Journey Home

Up and moving - we managed to finish getting packed, fed, dishes in dishwasher, trash out, bed stripped, stuff into car, birds fed for the last time. I suspect the announcer bird will be available at 4:00 this afternoon to start training the next occupants.

We gassed up for the last time in Nevada (Carson City Costco) at $3.53/gallon. Then we headed south on 395. What a gorgeous drive. The Walker River was fast moving and quite high from the snow melt. It looked like a level 3 rafting trip to Don - looked pretty precarious and scary to me - lots of rocks and drop-offs.

From there we had beautiful green meadows and rolling hills. We stopped in Bridgeport, a small town celebrating the Fourth of July weekend with a Rodeo and Street Fair. We of course had to check it out and bought Don a left-hand grill turner (patented) from the inventor (http://sidewinderbbq.com). We weren't ready for lunch yet, but bought a barbecued tri-tip platter with barbecued beans and grilled corn for Don and a Chinese platter for Ruth (spring roll, fried rice, noodles and huge zucchini wedge) to take along.

We were told from several sources that Tuolome meadow wouldn't be that spectacular right now and maybe we should check out the preserved old mining town of Bodie (13 miles off the highway on an eventual gravel road). There were a few of us on the road (going both ways) and by the time we got to the fee booth ($7.00/adult) there was quite a lineup. The parking lot was full and people were being turned away. It is now high noon (and hot). So we pulled into a no-parking area (why no parking? - wide roadway, no hydrants, nothing obvious) and had our lunch. We do have a Honda CRV model with picnic table - however, we would have to pull EVERYTHING out in order to get to it. Don sat on the side of the road on his aluminum foil plate lid - I opted for the front seat. Still pretty messy. But delicious. The cool breeze was nice. Then back on the dusty road toward Mono Lake and the Tufa piles. We'll go there again - midweek, not summer at high noon.

The most beautiful part of the drive was certainly north of Lee Vining. It was still hot. We got to Bishop around 4:00, checked in and headed to the pool. That helped.

We asked about fireworks in Bishop and were told that there would be fireworks at the park by the Casino that night at dusk. He recommended we park at the Rite Aid parking lot and walk over. Since sunset was supposed to be at 8:15 p.m. we went over at 8:10 and followed some others over to the park. Everyone had folding chairs (we used to carry them but have been trying to travel light) so we ended up sitting on the grass. It was a family oriented event with lots of activities for kids. We were surrounded by families and the kids were all well behaved and really cute with their painted faces and balloons. So we waited, and waited and... Don started describing our sitting on the grass in the "dog park" (yuch). Hooray - the fireworks finally started around 9:30. Nice job. The only distraction was the young girls right behind us giving very loud, high-pitched war whoops! Something to be said for watching fireworks on TV.