Two UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2 weeks on 2 different continents! Today it was Yosemite Park in California - an amazing park about 180 miles inland from the sonoma wine valley and on the Nevada border.
We left Petaluma early and armed with 2 giant Starbucks coffees (and a low fat apple fritter)...YES LOW FAT!!!!!.....we had a laugh listening to more local radio. We ran through some "Baby Jesus loves you" channels - were some sad predatory twat interprets the "Good Lords" words in a self-serving - "Give me $20 dollars and you will be saved" kind of way....These programmes drive me around the bend...preying on peoples faith like some nasty little spivs..screwing people out of their hard earned dollars....
We quickly moved onto something far more amusing...and started listening to a very gritty radio show....It was the best breakfast show I have ever heard...two guys and a women were talking about S...E.....X - I know - on national radio at 7.45am! If Jonathan Ross had uttered even a sylaball of what we heard this morning he would have been publically executed at Tower Hill! Today "Jill" and her co-workers were discussing what makes a marriage work.. well according to a survey you have to have sex at least 3 times a week. According to Jill that was impossible because she was a once a week gal - but she did grant her husband a number of other "nice things" during the week - after a gentle probing from her co-workers she explaind that her husband walks around naked - looks over to her and says "See anything you like?" - that apparently is her cue for a BJ - and after she has given him his morning coffee she obliges....they also like to put on porn movies on their new tv in their bedroom now linked upto the internet.....JESUS! We were in hysterics - not such much about what she was saying but where she was saying it! Can they really get away with that on national radio at that time in the morning?....apparantly!
Sharon Osborne then came on to promote her America's Got Talent show ...I am a huge fan because she says exactly what she thinks; has a heart of gold; and doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks about her...the DJ was fondly recalling whne he met Sharon which was at a Danielle Steele fundraiser where Sharon was asked to give a speech - the audience was the who's who of hollywood but when she got up to speak they were not giving her any respect or attention - so she bellowed out "Will you all just shut the fuck up - and while you're at it sit the fuck down and listen to what I have to say"....Sharon was asked whether she thought she had offended anyone..."I don't give a fuck (bleep)...they never invited me back... so you work it out darling.." and she laughed her socks off...and so did I....I would actually love to say that when you are speaking and some rude little shit who thinks he or she is more important carries on talking when you have started presenting...or they start playing with their frigging blackberries....you want to ram the blackberries where the sun doesn't shine!
Well Sharon happily filled the airwaves with 30 "fucks" in a 10 minute interview...but they bleeped it all out..it was ok to talk at length about giving your husband "head" but not ok to say "fuck" ...this made a long trip highly entertaining....and 3 hours later we were coming off Highway 120 and into Yosemite Park...we paid our $20 and headed into the great unknown..and my god what a breathtaking place...
We climbed upwards in the car on roads baked in dapled sun-light for a long time - our ears popping as we went past 3,0000 to 5,000 to 8,000ft above sea level....I didn't know where to start....Our first stop was a riverside oasis (photo posted)..it had been a long drive and this was just a perfect spot to take 5 minutes and take it all in - we really were in a wilderness of epic beauty...
After a few photos we reached Bridalveil Falls...it was a rock climbers paradise..you could climb right to the base of the falls and just sit and watch in awe..I could have sat there all day as the sun shone right above the falls making a thousand rainbows as the water fell about 600 ft from the mountain above....down onto the awaitig sun glistened rocks ....the spray showering us with a much needed spray...it was now a 100 degrees and I welcomed the cool mist - it was just perfect..although my photos do not do it justice (posted)...After that, we headed off to Yosemite Village along with everyonelse it seems for some refreshments before hitting the climb to Galcier point and stoppoing at what seems like every parking bay along the way - I just couldn't stop taking shots - it seemed every viewpoint held a picture post card shot....
Once we got to Glacier Point I got the view and shot I had been waitng for a gob smacking panoramic view of the entire valley....we had just climbed a further 16 miles of road to get there and with the road works on the mountain roads it took an eternity but it was worth it....After we soaked it all in we headed down and out of the park via Wawona and onto Highway 41...heading fro Fresno..
As we left Yosemite...the landscape quickly changed from epic granite mountains to a completly flat lanscape covered in a dirty blonded deep shagpile carpet of dry grass interrupted by the occasional vibrant green tree dotted across the landscape - it was bleak ....as we neared Fresno. Fresno is about an 80 mile drive South from Yosemite....and not somewhere I would recommend you go to on holiday. It is a stop over for us because we head to carmel and go down the pacfic highway on saturday - staying at Fresno breaks up the trip from Sanoma....
Arriving - it felt like hicksville and the weather or rather heat, was competely suffocating - it was well over 100 degrees.....we checked into the Sheraton which in fresno is a glorified motel really (but it is clean and tidy) and in terms of food - we thought a "drive in" would be the safest way to eat.....so we went for Mcdonalds....I spoke in the clearest Queens English - "Hello" I said.......the metal box talked back..."How Ya (cackle cackle).. Doin"?..."Could I please have 2 large double quarter pounder meals wth 2 cokes?"... the crackling voice (god I hate those drive in talk box things)...crackled back my order like the wicked bitch of the West and I rolled up to the window where Ting Tong Maca dang dang from Tooting greeted me...(she scared the shit out of me)...I'm no Mr Dudwee.....she grabbed $20 bucks out of my hand and slapped the change and receipt and grunted to me to go to the next window...I got the bag of crap food and rolled out......BUT hold on !! "Where are the fries?"....I ran back apologising to the car that had jumped in my grave and waited for the fries...I got them and drove back to the hotel...but it wasn't until we got back that we realised we had been given just regular quarter pounders.. Bugger! How complicated can it be to take a burger order?!!!! There is no hope for the human race. I HATE FRESNO.
Ah well....tomorow we are going to Kings Canyon before heading off to Carmel on Saturday.
