As we’d talked about the day before, my alarm went off at 6am and I got out of bed groggy. A hot shower (my last for a while) made me feel a little better as I made a quick breakfast and packed all my things away. I was driving to Yosemite and I needed to get to Tuolumne Meadows before noon to have a change at getting a campsite. Vanessa had planned to get up the same time as me so she could shuttle to work but I didn’t hear her stir after her alarm went off so I let myself out. I left the apartment keys with her, but I was armed with the keys to her Mini. Such a generous friend, she was loaning me her beige machine for the next five days so I could go to Yosemite and back without paying $20 a day for a rental car.

Loaded with all my gear, I waited awkwardly at the entrance to the garage for someone to walk by and let me in. When a cleaner walked past, I pretended to rummage around in my bag looking for my key and asked her if she could let me in. Thankfully she obliged and I was on my way. I couldn’t have carried my stuff much further so I was happy to load my hiking pack and other bags into the back of the mini. I had driven this car before but I was excited to have it for such a long time, the new minis are a super fun car and they respect the design of the old minis with which I am so familiar.

Out of the parking garage, I followed my nav east towards my local national park. I was alarmed at the traffic coming at me from the east and considered the I might have to drive through it on my way back to the bay and cringed. I’d made this drive many times so it was nice to have the familiarity. I stopped at a Walmart after an hour of driving and got the last few things I needed for my extended weekend, but otherwise drove uninterrupted. An hour out of the park I lost phone reception. No contact with the outside world for the next five days. Woo!

At the park entrance, I asked if the Tuolumne Meadows campground was full and the ranger told me it wasn’t. That was encouraging! I didn’t like the idea of relying on a campsite being free but it was my only choice. It took me another hour and a half to drive past the valley and through the park to get to Tuolumne Meadows.

I got to the campers registration office just before noon as I’d planned since that was checkout time. To my relief, there was a site for me! I paid $78 for the privilege of staying three nights (ridiculous, I know) and drove into the massive 300-site campground. The ranger at the booth was very helpful and scored me a sweet site when I told him there was a sprinter van and another tent coming later.

I nestled the mini in the forest and looked around my camp. It wasn’t vanning, but this would be alright. I was starving for lunch so started with that, sitting at my picnic table listening to a podcast as I ate. I packed all my food and toiletries into the bear box then enjoyed the practice of setting up my tent. It was colder than I anticipated up in the meadow so I looked forward to snuggling into my warm sleeping bag later but at the same time I was slightly worried that I hadn’t brought my down jacket with me. I’d thought about it, but decided since I was going to be in Arizona the rest of my time, I thought I could get away with packing it. We’ll see.

I embraced the new, relaxed me, no longer feeling the need to rush out, see everything and do everything. I’d been to Yosemite many times before and I planned to just take it slow and enjoy myself in a place that has given me some of the coolest experiences. I locked up the mini and went for a stroll down to the visitor’s centre. On my way out of the campground, I wrote up a note and placed it on the noticeboard so that Kathi, Shannon and Rob will be able to find me when they come in on Saturday.

I stopped in at the store for a sticky beak but didn’t find anything that I needed, especially not at their prices. The walk through the back of the forest was nice and at the visitor’s centre I got some good intel on possible easy hikes for tomorrow and also helped out a family of Aussies that were wondering what to do with their time in the park. It was now two hours since I arrived at the campground and the sign inside the visitor’s centre told me that there were no more sites available. Even though there are 150 walk-in campsites that can accommodate six people each, I’d only just scored one. There are just too many people in this country!

I walked back along the road for something different, enjoying the views of Lembert Dome over the meadow, but I wished the sun would poke through the clouds just a little bit more. I could see tiny humans atop Lembert Dome and was excited to hike up to the top of it tomorrow. The ranger in the visitor’s centre had described it as Tuolumne’s Half Dome so it would be a good warm up to the main event on Sunday!

When I got back to camp, I was keen to do some blogging but suffered from the dilemma of not having a comfortable chair. I considered making a hammock out of my tent footprint but decided I’d be upset if I ended up breaking it and the picnic table didn’t look comfortably inviting so I made myself a little possie in the back of the mini. It was quite comfy in the end and it was still pretty warm inside from the drive up.

I rugged up as the sun disappeared behind the trees and envied those around me that got fires going, but not enough to go and buy firewood, it’s against my principles. I’d definitely prefer a camp in the middle of nowhere to this set up, but when in Yosemite, you must do as Yosemites do…

I had some left over pasta for dinner, bulked up with chicken. It was getting proper cold now so I was happy for some warm food in my belly. I’d severely underestimated the cold temperatures of Tuolumne and I was apprehensive about my night in the tent. The renger-led campfire program was set to start at 7:30pm which was right about when I finished cleaning up after dinner so I wandered over to the fire circle to get me some free fire (and enlightenment).

I got to the fire ring just in time to get a front row seat, next to an Italian guy that was riding his way down through America having started in Banff. We only got to talk for a few minutes before Jerry, the ranger, started his program by ceremoniously lighting the fire he’d well prepared. He asked us all to whisper fire as he set it alight, willing it to go up first try. Jerry was an enthusiastic one, engaging his crowd from the get-go with interest in where we were all from. He started by talking about all the mandatory bear safety stuff before things got interesting. He played a song on his guitar, one I didn’t recognise but all the oldies knew it. We sang along as best we could, but the crowd was shy. Jerry told us all about the history of Yosemite and especially the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. I’d never really thought much about how it came to be but he explained that the Hetch Hetchy valley was a granite valley similar to that of the Yosemite Valley that everyone knows about. After San Francisco burnt down numerous times in the 1900s, after much debate and argument, it was decided that the Tuolumne River was the best water source for the great city and so, Hetch Hetchy was dammed and her granite walls were flooded with water. Some people say this was the death of John Muir, who died only a few months after he and his fellow Sierra fans lost the fight against congress.

After a good hour’s entertainment, Jerry called it a night and we all meandered off into the campground. I could really feel the cold now and knew I was going straight to bed. I brushed my teeth, closed up the bear box and crawled into my tent. I started reading “Once Upon a Tom” and was immediately entertained until I fell asleep to the sounds of boisterous Americans talking about their Bay area jobs.

It is a year ago today that I quit Tesla and I can’t say how glad I am that I (1) had the experience in the first place and (2) ended it when I did. I heard on the radio that a recent survey labelled 27 as the most exciting age of people’s lives. Since I’m turning 28 in a couple of weeks, I consider myself nailing that statistic on the head!