As planned I woke about 4am in the shotgun seat of my Nissan in the Yosemite Valley. I headed out of the park via the West entrance which proved a lot easier then the route from the south which switchbacked all the way, stopping frequently for one way roads and construction.
I got out of the park by 6am and stopped at a gas station. I saw a guy smelling his gas tank. I tried to avoid eye contact as I figured he was crazy and trying to get drunk on fumes or something. He saw me and made his way over to my car…shit..shit..shit. He was very odd looking and said something in broken English. I immediately relaxed as I realized he was not American and gave him the benefit of the doubt. I am sure I look like a complete lunatic as I struggle in foreign countries myself. He asked me what he needed to put in his car. I pointed to the gas gun and he asked if he should use gas, diesel, or benzene. I said gas and he looked at me all weird. I continued to point at his gas gun and said just fill it and you will be fine. He explained that gas in his country was for stoves. I realized that he meant natural gas and remembered benzene was the chemical name of fuel here and switched my recommendations. He said he needed to pay with cash and had only $100 bill. I sighed as I realized he needed to prepay. I went in with him and was in line at Subway, yelling over to the gas counter when he got up there that he wanted to put $20 down on his pump. She was confused and said something to the effect that she did not have change for $100 and did not understand what the guy wanted. Then my friend behind the counter at Subway yelled over that he needed to put money down before filling up. I said yes I knew that, and we are trying to accomplish just that. Then the 2 employees were yelling at each other. I bought the sandwich and broke it down nice and simple, but it did not help that I had this blubbering foreigner chiming in with "Diesel" and "Benzene." We got it squared away and I wanted to retreat back into the confines of the park.
I made it over to Monterey on a pretty overcast morning. The town was pretty touristy, but I enjoyed the relics of Cannery Row before heading along the coast onto 17 Mile Rd to see some Cypress Trees.
I got stopped at a gate halfway along and asked to pay $8 to continue along the road. I declined, a little pissed, but rerouted back through town to Hwy 1 South towards Big Sur. I had just finished a Jack Karouac novel by the same name and was interested in the area depicted in the novel
I stopped at Pfeiffer Falls Hike. I was unimpressed with this brief 2 mile trail, and eager to get back on the hwy. At the end of the trail I rolled my ankle and it made all kinds of noises. It hurt but I was more scared of the implications then the immediate pain. Fortunately I did not suffer any serious damage beyond a slight adjustment to my normal swagger.
The road basically stayed at the same elevation, following a contour line all the way down the coast, in and out with the shape of the cliff. Every so often there was a house on the right side, between the road and the coast. I can only image the cost of these properties.
The only problem with this road is if you get stuck behind slow moving traffic that does not know how to pull over on turn outs to let you pass. To compound this I was stuck in a 10 car convoy backed up behind a motorhome in low gear. Since no one in front of me was willing to push the guy or pass we were all cruising at 10 mph, thus preventing me from enjoying the ride as I slammed my brakes on every turn. After a bit I decided I had to pass even it meant risking my life in a head on collision. I choose a curve where I was heading into the mountain and could see across at the road heading back towards the sea. Kinda shapped like a big "C". I floored it and passed 5 of the 10. They were plenty pissed and floored the gas to try not and let me back in. I was like, "what the F*$#! If you don't want to pass fine, but don't try and kill me if I decide to do it. I passed the rest on a later "C" curve and extended the middle finger to motorhome as I flew by. About 2 miles away the road opened up and passing was easy, thereby making my passes unnecessary, but fun nonetheless. I came upon a Seal/Sea Lion beach. The whole rest of the week I struggled with the difference. I looked up here to determine that :
“One of the biggest physical differences between sea lions and seals are their ears. Sea lions, the eared seals, have external ear flaps located on either side of their head covering the actual opening of the ear. Seals, on the other hand, do not have ear flaps. Another major difference between seals and sea lions is in their flippers. Sea lions have large front flippers that help balance their heavy bodies. They also have back flippers which they can easily rotate when they are on land. These enable them to walk somewhat gracefully. Seals have far smaller front flippers that do not offer leverage or balance.”
Anyway they were all just lazy as hell, occasionally flapping a flipper in the sand trying to cover them or their partner.
In the parking lot there was this little squirrel. I have been on college campuses to see domesticated squirrels attack students as they came out of dining halls but this guy was pretty special
I bent down to take a picture of him and he tried to eat my camera!
I soon realized that I needed to get the rental car back by 6pm, it was 4pm and I was about to reenter the bain of my existence, LA traffic. I started getting close, hitting pockets of traffic, swerving in and out while looking at my Google maps application for side street shortcuts in case the freeway turned into a road block. I took a chance and got off, asking drivers at lights where I can pick up Thousand Oaks Blvd. Everyone knew what I was talking about but could not help. I got back on the freeway after a 10 minute detour and eventually made it to the rental car at 6:03. They were still there and able to take the car. They informed me that I could have just left the car and keys in the drop box, but I did not pay attention, I was brimming with pride and my timing skills. I will say that I did take an hour stop outside of Yosemite to vacuum the car and wash it. I have returned cars in horrible shape with no penalty but these guys were nice to me and the car was great so I figured I would be a little nicer then I have been in the past.
I got back to my brothers and went to bed about 9pm on the floor. I woke up at 11pm and became sick. I immediately went to the bathroom where my body evacuated all fluids out of every orifice as fast as possible. It was 2am and was still huddled over the toilet dry heaving. My brother knocked on the door and said he had to piss. I had to chuckle a bit and say, "I might be here a while, go somewhere else." he ended up in the bushes in the front lawn. One of the worst nights of my life and tomorrow off to the Channel Islands for the final phase of the Adventure
Until Tomorrow,
Darren
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