Yosemite

We rode in to Yosemite on Monday which was a feat unto itself. 25 miles straight uphill with an astounding elevation gain. All the pissheads that laughed at me the day before I left and told me that because I didn't do the Lamoille hill climb I wouldn't make it can eat the dirt that flies off my tires.
I called the CA highway patrol to report the fact that everyone was speeding and I hadn't seen a cop in two days. Someone blew past me at 60mph when I was under a 20mph sign coming within two feet of me. Kind of scary roads, lots of swearing, shaking my fist and throwing the bird. But we made it!
We rode to Crane Flat campground that night. It was quite scenic but very dusty. I got upset with the stove because it wasn't working well for me mostly because I was impatient and famished. Phil finished cooking dinner for us while I sat despondent and dirty in the tent.
We went to bed right after dinner. I don't think I have kept such strange hours in my life. Going to bed at 9 and waking up at 6 or 7 am. Or are those normal hours? We woke up and packed our gear up and rode to the garage and got coffee. Phil has a strange way of calling gas stations garages, but he pronounces it
Gair-age. Outside there was a woman ranting about the shitty coffee, but I didn't think it was too bad. We then rode twenty five miles into Yosemite Valley which was the best ride ever. The views were stunning, the air crisp and cool, and it was all down hill.
We got a campsite and ditched our gear there. Riding around without all the weight was fun. We ate some lunch and decided to hike to Vernal Falls. We locked the bikes up and hiked up.
A native American man was coming down the trail and yelled, "let me take a picture o you two right there!" So I gave him my camera. Everyone here has been very nice, a lot of Europeans on vacation who all get a kick out of hearing me speak, so I throw in more ya'alls than entirely necessary.
It was a nice hike, very pretty with a rainbow created by the waterfall. I stopped at the top of the falls by the Emerald pool to stand in the quiet for a moment. A mountain lion strolled past me and was looking to get a drink of water, I watched it for a bit and then all these people with cameras scared the poor cat away.
I hiked up a bit further and sat on the side of a rock overlooking the valley and it was very peaceful beautiful and pleasant. Phil found me and joined me on my perch. In a moment of contented happiness I tried to give him a kiss. He brushed me away and gave me a lecture on how inappropriate that action was. So it wasn't very romantic. In retrospect it is kind of funny, what a prude.
We hiked down, splashed in the water and went back to camp. We started cooking and met our campmates. Mike is from Austria, he was really cool, we shared his cigarettes with me. We exchanged vodka and ginger rum. I drank all the vodka I had cycled here from SF an was very glad I didn't throw it out two days ago like I had considered.
We were all sitting and chatting when Wendy showed up, she was camping in the same area.
Today, we woke up early to pack all our gear to catch a bus to Toulumne Meadows. The YART bus driver who has been tracking me since priest grade showed up. He opened the doors and I heard him telling the passengers" these crazy kids cycled here from SF," so we were part of their sight-seeing. He told us, no bus there till Saturday. So we are going to attempt to hitch hike out of here because there is no shoulder and would take us all day to climb out.