Preface: If you are a regular reader, you know that I travel a fair amount, usually with my husband. This is helpful in many ways, but none more than in his ability to read a map and know which way is north. I am directionally challenged and get overwhelmed when I’m taking in a lot of information. He keeps me headed in the right direction and has almost an eidetic memory when it comes to geography.

“Really?” you may ask. Well, that is my opinion but don’t tell him because it will go right to his head. Even if he doesn’t, he makes his claims of what-is-what with such certainty that I rarely question him. Then I can go merrily on my way to whatever comes up next.

On this trip, Bob was not my travel partner. I was privileged to travel with my friend, Kim, who is also somewhat navigationally impaired. But I digress. First let me tell you where I went, but savvy reader, I know you are quite the smart cookie, I’ll bet you already know. Following is the account of my trip:

Yosemite rocks! My jaw dropped at the fresh beauty of every turn, but after three and a half days of taking it all in, I remained confused as to the true identity of the granite wonders. You might take it for granted that I could identify the main rock formations and waterfalls since I have been to Yosemite twice, but it’s been twenty years, so I needed to refresh my knowledge. There are a lot of players, so I knew I’d need to smarten up a bit. No problem I have a smart phone.

Smart. That versatile little adjective. One can be a smart aleck, a smarty pants, book smart, street smart, regular smart, i.e. intelligent, or a smart dresser. While I may not be considered a smart dresser in my travel outfit, I made smart choices of walking sandals paired with compression hose for my cross-continental flight. Since San Jose, CA, was hitting 100 degrees when I landed, I could easily let my Florida feet out of their confines once I disembarked from the plane.

One can and likely does have a smart phone, which should make the owner appear even smarter with all the knowledge of the universe in the palm of your hand.

It doesn’t always work that way, though.

I was stoked to embark on a trip to Yosemite with my friend of many decades, Kim Sutter. Kim was having quite the adventure retracing the eight-week trip which her grandmother and her grandmother’s friend made from Michigan westward through many national parks in 1930. Unheard of at a time when most women didn’t know how to drive, these intrepid twenty-something year-olds drove a 1929 Model-A Ford Standard Coupe and were guided by a 1930 Shell Oil Company map. Kim and I traveled in an air-conditioned Toyota RAV4, which is quite the improvement.

Kim, who lives in Oklahoma and is a member of my zoom writers’ group, is writing a book about these parallel adventures and the impact her grandmother had on her life. Her journey was the best kind of research and extremely well-planned by my super-organized friend. As with any trip, there were a few things for which she could not have planned. Not unlike the deaths of celebrities, Kim’s changes of plans came close together and in a set of three.

Thankfully they weren’t as dire as someone dying, but they did involve a death of Kim’s original plan. Each of her two adult daughters and her mother had been set to do separate legs of the trip with Kim. All three of these women had circumstances prevent them from the original plan within about two weeks of Kim’s scheduled departure. Kim called me to give me the updates and I could hear the sadness in her voice. Yet, she was determined that God knew what the plan ultimately would be and that she would take the fifty-day trek on her own. She is brave.

As I recounted these new details to Bob and told him I wished I could go be with my friend, I could see that travel spark in his eyes. Within a couple of hours, we were on the phone with Kim proposing that I join her in Yosemite and encouraging her to take a few days to respond to our idea so she wouldn’t feel put on the spot. Long story short, I booked a flight to California.

It had been years since Kim and I were together in person. Our journey together was easy, and our conversations covered a wide span as we took in the beauty of Northern California.

Cedar Lodge in El Portal is one of the closer hotels to Yosemite National Park – a lovely 15-minute drive to the entrance. It affords exquisite views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, some of which we could see through the gaps around the entry door to our room. If you are staying near the national parks, you should know that the hotels are pricey and may not have had updates since the Roosevelt administration, but that’s part of the historic charm of the areas.

We assumed that the flying insects around the light fixtures in our room, which must have found entry through our door-gap view of the mountains, were part of the outdoor experience. Kim admitted she did not pay extra for them. The insects were on the house.

Access to the internet should also not be assumed when traveling to these remote areas. I inquired of our innkeeper if there was a maximum number of devices per room to obtain use of Wi-Fi. He laughed out loud, which disturbed the lobby full of people who were trying to get close to the hotel’s Wi-Fi source. Kim and I found three usable outlets to charge our devices (one in the bathroom and another hidden behind my bed). Reminding yourself that you are roughing it and seeing some of the most beautiful sights which God created is helpful to keep things in perspective. Kim’s grandmother would have gotten a kick out of our lack of modern conveniences.

Although I can pull up a map on my phone that shows grids for ease of navigation, much of Yosemite was off the grid, so checking in with the park ranger is a smart thing to do. While their maps are not inclusive of every turn, they are vital to getting around because sometimes signage can be missed while you are gawking at the latest magnificent waterfall or rock formation.

Bridalveil Falls was the highlight of the waterfalls for us, mainly because the other falls we could have seen were dry due to a prolonged dry season. You can see from the picture how wide the falls typically can be.

One day while we were finalizing our plans with Ranger Mark, I asked him to help me identify the main rock formations. My smart phone was driving me crazy.

Half Dome

Three of the most famous rock formations of Yosemite are Half Dome, El Capitan, and the Three Brothers. Half Dome looms large over the park at 5000 feet over the valley floor. My iPhone is obsessed with Half Dome. I showed Ranger Mark my picture of what I thought was El Capitan, which I had captured outside of the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center. I clicked the little i icon and it revealed the landmark Half Dome. I clicked on a different picture of El Capitan, and it said Yosemite National Park. Ranger Mark assured me that my picture was not Half Dome, as my alleged smartphone claimed. It was El Capitan. Half Dome may be the big deal of the day, but it is not everything!

El Capitan

My conclusion is that my smartphone is not all-knowing and Ranger Mark agrees. He said I should report it but that sounded like work to me, and I was on vacation!

Instead, I bought myself a handy-dandy rock identifier to help me along my way. But now I have doubts, and I am still semi-obsessed with having my iPhone identify things correctly.

This morning before I sat down to write this post, I took a picture of a bird on my feeder. I used my iPhone, of course, and zoomed in and then clicked the stupid little icon to identify the bird. It said, “Look up landmark.” This was not helpful, but I did take the time to report it to the good people at Apple. They need to get their act together before the whole world is unable to tell the difference between El Capitan and Half Dome. At least the phone did not identify the bird on my feeder as Half Dome.

For now, I’ll leave you with a cliffhanger appropriate to the park. Will Bonnie ever figure out the names of the rocks? Part 2 is to come…