Sierra BARF - 8/27/04 - 8/29/04
Wow. 675 total miles. Cristina & I left San Francisco at 3:15pm on Friday, some stop and go on 80, but 50 was a beautiful drive up to South Lake Tahoe to meet Pierre & Nancy and Dwight "Spud" Anderson who joined us all the way from Idaho. Had a few cocktails and a very satisfying steak dinner. We left the next morning at 7:30 and headed south on 89 to Markleeville for a nice country breakfast. Then continued south on 89 to route 4. We took Rt. 4 (fantastic windy one-lane road) back down towrds the valley to Angel's Camp where we met Brian. Where's Steve Ferrari? No idea. [Resting his sore back, as it turned out] Well, BARF waits for no man (well, maybe a half-hour, but that's it), so we continued south on 49 through Senora to 120 towards Yosemite. Steve Bedalion made a point of saying "don't go up Old Priest Grade, take the new longer, but flatter road." Being young and impetuous, I led the squad up the very, very steep Old Priest Grade. Long story short - it's a good thing that Pierre had his special coolant bleeding funnel, cause I had to add about a gallon of coolant after we reached the top. After a quick visit to Nancy's folks' place in Groveland, we headed out towards Yosemite. After we turned off the park access road to Tioga Pass, we saw a 850 Spider heading in the opposite direction [Brian claims it was a Spitfire, but he drives an Alfa, so...]. Great road, unbelievable views, blah, blah, blah. We got a good tip on a place to get a afternoon snack from the gas station attendant in Tuolomne Meadows. There's a Mobil gas station on 120 just west of the intersection of 395 that has fantastic food. Fish tacos - yum. Nancy declared their fries the "best ever." From there it was North on 395, past Mono Lake to Bridgeport. We had been eagerly anticipating taking a refreshing dip in the "only pool in town," but when we get to the hotel, no pool, just a big hole in the ground where the pool once was. We negotiated 10% off for the bait-and-switch and all was well. We met Steve Bedalion at the Bridgeport Inn for a few drinks and then it was off to the Rhino Bar and Grille for dinner and more libations. Sunday morning, we raillied again at 7:30 and headed out (after filling up on $2.99/gallon supreme) north on 395 to 108 - Sonora Pass. Beautiful drive as the moring sun was making up for the chilly air. We stopped at the summit (9624 feet), but after Pierre started whining about altitude sickness, we continued down to Kennedy Meadows and a fantastic breakfast. After breakfast, down a few miles to a spot Bedalion wanted to show us, a couple of bridges overlooking some deep ravines. Very cool. From there it was a speed run down 108 and back to the city. Great weather great roads, great time. Can't wait for the next BARF. Shoefish P.S. And I didn't even mention that Bedalion never put his top down. back to past events