Coarsegold and Yosemite

We've moved on to Coarsegold, California, about 30 miles north of Fresno and 30 miles south of Yosemite National Park. Our reason to be here was to visit Yosemite. We could have stayed closer, but we were attracted by the Escapees RV park here, called Park of the Sierras, or POS for short.

A view of Park of the Sierras

This is the 12th Escapees park that we've visited. Each one has it's own flavor, and POS is no exception. Like its sister park called Jojoba Hills in southern California, near Temecula, it was built from scratch as a coop under the Escapees umbrella. Also like Jojoba Hills, POS is built in the rolling foothills so common in California. The RV sites are scattered around the rolling humps and bumps. Going for a walk here turns into real exercise as no street is level. One advantage to this is that most sites have a view of something.

Likewise with Escapees parks, POS is run by a minimal paid staff of only 2. The bulk of the maintenance is handled by volunteers in the park, who do everything from replacing 4" gate valves in the water lines to repaving the interior roads. This keeps the costs associated with the park at a minimum.

Pothole rocks in Coarsegold Creek in POS

A constant challenge for the crew is keeping brush under control. Considerable effort has been paid to fire prevention and protection. There is a 100 foot fire break around the outside perimeter. In some areas, the park has obtained permission from adjacent landowners to remove brush next to the park fences. In the interior, the bulk of the greenery is live oak and manzanita. The manzanita contains oil which makes these beautiful bushes highly flammable. All of them are carefully pruned.

As a coop, the 250 sites are all owned by Escapee members. About 15 sites per year are being resold by members, against a waiting list of 75 who would like to buy them. If a member leaves for an extended period, they can make their site available for rental. Enough members are usually out to make space for travelers like us who only want to stay a few days.

The Gateway into Yosemite

On Monday, we tripped up to Yosemite. We got an early start for us, leaving POS at around 9:30. The signs said that Yosemite was only 22 miles from here. They failed to say that the valley itself was another 30 miles after the entrance, and that the roads were hilly, windy, curvy roads that kept maximum speed at 35 and average speed much lower. It took us 2 hours to get to the Gateway.

Yosemite is indeed a magnificent piece of land. The valley floor is a meadow surrounding the Merced River, the valley walls curve up to the base of 4000' cliffs rising nearly vertical from the floor. The landmark cliffs have names, such as El Capitan, Two Brothers and Half Dome. Spectacular waterfalls drop thousands of feet into the valley from above. Even though the dry summer conditions sometime stop the falls altogether, we were lucky to see some falling water.

Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite

We stopped for lunch at the deli in Yosemite Village, in the heart of the park. It was expensive, as we expected, and since we were nearly into winter, many other places that cater to the summer visitors were closed. I stopped in the visitor center, and also checked out the Ansel Adams Gallery next door. Adams made many wonderful photos of Yosemite, as well as other California sites. A few Adams prints were on sale for $18,500 each. I only had $18,000 in my pockets, so I had to pass. But they were beautiful and inspiring.

When we left, we exited through the western side of the park, as Consuelo had requested yarn to be sent to El Portal, a tiny blip on the map just outside the park entrance. Following the river down the hills was a beautiful trip, too, not quite as spectacular as the core of the park. We made our way to Mariposa, then turned east and found our way back to Coarsegold.

It's getting chilly here, though, up at our 1700 foot elevation, and we had enough warmth in Petaluma to want lots more. As soon as our mail arrives, we'll move on south.

More images of Yosemite can be viewed in my gallery.

Waiting for the Mail

Full time RVing sometimes requires planning and patience. Getting our mail is generally not a difficult problem. We subscribe to a mail forwarding service through Escapees, our RV club. All of our mail goes to a real address in Texas. The hardworking Escapees mail staff there sorts it, deletes any 3rd class stuff, and when we call with a forwarding address, puts it into an envelope and sends it along to us. We usually have it sent to General Delivery at a nearby post office, though sometimes it is delivered to the campground where we are staying.

Escapees mail work very well. They have a good understanding of our needs, provide good customer service, and are relatively inexpensive. We pay about $100/year for the service, and we pay the postage on everything that is forwarded to us, typically around $3 to $5 in priority mail fees.

But this week, we're waiting for the mail in Knoxville. Last week we were waiting for the mail in Front Royal, VA. It turns out that we are victims of our own poor planning.

One of the things we receive in the mail is our prescription drugs. They are sent from a pharmacy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. By default, they send them to our Escapees address in Texas, but if we're running low, we can have them sent to an alternate address. So 2 weeks ago, we ordered one of our prescriptions, asked that it be sent to Front Royal, and we waited there for it for 4 days. Turns out, the prescription was expired, and the pharmacy and our doctor did not connect. So the prescription never got sent. After the 4th day, we called the pharmacy, and they said they were waiting on the doctor. We called the doctor, and they had no record of a request from the pharmacy. A typical catch 22. So we asked the doctor to request the prescription, which he did, and it was sent the next day.

Since we were heading down the road to Knoxville, we also asked the pharmacy to change the address from Front Royal to Knoxville. They said they would. Alarms bells are going off, right? The prescription did get filled and shipped, but not to Knoxville. It went to Front Royal.

There's always a way out, but it may not be easy. In this case, we needed to contact the Front Royal post office to ask them to forward our general delivery main to Knoxville. USPS does not have their local post offices listed in the phone book any more. Instead, an 800 number will supposedly get you anything you need from USPS. I called and told the 800 number operator what I needed and asked for the phone number for Front Royal. She told me that, "only Express mail can be changed over the phone", her way of declining to give me the number. Not willing to give in, I politely asked, "Are you going to give me the number or not?" After a few moments, she relented. I understand the need to limit the interaction with the PO over the phone, but I didn't see any other way to achieve what we needed. And it turned out that the postal employee that I spoke with in Front Royal was cheerful and helpful, and said she would note our request where the general delivery was sorted, as our package had not yet arrived.

So, we checked for our mail here in Knoxville (actually, Heiskell) this morning, and none of it has arrived. The Veteran's Day holiday mail have delayed things an extra day. So we spent the day working on Xmas presents, getting groceries, and visiting with the other campers here. We'll try to get our mail again tomorrow. After all, we're retired, and usually don't have to be anywhere.