Crazy Weekend -- Part 2

So that wasn't meant to be a cliffhanger ending. It's just that it suddenly became 10 pm and I couldn't type anymore. I honestly turn into a pumpkin at 10:00. It's true.

So back to the story....There's something about leaving for a weekend roadie at 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon that is so reckless. Daring. Irresponsible.

The irresponsible part was dumping my church duties on the Primary president at the last minute (again, sorry Aimee!). The reckless part is leaving town without a plan--but that's absolutely the best part too. I love a good roadie!!!

Luckily our kids are game for a good road trip too. Mostly.


Yosemite is only 3 or 4 hours straight south of where we live. IF the main mountain pass is open. But this year had crazy snow and the pass was nowhere near open. But Keith's need to be in the Center of the Known Universe was great enough that we took the long way without hesitation. It doubles the distance but we didn't mind. As we got rolling, we pulled out a map and made a tentative plan for where we would stop for the night. Jamestown is the biggest town before you hit the National Park land. We figured that would be a good place to find a cheap chain motel for the night.

We got to Jamestown at about 9 pm. The kids were finally nodding off and it was perfect timing. We passed the quaint historic hotels in the old part of downtown and, from Keith's recollection of his last drive through Jamestown on a rainy night 6 months ago, there was a newer strip-mall type area just ahead. There was sure to be a Comfort Inn or a Motel 6 there.

We passed a Taco Bell and a couple of shops closed for the night and then found ourselves back on the dark freeway. What happened to the rest of the town? Oh well, Keith remembered a bunch of tiny little towns with hotels along the way. We would just stop in the next town and find a room. The next "town" was 20 minutes away. It was called Chinese Camp. And, yes, there was a possibility that we could have slept there. There were a couple of dilapidated cottages with a spray painted sign out front, dimly lit by a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling of a dilapidated porch.

We kept driving.

It gets pretty dark at 10 pm, especially on winding roads with towering trees overhead. And remember, I turn into a pumpkin at 10:00. Girlfriend needed a place to sleep. Pronto. According to the map, there wasn't much ahead before we ended up on National Park land--there was surely nowhere to stop once we crossed that boundary.

Finally, there were lights ahead and we found ourselves in civilization. Groveland, CA. There was a darling little one-block downtown that still looked pretty lively. Lots of lights, a couple of bars and two cute, historic looking hotels. YES! I jumped out and went into the first hotel. The lady told me that they were all full. I asked where else we might stay. She said the only place that might still have room would be the Groveland MOTEL, a few blocks down the road. She really emphasized MOTEL. Ok. Fine. We soon found ourselves at the Groveland Motel. We drove past a couple of little cabins to the office.

The place looked dead. I walked into the office and tried to make enough noise that someone might hear me. Luckily a tired looking lady in ill-fitting sweats sauntered in.

"Do you have any rooms for tonight?"
"Well.....we do but all we have left are our family sized units."
"Ok...how much are they?"
"Well.....they have four beds in them. They sleep 8 people."
"That's bigger than I need. Is that really all you have?"
"Well.....yup. For one night it would be $150 plus tax."

I told her I would talk to my husband and be right back. Because HOLY FRIJOLES! I didn't plan on spending $150 at a MOTEL for this impromptu little journey! Sheesh!!! I got back in the car and told Keith what I had learned. My kids stared at me with their tired, bleary eyes. Finally, we decided that we didn't have much choice besides sleeping on the side of the road in an upright position in our Honda Civic. That wouldn't have gone over well for any of us.

So I went back in, gagged a little when I gave her my credit card, and walked out with the keys to our family sized unit--whatever that meant. She pointed me in the direction of the dark and off we went. We passed our family sized unit a couple of times until we realized what we were looking for.

People, we had just rented ourselves a doublewide trailer!!! Seriously!!!

We opened the plastic doorknob into a sprawling mobile home, complete with a kitchen full of lime green appliances AND a lime green kitchen sink. The floor had mismatched linoleum tiles peeling up all over the place and when we took off our shoes, our socks stuck like velcro to the rugs. A little creepy. But I think the rugs were strategically placed to cover the really obvious sags in the floor--the places where you might actually fall through. But the place was big. For a motel room.

Party in the doublewide!!


It's always fun when you go camping late at night and wake up the next morning to figure out where you are. But I couldn't really wrap my mind around this view.


As we drove back to the office to drop off our key, we realized it could have been worse. So much worse. This was Suite 13. The one next to it might have been the honeymoon suite. See the flowers out front?
I still can't believe we dropped 150 bills to sleep in a trailer park.

Anyway, the day was about to get better. We only had an hour or so to drive before hitting the valley.


THEN....we came to this:


And were greeted by THIS:


Hello, Captain. It's been far too long.


In case you were wondering, this is THE CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, the thing for which all life revolves for someone who climbs big rocks. The biggest, baddest rock climb ever. Keith and the kids are planning their route up the granddaddy of them all...The Nose:


Keith is telling Bennett of his past escapades on El Cap's right side.


We spent a few minutes gawking at the climbers living high above us for a couple of days. Oh to be so free!!! (And in climbing shape like that....)


Yosemite is jaw-droppingly amazing. Pictures can't even tell an inch of the story.


We stopped at the store (for some tasty verde tamales) and spent a few minutes at the visitors center. Leah got a few minutes of one-on-one time with John Muir.


Our goal for the day was to hike the Four Mile Trail, which would take us from the valley floor to the top of the rim with a measly (haha) 3,000 foot elevation gain. The last mile of the trail was closed due to snow up high so it was really a three mile trail (six round trip). As we were getting ready, we had a bear sighting (where's smokey?)--

This is not the Card family's first bear encounter in Yosemite. Our first was several years ago and involves a little illegal breaking and entering (by the bear, not us). Definitely a good story on it's own. Another adventure for another day...

One of our biggest reasons for wanting to be in Yosemite that weekend was to see the waterfalls. With such a HUGE snow year like we've had, we knew the waterfalls would be absolutely raging. And they were. There was so much water coming off the falls and waterfalls appeared where they don't usually exist. It was awesome! Our hike would give us the best view of them all.



About halfway up, we had a little blue visitor. Bryce loves birds and it was fun to check this guy out as he came and landed on a tree pretty close to us. We took a minute to look at him then continued on our way.

The bird flew off but we saw him on another tree branch at the next switchback. And then at the next switchback. And pretty soon we realized that this bird was along for the ride. This little dude flew from tree to tree all the way to the top of the trail. It was a little weird but he was totally harmless. Even ate peanuts out of Keith's hand.

I have a feeling we weren't the first hikers to be friends with this little bird. I am starting to think that Yosemite is just a natural setting for a zoo. We think we are out in the wild wilderness going there but it's just a bunch of tame, trained animals putting on a Shamu-like show for all us idiots looking for mild adventure.

But the scenery is for real. This was as high as the trail would allow us to go.

A picnic lunch at eye level with Half Dome is pretty freaking awesome.


Too bad he missed out on our prime Half Dome view spot.


The waterfalls definitely did not dissapoint. Yosemite Falls was so massive, it sounded like an airplane flying overhead, even from the other side of the valley. Amazing.


And then we got in the car and drove home.

It was a long stinkin drive for a 24 hour getaway. But totally TOTALLY worth it!

Even the trailer park.