Car trouble in Yosemite - July 10

We woke in Santa Monica, and drove to our third Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives spot. This one was called Patrick's Roadhouse, and we had a very nice breakfast, but our waitress was terrible. Half of us were served our breakfast 5 minutes before the other half, and we had to ask when she came back with the other meals for utensils! We laughed that she didn't hurry us out by rushing us the check, but she didn't refill the coffee so that we could enjoy our stay either!

Then we drove to our hotel just outside of Yosemite National Park. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and bought fresh fruits and vegetables. We were going to stop at a grocery store before the beach, but didn't find one, and only found fast food at the beach, so we were

excited to get some real food. After our breakfast we didn't eat out anymore today, but just snacked on our produce from the grocery store.

On the drive to our hotel, we drove through the California valley where much of our US

produce is grown. The fields looked great, but what wasn't watered was very dry. We passed a truck filled with oranges and another one filled with lemons. As we passed the trucks, we could actually smell the citrus.

Around 5:00 we drove to Yosemite National 

Park and looked at the huge Sequoia trees.

 hu They are huge around the base, and we didn't realize that we would see great Sequoias here. The Sequoias can live over 3000 years. One we saw had fallen over 300 years before, and people had carved their names in it. One date we saw carved into the tree was 1927. We read

that it could take up to 1000 years to decompose. It was really interesting. We are looking forward to going to the visitor's center and learning more tomorrow. But today, Blair was really sunburned from yesterday at the beach and wasn't feeling great, and Molly had a headache, so we decided not to do too much today and to return tomorrow. 

When Jerry turned the key to start the engine, nothing happened. He checked under the hood and noticed corrosion on the battery, so he poured a Diet Coke over the battery (my addiction was actually useful!).  That seemed to help somewhat, but the van still wouldn't start. After using jumper cables to get a jump from a Jeep, the van did start and we drove it back to the hotel. Jerry dropped us off, drove to a local garage, left the van there, and walked the mile

back to the hotel. 

We'll call the shop where he left the van tomorrow and hopefully they'll be able to get us back on the road by mid-day. But our hotel is okay, although our room is small, and we have internet, a outdoor pool and t.v.  We also have all of our produce from the grocery store, so life is good. We just hope that they have someone working on Saturday! Being here all weekend, could get to be a little much!