We were up early and down to the atrium again for the free breakfast by about 7:00 am.  Breakfast (now as usual) of bacon sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, yoghurt, coffee. It's a good job we weren't staying here longer with breakfasts like this.  Luz was worried by the amount of food that must be wasted every day.

Back to the room to pick up cases and down to the lobby in time to catch the 8:00am shuttle to the airport yet again.  Arriving at terminal 2 we went upstairs to catch the air train to the car rental place.  A long wait while the agent at Avis (for Budget) explained the use of a GPS system to another customer, then collected our GPS and went up to the garage to pick up our red (specially for Luz) Impala from M26 in the Avis row).

Finally we were on the way, picking up the 101 towards San Fransisco for a short time before taking the I380 through San Bruno and out to join the Junipero Serra freeway (I280) to head south along the penninsula.  This was the road I took toand from work from Sunnyvale after I moved to headquarters in Foster City.  Actually a beautiful drive along the foothills with little traffic and no built-up areas.  We avoided San Jose by taking the 85 to re-join the 101 on the way to Gilroy.  Gilroy is surely the garlic capital of the world, to be smelled from miles away.  Windows down so Luz could get the aroma of the factory cooking garlic.

At Gilroy we left the 101 and turned inland on the Pacheco Pass road (152).  After about 10 miles we started the climb, and reached the top of Pacheco Pass (only about 1400 ft.) before dropping down towards the San Joachin valley (the central valley of California, and the fruit and vegetable basket of the world).  On the way down we passed along the side of the great San Luis reservoir, still pretty full, crossing the main north-south freeway (the I5) between Sacramento (the capital of California) and Los Angeles.  Here most of the traffic turned south on the I5 to Los Angeles.  We continued east through Los Banos, still on the 152, (where I couldn't find the ranch restaurant I remembered for a coffee) and crossed the San Joachin valley towards Madera on the eastern edge of the valley, but turned north on Robertson Boulevard to Chowchilla.  The San Joachin valley had looked mostly dry owing to the long drought in the West generally, and Sacramento quibbling about letting the valley have too much of its water.

In Chowchilla we had our first stop, we were now in Madera county.  We stopped at a small taco place on the edge of Chowchilla and had some of the best tacos ever (4 for the price of 3) - beef and vegetables in corn tortillas, prepared by a Mexican resident of the USA.  The tacos were so good we had another (for Ron), and talked with the owner about Mexico, even a little in Spanish, who was very pleased to hear we came from Mexico.  Finally, before leaving, we ordered another batch of eight tacos to take with us.  They were so good.

Leaving Chowchilla we crossed the big I99 freeway between Merced and Fresno and headed out onto very quiet country roads heading for Raymond along very small roads that I remembered (or thought I did!).  Leaving Chowchilla we saw new housing developments which looked very attractive.  The GPS now seemed a little lost, but I did remember some of the roads, especially the 'roller coaster' section.  Turning left after this I was heading for Raymond and the Grub Gulch road to Ahwanee on the 49, but the GPS insisted we ought to go to Coarsegold on the 41, just west of Oakhurst.  Good ranching country, but most of the ranches seemed to have been bought up as second homes and then fell foul of the economic crisis.  Time and again we saw For Sale signs at the start of little ranch roads.  When we reached Coarsegold we followed the 41 over the hill to Oakhurst and finally stopped at Raley's to stock up with food and drink before the final stretch into Fish Camp.  It seemd like we bought up the whole store, and the car was filled to overflowing.  Raley's turned out to be a great store, with everything we could possibly want, even Filipino fish sauce.

On again then and the final 14 or 15 miles climbing up through the Sierra National Forest on the 41, passing the Sugar Pine Railroad and the Narrow Guage Inn (see later) on the way.  A few miles out of Oakhurst we passed the old Snowline restaurant, now deserted and for sale, and climbed another 2000 feet while it grew noticeably cooler as we climbed.  Reaching Fish camp we drove through, missing our cabin, the Owl's Nest and we had to turn back to find it.  We had the code to open the key box and were soon inside, unloading the car and putting food away.  That night we ate four of the eight tacos, they were still good.  Then to bed. We slept the first night in the downstairs bedroom, but Luz complained of the smell, so we decided to move upstairs the next day.

So there we were at the start of our vacation at the Yosemite National Park, only 2 miles from the South Gate.