Yosemite National Park

I got up early this morning, 5 am and headed to Yosemite. It's my first time visiting Yosemite and I have one day, so I wanted to get an early start.

I packed up, put the garbage in the bear can, and headed out. I decided to try out my 12 volt coffee maker. I slid in a Cafe Verona k pod and nothing happened besides slightly warm water. I searched online for user manuals, read through Amazon reviews for suggestions, stopped and got thet AAA batteries out of the suitcase in the trunk, but they were corroded...so that didn't work. One hour down the road I was starting to get grumpy so I stopped at Starbucks.

I drove down the east side of Lake Tahoe, cut over to Carson City and took 395 down the other side of the mountain pass. It was a beautiful drive. Drove past Mono Lake. The one and only east entrance to Yosemite near Lee Vining just opened this week. It's called the Tioga Pass. There is still snow on the ground especially in higher altitudes. This entrance is only open in the summer. I wanted to see as much as possible so going in on the east side and driving all the way through seemed like a good idea. It was.... very beautiful. Lots of construction. I stopped at construction stops no less than 8 times today, several of them inside of Yosemite and some around Lake Tahoe. Each time I thought about Bart. Some of these stops were around mountain curves and blind. Signage was good though. I watched behind me like a hawk and pumped my brake lights verociously when a truck came barreling up behind me. One construction stop was over 30 minutes. I turned the engine off; I was down 1/4 tank and nervous. I also had to pee really bad. Part of the road in the Tioga Pass had completely eroded and filled in with dirt over the winter and they were digging it out and getting ready to re pave the road.

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