Day 10 - a Sierra launch!

Day 10 dawned kinda early after our late excusion. I ate breakfast out and spaced on going to Schat's bakery. Apparently I missed something good!

Anyhoo, we drove north to Lee Vining, and then headed west over Tioga Pass. Craig Clements gave us an interesting mini-lecture on the diurnal winds of Lee Vining canyon. The story involves the Zephyr wind...look it up! And then on up to Tuolumne Meadows for lunch and a radiosonde balloon release. Hey - we got into the park for free! Something to do with having "CA exempt" plates. The balloon launch went spectacularly well, and we tracked the sonde up into the stratosphere. Of course, none of us thought to apply sunscreen, so there were some red faces the next day...

The drive down from there was pretty long. Long and winding road out of Yosemite, and then a high speed dash across the valley to home, arriving on campus at 7:30 pm. Most of the students in chase vehicle #1 slept and dozed all day - I think the students were pooped out by the trip. I know I was! In my case, it was party due to my excessive consumption of junk food on the last day in the van. As we all know, junk food consumed on the road does not count toward ones daily caloric intake. Road rule #1.