Sabine, Thank you for your graciousness. I suspect that at some point, we will be able to write the definitive tour guide "Irish Pub Crawl for 'Merican Musicians" with a specific chapter comparing Northern California with Northern Ireland.

Fionn, I would not have envied your decision, even as you made it. Yosemite is sort of a Denali in a box, and it was probably better that you took Cal One north, as it gave you a more varied view of the western portion of the US. But Yosemite is a god awful close second, though I can't imagine biking in or out. I doubt if you could have enough rubber on your brakes to make it down, or enough chain to make it up (tractor gears or not). In the old days, we would have to pressure bleed the cars radiator twice going in or out. (If you had a bad radiator cap, your hoses would go, and we would use the old rule of bleeding our caps, when our ears popped). An old mans memory says that of the two ways I can recall, coming in by Chinese Camp is screaming drop, whereas going out along the Merced River is a longer, but gentler grade through the Sierras.

Brawn, While playing for another wedding at O'Hurleys, I brought up your idea to the proprietor, and he likes the concept. We'll pass it around at our Thursday night jam, and see what percolates up.