Life of Wry

If you’re a person given to traditions and rituals–and what member of the OCD club isn’t?–the annual drive to and from Tuolumne Meadows is something to totally look forward to.

We made that drive today.

First of all, we’ve got the drive down to a science.  Or I do.  I’m the driver.  We’ve done it so often, we know every place along the way, every turn of the road, and exactly how long it takes between the various points of interest.

(If this were an entry just about OCD, I’d go into the annual packing exercise, as well: the lists, the annual refinement of the lists, and ohmyeffinggodyoudon’treallywanttoevenknowme… but it’s more about the commute itself, so I’ll spare you those details.)

The drive to Tuolumne Meadows Lodge takes four hours, plus an additional hour or so for stops in Copperopolis (a pit stop here, and buying snacks, takes about 15 mins) and Groveland (eating lunch at PJ’s usually takes around 45 minutes).

If you ever want to know all the details, I’m happy to provide a breakdown of the time it takes to get to the various landmarks between Davis and Yosemite:

Davis –> Stockton –> Hwy 4 –> Farmington –> Copperopolis –> Lake Tulloch –> the prison –> 108 to 120 turnoff –> “lumber dome” –> Chinese Camp –> Don Pedro reservoir –> New Priest Grade –> Big Oak Flat –> Groveland –> Buck Meadows –> park entrance  –> Crane Flat –> Tuolumne Meadows.

.. because, you know… I know all this.

Anyway, the above picture, that’s Copperopolis–a small town of historic gold-country-era buildings surrounded by expansive, rolling hillsides that just say California.  It takes an hour and 40 minutes to get there… unless you get stopped at a long light while leaving Davis, or you get stuck behind a piece of slow-moving farm equipment that’s rattling along the road through the rich farmlands between 99 and the foothills.

So, on your commute to the jaw-dropping, granite-covered splendor of Yosemite National Park, inarguably one of the most majestically beautiful places on earth, you pass through California’s lush and insanely fertile central valley, where you could, if you wanted to, buy fresh ears of corn, just-picked strawberries and peaches, or mountains of walnuts. And THEN you pass through those golden, oak-covered Sierra foothills.  The vistas along the way are all sweepingly rural and just so incredibly lovely.

All kinds of different California, all in a quarter day’s drive.