Today was our long drive home. We got a good early start and were out of the campground and heading for home by 8:15. One of the problems of camping at Hodgdon Meadows is that it takes almost an hour to wind your way back down to the El Portal Road and the west entrance.
We made it down out of the mountains and onto Highway 99 without any problems. Then, it was just a straight shot home with the minor irritations of the Grapevine and traffic in Los Angeles. That was the theory. However, Bakersfield provided an additional and expensive irritation. We were minding our own business passing a semi when another truck pulled up on the other side of us and started to pass. As he did, he began squeezing into our lane. Then suddenly, CRACK! The truck on our right kicked up a rock that cracked our windshield. We're already on our fourth windshield, so a cracked windshield was not what we needed. The rock pitted the windshield and then spidered out a little larger than a quarter.
We made it over the Grapevine and realized that we would be hitting L. A. at 4:30 on a Monday. We lost an hour driving through Los Angeles in rush hour traffic. Between the accident and fire that delayed us over an hour on the way to Yosemite and another lost hour on the way home, this was not a good trip for driving.
We finally got home after 11 1/2 hours and then worked another hour to unload and put everything away. By the time we finished, we were exhausted. Tomorrow is going to be a "do nothing" day around our house.
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