We were up and dressed in good time this morning, and enjoyed some coffee and a breakfast bar in our room. Then, at 7.45am, we hefted our rucksacks and cases (yes! our cases!) down in the lift to the hotel foyer, and waited for a few minutes while Frank brought the coach round to the front.
Once all the bags were loaded, we boarded the coach and set off just before eight o’clock. We had a long journey ahead of us today, as we were going to visit the amazing Yosemite National Park, famous for its sheer granite cliffs, its giant sequoia trees and its many plunging waterfalls.
We enjoyed our stay in Las Vegas, and it was certainly something to be seen, but we much prefer to see the wonders of Mother Nature than an over-the-top creation by man. We therefore couldn’t wait to get to Yosemite. 🙂
But wait we had to, because there was a lot of traffic en route, and much of the time was spent start-stop, start-stop. Frank explained that, as tomorrow was a public holiday, everyone must have been going away for a few days. Tomorrow would be Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday of May to honour and mourn military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. It’s also a Bank Holiday in the UK, but it started as “Whitsun” which was a Christian celebration on the day following Pentecost. I should imagine there are few people around these days who are aware of the bank holiday’s origins.
After about an hour and three quarters, we pulled up at a place called “Raley’s” which was a huge supermarket as well as a petrol station. Frank informed us that we might as well purchase something to eat here and eat it on the coach later on for our lunch. We had originally planned to stop somewhere for a proper lunch break, but we were now already over an hour behind schedule because of the traffic.
Trevor and I each purchased a large sandwich, a bag of Cheetos and a carton of fresh strawberries, as well as a couple of cans of soft drinks. We then used the loos and made our way back onto the coach at the arranged time of 10.15am, where we saw Frank on the phone to someone.
Just before we set off once again, Frank told us that the route he was originally going to take was totally gridlocked, so he was going to try to go another way. However, just how busy the roads were was depicted perfectly in my Google Maps timeline, where it told me that it took us 2 hours and 19 minutes just to travel 16 miles. A decent runner could have gone faster than that on foot!
As we made our way through the park, an inch at a time, we were at least able to take some decent photos out of the window of the coach. We could see soaring cliff faces with waterfalls cascading down – in view of the dry heat I was surprised that there was enough water. There were craggy mountain tops and many different trees and bushes and, at one point, the gorgeous sight of a tree-lined river flowing briskly over the rocks.
As we sat in the queue of traffic without moving, Frank said we might as well all get out here and he would try to move the coach and then come back for us, as he was only allowed to stop in designated places. We thankfully alighted from the coach and stretched our legs, enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine instead of the air-conditioned dryness inside.
We walked around, marvelling at the beautiful scenery. The park was obviously very popular with cyclists, walkers and rock-climbers; we could see what appeared to be tiny people working their way up one of the massive rock faces, which was called “El Capitan”.
It seemed no time at all before Frank was back to pick us up, in fact, looking at my watch we had only had 20 minutes off the coach, here in Yosemite. What an absolute shame, such a stunning place and so little time to enjoy it. 🙁
As we hadn’t been able to reach the concession area with the restrooms, Frank opened up the loo at the back of the coach, which he had told us earlier was for “emergencies”, and we all took turns queueing to use it. At least there was plenty of loo roll, hand-wash and sanitising gel.
We were all settled in our seats by 1.00pm, and we set off for our hotel for tonight, which was also called “El Capitan” and was in a town I hadn’t heard of, called Merced.
It took us another four-and-a-half hours to travel the 76 miles to Merced, and we pulled up at the hotel at 5.30pm, tired, stiff, grubby and with that disorientated feeling you always have after a long journey. Frank was very apologetic (it wasn’t his fault!) and said he had never known traffic like that in all his time as a coach driver.
The hotel was spacious and modern, and was situated in a main street with lots of shops, bars and restaurants around. We brought our cases up to our room and dumped them on the spare double bed. Then I had a quick wash and brush up before we decided to go and explore, and perhaps have a welcome cold beer! 🙂
We walked up the street a short distance and the first thing we noticed was that hardly anything was open. Well it was Sunday night on a public holiday weekend. Surely there was a bar and/or a restaurant open somewhere?
We then spotted a bar which had a sign saying “Happy Hour” outside, so we went in. It looked as if it was a micro-brewery as there was a large board on the wall with lots of names of beers chalked on it, along with their ABV percentages. After the barman let us taste one or two, we ordered a pint each of what we liked, and took them to a nearby table to sit down.
Just then, another couple from our trip entered the bar, saw us, and came over to sit at an adjacent table. They had no sooner ordered and brought their drinks over, when the barman shouted “last orders”. What?! It was only 6.30pm! Again, they were closing early because of the public holiday.
Trevor and I bought one more pint but shared it between us. The beer was cold and refreshing, but it was a pity we couldn’t just linger over it. After we’d finished, we left the bar, but continued our quest for something to eat, as we were both quite hungry now.
We found an interesting place called The Mainzer, and we couldn’t decide whether it was a theatre, a cinema, a restaurant or a brewery. Maybe it was all of them? We went into a large room where the first thing we noticed was a long line of beer taps attached to a wall, with screens above them showing what beer it was. How it worked was that your purchased a credit-card sized card which was used to ‘activate’ the pump. There were small glasses for sampling, and larger glasses for filling. You placed your card in front of the sensor underneath each beer tap, and it then allowed the beer to be poured.
After trying a couple, I settled on a pleasant pale IPA, and Trevor chose something that looked like alcoholic Ribena, complete with a purple head of foam!
We took our seats, and the waitress came over with some menus. I ordered a burger which came with potato wedges and coleslaw, and washed it down wit my beer, which was a strong one at about 7%. A few other couples from our bus came into the restaurant and also ordered meals.
At one point, the song Havana by Camila Cabello came on. Trevor and I dance the Ria Bachata to this at our weekly dance class, so we couldn’t resist getting up and going through our steps in the middle of the restaurant, much to the bemusement of our waitress and the other customers enjoying their meals. Then we just sat back down again and continued drinking our beers, as if nothing had happened. 😀
Around 8.30pm, we decided to take a slow stroll back to the hotel, intending to have a drink in the bar. However, when we arrived, it was all in darkness and was… closed. This…was…ridiculous! Here we were, in the town of Merced, California, and nothing was open! Nothing! 🙁
We therefore decided just to go back to our room, where I had a shower and blow-dried my hair to save me from having to do it in the morning. Then we just passed the time chilling and looking back over our photos of this trip so far. It had certainly had its ups and downs!
Tomorrow we would be on the move once again, so we settled down around 11.00pm, and slept very well.