gcvmom
Here we go again!
We said good-bye to the stupid campers 
, the bears and the giant trees of Sequoia and set our sights on the next national park up the road: Yosemite. Now, Id already warned husband about how reservations for campgrounds in Yosemite Valley are taken far in advance, and since we had NO reservations for anywhere, there was a good chance wed be out of luck finding a campsite. Whatever. Didnt phase him. We were going and that was that.
Well, we made it as far as Fresno.
Ahhh, lovely Fresno. Its hot there. Very hot. Smack dab in the middle of Californias Central Valley. If youve ever eaten a raisin, chances are, it was grown in Fresno: 90% of U.S. raisins and 60% of the worlds raisins are grown and processed there. (Cant you just hear the California Raisins singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine )
It was 7pm and we were all tired. And hot. And hungry. The kids had been bickering on and off the whole trip
and I was about ready to blow my stack. 
We stopped at a Dennys coffee shop to eat and asked the manager about motels in the area. Following her directions, we found a Comfort Inn in the middle of what looked like an industrial/truck stop area off the main highway that runs through the valley. It was 9pm, still 90 degrees outside, and my protective paternal senses were tingling when I saw the low-rider cars cruising down the street and the barred windows on the shops. Not a warm fuzzy feeling in the least. 
Well, the room was clean, the pool was open for the kids, and the rate included continental breakfast, so we checked in anyway. husband parked the truck in the back with the bike rack up against the pool fence to discourage anyone from taking the bikes, and we went to bed with our fingers crossed, hoping our stuff would still be there in the morning.
It was.
We finally headed out by 10am for Yosemite. Then I realized that the memory card on my camera was just about full. And we were only 5 nights into our two week trip. Not good. I needed to find a place to buy a new memory card. But guess what? The kind I have is hard to find now because its soooo old (like maybe 3 or 4 years). My backup plan was to find a photo place that could download my files to a disc. We ended up stopping at lunch time in a town called Oakhurst, just outside of Bass Lake. They had a drug store that could process my disc, so we stopped for lunch. That little side trip took about two hours.
Now husband decides he wants to try fishing at Bass Lake since we're in the area, so we end up spending the day with the kids swimming and fishing at the lake, and we ended up staying at another motel in Oakhurst. The beds were heavenly... the best by far out of ALL the places we stayed. I seriously considered just staying there for the rest of the trip, they were THAT comfortable!
FINALLY, the next day we headed up the mountain for Yosemite.
, the bears and the giant trees of Sequoia and set our sights on the next national park up the road: Yosemite. Now, Id already warned husband about how reservations for campgrounds in Yosemite Valley are taken far in advance, and since we had NO reservations for anywhere, there was a good chance wed be out of luck finding a campsite. Whatever. Didnt phase him. We were going and that was that.Well, we made it as far as Fresno.
Ahhh, lovely Fresno. Its hot there. Very hot. Smack dab in the middle of Californias Central Valley. If youve ever eaten a raisin, chances are, it was grown in Fresno: 90% of U.S. raisins and 60% of the worlds raisins are grown and processed there. (Cant you just hear the California Raisins singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine )
It was 7pm and we were all tired. And hot. And hungry. The kids had been bickering on and off the whole trip
and I was about ready to blow my stack. We stopped at a Dennys coffee shop to eat and asked the manager about motels in the area. Following her directions, we found a Comfort Inn in the middle of what looked like an industrial/truck stop area off the main highway that runs through the valley. It was 9pm, still 90 degrees outside, and my protective paternal senses were tingling when I saw the low-rider cars cruising down the street and the barred windows on the shops. Not a warm fuzzy feeling in the least. Well, the room was clean, the pool was open for the kids, and the rate included continental breakfast, so we checked in anyway. husband parked the truck in the back with the bike rack up against the pool fence to discourage anyone from taking the bikes, and we went to bed with our fingers crossed, hoping our stuff would still be there in the morning.
It was.
We finally headed out by 10am for Yosemite. Then I realized that the memory card on my camera was just about full. And we were only 5 nights into our two week trip. Not good. I needed to find a place to buy a new memory card. But guess what? The kind I have is hard to find now because its soooo old (like maybe 3 or 4 years). My backup plan was to find a photo place that could download my files to a disc. We ended up stopping at lunch time in a town called Oakhurst, just outside of Bass Lake. They had a drug store that could process my disc, so we stopped for lunch. That little side trip took about two hours.
Now husband decides he wants to try fishing at Bass Lake since we're in the area, so we end up spending the day with the kids swimming and fishing at the lake, and we ended up staying at another motel in Oakhurst. The beds were heavenly... the best by far out of ALL the places we stayed. I seriously considered just staying there for the rest of the trip, they were THAT comfortable!
FINALLY, the next day we headed up the mountain for Yosemite.
Hope the suspense doesn't kill ya! I'll try to post the next "chapter" if I can tomorrow. It's already written. I just have to upload photos to photobucket...
