Early season in the Sierras

Finally something worth posting about. Because I work 60hrs a week, I have not have the time or the energy to do a lot worth posting about, but with the extended weekend to remember our veterans, I thought that this may be post worthy. We went up to the Sierras on HWY 168 (outside of Fresno) to an area where we had not been to before. Sat. morning we left early and met Myron and Andrea loaded up and headed out. The weather the first day was spitting rain and overcast (not awesome for camping). After a long search and many of the areas that I had looked at on the map being closed off because of snow at the high elevations, we finally found a cool spot off of a Forest Service road that would fit our needs. To access it we needed to remove a tree crossing our path so we hooked it up to the truck and dragged it out of the way(The only sensible thing to do). This was awesome man time and just the stuff we needed to kick off a weekend in the mountains.

A truck doing what it is supposed to do...Man stuff. I asked the rig if it could haul the tree and it asked me" tree...what tree???"
Myron is blowing on the fire and eventually got it roaring. Hot springs never felt so nice. These are great, and best of all they are free unlike just about everything else in California.
This is just a taste of what we saw at the lower elevations and the depth of the snow increased directly with the change in elevation.

The next day we went over to Mono Hot Springs and on the way crossed over Kaiser Pass. There was snow up there from the winter months, and some fresh from the night before. A few cars got stuck, but with 4wheel drive and a little know how you can do great things. While in the hot springs it started to snow and sleet so we decided we should get going. The precipitation did not stop for about 16 hours. When we got back to camp we had a heck of a time building a fire(Myron did a bang up job at getting the thing going) and keeping dry but managed a great dinner of stuffed peppers and fresh hot apple pie in the Dutch Oven. All night it poured, but we were able to stay dry in the tent and the rain had severely slowed (not stopped) by morning.

The hot springs were exactly that...hot. More importantly it was free which is always good.

I would encourage anyone going to the mountains, to travel the crazy forest service roads, because you never know what you are going to find and you always will get to use your truck for its intended purpose :impress and frighten beautiful women, and get dirty(insert manly grunt and loud engine noise here).

The ladies are preparing a dinner to warm up their men so we would return the favor later in the night. We also found that hanging a towel in the rain does not really dry it out very well...go figure.

Notice on the left of the fire ring the berm that we built so the river going directly through the fire ring would be diverted.

I know it may be very hard for some of you to believe this, but I am going to be installed as an elder in San Jose CRC this next Sunday (pause here to collect your jaws off of the floor). I know you that may have thought I am to wild and crazy to be an elder, but that is just what the Church needs sometimes. I am going to try my best and with God all things are possible so sit down, hold on, and….see what happens.

I have a few more pictures, but am having some disagreements with the server or whatever the heck runs this dumb site and will attempt to post them later.

ER and Money

So yet I have been very hard at work (and play) and have not had the time to update you faithful readers, but a lot has happened. After a visit to the doctor, emergency room, and doctor (in that order) apparently Brenda has type 2 diabetes. This is a big blow to both of us and it has taken a lot of adjustment but Brenda has taken the news and new lifestyle change very good and, like always, has a positive outlook on life. She is currently taking medication and regulating her blood sugar with that and diet and is doing well. She is very grateful for all of the prayers and calls of concern we have received.

Two Sundays ago instead of church services, we went out as a church to serve the community. I was in charge of the river cleanup project and we had a great time.
This past Saturday I had a sailing race and it was very windy and fun sailing at +11kn. This Saturday I am going to race in front of the golden gate on a larger 35’ boat and I am sure it is going to be a good time.
Notice Al holding Minnie mouse.
I cannot show pictures of the worst stuff we found....one word...latrine.

Thank you US government. Although they are telling us to do idiotic things with our money like spend it on crap we don’t need, it sure is nice that they sent us a stimulus check. I choose to put it toward rent for this month…yes I said toward rent and not for rent seeing as our rent is too high for this stimulating check. I get stimulated for a lot less, but more is almost always better. I encourage all of you save the check or put it all towards debt(if you have any). Stuff is overrated and cash is always good.