On the Road Again — Phoenix Forties

Two amazing days in San Francisco was really only enough for a flavour of the greatest hits and we’d love to come back and spend longer exploring all the little pockets. In the meantime, the plan has us hitting the road so see another of America’s greatest hits: Yosemite National Park.

But first we had to cross another bridge - this time the Bay Bridge which is the first multi-lane double decker bridge that I’ve been on. And at nearly 5 miles, one of the longest bridges I’ve been on if not the longest. It’s another of America’s engineering masterpieces from the 1930s - Roosevelt and his New Deal really did some amazing roads, bridges and power stations. Fun Fact: in the 1930s, the American government stimulated the economy by building 650,000 miles of road, 78,000 bridges, 125,000 civilian and military buildings, and constructed or improved 800 airports.

Asides from the adventure across the Bay Bridge (see below for a little drive over video), we also had an adventure courtesy of Clara, our in-car navigation system. On our way to Yosemite we wanted to go via Oakland which is the location of America’s best Gouda cheese maker. The cheese shop was amazing: the route out of there to Yosemite was not. We ended up driving empty country roads for an extended period of time with the only town a teeny settlement called Hornitos. There is always a silver lining of learning however and the land we drove through was some of the most barren we’d ever seen and so we passed the time by falling down an internet hole and discovering something called Serpentine soil. Should you like to also discover the attributes of this rare soil there’s a nice summary on Wikipeadia.

Clara did eventually do right and we came out of the barren country highlands at Mariposa for an absolutely reathtaking drive into the valley over a pass and then 20mins through the longest gorge that I’ve ever driven. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we arrived so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s blog for the scenic wonderland that is the Valley!