I think I have discovered a trend. It seems like whenever I mention in a blog that we will probably do something in the next day or so, it never happens. I think from now on I will stop trying to tell the future. We were planning on putting the inflatable together and taking it out onto the bay, but yeah, we never did. Instead, we got lazy for a couple of days in San Diego- the weather was nice and warm, and we decided to just hang out at the beach and at the pool for a couple of days. We did take one day and go to the local flea market-Kobey Swap Meet. Its absolutely huge...after walking around for hours, we ended up skipping over some of it because we were getting tired. We ate lunch there, which was a mistake, since the food was AWFUL. Jess got new boots and a new jacket out of the deal so I think overall she was happy. I bought her "Silence of the Lambs" and told her she had to watch it (but not with me!). She called today from school to tell me she watched it already and was properly horrified.
We had already decided to spend our last couple of days in California at Paul's brother's house, in the OC, outside of LA. Jess and I had hair appointments for Tuesday, and her flight was leaving Thursday at 6:45 am. I was very anxious to get my hair cut since its been 4 months and its driving me nuts, and it had been even longer for Jess. We didn't know it would be a marathon day for her though! She decided to try to go back to blonde, or at least as close as she could get after dyeing her hair black. She ended up at the salon for about 6 hours because the stylist had to work her in between other customers.
I don't have a great picture of the new color yet, but it is definately lighter than it was! Paul picked me up so I didn't have to wait around for her to be finished. We just went back to get her after dinner.
Part of Jess's plan for our "LA portion of the trip" as she called it, was to go see a taping of one of her favorite shows- Chelsea Lately, so she went ahead and got us tickets. But on the drive up from San Diego she got an email that changed our plans completely. Before she came to CA, she had applied for several internships in the LA area., and she let them know that she would be in the area for Christmas and available for an interview. She is majoring in Creative Writing (just changed from Journalism), and would love to write for a magazine or work in publishing. The email was from a woman at one of the places she had applied for an internship and the woman was available to meet with her at exactly the time the show was being taped. So instead of going to LA for the show, we drove to Santa Monica for the interview. She did get the internship, and it looks really interesting, but she will continue to look to see what other options she can find.
Jess left on Thursday to go back to school, and we went straight from the airport back to the trailer in San Diego. We spent part of the day acting as go-between for her and her boyfriend. He was supposed to fly from Milwaukee to Indiana and they were planning on sharing a limo to get back to campus. Unfortunately his flight was canceled due to weather, so he had to go to plan B. Naturally, she was already in the air, so we helped them communicate all day. He managed to get a flight from Chicago, that was actually only delayed two hours, so they were still able to share the ride and made it back to school ok.
This morning we got up and got on the road as quickly as we could. We are headed back to El Paso, but we are taking a couple of days along the way to do some hiking. We drove 375 miles today because we wanted to make it all the way to Picacho Peak State Park in AZ. This is our first "repeat" campground! We stayed here on the way to Phoenix, but had no time to do hiking, so we will remedy that tomorrow (oops, there I go predicting again.)
We'll stay with Paul's mom again for the next month or so, depending on the situation. His dad has not improved. He is breathing on his own, but still nonresponsive. He has been moved again to a longer term hospital.
In the meantime, we are taking advantage of having a place to stay by making an appointment to get the trailer fixed. The sidewall is still flexing, causing the caulking seal to break continually, plus he has a short list of things he wants them to look at. Usually he just fixes stuff himself, but since we are bringing it in anyway, they may as well check it all out.
Paul and I decided to "go for the gusto" and hike to the top of Picacho Peak today, instead of doing a smaller hike today, and then tackling the peak tomorrow. It probably wasn't the best idea, since neither of us has done anything physical in almost two months. We started out early, at about 10 am, and the weather was gorgeous- low 70s. As I was walking behind Paul, my thoughts wandered, and I started thinking about my "rules" for hiking. First thing is, never make the backpack so heavy that Paul will need a break from carrying it. Plus, I usually let Paul lead for two reasons- he is more experienced, but also, when I get really tired, I just follow exactly where his feet went, no thinking involved. My first rule and most important one, is to always take a picture of the map at the beginning of the trail, if there is one. The only place we actually bought trail maps was Big Bend because we were doing a ton of hiking there. The books are usually $12, so it isn't usually worth it, but if I take a picture of the trail, I can refer to it, and not have to carry anything! 
Today was a strenuous 5 mile hike, with a 2 mile walk back to the truck, since we went up the Sunset Trail and down Hunter trail (elevation 3375 ft/1685 ft gain). I was really excited about this hike because its the first time I have done a hike that required cables. The first 2 miles were fairly easy, but the last mile was more like rock climbing, with lots of cables and very steep drop offs. We really had a blast, but were completely exhausted afterwards.
