I didn’t think it was possible for the park staff to top yesterday’s bountiful supply of stupidity, but they exceeded my expectations by a wide margin…

The park newspaper noted that there were 30- to 60-minute delays on Wawona Road (the road south through the park). I’ve dealt with national park road construction before, and it is generally performed in a reasonably intelligent manner. Apparently the Yosemite folks are learning (or not) as they go along.

The main thing that is going on seems to be the installation of 6″ curbs at the side of the road in some points, for some unknown reason. However, to accomplish this, they have actually removed parts of the road, ranging from 10 yards to about 500 yards, and replaced it with a rutted dirt road.

They have one lane closed in a number of places, with flaggers at both ends to control traffic flow. This works so poorly that the trucks that are delivering the concrete for the curbs have to stop, put out a tarp on the side of the road, and dump the whole load of concrete because it is hardening before they get to where they’re supposed to deliver it. So there are large piles of concrete in a lot of the pull-over spots.

Once I got past the intermittent construction, I came to a place where they had removed about 10 miles of the road (again, for no apparent reason) and replaced it with a dirt road. In many spots it appeared that they actually placed the dirt on top of the paved road.

Why they’re doing this work at the peak of the tourist season escapes me…

Someone really needs to start hitting everyone involved hard with a clue-by-four.

Once I got past the cretins at the gate (see my previous post), I drove into the park and took a couple pictures along the way:

Half Dome:

Bridalveil Fall:

I checked into my suite at The Ahwahnee and went downstairs for dinner. When I came back to my room, I took these pictures from my private balcony, one from each direction:

The people manning the entry point and ranger station at the highway 120 entry point to Yosemite have to be some of the dumbest specimens of humanity I’ve ever encountered.

I pre-purchased an annual National Parks Pass specifically to avoid some of these hassles. It took me about 20 minutes to make it to the head of the line, which I initially thought was because of the visitors, not the staff. Boy, was I wrong…

When I made it to the head of the line, I handed in my pass and said “I need a window decal because this is an open car” (the literature I got with the pass said that window decals are available for convertibles, motorcycles, etc. because the standard procedure is to hang the annual pass from the rear-view mirror, where anyone could just take it).

They acted like they’d never seen an annual pass before, and then proceeded to have a 10-minute debate, involving 2 additional employees and a phone conversation. They then asked to see my car’s registration, which I handed over. Despite having a huge “05/2011” expiration date on it, they proceeded to tell me it was expired. After another 5 minutes, additional employee, and another phone call, I got my registration and annual pass back and was handed the window decal and park newspaper / map.

Rather than blocking the entry gate, I pulled into the ranger station / visitor center so I could put all my paperwork away.

By this time I was incredibly hot and thirsty. There was a water vending machine there (while I had water in the car, it was hot and I wanted a cold one). It was sold out of all water. There was also a soda machine which had a dollar bill slot that wouldn’t take any of the 6 bills I tried.

I went into the information center / ranger station and explained (after waiting on line, again) that both vending machines were broken, and asked if I could swap 2 $1 bills for 8 quarters from their tip jar. They refused. They then told me that the next water was 6 miles down the road at Crane Flat, and that I could complain about the broken vending machines there.

As I slowly made my way out of the information center and back to the Atom, I discovered that there was a working drinking fountain around the side of the building.

Idiots.

I reserve a special spot in hell for fools like these.

I made a scheduled (but un-announced, so as to not cause a pandemonium) stop at M5 Industries (home of Mythbusters) in San Francisco:

I’m back at the Beach House in Half Moon Bay – one of my favorite places to stay. When I walk in, the staff says “Good to see you again, Mr. Kennedy” (which reminds me of “Good to see you again, Mr. Bond”). I have a dinner reservation at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. Take a look at this earlier post for some pictures from my previous Atom visit here.

Here’s the view from my penthouse room:

Tomorrow I’m heading to Yosemite, then to Sequoia and then to Death Valley, so I may not have Internet access to update the blog for some time.

Here’s a picture to give you an idea what this was like. I’ll fill in more info later.

Rollbar camera video:

Nose camera video:

(The above videos are the full 480i versions. Click the icon on the top right to go fullscreen.)

You can also watch these videos on YouTube via these links:

Rollbar camera

Nose camera

Today I drove the Atom up to Salinas. I’d arranged to have a new set of tires shipped to a shop there so I’d have fresh tires for the coastal drive, track, and trip back home.

When that was done, I drove over to the track. Believe it or not, with all of the trials and tribulations I had getting here, I was the first one to the track. After a few hours people started arriving.

Tomorrow is our redwood / coastal cruise, up past San Francisco via the inland forests, and back down via the coast.

Well, I made it to Seaside (where I’m staying until the 11th). The weather cooperated as well, with sunshine and not too hot for most of the way. Once I got near the Monterey peninsula it got chilly and damp.

I checked into the hotel. On first appearance, it is very nice. Then you discover that despite the high rates, they nickel-and-dime you to death – this is the first Hilton-affiliated hotel I’ve ever seen that charges for Internet. And the vending machines serve off-brand soda at $2 / bottle, where the other places I’ve stayed (even including the hellhole from last night) have had Pepsi or Coke for $1.25 or $1.50.

Since I wasn’t able to cover as much distance as I wanted yesterday (due to the weather) I went as far as I could today. After 500+ miles, the next lodging was in Lovelock, NV.

This is a very strange place. Being Nevada, just about every store has a casino inside (I even saw a sign for “Arby’s + slots” along the way). But this place is stranger than most. The local industry is a prison, and I get the impression that everyone in the town is either going in, just got out, or is related to one of the above.

There were a bunch of old-style “motor court” motels along what passes for their main street. Many of these looked abandoned and the remaining ones were pretty scary-looking. The “big” casino in town is a combination casino / restaurant / motel. When I asked at the front desk if they had rooms and if they discounted for AAA, the clerk said they did and it was $57 plus taxes. I said “What about all the billboards on the highway that say $37?” and she replied “Well, I can give you that rate since you asked for it”.

After getting unpacked, I wandered over to the restaurant part. After looking at the menu, the waitress came over and we had a conversation like this:

Me: How is the hot turkey sandwich?
Waitress: Yes
Me: Are the mashed potatos homemade?
Waitress: Ok

The turkey arrived, and once I moved some gravy off of it, it was an odd orange-brown color. I’ve seen light meat and dark meat, but never orange meat.

I took out my cell phone to take a picture of it for this blog, but someone came running over and said “You can’t take pictures in here, this is a casino!” so I gave up and ate what I could.

Back in the room, I discovered it had an “extra firm” mattress. Or it was made from a pile of lumber – I’m not sure which.

Here’s a picture of one of the scary motels, taken as I was leaving town:

I’m Evanston, Wyoming (just across the border from Utah) tonight.

I ran into some very bad rain along the way – it was so bad that truckers were pulling off the road. Of course, in an Atom that doesn’t really help, so I kept going, hoping for an exit with a gas station with a canopy over the pumps where I could take shelter. And then I saw the sign “Next Services: 112 Miles”.

Later on the sun came out. And then it rained again. And so on.

By the time I arrived at Evanston (after 360 miles) I decided to call it a day.