From madness to tranquility

Up and out early this morning, without breakfast again, to beat the San Francisco traffic. All well and good, but the 7 o’clock start only really got us out of the immediate inner city traffic - we forgot that SF goes on for what seems like forever! Trusty phone GPS unbelievably reassuring, but goodness the American freeways are stressful! Steve was brilliant, even dazzled by the early morning sun strobing through the Bay Bridge supports like we were in some sort of bizarre open air car disco! About half an hour in to the drive, and still in about 5 lanes of traffic, I found the radio control knobs - and the song that burst through the speakers?, Under Pressure, by Queen and David Bowie! How we laughed! Lololol! Almost as much as when Steve tried to adjust the rear view mirror and it started speaking to him! Finally out in the open country, brown and dry like the Bombay hills in mid summer, and we could think about stopping for a bite to eat; MacDonalds :-(  I can’t remember the last time I set foot in one of those places. However, the hot oatmeal with fruit I had was, actually, very delicious and I would quite happily search one out again on this trip, it being extremely cheap also! 

We arrived at our accommodation to find the lovely owners had pinned instructions for us on the office window and left the door open for us to leave our bags inside - a very cute cabin fitted out entirely in pine. 

Having oriented ourselves, plastered on sunblock and changed into shorts - me for the

first time this trip - we headed off to Yosemite National Park Village. (Not before we had tried for about 10 minutes to get the blasted top down - we gave up, and Steve agreed to read the manual later - well, he is an engineer, always a last resort!) We had been struck already by the pall of smokey air all around, and as we drove onwards through Stanislaus Forest the enormity of what had happened, and is still happening, really hit us. So many trees just blackened and whole hillsides burnt away, ash carpeting the ground, almost looking like frost or snow. 

As we neared the National Park however, the trees became green once more, the air cleared and the majestic beauty of the place just had us in awe. I don’t have words, well, not at this time of night anyway, to begin to explain how insignificant we were made to feel by the towering, gleaming white granite cliffs. 

Far too many photos were taken, but at least we won’t feel the need to take as many tomorrow when we head back there for a bit of biking. Well, that’s what I’m saying now! We have a long drive tomorrow, over the Sierra Nevada down through Death Valley to Furnace Creek Ranch, and I just might have to do some of it. Holy ……. (replace with whatever you fancy!)