Not only is the Madonna Inn wacky as all hell to look at it is beautifully put together, the attention to detail is great... I woke & spent 20 minutes just lying there looking around at my surroundings.. it's highly recommended to anyone who's in the area. ..get a rock room..

So plan number one today was to drive to San Francisco & see how we're doing timewise.. we set off up the coast road under a beautiful blue sky, what can I say about the coast road that hasn't been said already or is a cliche?? The last time I drove this route it was foggy & cold, we could barely see the sea, this time tho it was gorgeous, the scenery was awesome, and it just kept on coming.. 3 hours of non-stop vista-rama.
 

The Pacific Ocean is just behind this rock..

See..

We pulled into a beach recommended to us by the desk clerk at Furnace Creek, at a place called "Cambria" it was a rocky inlet with pebbles not sand.. but it also had rock pools, I spent a while setting up the Pond Oceanographic institute to study hermit crabs & small fish dealies.. only to find my study group trashed by 2 eight(ish) year old girls who had decided that "Rocks are not for snails" & went about solving this natural disaster by rummaging around in the pool & flinging the snails away "Oops I dropped one.." they would say as another snail was launched into orbit..

Back to the coast road & the scenery for a bit... we stopped for more fresh fruit farm produce which is now busy lending the car a strange odor..Dinner was had at a hippy run restaurant just north of Santa Cruz.

We got to San Francisco way ahead of schedule, (4:30pm ish) and decided to head on to Reno in order to be closer to Yosemite which is the next port of call on this trip, unfortunately,  we got stuck in the SF rush hour which cost us an hour but soon enough we were on our way again..
 

A ritual of the drive over the Donner pass from SF to Reno is the "Ruffle-o-meter"<tm> this is science at its best, we buy a large bag of Ruffles crisps at sea level in SF, then as you ascend the 7500 feet over the Donner Pass the bag expands to bursting point due to the pressure difference.. this is what passed for entertainment during the 3 hour drive from SF to Reno..  we've listened to all our CD's & the radio here is sucky..

We arrived to Reno at about 9pm, had a quick cruise up & down the strip, popped into Tower for some CD's got a room in the "Silver Legacy" casino & did all the usual stuff.. ate, lost cash in the slots, walked through all the casinos yadda yadda.. Reno is quiet tonite, once you're used to Vegas this place seems very small, it has a certain small town charm but the casinos don't have their act together when it comes to themes or jaw dropping spectacle, we both got tired about 1am, 12 hours driving will do that to a person I guess, so we're turning in now in order to make an early start tomorrow.. we have loads on the agenda, Yosemite, Virginia City, Mono Lake, A ghost town.. all good stuff...

Tomorrow..