Apr 30, 2013 - Yosemite

Monday we spend all day in Yosemite National Park. It is a gorgeous show of nature especially at this time of the year. In the valley every tree is budding or flowering and all around you see giant waterfalls and because of the early spring thaw they are just gushing. The mountains around stand majestically and looking out over the Yosemite village tucked away in the valley. There was lots of activity but not nearly like you would find in summer. It was a wonderful and awesome experience. We stayed on a campsite just outside the park and...

Apr 29, 2013 - Yosemite

We spent the day with my cousin's Michael & Constance in Yosemite Nat. Park... What wonderful day... Great weather, super company and some of the most beautiful sights we have seen... A big THANK YOU! to our California cousins for showing us around the park... We also had a great lunch at the lodge in the park... A fun day... Too many pictures to post here, you can click here .... Yosemite Album to view all of the sights we photographed..

Apr 19, 2013 - I found Biff

Today I left Yosemite and headed north along route 49 to Jackson, CA. I restocked the RV at Safeway and pulled into the Safeway gas station where I had the unfortunate luck of discovering "Biff" from the "Back to the Future" movies. I had to wait 20 minutes for Biff to detail every inch of his car before he finally left and I could pull up to the pump. He wiped every speck of dirt off of each hubcap and cleaned every inch of the car. What a butt-head. If I wasn't towing my car I could have backed up but alas I had to wait. I'm not willing...

Apr 18, 2013 - Vernal Falls

Happy Birthday Mom! I hiked up to the top of Vernal Falls today. There are about 10,000 steps to get to the top. Ok, I really don't know how many steps there actually are but it is a huge number and they are large granite block steps. I made it and enjoyed the view from the top and all the rainbows the mist created on the way back.

Apr 17, 2013 - 4-Mile Trail Hike

Woke up to a cold but otherwise nice clear day. I decided to hike up as far as I could go on the "Four Mile Trail" which ends at Glacier Point. At this time of year you can only get so far (2.8 miles) before a gate and sign warn about the rest of the path being closed for the season. The trail is clearly marked and paved in many areas. Like many ascending trails it turns into switch backs… many many of them. Along the way I met a woman heading up alone and we chatted all the way up. She was from the San Francisco Bay area, about a 4 hour...

Apr 15, 2013 - Fire-Flies - not

Tonight Buddy and I were out walking late, about 9:30pm. It was very dark and many stars were out. We were on the board walk that goes through a meadow and is quite long. We got about a third of the way along and I noticed what looked like odd colored fire flies. In April? I don't think so. We continued to walk toward them when it all became quite clear. There were about a half dozen young people in search of a cell phone connection! Each one of them was moving in their own pattern reaching high in the sky trying to please the cell...

Apr 14, 2013 - Yosemite National Park, CA

On our first day in Yosemite we went to the south entrance (the closest) and the Mariposa Sequoia Grove. It may seem like we have seen a lot of trees, but these trees you never get tired of looking at. Some are near the parking lot but most of them are in the upper part of the grove, so we hiked up 2 miles and 1,200ft. There are a lot of very big pines and cedars here, but the sequoias stand out in the forest from far away because of their golden color. They shade out the competition so they are usually by themselves in a bright patch of...

Apr 14, 2013 - Final spot in Yosemite

The final move! I reserved a site for 5 more days but have to move the RV 3 spaces from here. One last tight spot and that will keep me going until I depart on Friday the 19th. 12 nights and 13 days here! In May you can only stay a max of 7 days so I did good even with all the annoying moving. How tight is tight you ask? My RV has two slide outs and I couldn't open the bedroom slide because the trees were that close. Not to mention all the granite boulders hiding too, out of sight from all mirrors. The new spot is tight but right on the...

Apr 13, 2013 - Saturday Wait List

Was #2 on the wait list and everyone on the list got a site. Most of them were in tents not behemoth RVs. After moving the RV again to the parking lot for the day I got a new site for another night. Managed to back in to the left again around a few trees without a huge problem. Was going to ask the only people close by to help but after studying them for a minute… decided to lock my car and do it myself.

Apr 12, 2013 - Wait listed

So at 7:30am I was at the registration office to get on the "waiting list". You sign up on the list and then come back at 3pm to see if they have a spot for you in the campground. The whole system is done on paper. People walk around the campgrounds and check each site to see if it is taken by the person who registered. Very slow process. Anyway I came back at 3pm and got a site for 1 night, which is all they give out on the Friday wait list. So I moved the RV to it's new spot and it is a blind side back-in (that means I have to back in on...

Apr 11, 2013 - New camping spot in Yosemite

Packed up the RV and moved about 120 feet to my "new" camping spot. This is listed as a 35 foot site but somebody needs a new tape measure. Two guys behind my site came over to help guide me back because of three very close trees and then to get the RV back all the way I had to take off the car towing hitch assembly… where did I put those keys last summer??? After getting setup I went on a nice 15 miles bike ride. It was about 72 degrees out and what a nice day.

Apr 10, 2013 - Vernal Falls

Third full day here in Yosemite. I did a nice hike up to the Vernal Falls. Very pretty area. Chatted with a school chaperone for awhile. He is here with 25 grammar school kids - whoa - and not a Ritalin vending machine to be found. Buddy and I drove up route 120 to explore and to confirm that my RV will fit through a tunnel with a 10'-8" height warning. Luckly it is an arch and the edge is the warning area. My RV will fit just fine or I'll have a convertible RV. We also explored the stone entryway arch that we had to drive through on the...