vegas to yosemite

as i recall we stopped in vegas to wait for the sun to go down and cross the desert at night. we soaked up the A/C and cheap food and people watched. once the temperture dropped to livable i drove all night to tonopah. that's something i've always been good at...driving all night while others sleep. we stopped at a, what else, pancake house to wash up, eat and change drivers. i was the first one out of the car, washed and into the dinning area. i found a table that had a bunch of leftovers and decided the price was right (free) and asked the waitress if she would mind just leaving what was there. she obviously was overcome with my looks (after driving all night i sure i was a sight) and invited me up to the counter for so hot ones. "i'll take care it for you". wow, i'm getting a free meal and it's not someone's cold leftovers. joe and hank came out and asked what i was doing and i told them to 'get lost, i'm getting a freebie and i don't want her to know i'm traveling with 2 others'. i ate well and she pocketed the check (i think it might have been all of $1.25, but i was a really nice gesture and i really appreciated it).

from tonopah we drove by mono lake and up the back entrance (tioga pass) into yosemite. this is where we had to remove the air filter from the land cruiser and the 3 on the column was a royal pain because we could not get going fast enough to move out of 2nd gear. i remember getting out at the park entrance and being in cut offs and a t shirt and freezing. we did pack the cooler with snow and we had the 'pool at the top of the world'. otherwise i do not remember anything else about yosemite and the next memory is stopping for a couple of day in san fran at my grandparents house. food, bath, bed.....aaaaaaahhhhhhh. you'all even took me over to oakland so i could catch a baseball game.

all for now.........