A Change of Scenery

Today was checkout day and we pulled out of LA a little after 9:00am. The traffic was predictably heavy and the impromptu GPS message "Cannot calculate route", en route, was unwelcome! After some coaxing, we were back on the road, heading north on I10. It was a while before we escaped LA's gravitational pull, but we made it. We were soon redirected onto Highway 99, which rolls along through hundreds of miles of golden grassland and just about every crop its possible to grow: Vineyards, olive trees, oranges,almonds, and pecans are probably the most abundant.

By midday, we were ready for a coffee and pulled off the highway and into a McDonald's, situated in the middle of nowhere. Thirst slaked and car gassed, we set off again. We passed Bakersfield and then nearing Fresno, were redirected towards Mariposa, on a road with virtually no traffic. We arrived at 3:00pm, just in time to check into our 'boutique' hotel, The Monarch. The latter didn't disappoint and after quickly settling in, we set out on foot to explore Main Street, which owes its origin to the town's earlier mining activities. Its a nice place and a perfect base for Yosemite National Park.

Today we listened to music spanninng three decades, on Serius XM and and I'm not sure why, but Chuck Berry's "You never can tell" stood out: