Tuesday 8th June – Yosemite Riverside Inn

Big Oak Flats to Lemon Grove

Time to leave Yosemite and head south to Sequoia National Park. Trouble was that we hadn’t been able to book accommodation through complete lack of planning and no phone and dodgy internet plus spending long days at Yosemite. This all meant that we were starting the day not really knowing where we would end up.

First off was breakfast provided by the riverside inn. Quite a nice breakfast and there was a lovely introduction from a little girl who announced “I’m having chocolate milk” as soon as I walked in the door. The family turned out to be from just near Santa Barbera and also hadn’t booked their rooms a year in advance so they were staying outside the park as well. Staying outside the park turned out to be good for them too, cheaper accommodation and food and still getting the natural wonders of Yosemite.

The plan was to drive down through Yosemite, out to the south, get phone reception and call some hotels to book a room for the next 2 nights on the edge of Sequoia national park. After a disasterous attempt to use a public phone (involving the phone eating millions of quarters, motor bikes starting up right next to us just when someone finally answered) we gave up and decided to keep driving until we had mobile phone reception. After a couple of places telling us that they were full we called The Plantation Inn Bed and Breakfast (thank goodness for the AAA accommodation book as everything listed in lonely planet was well and truly full and all run by the same company). Scott the owner was really helpful and he let us have his best room at a very good price and then explained exactly how to find them – just what we needed it was good to finally get a friendly voice rather than front desk of large corporations. Following the highways took us through Fresno, now we have been through Fresno and Modesto. If you have seen Monsters Vs Aliens you would know those names. With only one stop at a Denny’s Diner for min to get all you can eat Pancakes we made it to the plantation inn before dinner time (in Min’s defense it was well after 3 and we were eating lunch).

The Plantation Inn turned out to be a Gone with the Wind themed place which Min later told me she knew about (figured Lew didn’t really need this info up front as I was just relieved that we had accommodation). Despite this it was an amazing place to stay. Scott was a wonderful host and Marie was a fantastic Cook. You really looked forward to the Breakfasts that they served.

We had dinner that night at the Gateway Inn, right beside a fast and angry river (Rapids really did explain the river) apparently the snow had all decided to melt at once a week before.