San Francisco to Mammoth Lakes (260 miles about 8 hours)

After another doughnut and tea breakfast we set off early from San Francisco heading for Mammoth Lakes, a ski resort where the USA Olympic team had just done their altitude training. Our journey was to be extended by a detour into Yosemite national park where we would take a couple of hours absorbing the natural beauty. As we left San Francisco the sat-nav asked if we wanted to avoid toll roads and by habit I clicked on yes, in the next five miles we were climbing roads which defied belief. The car survived the ordeal although we were advised by at least one sign by the roadside to switch off our air-conditioning, I have no idea why but we noticed other cars had their windows down so I guess they were doing the same. Anyone who can explain this please let us know. We had our first attempt to fuel the car in a high altitude village, apparently all fuel is non-leaded and you pay the cashier before you pump the gas, not the British system where you pump your gas before paying. Strangely while I was doing all this the guy from the garage was wiping our windscreen. We reached Yosemite in the heat of the day and having asked at a Ranger station previously we knew pretty much what to expect. We parked in the first parking area and took the shuttle bus to the information centre. We were in the base of the valley and from everywhere there was an amazing view up the mountain sides. We went round the visitors centre and learnt how the national park had developed from an upper class holiday resort into the nature reserve which it is today. When we sat down to eat a late lunch we were quickly surrounded by begging bird and squirrels but there was a strict no feeding rule. The refuse bins were equipped with robust lids to defend them from squirrel raids. The water situation meant that the falls were not falling at all but the scenery was awesome and well worth the detour. Several times on our approach to the park we had seen signs which read “Speed kills bears” “Well show me a bear and I‘ll show you speed” I’d quipped but it emerges that these signs are placed on the spots where a bear has been killed by a vehicle and there were about 15 of these signs in all. I think it may be seasonal or even more often at night when it happens but we, of course, saw no sign of any bears. It was a long climb out of Yosemite Park and we took a considerable time to get to Mammoth Lake.
At the end of a long journey things may get tense if problems occur and they did. The sat-nav confidently took us to the wrong address for the hotel. We checked the address on our documents and I had entered it correctly so we were at the wrong place but the sat-nav didn’t agree. After a couple of false starts we decided that since the street name agreed with the documents we should drive the full length of the road in the hope of seeing the hotel. It didn’t seem much of a plan but it worked. We found the hotel, the Alpenhof Lodge, possibly our favourite on the tour, and by the time I had checked in Julia had found the bar and had a $3 pint of beer in front of her!
We ate in the attached restaurant and it was the only meal where we were able to finish the main course and tackle a dessert. It was also one of the best but most expensive meals and the service charge was 18% added to the bill. We had fully intended to meet up with some more of the cheap beer but having eaten both of us were ready to retire.