Movin' On Up...To The East(ern )Side

On Sunday night I left camp with my friend Dave for my last day off of the summer. We drove all the way through Yosemite and camped near Mono Lake amidst moon-like plants with branches the color and shape of bleached and broken bones. After setting up camp in the dark we sat outside on the warm, sandy ground and watched the Perseid meteor shower during the day and time it was supposedly at its absolute peak, and by 2:30 a.m. we had seen 39 falling stars.

A guided tour of the lake and its habitat was the next morning's activity, the mountains ringing the valley obscured by heavy smoke from a far-off forest fire. In the afternoon we drove to Bishop where we ate massive amounts of ice cream for lunch, bought more groceries for dinner, and finally drove up a rocky, steep and winding road to an elevation of 11,000 feet up in the White Mountains.

There are not words to describe the colors and shapes we saw in the sunset as the light faded away over the ridge to the west, twisted and tortured as they were by the smoke that hung just above the soaring peaks. We counted 28 meteors that night, and I was amazed to see them falling as late as 3:30 in the morning when I got up to solve a problem with the tent.

Tuesday morning we packed everything up and made ourselves breakfast at Schulman Grove in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, a place that is home to Methuselah, the world's oldest tree. Driving west towards Yosemite and eventually to camp we stopped at a place that both Aubrie and Aaron told me I should go: the Whoa Nellie Deli. This restaurant is located, surprisingly/horrifyingly enough, in the Mobil station at the eastern entrance to the park and seems to be the pride and joy of the town of Lee Vining, California. Between the five-star chef who cooks at the Whoa Nellie and the massive trapeze set up on a wide swath of grass next to the gas pumps, I was completely speechless.

Almost every part of the two days offered an opportunity for me to do something completely new. While elements of the experience were at times somewhat strange and frightening, most of it was totally exciting and affirming. I am glad we went, despite the numerous logistical problems that had haunted our planning process. The East(ern) Side of wherever we were (still not completely sure how to accurately describe it…I know it's called the Eastern Side, but of what?!) was like nothing I'd ever seen befor and was definitely nothing like where George and Weezie Jefferson used to live.