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Woke earlish to a phone call from the credit company. They confirmed that the card is now cancelled and that there appears to be no more fraudulent activity apart form the very small amounts. We had breakfast at the hotel. martin had waffles and maple syrup with strawberries. I had scrambled egg, bacon, fruit and bread. Went out to the Wells Fargo bank which has an atm. Got some dollars thankfully. W had decided to go to Yosemite via the Golden Gate Bridge. As well as driving over we were going to stop at the visitor centre and walk on it. We found our way there fairly quickly as the traffic was not so bad as when we came. Parked up and walked for approx five minutes. The weather was again very hot for San Francisco. Nearing 90f. This is unusual fir this time of the year. The sky was a very clear blue and no sign of fog. The Golden Gate Bridge is a toll bridge but luckily the toll is for those entering San Francisco not leaving.
We found the visitor centre. The time was about 12am. It was busy with lots of foreign and American voices. No UK ones. The bridge is a wow. Not only for its construction but for the view over to San Francisco Bay. The bay is huge with two other very large bridges connecting it. One called the bay bridge with three spans and one called the Richmond bridge which has two tiers of traffic. You can also see clearly Alcatraz. Lots of boats and yachts make it very colourful. The pedestrian part of the bridge has two lanes for walking one for pedestrians and one for bikes. The traffic is divided by a concrete wall. From a car you would not get too good a view. The bridge is very long and we decided to walk to the middle span. The sides of the bridge had wire to stop jumpers. We saw notices offering counselling and a phone line. Many people were riding bikes as it was a long walk to the other side. Took lots of photos especially one of the large spans. This rose very high I. The sky. As getting very hot walked back to the visitor centre where the usual books and gifts were for sale. You could buy a snow globe of the bridge which was a fog globe and when you shook it the bridge was obscured by fig. Did not buy this but thankfully very clear day to day.
Drive over the bridge and felt special We have now been under in a boat, walked on it and drive over it. This side of the bay is quite scruffy and industrial. The bay water is more marshy here. The journey to Yosemite view lodge is approx 200 miles. Got on the Richmond bridge and off on highway 580 Towards Oakland And Yosemite. The drive took much longer than we thought as we were on a main freeway with up to seven lanes and several stacks. A stack is when other freeways feed into a raid and then go off it, this gives multiple stacked bridges over and under and the road you are on splits several times. Getting used to these and made our way through in one piece. The road is very urban as we pass through major cities. These seem to comprise of numerous large malls lining the road but not accessible unless you come off a turning and sprawls of housing. We passed through ????. There are no services as in UK. To get petrol you have to see the station and then figure which turning to take off and then how to get back on. I had imagined smaller roads on this route. We had decided to have a stop where I had found a michaels craft store. This was in a city called Dublin. Sounds nice same old sprawl and ugliness. The heat is now approaching a 100f. The heat hits you as you get out the car and it is like walking into an oven. How do people live in this heat? Browsed michaels which was chock full of Halloween and fall stuff. Had to buy something.. A die set and a flower set. Martin thought he had found a bookshop but it was a giant store of second hand books, DVDs and CDs. He thought it was one of those places that processes the CDs when you send them in and get cash for them.
A bit hungry five minutes walk away is a Starbucks. Desperate for food we went in and it was crowded. Where have theses people come from? All on computers. Food was surprisingly good and the salted caramel frappachinnos scrumy.
Leaving Dublin the journey continues. A little bit more rural in the landscape with acres of bushes which we discover are blueberries. Got some petrol. The drive took five hours. We stopped at what was called a rest stop. The heat was now approaching a 100f although the air con in the car kept us cool. The rest stop is some toilets and a vending machine.....
Eventually the road got smaller as we headed east on 140 and we were heading to Yosemite valley. Our hotel called Yosemite lodge is just outside the park. The road is now just two lanes and the landscape is quite stunning. Towering granite cliffs and tall pinewood trees. It's getting late and I want to reach the lodge before we lose the sun. We make it with about fifteen of minutes sun left. The time is just past seven. The lodge comprises separate rooms in a block style around facilities. The vies around are stunning. Our room had a small kitchenette two beds and a balcony. Needing to have food we went to the restaurant where we were told 45 minutes wait. Several beers later and feeling mellow we we paged and had a good meal. Free salad and soup as much s you like. Marin had Cajun cat fish and I had steak. Quite good but not cheap... Captive market.....
Went to bed very tired but excited looking forward to getting to some quiet wilderness tomorrow. A change from the busy cities we have been to.
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