After a breakfast of blueberries and yogurt topped with Quaker Oats, my daughter, Catherine, did a few hours of work while I read Carl Hiaasen’s “Sick Puppy.” Catherine is the Civil Engineer for the Castle Airport Taxiway Project. I visited her over the weekend to break up her month and half long stay in Turlock. We had sandwiches for lunch.
After lunch we drove to Yosemite via Merced. We saw a 68-foot obelisk at the corner of Hwy 140 and Arboleda Drive. It is the final resting place of George Hicks Fancher, 1828 – 1900, a prominent Merced County farmer and businessman. His tombstone was the subject of a lawsuit that went to the state court of appeals. Fancher's will set aside $25,000 for burial and a "monument" on one of his ranches. One of his sons wanted to spend $2,000 on the gravestone in the local cemetery and build a library in Merced with the rest. Another son wanted the will followed to the letter, and so the legal battle began. The court ruled, in effect, that monument means monument, and that his wish to be buried on his ranch was to be followed. So the current monument was erected presumably with him under it (no evidence of his original burial in the local cemetery remains). Yosemite travelers gained an unexpected sight on the way to the park.
At Yosemite we saw Bridalveil Fall, El Capitan, Upper and Lower Yosemite Fall, Half Dome and the outside of The Ahwahnee. It was getting dark by the time we returned to Turlock. I photographed two water tanks as the sun was setting but do not have a clue where they were located!
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