RV Sabbatical Trip - Day 8 through Day 10

We headed back out and had lunch at Jack in the box in a local town back in civilization. For the first time in his life, Samuel actually ate a cheeseburger meat and all. He must have been hungry! Then we made our way up the road again towards Yosemite. We stopped in Oakhurst just outside of our destination (Mariposa) to shop at the grocery store and for John to stretch out since he'd been driving all day. Kaley had been on antibiotics for a few days now due to her ear infections and they were starting to catch up with her. Samuel was napping in the back when Jennifer came back from the store. We were putting groceries away and Kaley (who had been playing with toys up front) came crawling up to see us. We both asked her "why is your back all wet?" Then we both stared at each other and went "oh no!" in stereo. Kaley had had a world record diarrhea and it had exited her diaper and went all up her back and everywhere! So, we got to deal with that right in the middle of putting food away! Good thing that the RV has a shower head sprayer outside the vehicle!

We headed up through to Mariposa and finally got to the KOA. There was about a 3000 ft. elevation change going up here to the KOA and there were some rough spots for the RV barely being able to do 30 mph holding up traffic. We felt like a "Q-tip's" on the freeway.

The KOA is nice. It's in the middle of the forest and they've got a nice playground and pool which Samuel just loved and couldn't get enough of. We met this other couple at the playground with their little girl (almost Samuel's age). They were talking in an obvious foreign language and we just had to ask them where they were from. The lady said they were from Holland! They flew over to LA from Holland and rented an RV and are doing a 4-week loop from LA up through Yosemite, over into Nevada and Utah (Bryce Canyon), then back down and into LA again through southern California. We thought our trip was costing us some money, and can't imagine how much that would cost them!

Samuel and his dad also rented a paddle boat and paddled out in the KOA's moss-infested "lake" for a while. The boat's paddles obviously had never been lubricated since being manufactured so it was like paddling the Love Boat up the Mississippi. Samuel was, of course, no help either. John stopped after about 10 minutes because he was just too tired and Samuel didn't seem that interested in it. Oh well.

Tomorrow we spend all day long in Yosemite. We're planning on seeing all the sites as well as riding a train that goes throughout the park. That will be really cool. We're also going to scare up some charcoal somewhere tomorrow so that we can have BBQ chicken or pork tomorrow for supper.

We started out the morning by making Samuel's favorite breakfast--blueberry and chocolate muffins which he calls "cupcakes." Then we headed out for Yosemite National Park. It took quite a while for our beast of a machine to make it up into the park (very steep roads) but we finally made it. Samuel and John played near the banks of the very low Merced river. John carried him on his shoulders over some large rocks and he kept saying "careful Dee, careful." What a mimic ("Dee" is Samuel's way of saying "Daddy").

Then we headed up along the "main road" and came upon El Capitan. What a gorgeous rock! We took more than 60 pictures in the park today and lots of them were of El Capitan. It's just unbelievable that people actually climb that sucker!

A little further up the road we came across a small area for parking and we went across a foot bridge into a meadow to take pictures. Further up the road we stopped at Sentinel bridge and made lunch. There we got our first good glimpse of half-dome--another very impressive solid granite sheer face. Quite stunning!

After walking around some more snapping pictures here and there we came upon the parking area for Yosemite Village where we got out and started walking. We eventually made it to the visitor's center, an ice cream shop, and a general store where we bought some assorted Yosemite trinkets. Samuel found a very tame squirrel while eating ice cream and proceeded to chase it all around the place.

We worked our way through the rest of the park and back home (another very long drive due to the windy roads). We bought some charcoal and we had BBQ pork chops for dinner! Yum! After that we went and played on the park equipment and took a very brief dip in the freezing pool. Samuel got too excited at the pool and ran and tripped ripping some of the meat of his toe away so his dad had to carry his blubbering body down to the RV to put a band-aid on it. He also tripped and fell at Yosemite (again running when mom and dad told him not to) and the whole National Park heard him scream then blubber for half an hour. Sigh....

Our TV went out a couple of days ago and we can't figure out what's wrong. We've checked all the fuses, but to no avail. The RV is a lonely place without a TV after the kids go to bed so we're gonna have to try to fix this situation!

Tomorrow we're heading to a different entrance of the park to see some giant sequoias as well as ride an old-time steam train on a 1-hour back woods tour. It should be fun. Then we're heading towards the San Jose area to visit Sean and Mary Kelly.