Road Trip Part 1

The Griswald's, I mean Murphy's are on their way. OK, we look like the crazies- large truck, large 5^th wheel, & 3 small children. For those of you who don't know what a 5^th wheel is its a trailer that attaches to the back of the truck bed instead of the trailer hitch and it has a kingpin. (things I've learned being married to my truck loving man. I would go so far as to say it feels like we are traversing this land in a monster truck:) Anyway, we left home Friday morning by 9, got two miles down the road and I tested my man's patience...my cell phone was sitting on the kitchen table. As we pulled into Dutch Brothers to turn around, might as well make the best of this unexpected stop and grab a coffee, Dawson (3yrs) says, “are there? Are trip?” We looked at each other and laughed; our first are we there yet. So, with many apologies, we made a quick detour home. Got the phone & coffee.

Headed south on I-5, Northern California is beautiful. 

Mt Shasta in Northern California

 The orange groves stretch for miles. I had never seen an olive tree before moving here, saw the olive trees. And, the grapes go on and on. The wineries are like looking at the ocean, they go on as far as the eye can see. We pushed our way south; this was a driving day. Friday night we were on the prowl for a free nights stay at the Merced Wal-Mart. It was real special. The train ran all night (smile).

orange grove

Olive trees

Saturday morning we headed into Yosemite National Park. My man had been here before (he thinks but doesn't remember it, sorry Mom & Dad he says) but this was a first for me. We were told to fill up the gas tank before getting to the park, that was some good advice! We stopped in Mariposa, what a cute little town. It reminded me of Jacksonville, OR. Main Street was so quaint, I would want to stop here again. But, the drive into Yosemite took my breath away. Not only was the landscape amazing, the weather was clear, blue and a mild 60 degrees. (there is a 90% chance of snow for tomorrow) We started down a flat stretch and in the distance we could see mountains. It was pasture land full of the cattle we see on tv commercials, we had a moment of silence for them. ha. We gradually started an uphill climb; then it felt like all of a sudden we were straining our necks to see the cliffs that surrounded us. Honestly, our hearts were pounding at seeing this part of God's creation. At the entry of Yosemite, my man turned to me and said, “It feels like we are going into Disney, where you know everything you are about to do and see is just going to be bigger and better.” And he was right, it was so much more than we imagined. God made it majestic. It was hard to keep focus on any one thing, it was like creation turned into “eye candy”, there was something to take in around every corner. Thanks to one of my man's patients, we had a list of things not to miss in the park. We drove straight to Bridalveil Falls. We took the short hike to the base of the falls (it felt so good to stretch our legs). Stunning. On our drive further in we saw El Capatan. I'm almost at a loss to describe this one (almost) large, massive, gI-normous, as the kids would say. It stands 3,593 feet tall from bast to summit. We saw Yosemite falls; it drops 2,425 feet and is the tallest waterfall in North America. Half Dome dominated almost every view from the valley floor. My man is wanting to come back here and climb Half Dome this summer; now that I've seen it, it looks more like impending doom than dome! Insane. By now we dropped the 5^th wheel off (just fyi Yosemite is not the most trailer friendly park. Actually, I was shocked at average size car, think Prius.) At this point we really needed to get out of the car and hike! The kids needed to run and I wanted to breath some fresh air. We parked at Happy Isles and started hiking to Vernal Falls. It is a .8 mile hike but when you add on our getting on the wrong trailhead and a few dead end trails we turned it into a bit more than that. Finally, on the trail we started a completely uphill climb. Did I mention it was completely uphill and we have small children? I pulled Dawson the entire way up and he pulled me the whole way down. The views were spectacular and we LOVED the hike. I really wanted to see The Ahwahnee. It is a grand hotel that opened in 1927 and still receives rave reviews. A must see if you find yourself at Yosemite. Maybe, someday we will stay a night in this historic hotel? On our way out of the park, we drove up to Tunnel View. Wow. Wow. It was the perfect ending to our amazing day at Yosemite. The drive out of the park and down to Fresno was steep! My man is one good driver and he loves to teach me about 1^st and 2^nd gear used in tandem with the breaks, funny thing is I won't be driving this trip I have a feeling, but I try to be a good student.:)

Bridalveil Falls

Dawson feeling his freedom from the car seat

We seem to always choose to go in the direction of the restrooms:)

We decided to drive the hour to Fresno and look for another (drum roll please) Wal-Mart. We found one but this side of the tracks said no more trailers in the parking lots, bummer because I could tell there were no train tracks around. But, thanks to my trusty iphone map we found North Blackoak RV park a mile away. Praise the Lord, it was 9 at night we had sleepy kids, and they had one pull-thru left. We got to hook up for the night!! Thank you Lord for that one.