Surviving Yosemite

     All we have heard, for the past few weeks, was about the virus at Yosemite, that was carried by the mice.  Albeit early, I think my family survived pretty well.  We were all tired last night after getting home, but everyone seems healthy (knocking on wood).  Yeah, six people... six... died of a horrible disease, and that's tragic, but six out of what?  One million visitors, two million?  We figured we'd risk it.  We weren't actually staying in the park; we had campsites (or is it a Kampsite) at a KOA about 20 - 25 miles west of the park, so we really didn't think much about it.  Additionally, we were in our own (personally owned) tents, and ate over a fully covered table.  Pretty much Camping 101.

     As you can see, from the picture taken by my youngest child, we had a beautiful early September weekend, the weekend after Labor Day, and we were amazed at how crowded the park wasn't.  Sure, there were still a lot of people there, the campgrounds were full, as was the Lodge, and the hotel just outside the West gate, but it wasn't really bad like it can be at times.  It's the first time we've been camping (Mary, Tyff, Jacki, and I) in many, many years; like when we first bought the 13X12 screen-porch-tent we have, some where in the mid-1990's.  It was also the first time we went camping with Peter and Victor, too.  It would be a great weekend.  Mister Victor learned about telling "spooky" tales at night with a flashlight.  It was a lot of silliness, but he really got into it, and had a great time.

     I found out a couple ofthings, however, that seems to be this Universal Truth, that I'm just getting too old for a lot of stuff, and that sleeping on an air bed on the floor of a tent is getting to be one of them.  I've had worse beds, this was a Bed-in-a-bag that came out years ago, and was still in good shape, so as far as beds go, this was just short of a Select Comfort.  Still, it was a mattress on the ground, and at 61, the ground is a long way down, and a lot longer getting back up.  I'm going to have to look for a cot.