Garrote

Currently In: Zephyr Cove, NV (Lake Tahoe area)
Heading to Redding and Redwood National Park in CA; then to Crater Lake National Park and Portland in Oregon; Tacoma and Seattle, WA; Glacier National Park

I haven't updated in a while.  No excuses like poor wi-fi or anything this time.  Just busy and haven't made the time to continue telling our story.

A bit about the town of Groveland, CA where our RV park was located while we visited Yosemite.  It was settled in 1848 and became known as Garrote, the Spanish word for "hanging", after a couple of Mexicans were hung for stealing horses.  After the gold rush, the remaining citizens wanted a more respectable name and changed the town name to Groveland.

We learned all of this history during a night out at the oldest continuously operated saloon in California!

downtown Groveland

The inside of the bar was cool - almost like a museum - with lots of artifacts from Yosemite and the old mining days.

It was "Open Mike Night" while we were there, so we were in for a real treat with some great music too!

Wanted to note that we saw evidence of the Rim Fire from 2013.   It affected the whole area including Groveland in that all the businesses were shut down for a period of time.  There were miles of burned trees as we were heading into Yosemite.  But as you can see the new growth has started!

The other interesting thing we found in Groveland is the little Catholic Church we went to: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (the same name as the parish I grew up in).  It was originally a miner's chapel but now has one Mass per weekend - 9 am Sunday morning.  There are about 20 pews and I would say around 50 people were at our Mass.  And the cemetery is right out the front door.  It was 10 minutes up the road so we were lucky with the convenience.

Also wanted to mention a few things about the campground we stayed in - Yosemite Pines.  There was a whole section of retro RV's for rent.

Some yurts and cabins (the cabins were pretty standard.)  And of course tent camping.

And a petting zoo!  I guess the alpaca got loose one day - we saw one of the staff walking it back to the barn on a leash.

There were campers in and out of this campground all week!