I made it to a campground in Ahnwahnee, CA on the night of 22nd - kind of like base camp for the approach to Yosemite without reservations, the week of Memorial Day! I solved my "pilot light" problem on the control panel by turning on the gas at the tank - I guess the fill man forgot to do the last step! But that meant I was free to head to Yosemite, after unhooking and packing up. There was a chance I would be back tonight, but was hoping to get lucky on a park campsite. So I left the Sierra Meadows Campground 8:45 am, entered Yosemite Park at 9:35am after sitting through lane closures for road and tree work, then about 20 mins in line to get through the gates (I hear the wait will be 2-3 hours for the holiday weekend), and then finally arrived at Yosemite Valley Campground Registration Office about 11:15, only to find no parking anywhere, especially for an RV! So I parked illegally at a ticket office and ran to the campground office, to get my name on the list at #31, and then to be told that I must be present at 3pm to hear the reading of the list - if not present, then site would be given to next on list. Fine, but that meant I would have to find parking again at 3pm, so I set out to go see some sites first. I quickly realized that all the sites I would see were going to be from my RV while sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, which was being detoured through the worker campgrounds while the main road was being repaved, and as we passed each parking lot you could see hundreds of cars looking for a spot - NOT going to find anything for an RV! So I kept following the traffic flow until we were 2 miles beyond the last known site in Yosemite Valley, and I see a pullout in the road with one RV already pulled in, and I can get in behind him!!! It's now 12:45, and I know I am 2 miles beyond Yosemite Falls, and the signs tell me it's another 3.6 miles to Half Dome Village where the campground office is, and I discover that even the trails are closed due to paving, so I had to ask directions at every corner, Sara was panting and drooling, and I kept watching the clock, not believing that I might not even get back there by 3pm!! So I had spent the whole day just trying to get to the campground office, while running past beautiful sites because I needed a campsite. We made it to the office with 30 mins to spare, but Sara and I were hot and exhausted. We were hoping nobody else would get back for the list reading, but darned if about 50 people showed up - I had it worked out with another couple that if either of us was called, we would share a site since they only had tents - unfortunately, they were #28, I was 31, and they announced that there were 9 sites available, then made us sit through a lecture of all the rules of the campground before they told us who the 9 winners were! So at 3:30, I had nowhere to stay, a 2 hour drive to get back to Sierra Meadow campground, and had still seen nothing of Yosemite. So I decided that I would see some sights as I made the 2 hour trek back to the RV, passing many waterfalls, the largest of which is Yosemite Falls (can walk to lower falls with a dog, but trail to upper falls does not allow pets), through Yosemite Village with lodges, shops, galleries (Ansel Adams is very big here), biking/walking trails that are gorgeous (and flat since we are in the valley), and views of the incredible mountains from every side. Fortunately, it had cooled down and made for a nice walk but did feel like my legs were going to fall off (remember those dolls we had when WE were little, they had rotating limbs, and if you rotated the legs around a couple times, the leg just popped off, but you could push it back in the socket....)-anyway, my legs felt like they were very close to popping out of the hip socket!! And poor Sara had a tongue that was dragging the ground! After hiking the Valley trail to the end, then cutting across a pasture that looks just like where they tell me the rattlesnakes hide, I finally made it back to the RV at 6pm! Oh, and did I mention bubonic plague is still active here, so avoid rats, rodents, and mosquitos - and report to an ER if you develop symptoms within 6 days, because it is curable if you catch it early!!! So back at the RV, we start the drive out of the park, with 1 million other visitors! I stopped at Wawona camp store to get a drink and ask again if anyone had ideas for camping, when I got an affirmative answer from the cashier - go out the park gates, into National Forest property, left on Mt Raymond Rd, go to top of hill to Goat Meadows, next to maybe a transfer station (a dump!), and you'll be fine for the night!!! Sounded good, so sure enough, directions were perfect, about 10 other campers there when I arrived, 15 more before I went to bed. A lot were tenters, so they went off to the wooded areas, leaving their cars on the paved area, and us RVers set up around the perimeter of the lot - perfect! Saw some games of pine cone shuffle, campfires were lit (not sure that was legal!) but everyone was friendly, and it was free!!! And I had about 2 bars of Verizon coverage, so got a couple phone calls in! If I'd known about this, I would have come here both nights, and not paid $50 for that campground 2 hours away! Got very cool during the night, so slept well and had to wear a sweatshirt this morn. Today, the plan was to maybe go up to Glacier Point - they said a 1 hour drive up, after your 40 min drive from the park gates. I am really not excited about more driving on these narrow roads in the big RV, and this road said 30 ft max length and no trailers, so it sounded bad. But I really didn't want to go back into Yosemite Village with the parking issues either, so I bit the bullet and started up Glacier Point. The first 2/3 of drive was not so bad, especially since I arrived earlier than most, the last 2 miles to top was bad curves and horrible rutted road - I only drove over one small boulder, guess I would know if I broke an axle?! But the view was worth it all - looking down on Yosemite Village and all the waterfalls around the park, and views of Half Dome that made you realize how big it is! Even from miles away, you can see the mist from these terrific falls (Yosemite is world's 5th largest waterfall), and it is supposed to be more spectacular this year because of record snowfalls this season. And, it's true every creek and stream you cross, seem to be a raging river! Lots of water also running across the roads and sidewalks where normally it is dry. I stopped at one pullout to look at this flooded, grassy area because it just looked so peaceful, but when I got out, I heard loud noise - birds? No, the other visitors on site said frogs! It was a cacophony of what sounded like hundreds of frogs!! What a treat! I also passed 3 deer when I was on the trail in the valley, not 3 feet away, and Sara straining at the leash, but they just watched us, like we were unusual sites, but not worrisome! I made it off Glacier Point by noon, and came back to Wawona to find Wawona Meadow Loop Trail - a 3.5 mile trail that allowed dogs! I know Sara was thrilled! BTW, if you aren't towing a dog around, there are shuttle buses to get you around, altho they were also tied up in that traffic mess and I was walking faster than the traffic! But we enjoyed the 1.5 hour of trail since it was mostly shaded and covered the original stagecoach road and hotel site that was Yosemite in the 1800's. At 3:30, I am on the road to who knows where. There are only about 3 campgrounds listed in Fresno and they all got poor ratings, in fact , terrible ratings. The campgrounds around Yosemite were all full yesterday, so I didn't even try them. I stopped at Costco in Fresno for gas (up to $2.79, 10 cents higher than 2 days ago), then came out to Walmart in Sanger, closest to Kings Canyon/Sequoia - I'm going to try to get a spot at Azalea Campground where I was before, because it's all first come, first serve. That means an early morning drive to start scouting for a campsite, and if that plan fails, I may be headed to Bakersfield where I'm hoping the crowds will not be flocking to the Orange Grove of Bakersfield, but it was upscale for me - orange trees and cable TV, warm showers, water and electric, doesn't get any better. In the meantime, I checked with Walmart about camping here and they were cool, but then I met Asian Security Patrol - he says I must check with him, "he is the man"; now I only understood every 10th word he said, he mentioned "the war, World War 2 & 3" I think, and ranted on about what his job was, punctuated by evil laughing...anyway, I think I'm on good terms, but he might be North Vietnamese - I think I'll use the table ledge for extra security tonight! He assures me he is on watch "all night"! Don't worry, there's also watchdog, Sara on duty!