Day 4 – Moving Day to Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes
Today was quite the adventure when it came to driving. We opted for the quickest route to our RV park, located about 7 miles outside of the entrance into Yosemite National Park. This meant we took several smaller highways and even private roads with little to zero shoulder. Anytime I began to grow nervous, Nick would make a joke. I’m so glad he’s confident (and rightly so) with driving our 38 footer towing an escalade. We saw some pretty steep grades, usually around 5-8%, and had to pull over a handful of times when the engine began to overheat. After letting it (and the driver!) rest a little, it was good to go. But everyone definitely breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived at the RV park.
However, we had another curve ball thrown at us when we checked in at the welcome desk. I’m sure this was on the website policies, but I misunderstood and thought that Thousand Trails members only (not non-members) had first come first serve at their campsites. This was the policy at the previous Thousand Trails RV park we stayed at in Marina. However, it’s the case at Yosemite Lakes that we simply had to drive around and find a site where we could fit. There is also only a handful, literally, of 50AMP sites, which is something we need in order to run our two AC units (no a convertor, which we have, won’t work without blowing a unit). Of course those were all taken.
BUT, Nick found a place under a large tree, and once again impressed me with his back-up skills in a spot that seemed impossible for our rig to fit into – he didn’t bat an eye at it, and successfully parked it! We knew the tree would help with the heat since we would be down to one AC unit, so we were very thankful! I told my husband, “we would never have come this close to Yosemite and parked in this spot and done all of these things I wanted to do if it weren’t for you being willing to learn and master it all!” Truly, so impressed by him (and him doing it with basically one arm since being post-bicep surgery!).
I almost forgot – when we checked in to the office, I was informed that a mountain lion had just now come down to the creek where some children were playing before a dog chased it off. 😳
When we prepared for our Glacier National Park trip in Montana, I knew all about and was prepared for the bears. But how did I miss the mountain lion memo here?! Oh, well. We haven’t seen one yet, thankfully.
Since we arrived in the early afternoon, I decided to wash all of our dirty laundry, so Carmen and I made several trips to and from the laundry room to get that done. The boys quickly unloaded their bikes and fishing poles and headed to the creek (where the mountain lion was, of course), and made friends with some boys of similar age from San Diego. As I type this, they’re playing with them for the second day in a row – football, wiffle ball, whatever they decide to do.
For dinner, Nick grilled burgers, and Carmen and I went for a walk, where we met and made new friends with another Discovery Fleetwood owner who actually lives in Sherman, Tx – not too far from us! I returned to the RV to get Nick and we enjoyed visiting with them for a while until it grew too dark to see.
jami lee gainey 