Phew! We've been more than a week on the road, and this is the first chance I've been able to use the computer. The first couple of days, going across Nevada, there was no internet service at all. When we finally got to somewhere where we could theoretically get on line, we discovered our aircard had broken (again!) and so we couldn't connect. We are now staying in a very civilized campground with Wi-Fi, so I'm finally able to blog. Maybe. On our Colorado trip in July, I blogged faithfully, but kept getting error messages from blogger.com when I tried to post them, even after we got home. I will try to catch everybody up and keep my fingers crossed that it actually makes it into cyberspace.
The Royal Palms pulled out of the driveway Fridaymorning, September 25th. The excuse for this trip (as if we needed one) was a Skinnie Winnie rally in Laguna Seca, CA, near Monterey. We had attended a rally with this group last summer on the Oregon coast and really enjoyed it, and thought it would be fun to hook up an hang out with our old friends again. While we were at it, we thought we'd stretch it out and poke around central and northern California. I'd always wanted to see Yosemite, wanted to visit my brother in Santa Rosa, and then just wander around for awhile. We'd figured out a tentative route, made some campground reservations, and were ready to go. Then, the week before we were to leave, Steve decided that he really wanted to attend another rally in Farmington, New Mexico, as well. It was happening just a week after the Skinnie Winnies, and he figured we could just make it. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but hey, why not!
Yosemite was our first destination, and the usual way to get there from here is I-80, a straight, albeit boring, shot across Nevada. Steve wondered aloud about trying I-6 through Ely and Tonopah, noting that it was shorter and could possibly be more interesting and scenic. Again--why not? Ely was our first stop. I found a great NFS campground up in the mountains south of Ely called Big Springs. The campground had closed for the season (host gone, water turned off), so it was free. Large shady sites and only one other rig in the whole place. It had miles and miles of marked trails for hiking, mountain biking, and cross country skiing, and we spent a couple of hours in the morning before we left exploring on our bikes, the dogs running happily alongside. The photo with the motor home is our campsite. Pretty, huh!
If you've ever driven I-80 across Nevada and thought it was the most barren place on earth, you are wrong. I-6 is, believe it or not, even worse. Once you leave the Ely area, which is quite pretty, things quickly deteriorate. Flat, barren, brown, and dusty. No plants, not even desert plants. A few not especially nice-looking mountain ranges off in the distance. We got across Nevada as quickly as we could and spent the night in a hot, dusty, overpriced campground ($20 no hook ups) near Bishop, CA, because Steve was sick of driving and there weren't any better options.
From Bishop, we drove north through a cute town called Lee Vining, and stopped for coffee at a place called Latte-Da. They had yummy homemade pastries as well as drinks, and we each had a slice of chocolate poundcake, chock full of chocolate chips and laced liberally with espresso with our coffees. We stopped at the visitors' center at Mono Lake just outside of town and got camping and hiking recommendations from the ranger for some NFS campgrounds on the way to Yosemite's east entrance over Tioga Pass. Thus it was that we spent my 61st birthday at Saddlebag Lake, elevation 10,087 feet. It's a 20 site campground just above a beautiful blue-green lake ringed by 1200 foot peaks. There's a water taxi that will take you (and your dogs!) across the lake to hike the 5 mile scenic Twenty Lakes Loop, or backpack into the wilderness, but we got there too late to do that, so instead opted for the around-the-lake trail (also 5 miles). It was a flat, easy trail, which was good, because at that altitude, even hiking from the lake up to our campsite got me huffing and puffing. That's Steve and Ellie taking a break, and a view of Saddlebag Lake. I still haven't figured out how to get the pictures where I want them in a post--they mostly end up on top, and out of order. Sigh.
Next day, it was on to Yosemite. I'm going to try and post this now, and finish catching up later. Photos in the next post. Steve is off with the camera somewhere.
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