Thursday (continued)

Now that I had gone as far south as I dare go, and Death Valley was going to take too long to get to, I decided to make the journey up to Yosemite and from there on to the final leg of my trip to San Francisco, and then the plane home. Public transport was cheaper than I had expected, much cheaper than in the UK, so I had no quarms about letting someone else do the driving.

Back in Union Station - again! This place was becoming all too familiar, but now I would be leaving it behind. I managed to miss one train by a few seconds, I made sure I caught the next one. It seemed like a long way to San Luis Obispo, but I was getting quite used to passing the time; I managed to sleep a little, then watched the scenery trundle by for a while.

The stay at San Luis Obispo brought a few pleasant surprises - although there was no Courtney to chat to there were other interesting people there; a family who were on their way to Monterey - I found a couple of shower tokens left over so they got a longer shower thanks to me! I also met a Swiss girl who had been there on my previous visit, she was doing something at the local university. Strangely enough the English guy (who had said he was going to move on) was still there too. This was more of a stop-over, to pass the time I wandered around the town; I bought myself 'The Hobbit' to read during quiet evenings from the local Barnes and Noble book store. I also bought some gloves for my adventures in Yosemite - I was expecting it to be considerably colder and I had my heart set on doing snowboarding lessons; I expected prices in the park to be very high for clothing and accessories.

Friday

Through a combination of train and thru-bus services I made my way to Merced - the gateway to Yosemite National Park. I met an interesting pair on the way, apparently college students going home for the weekend; they helped pass the time by chatting with me, I told them of my adventures so far and where I intended to go next.

The hostel at Merced was interesting. This was a private house which had two dorm rooms in it and a very cosey atmosphere. The warden offered a pickup service from the train station too, I was the only person staying there that night so I got the full treatment! It was already quite late by the time I arrived, getting quite cold too, and I needed to be up early for the bus into Yosemite - the YARTS bus (Yosemite Area Regional Transport System).