On Hwy-99, 146 miles South of Sacramento. Few people stay in Madera longer than it takes to drive through or swing east towards Hwy-41 and Yosemite National Park. While here, though, find an hour for the deserving Madera County Museum, 210 W. Yosemite Avenue, which does a more than adequate job of remembering the town’s pioneer days. Alongside a welter of knick-knacks of early settlers and re-creations of a blacksmith’s workshop, a miners’ cabin and a county store, there is a partially rebuilt flume – a construction used in the transportation of lumber, which was the reason for Madera’s founding on the Fresno River in 1876.

For any wine enthusiasts that find themselves here for longer, do try out the Madera Vintners Association’s wine trail, which, as they say, does indeed feature some of California’s finest wines (http://www.maderawinetrail.com).

Detour – Coalinga

Aware that oil pumps are not the world’s prettiest things, the school kids of Coalinga, 64 miles south of Madera on Hwy-145, painted a group of them to resemble clowns, animals and various imaginary creatures – their heads bob up and down in a steady rhythm. The site, nine miles north of the town centre, is now known as the Iron Zoo.