Day 34 - Yosemite, Infinity and Beyond!

We left Manteca after a great evening with Jan and Mike. It was toooo soooon to leave!

We pulled out about 9:45 am headed to Groveland, CA and Yosemite. Friends of ours, Jean and John Bell who now live in Sonora are meeting us at the campground. John did radio in Birmingham and Mobile for a number of years and you've probably heard his voice on lots of commercials. The have a Mini-Winnie RV (not to be confused with our mini-weiney (Chrissy).

We've now covered 6,000 miles, but it was time to stop for gas. Everyone said to buy our gas in Oakdale so we did. It was $4.57 a gallon! YIKES!

It's June 14 so it's Flag Day. Many of the small towns we've passed through have flags waving everywhere. It's really a beautiful site.

We also saw a new calf! Mama was nudging the baby to get up and baby had gotten the two back legs up. She was gorgeous!

What can I say about the last six miles getting to the campground? Warren - you might have gotten me with Tony Stewart, but you really got me about not telling me about Priest Grade! WOW! You see a sign telling you to turn off your A/C for the next five miles. We can see waterlines running up the mountain, but had on idea we were going the same way!

Some of you may remember our incident with Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado a few years ago. Eight miles up and eight miles down and cross it at 13,800 feet. Well, Priest Grade goes straight up in six miles. It twists, it turns, it makes transmissions run hot! David wasn't sure we'd make it and neither was I. I could see us in the river WAAAYYYYY down below.

We got to the campground and after a "discussion" about our sites, one of the guys here said Old Priest Grade was the scarier road. It takes 6 miles to get up the hill on New Priest, and 2 on Old Priest. I don't even want to know!

If found this info:

A note about old and new Priest Grade Roads

The final approach to Groveland involves a ride up Priest Grade. One has two route choices, left (Highway 120 and New Priest) or right (Old Priest) up the canyon.

New Priest Grade: This is Highway 120 and is 6 miles and very curvy. In the East bound direction (uphill) The passenger will be sitting on the outside of the hill, overlooking the edge. Buses and trucks use this route. It tends to flow at somewhere between 25 and 35 miles per hour.

Old Priest Grade: This is a narrow country road, not a State Highway and is half the curves of New Priest Grade, a third the distance, very steep at three times the pitch and flows at 25 miles per hour or less. Weight restrictions.

Many folks recommend up the old, down the new, keeping the passenger always on the inside of the hill. Very polite!

I was on the passenger side!

As we were coming up the hill, I did see a guy going down the other road on a skateboard. I didn't want to watch as I knew he probably wasn't going to make the first curve at the speed he was going!

We got settled in at the campground and Jean and John pulled in. After visiting for a bit, we headed out to Yosemite. It was stunning. At the first viewpoint where I could see El Cap and Half Dome, I couldn't breathe!

We passed several signs about bears that read "Speeding Kills Bears." John just made the comment that if they were speeding, they should have the licenses taken away! Cracked us all up. John does comedy for a living, so check out his website: http://thebatfry.com You can also listen to his comedy podcasts on I-Tunes or through your computer.

Chrissy was with us and when she is we keep a plastic bowl on the transmission hump for her. When she wants water, she pulls the bowl on the seat and we pour her water out of a bottle. welllll.....We're going through one of three tunnels and I make my usual joke about how dark it is in here and David makes the usual comment about taking off your sunglasses. We came out of the tunnel and Chrissy pulled her bowl up. I pour her drink into and looked down and it was dark! She's lapping it up like there is no tomorrow. I checked and had poured her a bowl of Dr. Pepper! I felt so bad...especially when she started belching!

The Park is crowded, but we made our way through. I could have stopped every few feet to take photos, but it was getting late so we headed back to the campground to make dinner.

David planned to cook some rib eyes and marinate them in Moore's Marinade. It's a salty, soy based marinade. He was drinking Dasani from a bottle and had mixed Kool-Aid in the water. He laughed and said he almost drank the marinade by mistake. A few minutes later he's at the kitchen sink spitting out stuff and drinking water from the tap and spitting again. Turned out he did drink from the marinade! Didn't take him long to realize it wasn't his Kool-Aid!

John fixed green beans, I fixed fresh cauliflower with cheese sauce, and we had a great dinner outside. Jean and I talked and we all stayed up toooo late!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)