CA and MI (04-21-12)

We took advantage of the fact that we would be stationary for a while, and also the fact that we had someone to check on the cat (thanks Karen!!) to fly to Michigan to see our daughter and son-in-law.  No matter how long a visit I have with either of the kids, it never feels long enough.  3 days felt particularly short, but we had a lot of fun and got to spend quality time with Jess and David. 

The day that David had to work, Jess took us to a local farm to visit the horses and see if there were any babies around.  Jess is an animal lover and is happiest when she has a horse to pet.

She had an unpleasant surprise, and couldn’t get out of the stall fast enough when she discovered that the miniature horse inside was indeed trying to bite her leg.

We arrived back in California on Friday, the day before the party celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Fresno chapter of Paul’s fraternity, Sigma Chi. 

There was quite a turnout of “Sigs” and their wives at the dinner, including Actives as well as Alumni.

Paul had a great time reminiscing with all of his college buddies, and paid for the fun with a case of laryngitis the next day. At one point in the evening there was a problem with the sound system, and if you’ve met Paul it won’t surprise you to learn that he had a hand in fixing it. What put a grin on my face was hearing so many of the guys comment that “Porter” hadn’t changed at all- he was still  “Mr. Fixit”.   I have always loved the relationship that Paul has with his fraternity brothers. The friendships have survived the years so well that I have become friends with these guys and their wives and we always have a great time when we get together.

  Sunday breakfast at Kirk and Karen’s was well attended and another opportunity to spend time together in a quieter environment.  After filling our faces yet again, the guys tackled the project of installing Karen’s new microwave and oven.  They love having something to focus their attention on!

Question of the day:  How many Sigs does it take to cut a piece of wood?

Fun with Friends in the Sun and Snow of California (04-15-12)

Our first weekend here in Fresno, we took off for Kirk and Karen’s cabin in the Sierra Mountains.  By the time we climbed the 5000+ feet, the temperatures had dropped and there was white stuff on the ground.  It was really beautiful outside though, so it didn’t bother us much.

While we were at the cabin the guys worked on a couple of manly projects, including installing a new mantle in the main room.

After returning from the cabin, we didn’t let any moss grow under our feet- we took a road trip up to Atwater to visit with more friends.

After a few days back in Fresno, trying to get a couple of projects done on the trailer, we headed to the coast for the weekend.  Along the way we stopped at the Tobin James Winery for an awesome wine tasting.
Wineries are very common in this part of the state, and Tobin James is one of the better known ones.






 

We rented a house for two days at Morro Bay, and enjoyed the sun and the ocean.  Seems like we spent most of the time eating, so I will be paying a price for that, I’m sure.

Back home again tonight, we’re getting ready to fly out to Michigan tomorrow to see our daughter and son-in-law for a few days.

Its  been a crazy, whirlwind time full of fun with our friends, and it doesn’t look like the pace is going to slow down any time soon!

Trona Pinnacles, Ridgecrest, CA (04-03-12)

Do yourself a favor.  If you ever plan on seeing the Trona Pinnacles and Valley of Fire, see the Pinnacles first.  It will keep the disappointment at bay.  

That’s not to say the Trona Pinnacles weren’t interesting, because they were, and we would have thought they were a lot more awesome if we hadn’t just come from Valley of Fire.

If you look at the pictures and think, “gee, that looks like another Star Trek set”, you’d be right.  Star Trek V filmed scenes here.  In fact, more than 30 films a year are shot here (including Planet of the Apes).

The Pinnacles were formed millions of years ago when carbonated briny lake water intermingled with calcium rich ground water, to form Calcium Carbonate.  Over a period of many years, these hollow tubes (Tufa Pinnacles) were formed.  Some of them are 40 feet wide and 140 feet tall.

We spent an hour or so wandering around checking it all out, before having lunch and getting the rest of our errands done.

Once we left Ridgecrest, we stopped in Bakersfield to wash the truck and trailer before heading into Fresno.

Since arriving here, we’ve been spending time with friends, catching up, and just in general having a fun time-  it’s especially fun  beating the guys at Rummikub!

Valley Of Fire State Park, NV (03-31-12)

      On the way to Valley of Fire, we stopped in Pahrump for two days.  It took that long to get the desert dust out of the trailer. It seems like a never ending chore sometimes.  We also had a ton of laundry to do, and I can pretty much say that after 9 days in Death Valley, we didn’t have any fresh produce left. That all seems so long ago, even though it’s only been a week.   The RV Park we stayed in had a winery attached to it, so we took the short tour and got a free wine tasting.  At least, I did.  Paul only tried one wine and didn’t care for that one.


the campground nestled among the red rocks.



  In addition to the history of the area, Valley of Fire is all about the hiking and the rock formations.  Hiking in a desert can be different, and has some unique challenges. Paying attention to water consumption is critical and we always turn back when half our water is gone. Also, many hikes actually have no official trail.

Much of the logical path to follow in a desert is on either hard packed desert soil, or soft dry riverbed .  One day we followed “Prospector’s Trail” but it ended up being an old road and we were more interested in hiking up and down the rock formations, so we quickly moved off in our own direction,  As we climbed up and down the boulders and hills, it was easy to lose depth perception and at times became difficult to figure out if we could continue the way we were going, or if we were going to come to a dead end and have to turn around. After a while, all the rock formations start to look the same.  Of course, we have a GPS with us (two, actually) so we wouldn’t get lost, but we could spend a lot more time getting someplace than we had planned on. 

 
That’s where Cairns come into play.  Cairns are  trail markers, many times unofficial and left by previous hikers.  Hikers will make a small pile of rocks indicating a turn in the path they took. Sometimes there will even be an arrow made of rocks, or a line of rocks blocking a pathway, indicating that we shouldn’t go that way. We came across quite a few rock cairns on our hike, which helped us make choices as to which way to go.

Easter Egg Canyon

Intermingled with all the red sandstone were some areas with a high mineral content that created beautiful colors.  I dubbed this particular area Easter Egg Canyon, because it literally looked like someone had taken the dye for Easter eggs and painted the rocks with it.



Lake Mead


Once we’d had enough hiking for a while, we took a day trip to nearby Lake Mead.  I have never seen Lake Mead before but of course I’d heard of it.  It was a beautiful warm day and we brought our swimsuits, just in case. It turns out that Lake Mead is a great boating lake, but there isn’t a lot of access to the lake without a boat. 





Our visit to this park was made more fun by the people we met. There were 3 Canadian couples traveling together that we became friendly with.  Each night we had social hour with them, and a campfire on the nights that didn’t have 40 mph winds.  Lately we’ve met some really great people- this group and the people we met in Death Valley are some of them.  Hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet up with them again at some point!


After extending our visit twice, we finally left the park today.  The weather, although dry, has been extremely windy at times and tomorrow the winds are supposed to be 40-60 mph so we started heading towards Fresno.  Our last day there we spent climbing the rocks that surround the campground. It was almost like being a kid again, climbing as high as we could up the rock formations and then finding a way down the other side. Great fun.