The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 164: Groveland, California/Post C

The view from our living room this morning.

We woke up to frost on the pumpkin, brilliant blue skies, and great hopes for our first ever venture into Yosemite. But first things first. Traditionally, I fry potatoes, peppers, onions after church. Today, I cooked the usual, but in the spirit of trying to empty the fridge, I added three breakfast sausages, some salsa, and three eggs scrambled in at the end. I was thoroughly enjoying my breakfast concoction until the Cager nearly double skunked me. It was bad enough: a skunk worth $106, lessening my overall lead to $36. If I'm not careful, I may find myself on the negative side of the ledger soon. Church at the Evangelical Free Church was interesting. Most of the people looked like us and quite a few were friendly. We sang a few old favorites, said our prayers, and thanked God for saving us. Somewhat strange was the message, which was delivered by a Jewish gal named Ruth Rosen who represents a group her father started called Jews For Jesus. She related the history of Hannukah, asked us for money, and more or less spoke from her heart for forty minutes. Judy had heard of the group, but I hadn't and I still can't get my head around the idea of Jews embracing Jesus. I can't imagine it, frankly. No matter. Our agenda didn't include converting; we were on a mission to Yosemite. From here it's twenty-two miles to the gate. From the gate, it's twenty-four miles to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. I'm so glad we're here in the off season. As it was every turnout held a full bevy of cars with gawking photo tourists trying to capture the majesty. Every parking lot was full, the campground was nearly full, and the shuttles busses were running a regular schedule. We hiked a very hard .08 of a mile gaining about a thousand feet up to the Vernal Falls, which had a sliver of water streaming over the edge. It must just be stunning in the spring. The trail is so popular, it is paved with asphalt all the way to the bridge just below the falls. We huffed along with several hundred of our newest friends. The usual suspects were present: East Indian families, Japanese Tourists, Muchachos from the valley, one couple from Holland, an English Family, all kinds of twenty-somethings, and quite a few geezers like us. I must say that Yosemite lived up to every grand feature my imagination could give it. Once we passed through the scarred section of two recent fires, the forest took on every bit of the zealous magnificence John Muir attached to it. I'm glad he convinced Roosevelt to save it. We're all better to realize how small we are in the face of Mother Nature. We plan to return tomorrow for another dose. We plan to tour the grand old Ahwahnee Hotel, walk the valley floor, and gawk once again at the sheer granite rock faces as they reach their craggy fingers toward the sky. We may even walk along the Merced River for a ways. If we can catch the light right, we can see the rock walls reflected in the mirrored pools. Come here if you can and you'll discover that life is good, especially today.