After a day of flying and a day in Las Vegas it was time to hit the road for the first leg of our road trip, Jet Lag is still working in our favour so we were up and on the road by 9am. The desert scenery as you head out of Vegas is stunning but the roads are hopelessly dull with barely a corner in sight. Luckily Americans take driving at a very leisurely pace and the lanes are wide so once I'd figure the cruise control out I could sit back and enjoy the view.
After an hour we stopped in a little town called Baker for breakfast. It's one of many little towns in the desert that from a distance looks like a ghost town and that appears to serve no other purpose than to service passing travellers like ourselves, so while the service was friendly and prompt (when is it not in America?) the waitress had a forlorn look, a bit like that of a zoo animal. It must be galling to live in such a derelict dust bowl just 60 miles from Vegas.
American sized portions struck again, Amy's breakfast was in essence three deep friend cinnamon swirls with a side of sausages and bacon (4 slices of course).
Back on the road, we motored on through Barstow and Bakersfield, at which point the desert gives way to vineyards and orchards, and then on to Fresno, then up highway 41 toward Yosemite park. The scale of the park is hard to comprehend - after an hour on a winding road cut through a dense pine forest you reach the park entrance (manned by a genuine park ranger, dressed exactly as you'd hope a ranger would be) and from there it's another hour into the famous Yosemite valley.
So, after 490 miles and 9 hours on the road we cruised into Camp Curry at around 6pm...
Edit: I completely forgot to mention we stopped at an ace place for lunch called Bravo Farms Cheese. If you've ever been to Hilltop Farm near Leamington, imagine that but mexican. Great food, great shop.
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