Tuna Tang anyone

Tuna Tang was a surprise that was unexpectedly good. Spikey fruit was also good.

So we were out of town for the last week or so in Tijuana doing a service project with some other people form our church. We had a great time and got to do a lot of stuff. Drywalling a halfway house, pouring a footing for a wall, and putting on kids VBS type thing was a great time. We also worked with a drug and alcohol rehab center. This was a real rehab center..not one of those pansy CA rehab centers. In this one the guys were locked in a room with other guys for the first 15days to detox. No medications to help get them off it or make the symptoms less painful...just cold turkey.

Here is Jason working with Adrian(a rehab guy).

We had to figure out my height in Meters to answer the many questions.

We also went to a jail where the offenders were kept for the first 36hrs after their arrest. No cameras allowed inside, but this is the guy who has the connection on the inside. This ministry was very fun and cool, but the smell inside of the jail was not pleasant (as one might expect from a Mexican jail).

Here is the boarder between Mexico and the U.S. I told Brenda to make a run for it, but she decided to just stick her foot through.

Here is Brenda, Kelly(on the left), and our missionary Barbarita at the orphanage.

We served dinner at the rehab center when the guys graduated from thee program. Here is Brenda serving Kelly beans with the biggest spoon I have ever seen.

Kids at the Dios altisimo church.

The group at the halfway house.

All in all it was a great time and for other details you could look at our other blog at

sjcrc.blogspot.com

A few other things

So, the other weekend we stopped by the Greek Festival in San Jose. Apparently San Jose has a big Greek population and it is thriving. The food at the festival was good, but it made me kind of want to go to a dutch festival like the old days back in Fulton.Here is the view from mt. Hamilton.

Saturday Brenda and I rode to Mount Hamilton and the Lick Observatory. It is a cool road that is a great motorcycle ride as well as a good time. The curves and the smooth road are always a good time and we got to see a part of the bay area that we had not been before.

Today after church I went on a ride by myself and had a great time going down the backroads to Watsonville and over to Gilroy and then home again. This was such a good time and it is amazing what a couple of rides can do to relax your body.

I have been working out in the CV(central valley) for the past week and will be out there most of the next week as well. It is installing a air sparge system and is a good time, but a lot of hard work. Hard manual labor is always good for the body as well as the mind (but not for the back).

The bike is doing great and I have a hard time keeping on the straight and narrow...it loves the curves.

Fruit and produce is grown all over California and is always fresh and always good.

Oh ya "it" finally came in. Brenda and I made a deal that if her A1C was below 6.5 she would get a diamond necklace and ...well it was and ...so here it is. It took a long time to get the necklace because we had to order it to get the exact thing that she wanted. She has it now and is sporting it everywhere.

An up close of the diamonds.

Have you noticed what passes for news nowadays...I can hardly watch TV without shaking my head and thinking why do I care and why are they spending time on this crap. For the past 3-4 years they have been reporting on the 49ers moving to the south bay and every time it does not happen and then three months later they recycle the same old story to fluff out the broadcast. I hate that crap and the next time I hear about them moving they had better be here, or the TV is getting shot.

Introducing...The new Bike

Yes here it is...The new to me 2000 BMW R1150GS. I got this bike on Wednesday and with all of the fluid changes and going over the bike it was a very busy week. The bike is awesome and I thought what better way to break it in than a trip to the Sierras. Due to Brenda having a sports banquet on Friday night (which was actually pretty cool) we decided not to leave until Sat. morning.


Here is the beast loaded down for Camping near Yosemite.


Here is a different view that gives you a good idea on why I like the bike. I got a few pictures of the first day but we pretty much took a dirt road to our favorite camp site and ended up finding an even better one. Then we went on a hike and chilled out by the river. The next day was Sunday and we thought we would go to the valley and see if we could catch a church service. During the night someone set up camp on our little side road that we used to access our site. they were only about 20yds from us and I cannot imagine how they did not see us, but with a brown tent and only a motorcycle they must have missed us. Well we needed to leave and they had set one of the tents in thee road with about two feet where I thought would fit the new bike. I started it up and began riding towards the tent and just as I was about 10ft away the tent started violently moving and out popped a guy with fear in his eyes. He rolled out, saw us, and in the next instant, pulled his tent to the side to let us through while he was still in the tent. I must have scarred him pretty bad, but it make Brenda laugh for the next 10min. straight.
We arrived at the Church just in time for the Sunday service. The view from the front door is Yosemite falls...very nice. The service was nice but a little longer than we thought it would be because we had a lot of stuff to see.

Here is a pic riding through the valley.Nice view of Yosemite falls...and us...and the bike.

Here is a pic from an overlook

Here we are at the overlook.

Nice view from the Glacier point overlook. The falls this time of year and so full and about the highest flow we have ever seen. Vernal and Nevada Falls are in the foreground.
We arrived back at the campsite just in time to relax and rest our sore butts.

The next day we were going to leave, but I thought we should check out some dirt roads and see if we could find the fire lookout I had seen on a map. Well, we found it, but the road was pretty crazy. It was locked, but nothing a little climbing of the fence can't fix. Here is the view from the top. About 10min after I got down the actual guy who man's this post showed up.

Here is the inside of the lookout. Very simple and small, but a good way to spend 6 Months

Brenda checking for fires.

On the way back to the main road we went this other way(which technically was closed, but the forest service guy thought we could make it). We did , but I did get it high centered once on this tree.

The first video is going through the valley and seeing Yosemite falls and the other one is the road on the way there.

The end of an era.

Yes it pains me to say it, but the Motorcycle is no more. I know you are probably thinking that I wrecked it or something, but that is not the case...I sold it. To some that may seem like a betrayal of a loyal friend, but for me I think it was a great bike, but I needed to make room for a different one. Yes I said a different bike. I am now in the market for a motorcycle and hoping to find something soon seeing as it was 80 and beautiful today.

Here is Harry acting like...himself at the auction.

Last weekend we had a school auction which is always a memorable time. This year was especially memorable and is going to be talked about for years to come. No, it is not because I ad to much wine and danced on the table top (something Kevin Schenk would say), but is was because no less than 40 people ended up with food poisoning. I was really ill on Monday as was supposed to go on a 5 day road trip for work, but while standing at the door at 5am on Monday I just could not go out and want back to bed. I started the vomit routine at about 8am and continued every hour on the hour for the next 5 hours. Most of the day was a blur, but I was very sore and thought I had pig flu for a while. When I heard that a bunch of people from the auction were also sick, I was relieved that I was not contagious. I also missed work on Tuesday as pert of my recovery and was able to eliminate a few of the pest squirrel in our backyard with the help of an air rifle.

Here is another classic Harry shot.

The "gals" had a great time as always.
I have no idea why I have so many Harry photos, but here is another.

Last week Thursday I ate some rattlesnake on the grill. I killed one at work and thought I would give it a try and it was not that bad. I hope to get a bigger one and have it again someday. Brenda conveniently went out for the night so she did not get some and I know how bad she wants to eat it.
Is it bad that my wife is obviously stronger than me????her guns are huge...and hot.

Ventura with Friends

This weekend Brenda and I went down to Ventura for to meet some friends and have a good time. Ryan and Emily Baker were out for a wedding in So Cal and we thought it would be a good time to meet and visit the Channel Islands. We met down in Ventura, but right off the bat the boat bringing us to the island called and cancelled due to “high winds”. Stupid government regulations will not allow them to go out in high winds. Thanks big government for messing with our weekend. With the cancellation we thought it would fun to do some hiking so we visited the nearby National Forest. After a fun morning hike we went to Santa Barbara to visit a mission.
Brenda at the Mission.

Outside of the Mission.

Brenda Checking out the rose garden in front of the Mission.

Shake and Bake and his old lady on a hike.

Nice viewpoint on the hike.

Inside the Mission again. I am not sure what i was expecting, but the Mission tour was pretty much a bust. I wish I would not have wasted $5 on it.