This past Shabbos was one of our more interesting ones to date.  We were exposed to the off-road motorcycling culture, something none of us had ever encountered before.  Of the 50 RVs in the competition area and the 30 RVs in the campsite, we were the only people without off-road vehicles.  On our Shabbos walk, we noticed we were the only people on foot; everyone else was thundering by on their motorcycles.  Our son very much wants to try his hand at off-road motorcycling now, as there were children as young as 7 or so riding.  We even saw a motorcycle with training wheels.  The little kids were very cute on their pint-sized machines.  We watched the riders fly through the air after launching from jumps on the tracks, as well as extended wheelbase motorcycles climbing straight up mountain faces in the hillclimbing competition.  It was all very interesting.  And loud.

Saturday night we packed up and headed back into Tracy to stay at the Home Depot.  It was nice and quiet, and had WiFi to boot.  The next morning we visited the WinCo next door only to find out that they take neither credit cards nor traveller’s checks.  OK, off to Safeway then.  After shopping and laundry, we headed East towards Yosemite.  Here we are rolling across the arid grasslands on route 140 east of Merced:

We arrived in Yosemite after dark, which was unfortunate except for the fact that we could see the flashlights of climbers sleeping in hammocks lashed into the sheer rock face of El Capitan, which is so high that it takes most climbers several days to climb.

  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.