Looks Like We Made It!

I am writing this from Mono Vista RV Park, in Lee Vining, CA. We have now officially made it “across the country”, having travelled from New Jersey to California. And if all goes well, we will reach our westernmost destination, Yosemite National Park, in a few hours. It is a very strange and satisfying feeling to realize that after planning this trip for about a year, after devising the route to take us to Yosemite by today, and after telling everyone that we would be in Lee Vining by last night—to actually BE here last night, just as planned, despite carburators and other potential delays and problems. And here we are, with a cool morning (promising to get warmer), a view of Mono Lake from the campground, and the sound of nothing much other than chirping birds outside our windows. We’re finishing breakfast and then will try to 1) find a hot spot; 2) stop at a post office; and 3) begin our drive into Yosemite.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. Our drive took us through northern Nevada, on the Interstate, and then on a straight southern route to California. Nevada was not at its most beautiful yesterday. In fact, I’d have to say the terrain was fairly monotonous, and at times downright ugly. The rest stop at our interstate exit contained not one blade of grass—the ground was entirely covered with gravel, and the ground under the gravel was white—Nevada, too, has its “alkaline flats”. I considered photographing it and entitling it “the ugliest rest stop in America”. It wasn’t until we passed Hawthorne, NV, that we began to climb into the mountains and the area became pretty. And soon after we reached the summit, we passed the Welcome to California sign!

It wasn’t long until we saw the vista of Mono Lake in the background, looking gorgeous in the late afternoon sun. Joe and I were here with Beth in 1998, and explored the lake with its odd tufa formations and, as Beth still remembers, strange little flies which clustered at the surface of the lake and scattered if you reached toward them. We didn’t stop this time, because we were eager to reach the RV Park—the only one in the area with electricity and, most important last night, a laundry room. We were lucky to get the last campsite available.

So, the first major portion of our vacation is now complete. I don’t know if we will be successful in finding some wifi in Lee Vining, which is a tiny little town with a few tourist amenities, but perhaps not that one. If I do get this blog up this morning, it is my last time to wish everyone a Shanah Tovah. I am quite sure that there is no wifi inside the granite walls of Yosemite valley. So I’ll write my blogs and post them all after we leave the park, sometime on Sunday the 16th.