Leaving San Fran

Well it was tough but we left San Fran!!
Coffee and brekkers from Stella's below us again. Dan went and got his cleaning.
I loved SF and def want to go back. I feel like I did a great job of getting to know it but only scratched the surface really... Even sat in my room drinking coffee at 8am there were still such interesting things going on along Columbus.. like this guy wandering along in a Silver jacket crooning to people having breakfast!!
Taxi was easy and then we hit Hertz who kept us waiting for nearly 2 hours for a GPS and when we got it 'amazingly' it didn't work..hmm seems to be a bit of a pattern this...
Thankfully Dan had already researched the route and noted it down so we were OK.. One wrong turn only - which put us into the middle of a massive traffic jam due to an accident - but it wasn't so bad.

The route was such an odd contrast visually. For ages it was really quite industrial and just big and loud and then all of a sudden we were in what we would say was the countryside. Only this was bigger and more dramatic than I have ever seen. Oh and so barren. So stripped of life...
We had already been told (by Vernon on the Santa Barbara boat trip) about the terrible droughts but this was still a shock.
Massive expanses of pretty much wasteland that should be farms and orchards..So sad...

We found Mariposa easy enough which is a tiny little town that seems like it is a touristy place as in the buildings are all 'olde worlde' USA but it is actually really like that! So pretty and well, quaint.
It has a population of about 1,500  (I think the sign said 1796 and Dan thinks it said 1,296 so I'm going in the middle -ish !!)
It is a mile long only so nothing is difficult to find and most places are closed on Monday! Where do you get that kind of thing really. Well, yes, back home in some places but you just don't seem to expect it here.

Found a great little bar though and got chatting away to the people that run it and the locals (Prospectors Brewery) and went for a lovely meal at Savoury's. Really delicious..

Aiming for an proper early start tomorrow to hit Yosemite Park hence a very quick update as now off to bed!!