Day 1 - Yosemite Bound

After a brief stop in Westwood we were able to leave the endless torrent of la traffic behind us and hit the open road. First impressions about the Buick are mixed. The good people at Ford have contuributed much to the automotive world; the model- t, the 67 mustang, and unionized labor just to name a few. But why they chose to put a motor intended for a 500 pound personal watercraft into a 2800 pound car eludes me. So The Seadoo engine had a tough time with anything uphill which was most of the trip. But Where it lacks in power it makes up for in handling and sex appeal. It's like a silver futuristic lozenge commanding both attention and the road. We flew through the hairpin turn downhill section of the Grapevine like we were on rails. The highly aerodynamic body increased drag efficiency and decreased costs at the pump which is good cause were on a budget.
Sometimes though we just can't help spending money. April spend a good deal of time shoe shopping on the interwebz and I actually bought shoes in Beverly hills. And like any proper trip through the central valley, dried fruit is a necessity one cannot do well without, needless to say we plan on doing well and so now we have enough fruit and nuts to last us a week. Here are some of the items we purcased:
1 bag pistaccio nuts
1bag papaya chunks
1 rocky mountain rootbeer
1 snake river sasparilla
2 plums
1 back toffee covered almonds
1 container of chedder cheese chunks
1 bag of spicy dry Salome
1 box of crackers
1 rootbeer float for Sean

There were however fruit related complications. It seems we were unable to cope with anything other than a very specific overpriced touist trap we had visited on a prevous roadtrip. Just about all we remembered of this place is that it was western themed and was next to a farm. Incidentally that is the description of all fuitstands on the i99, as such we pulled off the highway 6 times before giving up and settling for an open air market. The next exit was our tourist trap.












So Yosemite is our first stop and we didn't quite make in time to gaze into the valley before sunset but we settled for this picturesque view instead:












Take that Ansel Adams!


Right now we are sitting by the campfire 8000 ft up at the eastern most end of the park. The stars are incredible, it looks like you can touch them. April and I are in good spirits which is pretty amazing since moments ago we got our first speeding ticket of the trip. We took the radar detector down because we were going through a ranger checkpoint. This is the ticket:














We expected a couple but now we are going to be extra careful.

While April forgets about the impending fine and day at traffic school with a fire cooked Hebrew National I'm going to sign off and get to bed. Since there is no reception here this will likeley appear tomorrow evening.

Quote of the day: "You gotta admit, it's a pretty good way to advertise your fuckin raisins". -April Friges

Also, happy birthday grandma Sullivan!!!!

-- Post From Sean's iPhone