Day 14:



Notre Dame des Victoires Church

Early this morning we bid farewell to my sister Anne and headed into San Francisco for Mass. I read that the church of Notre Dame des Victoires, located near Chinatown, offered Gregorian Chant at their 7:30 AM Mass; no further searching needed. As a lover of all things Latin I was excited. Moreover the church is one of the few remaining authentic French national parishes in the country. All of the priests assigned to the parish (members of the Marist order) are French, or are of French derivation. The have a weekly French Mass for the la francophonie people who live in the Bay Area.  Since Altoona is not blessed with a French ethnic parish I jumped at the opportunity.

Mass is Mass, no matter where you go. Irrespective of where I went to Mass be it San Francisco, Ouray, Wilber, Mundelein, Ada, or wherever else, when we attend Mass during the trip it always felt like home. That being said I was disappointed when I found out the schola was off this weekend. Additionally when the priest read two (yes, two) canned homilies back-to-back it served as a good reminder to me to always prepare well for this vital task.

We departed Frisco and drove east (for once) heading for Yosemite National Park which is about 4 hours away from the Golden City. Not much happened on the way; I had a Twix bar as a pre-breakfast repast (the blog has hit new lows), and we got gas. A few hours later we stopped in Oakdale, California for a real breakfast. Oakdale is the "Cowboy Capital of the World." Not exactly sure how it was given this moniker. Truth is all through our travels we ventured through many "capitals," in fact it would blow your mind to realize just how many "capitals" are in our one nation. Of the cities we visited or passed through in California alone we saw many places where something is at the very top of its game; Sacramento is the Almond Capital of the World, Lodi is the Zinfandel Capital of the World, Stockton is the Asparagus Capital of the World. While California boasts many "capitals" perhaps the region that seems to be the "Capital of the world, Capital of the World," is the Midwest. We passed through Wilber, Nebraska - "Czech Capital of the United States" (it was too bold to say Czech Capital of the World in light of the existence of an actual Czech Republic), Lincoln, Nebraska - "Steak Capital of the World" (never mind Argentina), Elk Horn, Iowa - "Danish Capital of Iowa" (though the good Danes of Elk Horn seem to think they may be the Copenhagen of America, but are far too humble to make the claim), and the list goes on. I digress...

Back to Oakdale. We stopped at a great diner/family restaurant where I had a chili cheeseburger for breakfast. After breakfast Fr. Doug gave me Last Rites (please, it wasn't that bad). About an hour or so later we made our way into Yosemite National Park. For an admission fee of $20.00 you can enjoy the park. Yosemite is beautiful and as a National Park it has a great history which I won't ramble on about right now. However I do not think it is worth the trip if you are from Pennsylvania (unless you are already here). Think Potter County with large sequoias, Manhattan traffic, bigger mountians, no dive bars and no deer camps. You would be better off driving to Germania, Gennesee, Galeton, or Gold on a Sunday afternoon; it is free (save fuel costs) and you can stop at the Wharton Hotel and play the ring game.

Yosemite; The Sinnemahoning of the Sierra Nevadas

 

Trying to figure a way to put this in my checked luggage

 

 

The striking Wawona Hotel in Yosemite. Spend a day here and you will need a loan. Spend a week here and you will have to sell one of your kids.

 



After a few hours at Yosemite we headed out of the park for Bodie, California. Along the way we saw some beautiful mountain lakes, including one with a fair number of swimmers. I wanted to stop but the thought swimming in the robust waters of Yosemite didn't seem to offer much appeal to Fr. Doug. We also saw Mono Lake (use swimming there when you are asked how you got the disease), which didn't much appeal to my aesthetic senses. I think (I also think I may be wrong) it was Thoreau who once said that lakes are the "thumbprint of God." Mono Lake reminded me more of a carbuncle.

 

Bodie, California is a well-preserved Ghost town that is now part of the state park system. It was last inhabited in the early 1960s when the last tenant was evicted upon Bodie becoming a park. With a population of over 10,000 in the days of yore, it continued to dwindle for many years. 12 miles back on a dirt road (paved at first) it has so many tourists it looses some of its ghost town appeal. They lock the gate promptly at 6:00 PM, so be there as early as possible.



Bodie Odd Fellows hall (right) next to a bar (left)

 

After leaving Bodie we headed for nearby Bridgeport. Tonight I made reservations for the Bodie Hotel (supposedly moved here from Bodie), and after experiencing the place  feel inspired to write some sort of jeremiad about the joint. First of all I think we may be the only guests in the hotel. Secondly when we arrived the clerk who came out with his shirt unbuttoned, had no record of my reservation. He called the owner on his cell phone who then yelled at him so he put the phone down while she continued to talk/yell. At that point I didn't feel much like lodging here for the evening and told him that I think we are going to "head down the road closer to our final destination." He called the owner back and put me on the phone to negotiate. She said she had my room reserved and still had my credit card info (I had to provide this in order to make the reservation). In the end she told me regardless if I stayed or not she was going to charge me for the night. That determined where we staying for the night. The hotel is decorated in a style I call, "faux 1970s country antiquish," Fr. Doug called it "neo-shyster." There is no cable, no screens in the window, and the steps feel like they are going to give way. I should not complain; I am happy to have a roof over my head. However it is not worth $106 a night (I am no Rockefeller - this is a pricey place).

 

Tonight we packed for the trip home. It was like putting a flea market in a Ziploc bag. When I cleaned out the car I found the rental agreement from Hertz. It reminded me of the I first found the rental paperwork when it was above the sun vizor last week. When I pulled the vizor down the papers fell on me and spilled onto the floor. I said, "Hey, nice job Ondeck, geeze." Fr. Doug said, "yeah, I planned all this, I put it up there and planned for it to fall on you, thinking to myself,  now we play the waiting game." Tomorrow I had originally planned another ghost town (with a troublesome history) but Fr. Doug said he will loose what hair he has left if we hit another abandoned city. Still there is one more tomorrow then the wrap up.

 

A simplified life is one step closer to perfection. Time to recommit to that lofty goal.