I just got a bloody nose which reminded me of the stories from yesterday that got overshadowed by the eventful hike. First of all before going to sleep I was consuming one more of my reading material this time the USA constitution and noticed that in the amendment ending slavery it is worded in such a way as to abolish any form of forced servitude which in my mind would include a draft. Just something I was thinking of. I am sure someone els has thought of it already and there is probably some legal justification but I don't know it. And the other more exciting story that relates to the bloody nose was that I then fell asleep only to wake up around 11 pm with lots of liquid flowing down my face. I figured out that it was a nose bleed pretty quickly but in the process of stopping it, which I learned how to do in Argentina, I got blood all over the place including totally soaking one of my bandanas. This time I was much quicker about stopping it since I figured out the exact spot you have to squeeze in the late night bleeding. Its funny though because I have never really gotten nose bleeds until now. I blame it on the high altitude and dry air.
Day 15 5/8
It rained last night and I slept horribly, not necessarily because of the rain. I then got up earlier then usual and started my journey from Kings Canyon National Park to Yosemite National Park. I started by the necessary morning stuff and breaking camp. Then I parked by the visiter center where there is wifi and updated my correspondences and researched YMCAs and laundromats. I ended up not finding a YMCA on my route so a nice shower and hot tub soak was out for the day. I did find a laundromat in the small city attached to fresno, I wanted to avoid going into fresno. I had a fun hour doing laundry and walking around the town a bit. I really still think it is not in the USA but some spanish speaking country. Everyone spoke spanish first english second, the TV was set to a spanish station, there was a spanish band playing in the city park, and many other small things added to this feeling. After laundry I went filled up my gastank, thankfully only 7ish gallons, and drove through the business part of town looking for a grocery store. I needed to stock up on perishables and wanted some ice cream. I finally found one as I was turning around to head back out. I have decided that grocery stores are the worst at advertising what they are, they seem to rely on people recognizing the name and knowing its a grocery. it being a totally different area, country ;), I don't know the names and it has been a continual challenge to track them down. This store was off the the side with a beat up sign saying its name, I forget what it was, and nothing about it being a grocery. Somehow I figured it out, can't totally remember but I think the carts in the parking lot helped, and was able the get the few things I needed and my ice cream, they didn't have many choices in the pint size to I forked it out for a pint of Ben and Jerry's Half Baked. I enjoyed the ice cream greatly although all the cookie dough and brownies seemed dryad out and hard :( I then moved on, ignoring my GPS which did not have in its map the 180 turned into a freeway, which may explain why it took me out of town not on the freeway but along miles of city streets. There were some crazy interchanges, Fresno is a big city, but with good signage to Yosemite, and then the road was back to a nice clear two laner. I made it to Yosemite back up at 4000 feet and made camp.
Day 16 5/9
I have been writing a lot of words in my journal recently, hum. Today It rained, and snowed, and sleeted, and thundered. It rained most of the night. I then had to get up earlier then I wanted to to check into the campground since I arrived too late the night before. Since I was up I stayed up and went to check out the visiter center. It really is a little town up here they have a gas station, really expensive, a post office, lots(subjective) of houses, hidden away off the main road, a BIG hotel(some around her cost thousands of dollars a night), and what I really enjoyed a library. Since it was raining and I didn't really want to go hiking in the cold rain I stayed in the library most of the afternoon. It didn't open till noon so I visited the historic center for a bit first. It was really neat with lots of old buildings and their stories. Then the library opened and I enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere, warm dry air, clean bathrooms(I got to wash my face), electricity for charging, computers for internet although no wifi, BOOKs (including some that I could buy for a dollar each so I picked out 5, since I am running out of my huge pile of reading material, and gave the library $10 for them), audio books on CD so I ripped 2 to then burn onto CDs for my long drive, and finally a great friendly librarian as is to be expected. After spending most of the day at the library I was feeling really guilty about not photographing more, especially since rainy weather can be very photogenic, I went out to hike around another meadow(swamp). The storm was moving on and the library closing so it was time to photograph. I got sidetracked by some deer and wandered around a bit then the storm gave way to beautiful clouds hanging over cliffs and snow covered trees. I decided I didn't want to go see another swamp and went around trying to get closer/better views of the snow covered trees and hillsides. I didn't really achieve that but maybe there will still be some of the same snow covered trees tomorrow when the roads reopen. now I have written a lot again and its time for bed, after I start one of my new books :).
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