Day 10 - June 16

Day 10- Drive to Yosemite National Park   June 16

Ed woke up early; I think mostly from worry about what to do about our fuel situation. He sat in a camp chair as the rest of us slept for a long time, listening to the creek flowing beside us and thinking about our dilemma. After Cameron and I woke up and joined him, we watched the chipmunks and squirrels frolic around,  Ed said that he wanted to attempt driving the 10 miles to get to the Stony Creek Village for gas and not wait for AAA. He figured that it was mostly downhill from where we were and we wouldn’t have the heavy load of the camper behind us to weigh us down. We told Cameron about our plan so he could fill in the other two when they woke up. I grabbed some water, some snacks, my wallet with my AAA card inside, and we drove off, leaving the kids behind. I hoped that this was the right thing to do. We of course didn’t know beforehand, that the next campground we would encounter was still even steeper in elevation. We climbed to almost 7000 feet before descending again and curving around the north side of the mountain pass. The whole time we drove, we spoke of our hope that we would make it and our fears that we might not. We continued to hear the squeal of our brakes and watch the fuel light continue to shine orange.  Every chance that we could coast downhill, Ed put it into Neutral to conserve fuel. The short squiggly line on the map was not a true indicator of how long a trek we really had. Once again, we were amazed that we made it the entire distance without any sputtering or more importantly, running out of gas. We were so happy to see the Village sign, which had the symbol beside it indicating they had gasoline. We had no qualms at all paying the $4.09 a gallon. In fact, we would have paid much more. Once we filled the tank up to the brim, we happily entered the Visitor Center. We got ourselves a coffee and picked up some ice for our cooler and donuts for the kids. We were giddy driving back to the Lodgepole Campground, knowing we somehow narrowly escaped a very unpleasant situation.

When we arrived back at the site, all the kids were up and ready for the day. Ed really wanted to stay another day to enjoy the forest, so we made a compromise. We packed up our trailer and parked it in the visitor parking area. They offer free shuttle service to the visitor centers in the forest as well as the favorite stops, such as the trail leading to General Sherman, the world’s largest tree. We were able to quickly hop on to a bus and make our way down to the gigantic tree. It is not the tallest tree, but it has the widest girth of any other. We took the obligatory photos in front of it and not long after we were back on board the shuttle to our van. We stopped in the Lodgepole Visitor Center to get Ed a commemorative shirt for Father’s Day and got a meal from their deli to satisfy us for a while.

We still had a long drive ahead of us and we were determined not to get there after dark again. This night’s stay was going to be near Yosemite National Park, but again by just looking at the map, it’s difficult to tell how incredibly windy the drive is. We left at 2:30 and hoped that it really would only take 3 ½ hours as the TripTik indicated. I helped drive a large portion of this trip, since Ed was spent from the previous drive. We had more hills to navigate around and curvy, narrow roads as well. We were driving through Kings Canyon. Ed kept on questioning whether or not we really wanted to go to Yosemite and if we should just forego this destination. After a few hours, we thought we should just give in and find something closer. Ed was tired and grumpy. When the GPS finally showed some other accommodations, it would have only shortened our trip by 20 minutes. Since we had already had put a deposit down on the RV resort, we decided to keep on going.

We got there in 4 hours, not much later than we had expected. We had plenty of daylight to set up in, but the site was not very level. With each night’s setup, the safety bars that help secure our canopy keep getting more and more bent, and prove difficult to get to work properly. I wish that the bent poles that Ed knew about prior to us leaving home would have been replaced, so we wouldn’t have to hassle with this issue each night. One or two of the poles would fall off as we moved around the camper, and Ed or Ian would have to go outside and try to secure them again. What a pain! Ed said it’s just extra security and we’re fine without them, but nevertheless it’s a little worrisome that some of the poles are not in place as they were intended to be.

Ed and I made a spaghetti dinner and the kids played on the swings and with the tetherball in the playground close to our site. We didn’t stay up too late, just long enough to get the dishes cleaned up. The internet connection was horrible, so we gave up trying and went to bed. It was another draining day of driving, but we were looking forward to the big city the next day.