and find out.

Harris Ranch is a really good steakhouse, and they also have another restaurant which does meals all day, and a pretty good bar as well.

I will check with the locals and see what people say about additional recommendations, and maybe we can get the info put on the official website and posted back here.
 
I'm more likely to do fast food when I'm on my own, so I can't make any recommendations on restaurants unfortunately. Just across I-5 from Harris Ranch are a pile of fast-food joints, there's a McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Carl's Jr., I thought I saw a Subway in one of the gas stations. There is also a Denny's there, it looked like there used to be some other diner/buffet-type place but it was empty. As Thirsty says there are two restaurants in Harris Ranch, I've only done the steakhouse, not sure how much the menu at the other (more like a bar & grill) differs.

TCC's 3-day October Skies last year I stayed at the Motel 6 across from Harris Ranch, had one nice dinner at the ranch steakhouse and did fast food the rest of the time. Previously I've stayed at a Travelodge (now also a Motel 6) in the SW corner of Fresno (I-99 at the Belmont Ave exit, all of the closest hotels/motels are about a 30 min drive away, just in different directions), lots of fast food places around it also (one exit north, Olive Ave), but there should be more local restaurants there as well since it's not just a truck-stop.

The closest gas station (corner of Kamm & Lassen, very close) has a convenience store with a burrito (I think) stand inside it, haven't eaten anything there though so I can't comment on the food, and it might be more of a lunch and maybe breakfast option, not sure how late the stand is open. There's another market on the way from the site to Harris Ranch I've heard good things about (I think it's a deli, though I don't think it's open late, seemed like it was closed every night when I drove by).

Edit: San Joaquin, just a few minutes up Colorado Ave, also seems to have several restaurants (Mexican & Pizza at least, well rated per Google Maps). Have only ever driven through this town, never stopped there. :)
 
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I put this question to the TCC chat, and someone is putting together some kind of map for the area with restaurants on it. They’ll post it on the LDRS37.org website when it’s ready.
 
Oh, on non-food related topics, if you're going straight to the launch site from north on I-5, DO NOT FOLLOW Waze's advice! Waze will take you all the way down to Coalinga, you want to get off at the Manning Avenue exit (Exit 365), then head East on Manning until you get to San Joaquin, then turn right onto Colorado to its end, Right on Lassen and an almost immediate left onto Kamm after the train tracks & gas station. Saves you about 20 minutes, but for some reason Waze doesn't see this route as the better option until you're almost on top of the exit.

Edit: I'll note that once you do exit at Manning, Waze tends to quickly adjust and start playing along. And same issue heading north on I-5 from the site, it always tells me to turn left (south) from Kamm onto Lassen, but puts up more of a fight in this direction, when you do go north it then tries to turn you around for several miles. The right way is to reverse the steps above, right on Lassen, almost immediate left onto Colorado, when it gets into San Joaquin turn left onto Manning (and Waze shoiuld have corrected its bad guidance by then, where both the ETA and distance to go suddenly drops by tens of minutes/miles).
 
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Day trips near Fresno (lots of driving)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

National Parks (still early in the year, may have winter conditions.)

Yosemite National Park
Kings Canyon NP
Sequioia NP
 
TCC's 3-day October Skies last year I stayed at the Motel 6 across from Harris Ranch, had one nice dinner at the ranch steakhouse and did fast food the rest of the time. Previously I've stayed at a Travelodge (now also a Motel 6) in the SW corner of Fresno (I-99 at the Belmont Ave exit, all of the closest hotels/motels are about a 30 min drive away, just in different directions), lots of fast food places around it also (one exit north, Olive Ave), but there should be more local restaurants there as well since it's not just a truck-stop.

If one should decide to stay in Fresno, just about a quarter mile west of 99 on Olive, there's a little bitty place called Al's Cafe. (Easy to spot, used to be a Wendy's.) They only serve breakfast and lunch. I'm here to testify... Their food beats the daylights out of anything served by any place that starts with the letter D. I can recommend the cocido. Think vegetable beef soup like you've never tasted. I mean to tell you about delicious! But be hungry, or share it with a friend, cuz last time we were there, one bowl easily fed both my wife and I.
And I've seen the breakfast plates. You leave there still hungry, it's your own fault.
 
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Oh yes, Blackrock Bistro will be at LDRS37 also, more on that this weekend.

Yes, I will post locations. Will include all of the data above. Plan to have a KML file and GPX file for loading into a GPS.
Also, a map. More later ...
 
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