Day 19: 10/4/2010

San Francisco to Groveland, CA, 208.2 miles

On the road again! I managed to evade my alarm in the morning and got a later start than planned, but Weronika and I still got to go to breakfast before I left. And this time it was breakfast, no question about it being lunch :p Back to Crepevine, yum! Then I dropped Weronika off at work at UCSF and headed for REI to return the camping pad we got for Mathew. It was a great pad, but didn't quite work with another pad in the tent Mathew had. And since it wouldn't get used at least until I made it to DC, we decided to get the $80 back and buy a different pad later on.

Next stop, Old Navy! The jeans did not happily survive getting soaking wet at Fern Canyon, and without guaranteed laundry I wanted enough jeans to feel clean :p Then to Looking Glass Photo. I got two different filters for my camera to play with. (I may be admitting digital is kind of fun... lol). And then, joy, the Ethiopian restaurant for the lunch buffet. I was very excited to head out of town after that, toward Yosemite!

Which is pretty much east. Not north. Take note of the brilliant journey north on the map... This is about when I was singing loudly and assumed straight kept me on the same highway... Nope, that way goes north. Hello, GPS, you're back! With the returning, shopping, and detouring, it was already getting dark and I was nearing Yosemite. I wanted to experience Yosemite in a way that would not involve 100% tripod use (teachers and mentors would be winning a glare contest at me if they were reading this...) So I decided to camp in Groveland before entering the park. It was a bit of a search, but I finally found Pine Lakes Campground and settled in for my first night camping alone. Sob. Before reaching Groveland, the road is reeeeally curvy, and very pretty views of the looping road behind and ahead of you.

Most of the camping went well... Just not the beginning. So the tent has been stored in a big backpack with Mathew's sleeping back the whole time in the roof rack. Mathew is tall. I am not. Average maybe, or short, your pick. My car picks short! I was standing very gracefully on the frame of the front door, trying the get the backpack out... The backpack started falling on me, so I grabbed to door, which swung closed on me. Followed by it swing back open with the backpack between me and the door I was clinging to. My scream brought the campers in the next site over, but all was well. I'm glad that tent is easy to set up! Night night!