Last night we went for a final dose of sushi at a place within walking distance of home that we came to like. While in most places sushi is rather expensive, this one had really decent prices and an sushi chef. Some of the food can appear a little odd, but we didn't opt for sea urchin---instead things like spicy tuna, unagi maki (uses eel), or california rolls. With a difficult farewell, Isaka wished us luck and asked us to stop by again the next time we're in the area.
This morning we had a wonderful breakfast with some close friends of ours at Hobee's, a place in California offering yummy morning fare. The daughter of two of our friends particularly enjoyed the treat that the host made up for her (a cute smiley-face thing using fruit and whipped cream).
Left around 4:30pm. Gas is $1.49 in Mountain View. Car's jam-packed with stuff. Originally we had boxes full of belongings that we were going to leave in Maine to be shipped to Ireland in July. We had no chance. The car is 100% full, and this is after getting rid of tons of stuff. Yeesh. Took a picture of E in front of the Dublin city limits sign. Jill called on the cell phone; they may be in Vegas Sunday night. What if we stayed another night? Perhaps, if it's not too expensive! So we wolfed down McD's from the Rengstorff/101 one. At Long's a little earlier, the cashier said her whole family's from Ireland, and that she's in fact going there this summer as a graduation present.
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We had a barrage of things that we knew we couldn't bring with us. We made massive donations to Goodwill, the Mountain View library, and similar places. In particular, we were able to donate our bed and the dining table and four chairs, to the St. Vincent de Paul society. They knew of someone in East Palo Alto named Melvin, who could immediately use them. He's in a difficult state at the moment: his wife committed suicide, has 4 girls and a boy, and he's on dialysis. When we called to find someone who might be able to use the stuff, the person on the phone said they knew of someone right off who could receive them---to the point that the pickup truck leaving with the stuff was going directly to the fellow's home to deliver them. Awesome!
Took 580 East to 205 East, to 120 East. At the break with route 99 (goes to Sacramento and Fresno), you continue on 120 -- a two-lane road with a 40mph speed limit, sometimes. Sign said 116 miles. Yeesh, again. Back up to 55 mph, whew.
Gas in Escalon (102 miles away from MV) is $1.29.
Going thru Oakdale, Elana says, ``Hey wanna stay at Jerry's Hotel? Rooms by the minute!'' So I look on their sign for it to actually say that. Gas is $1.21 here. Town is the last service stop for 50 miles to Yosemite.
Later (8pm) ... Feels like we're on Little House on the Prairie. Trees, grass, water!
On the way to Yosemite, we took the ultimate winding path---it was on the side of really steep hills, and had no guard-rails around it. We couldn't see much of anything other than the road and the hillside next to us, unfortunately. Driving that route the next day showed us all of the beautiful trees and wildlife we'd crept by in the darkness of night.
9am PST, June 11 1999 Arrived at Yosemite at 9:30pm last night. Actually got to our campground at midnight. It's a big park. While lost, came across Yosemite Lodge, a hotel in the park, and decided to ask directions. At that point we were 45 minutes away from our Wawona. When we got out of the car, Elana heard a loud rushing sound. Didn't think anything of it, since she had seen a sign for lower Yosemite Falls. Getting back into the car, she saw an image like a ghost... When she blocked out the lights of the hotel, she could see, rising up in front of us, a huge rock face with a path of white cutting through it. We have never seen such a large waterfall!! And we barely saw it! That started to make all the hassle worth it.
Then, once we found Wawona Campground, we didn't know what to do (later, we saw on the camp hosts kiosk a list of where we were supposed to go, but that was when we were leaving...). B asked a man brushing his teeth at a bathroom and got the story. So we continued until we found an empty campsite (not an easy task in the pitch darkness).
Then we became a machine. Thank God we had set the tent up in the living room last week, or last night would have been hilarious. We were worried we were making too much noise, but when we woke up, the nearest tent was 4 spaces away! We know we saw a nearer tent last night. Anyway, we got the tarp down and the tent up, and put the food in the bear box. We were paranoid that we had forgotten some food and would wake up with a door missing on the car. So, we fell into our sleeping bags at 12:20a.
Woke up gently to birds and sun patterns on the roof of the tent. Very nice way to wake up! The air is much cleaner here than in the Bay Area--E was surprised by this at first, though she doesn't know why. The bird that we saw first when we woke up was a beautiful blue jay. It was really big, and flew from a tree branch to the ground perhaps five feet away. Breakfast was Crispy Wheaties and Raisins, and chocolate donuts and milk.
There was a man standing next to his car on the side of the road looking at the view across the valley, holding what looked like a remote control pointed at the mountain. God hitting the "Lake" button? He was gazing out at ``Halfdome'' a ways away.
Washburn Point, at the top of the mountain. We could see two waterfalls. Right across from us was Halfdome, and people were saying that yesterday there were 50 people on top that had climbed it. We were skeptical until we borrowed someone's binoculars and saw three people walking across the top of it; they were so tiny.
There's a place in Yosemite called Glacier Point, which lets you look down on the valley from an incredible vista point---at 7213 feet above sea level, to be exact. You see the valley floor below, and far across you can see the Yosemite Falls from a great angle. 'Twas about noon.
A little later in the afternoon we went to an area called Bridalveil, where you can come within thirty feet of the end of a magnificent waterfall.
5:30pm PST, June 11 1999 Built fire. Ug. A blue jay broke into our bag of trail mix (a gift) and stole at least two bits, till we caught it. Darn thing poked a hole in the bag.
From the bear box (a big metal box where you store your food and toiletries so bears don't break into your car or tent looking for food): "Leave no food out. Leave no food in you (sic) vehicle".
There are these little 1/8 inch bugs all over us. Tried Off (Deep Woods and Regular) but it didn't help. At least they're not biting us. They went away once it got dark.
As long as you don't see the bugs on your food, you're fine. We're not looking too closely.
We looked at the Atlas, we found it's likely to be a good 8-12 hour drive from here to Las Vegas. Yikes!
The rules are that you don't feed anything other than yourself. No bear snackies, no giving deers yummy little treats. If you do, the cutesy wootsey little animal may not be worthy of that description for too much longer. (Warning, the image for that link is kinda big.)
In this camping area, we see some tents similar to ours, and some serious RV's. B thinks those would be really cool. Imagine, all the amenities of home (well, some) with the beauty and freedom of being just about anywhere. Plus, of course, a satellite dish providing TV and some kind of Internet connectivity. :-)
It's now getting dark and the fire is glowing. About to put the last piece of wood on the fire. We make our first camping out dinner tonight...Trader Joe's Tortellini and sauce, salad with dressing packets stolen from a snack bar, and bread left over from lunch. Dessert was Earl Grey Tea and cookies--B's favorite. (Thanks Evans, Palmers, Knuttilas and Jason and Inga!) We decided when we were buying the goods for lunch to get a small sauce pot. Everything cooked in that. We're very proud of ourselves.
6:30am PST, June 12, 1999 Packed everything back up in about 50 minutes. Topped off the gas tank (at $1.71--ow!), and now heading to Vegas. The trip odometer reads 334.7 miles right now.
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On NPR, high school where grads received their diplomas in a box with a butterfly in it. Then, when the last person sat down, the boxes were opened, signifying how they're both being sent on an adventure, all in different directions.
Mystery: a green truck and a white truck, parked on the road from Wawona that have been there for more than three days. Hmm...theory is that there are rangers around who make note of such things.
Deer when we left! Crossed the road in front of us, just as we reached Tioga Road out of the park's center.
When you gaze across the water it looks glossy and calm, but when you look down into it, it's in fact racing by in a strong current.
It was 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) at 6:30 in the morning, but reaches between 70 and 80 during the day.
Note to self: most picnic areas have pee rooms. :)
Working our way out, we drove next to Tenaya Lake, which was just breathtaking. And the water was freezing. Back at the campground we tried putting our now tired and strained feet into the water, and could only stay for a couple of minutes before it was too cold for our own good. Tenaya was easily ten degrees colder than that. We're talking perhaps ten seconds in the water, tops.
We finally reached an elevation of 9945 feet at the top of Tioga Pass, then continued on into the ``vast'' Inyo National Forest---the only word we could think of that comes close to accurately describing it.
Along the way, we worked a bit on where we'd be going after we pass through Las Vegas. Brendan made note of the fact that we'd be crossing the Continental Divide. Our theory on the definition of its name: the point at which the direction of water flow changes. Everything to the West of the divide flows to the Pacific; everything to the East flows instead towards the Atlantic. Could someone verify or dispute this for us? :)
12:15pm PST, June 12, 1999 Reached Tonopah, car says we've done 556 miles. We turned on the car radio, guessing we might actually get some radio stations now. (It's a relatively small, dusty town, but you can hope.) We're greeted with, ``And here's our first bid on Cattle Corner---'' click. We'll try again later.
Sign we saw:
Museum --> Senior Center -->Hmm.
Gas in Tonopah is $1.62. Perhaps it's the problem of having a confined market?
Goldfield, Nevada --- home of the ``Glory Hole''! (Beavis and Butthead would have a blast with this one.)
1:25pm PST, June 12, 1999 Switched driving (Elana had driven everything so far, cuz she prefers to and gets car sick easily). We headed down a long, long road. Hot (89 F) and sunny. We haven't showered in two days. Folks don't look at us strangely, though. Perhaps it's cuz most people in these parts bathe weekly? Just kidding.
If the last sign is right, we'll get into Vegas at 777 miles on the odometer. Or, as Brendan puts it, ``An omen of things to come...''
We made it to Nevada!
Gas in Beatty: $1.45.
4:10pm PST, June 12, 1999 Helloooooooooo Las Vegas! Gas in Vegas: $1.19. Temperature? 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Among the many other things offered by Caesar's (including an awesome pool), you can take advantage of their extensive Caviarteria. No joke. You can have beluga, oscetra, and sevruga; champagne; martinis; or head upstairs to the lounge that stocks a selection of imported cigars. At some point it would probably come clear that your bank account has more digits than you have fingers...
3:30pm PST, June 13, 1999 Last night we walked a fair distance, in search for low-rate dinners. On the way, we passed casinos with 10x-odds craps, stores selling liquor, snacks, and the like, and places where you can pawn away your wedding ring to pay back the casino.
When we showed up at Caesar's, the first thing we did was shower---long, cleansing showers pretty much using up the soap bars. Two days of grunge peeled off, leaving us feeling fresh and re-energized.
In the large sports betting area, we watched the tail end of a Stanley Cup hockey game between Dallas and Buffalo (the favorite of a good friend of ours). There were long tables with portioned-off sections, similar to those in some university lecture halls. In those seats, the gamblers stage their bets on one of the things they're watching on the screens attached to the wall. Hockey, football, lots of horse races from around the world, and a ton of other activities. At the same time, they order drinks from the cocktail waitresses who happen by frequently. (We figured out the basis of these free drinks: the more you get the customer to drink, the more sloppy they get in their gambling---and the less they see their losses.)
Don Rickles had a show last night at the Desert Inn, and Earth Wind and Fire were playing Caesar's. Didn't go to either, of course---we're in el cheapo mode at the moment. :)
Left Caesar's, and packed the car again. Tighter! Lugged our huge heavy backpacks through the casino, where the tourist gamblers were playing with savvy looks on their faces. (Much like vampires, the serious players don't come out until the sun's long gone.)
We're sitting in a restaurant called Applebee's (a chain much like Chili's or other places), figuring out the next steps for the trip. We think we've worked out the logistics to upload this stuff and deliver email. Whee!
More in a few days. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, of course.
