Max says "Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!"

Max just loves the PB&J
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This update will be short on words and long on images so let's begin.

11/19- I ambled around the sequoia groves for the rest of the afternoon. The trees are so ancient and huge and beautiful that I felt humbled and honored to walk beneath them. Real life Ents, for sure.  Dinner then bed. Cold tonight.

Road Art Doesn't Constitute an Emergency

11/20-Out at first light on 180 west to Fresno. FYI got a well-deserved oil change and I got a laundromat with a hispanic woman who, after I told her I wouldn't be home in time to have Thanksgiving with my wife, would every 5 minutes look over at me, grin, and say "Oh, you are going to pay big time!" On 41 north by 1pm to Yosemite, arriving late afternoon to walk along the banks of the Merced River under El Capitan. Soon found out most of the waterfalls were completely dry or very near it. Spent the night in the campground amongst the competing noise of 100 RV generators. I can't imagine how beautiful this valley would be in the spring and how awful the crush of humanity trying to experience it all.

Roadside Joshua Tree Grove somewhere in the south west Sierras
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11/20-Up before light and on the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and beyond. 1000 stone steps later I'm pretty haggard then catch a second wind. The trail work is  top-notch and I quickly give up trying to calculate the man hours and  daring needed to put this trail together. The day is cold, clear and too bright for landscape photos but I managed to get some shots that pleased me. Up and down, 7 hours and 11 miles later, I take the computer to the historic Ahwanhee Hotel in the valley. Very beautiful, very elegant. I treat myself to a beer, hot bread and  kashi with sausage soup then load photos for 2 hours. The moon is 3/4 so I  drove 120 east through the Tuolumne Meadows. Everything was stark silver and deep black, a real different experience. Out the east side of Yosemite and to the parking lot at Mono Lake to sleep and wait for dawn.

Autumn persimmon leaves from a grove along the road
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11/21-Mono Lake is a bust with cold wind and fog so the plan changes to the ghost town of Bodie a few miles north on 395. The fog lifts when we arrive to reveal a wonderful hard frost coating everything. I say we because Max is back up and around. Turns out there was no coma, just a pining for his lost love, the Lady of the Desert, and the need for a good nap. He immediately complained about Izzard the Lizard's deep need to sing 'I Ain't Got No Body"  randomly and with verve at all hours. Truth is I'm a little tired of it also. Bodie is a wonderful morning with perfect light and so much to see and it's all to myself for 4 hours until half of SCal shows up. It is now Thanksgiving vacation and SUV families are everywhere. We continue on 395 to Lake Tahoe. South Tahoe is a blight on the lake but the west side makes up for it. It's now VERY cold as we catch 89 north out of Truckee and sleep in FYI's warm cab at the entrance to Lassen Volcanic NP.

Kern River Autumn
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11/22- Lassen is completely shut for the winter so back to 89 where I see cell phone bars and wake up the wife to wish her Happy Thanksgiving. She's on the hook to make her first pie so all good wishes and luck go her way today. Some interesting road art around Weed, Ca (coincidence?) I got the speech from the highway patrol about stopping on the side of the road. Seems road art doesn't constitute an emergency stop. On to Ashland to scout out a turkey dinner where I'm pretending to be a guest of the historic Ashland Springs Hotel so I can use their WIFI. It's time to load photos so please enjoy this time with family and friends.

Sequoia Grove, Sherman Tree, Sequoia NP
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FYI is really gaining some momentum towards Seattle and some down time so I think one more update and a final trip summary will do it.

Thanks,

Dan the Driver