Day 285: Yosemite National Park - Bakersfield
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Friday May 20th
After another bagel breakfast, we had our tents packed and bag loaded. We had a long day in the car planned, but first was a special pit-stop. Cassie had managed to find an alternative place for us to see the sequoia trees. We were all stoked to see the massive trees, but particularly amazing was the uprooted tree - the root system was amazing! We also tried to count the rings of a fallen tree - by our estimates, it was close to 1500 years old!
Driving out of Yosemite, we were in Hicksville. Pick-up trucks, cowboys hats, flannellete shirts, men missing teeth - there were a lot of ugly sights called out that morning!
At about 5pm, we were just outside of Bakersfield, a few hours short of our final destination for the night, when Cassie asked`if anyone could smell something burning. Although we couldn`t, she immediately pulled over to check the van, getting us all out and onto the highway strip. Looking under the van with Dave`s help, she found transmission fluid leaking. After calling her boss, she used the emergency phone to call for help, with the responder promising to send out a highway patrol officer.
We all jumped up in our various state of undress just as Cassie pulled in, who saw our scantily clad bodies and thought we were playing strip poker! We all brainstormed ideas for how/where we would sleep, given most of our camping equipment was now soaked, and we all opted for different arrangements. I ended up sleeping in the van on 3 seats – it wasn’t the most comfortable sleep, but at least I was nice and dry!
After another bagel breakfast, we had our tents packed and bag loaded. We had a long day in the car planned, but first was a special pit-stop. Cassie had managed to find an alternative place for us to see the sequoia trees. We were all stoked to see the massive trees, but particularly amazing was the uprooted tree - the root system was amazing! We also tried to count the rings of a fallen tree - by our estimates, it was close to 1500 years old!
Driving out of Yosemite, we were in Hicksville. Pick-up trucks, cowboys hats, flannellete shirts, men missing teeth - there were a lot of ugly sights called out that morning!
At about 5pm, we were just outside of Bakersfield, a few hours short of our final destination for the night, when Cassie asked`if anyone could smell something burning. Although we couldn`t, she immediately pulled over to check the van, getting us all out and onto the highway strip. Looking under the van with Dave`s help, she found transmission fluid leaking. After calling her boss, she used the emergency phone to call for help, with the responder promising to send out a highway patrol officer.
Whilst we were waiting on the officer and Cassie was on the phone to Trek America in LA, we were entertaining ourselves on the side of the highway. A few of the group tried ‘surfing’ down the bindi-laden embankment, whilst others performed random planking moves (not on the highway though!) We also had great fun getting the passing truck drivers to toot their horns at us!
After half an hour, highway patrolman Officer Petty arrived. After helping Cassie organise a tow truck, he then offered to take 5 of us in his car to the Denny’s restaurant on the outskirts of the nearest town. I was lucky enough to get in the car – 4 girls crammed in the backseat without seatbelts and 1 in the front. He was such a cool officer, explaining the police system in the US, showing us his gun – even turning on the siren as we passed the remainder of the group on the side of the road!
After taking photos with Officer Petty, he left to pick-up the rest of the group (this time fitting 6 people in his car, including 2 in the passenger’s seat!) We spent about 4 hours at Denny’s – dinner was on the company – whilst waiting for Cassie to return from the Ford dealership and a new van to arrive from Los Angeles. Denny’s is a chain restaurant that serves, like most US establishments, massive serves of food at ridiculously cheap prices. An example -> $4 for all you can eat pancakes (which were as big as your head!) They also had a bacon menu which featured a bacon sundae! (Nope, none of us tried it, despite us begging the guys).
Finally, near 10pm, the new van arrived from Los Angeles. We all piled in and were driven to the hastily arranged interim campground. Whilst we set-up the gear, Cassie drove to the Ford dealership to get all of our belongings out of the old van. As we were arriving so late, most of us decided to sleep under the stars, in just our sleeping bags. We all started drifting off to sleep when all of a sudden we started getting wet – the sprinklers had gone off and were drenching us all!
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