"Gosh it's hot" I feel like the abomnibubble snowman on Bugs Bunny. We are in Palm Springs at my father's house and it is about 90 degrees. After avoiding summer for four months we aren't used to the heat. The R.V. likes it. It was made in southern California, so I believe it was designed to work best in sunny heat, solar panels charging, exhaust fans a cruisin', and tinted windows blocking the sun. We aren't immersed in smoke from the fires, right now the San Diego fire smoke is blowing offshore, so we are clear and sunny with fresh air here.

We finished a week in Yosemite on Sunday. Kim has been aching to get me in Yosemite for years now. This whole trip she has been focusing on getting to Yosemite. Of course I wanted to see Yosemite, it is one of our foremost National Parks. When your wife has a cute, sort of mousey voice you tend to get tired of the word Yu-sem-it-teee, so I wanted to put this portion of the trip to bed for that reason if no other. We camped in yet another dark, wooded campground in the valley, but what an incredible valley it is. There are sheer granite cliffs rising up on three sides with meadows and the Merced River in the middle. There were herds of deer and even a bear or two to be seen mingling with the tourists. The tourists were a mixture of Germans, Swiss, French, Canadian, Japanese and some Americans. The weather was very nice, the fall colors in full glory and the pace was busy, but not overwhelming. The first evening we took a walk to the Mirror Lake or should we say sand pit since after the long dry summer there was no water left. There we saw a cute little black bear scrounging for food and climbing a tree.

We took several small hikes preparing for the biggy to Half Dome. Kim has been talking about Half Dome since I met her 12 years ago. Half Dome is a 17 mile round trip hike with about 1000 stairs chisled into the granite along Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls and Halfdome itself. Let me assure you I was not rubbing my hands together in anticipation of this hike and to complicate matters Kim had us both on the South Beach Diet for the last few days. I had half of an omlette, two cheese sticks, two celery sticks, two lettuce wraps and chicken and broccoli for food on the two days preceding this hike. Kim had the same menu. When we were half way up the mountain Kim allowed me to have a clif bar and some crackers. Kim had a clif bar and crackers.

Have you noticed a problem? You can't fuel a Prius and a Suburban with the same quantity of fuel and expect the Suburban to make it the same distance, it just doesn't work. Needless to say, I ran out of fuel at mile six. I was shaky, faint and queezy and felt like I couldn't go on, but I could see the disappointment in Kim's face, so I took a lot of small breaks and finally got to feeling better when the Clif bar kicked in. The Park Service had dismantled the cable stairs to the top of Halfdome and all that was left were the cables. I climbed half the way, but my legs were too tired to make it on the steep part of the cables, so I couldn't quite summit, dammit. The French and German freaks marched right on up, I'm sure that they were laughing at the fat American. Our society is gross, we are out of shape, careless and complacent as a whole. I hate to say it, but that is what our travels have told us so far. Too many fast foods, processed foods, sugars and junk being advertised and crammed down our throats, but damn they taste goood! I want a Carls Jr. patty melt and french fries so bad right now, but Kim would order the Caeser salad and a diet coke and I would look like the greasy chinned fat bastard, so I can't do it.

We took a hike to Glacier Point two days after Halfdome. It was a sixty swithcback, 4.8 mile, "why did I marry this little ....." to the top. At the top there was a parking lot, gift store, tour buses and a thousand tourists, but a beautiful view of the entire valley and mountains. It didn't seem fair that we busted our butts just to share the view with all the lazy folks that drove, but it is nice that all the HUGE people get a view as well. We stopped at the Mariposa Grove of giant Sequoia Trees on the way out of the Park and headed to L.A. to get the warranty items fixed on the R.V.

We spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Covina. There was a security guard riding around and we checked in with her. She told us to approve it with the manager of the store. He said no problem. I still didn't feel real secure, it's the L.A. area after all, so I didn't sleep. Free accomodations, but no sleep. The next day we took the baby back to the factory it was made at. The people at Lazy Daze aren't really friendly, but they do take care of you. They fixed the four minor problems with the "coach" while we went to breakfast with uncle Carroll. When we left the restaurant Carroll realized that his car had been entered by a stranger and his registration had been stolen. Two words folks "Los Angeles". High cost of living, high taxes, high temperatures and high pollution, not to mention the fires. Yeah, but Disneyland and the ocean and WHATEVER!

We went hiking in the desert yesterday up narrow canyons in the Painted Canyon area. I led us down two long, dead end canyons that tacked on an extra five miles to our hike and forced us to walk by moonlight down a two mile canyon to the car. Chipper? Not exactly. Kim doesn't like uncertainty, but come on people, we are on an "adventure" here. She is hanging out by the pool with my Dad right now, we spent the day doing errands and burning up Joni's laundromat with our two tons of laundry. It's a nice campground here at Dad and Joan's. We have a pool, hot showers, laundry facilities, cool nights and warm days, great food and a hot tub. We should stay through the winter, but we are headed to Utah instead.