To Wisconsin and Back Again, Chapter 1

Being the Telling (Much Abridged) of our Road Trip from California to Wisconsin and Back Again
Chapter 1, in Which we Travel to Elko, NV

Frances graduated from college this year, and since she anticipates getting a job, she was going to miss the usual summer reunion at Trout Lake.
I said "Road Trip?"
She said "AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Can I bring my FIANCEE????" 
We said "FIANCEE??????  But of COURSE and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!  Does he SNORE???"
 She said "No."

And so our harebrained plan to drive to Wisconsin with Frances and Doug was hatched.  Naturally much excitement and not much planning ensued.  Ted and I wanted to be able to camp. Doug had no sleeping bag or tent.  We bought a tent and provided a comforter, but suggested they come up with a yoga mat to use as a pad.  Which they did, but it was rather thin, so we threw in one of ours also.
Ted and I had many preps to make, which mostly revolved around trying to make sure the garden and yard could survive a two and a half week absence, and finishing up many loose work ends.  The kids had strict orders to keep their luggage to a bare minimum, one small suitcase apiece. Our friends lent us their car top carrier, but in the end it was so huge that we decided not to take it.
Saturday morning (May 19) found us cramming everything into the back of the RAV.  For awhile I was in despair.  How was this ever going to work?????? Four suitcases, 4 sleeping bags, 2 tents, 3 thermarests, 2 yoga pads, all Ted's bike gear, multiple  pairs of shoes, 4 backpacks, 3 laptops, 1 cooler, multiple waterbottles, fannypacks, knitting projects... But somehow we made it fit, helped by the fact that Frances and Doug were troopers and willingly put up with an inordinate amount of stuff crammed into the back seat with them.  It occurred to me that siblings would never have been so obliging.
We finally left VV at 11:08AM Saturday.  Reached Donner Summit at 1.05 PM where we had a bit of a leg stretch and photoshoot.

Frances poses for a picture for her blog and I get in on the action

Frances teaches Doug how to knit to pass the time not spent staring at the scenery.

Nevada has wonderful mountains!

More wonderful mountains!

   Had a batch of the yummy seedbread that Frances had made to sustain us for lunch, but not a whole lot else.  Had a stop at Lovelock about 4pm for another leg stretch and a stop at the Safeway.  Finally reached Elko after 440 miles at 7 pm.  Bought take-out dinner from a Chinese steam table place and ate it standing up in the parking lot!  We did not want to sit down!  Frances had a good look with Doug's smart phone and determined we might do better to spend the night in Elko than to go on to Wells.  We stayed at the Oak Tree Inn, which was one of the most expensive place we stayed at $91.95 for the four of us, and no continental breakfast.

Taxes and hiking-Table Rock

Finally finished my taxes  (in time for the due date!) What a chore!  In the meantime the weather has warmed up and we have been getting lots of rain, so the garden is booming.  Or I should say the garden weeds are booming.  The tomatoes are ready to be transplanted in, but first I have to clear out a space for them.  Too much to do.
On the bright side we went hiking last Sunday.  It was the last day of Pam's spring break, and we were determined to get in a hike.  We planned to go to Mt. Diablo, but as we drove down 80 we saw that the whole delta appeared socked in with fog.  It had been bright and sunny at home.  So we veered off on Hwy 12 and headed up to Robert Luis Stevenson State Park.  Pam had never been to Table Rock, and we thought she would really enjoy it.  Are we flexible or what?
Had a great time.  I had forgotten how tough that hike is.  It's pretty short, at only about 5 miles, but the trail is kind of steep and rocky underfoot.  We really appreciated our hiking poles.  April is a good time to hike that trail, as there are lots of wildflowers.  We wanted to hike on to the Pallisades, but got too late of a start and were too slow at hiking.

The rock rearrangement is one of the charming things about this trail.

Frittilaria purdyi.  We almost missed these little guys, they were so tiny and inconspicuous.

The trail map.

Senior recital and hiking

Have been seriously neglecting this blog.  Have been seeing lots of performances.  Went to see Sac Opera perform Rigoletto Feb 24.  Frances and Doug were nonsinging extras, which was very amusing.  The performance was excellent.  Then we went to see the View from Dresden at the Cathedral, which was also excellent.  Frances's senior recital was March 2 and it went very well.  This time we prepared most of the food, but she made 3 kinds of mini cupcakes.  Everything turned out really well.

Her Uncle John, and family friends Dale, Leslie, and Pam also came, as well as many of her and Doug's friends and classmates.  We went out to eat at Leatherby's afterwards.  Twenty four hours later and I am sick as a dog for another 24 hours.  Ugh!

Last Friday we went hiking in the Auburn SRA.  The day turned out to be beautiful, much warmer and sunnier than we were expecting.  The hike was really nice. Not many flowers yet. Parked at the headquarters and crossed the highway to the trailhead.  Took parts of the Western States Trail and part of the loop that goes to Cool. Eight miles and 2300 feet of elevation gain. Had dinner at Mexican restaurant in Auburn and got takeout cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory for dessert.  Of course I was sore the next day, but it rained all day, so was able to forego my bike ride without feeling guilty. 

This old railroad bridge is 100 years old and very scenic

We were very amused by the warnings for steep trails. Ted looks like a giant in this photo!

Trail started at gate opposite the headquarters, when down and joined the Western States Trail, crossed the "no hands" bridge, continued south towards Cool until intersecting the Olmstead Loop Trail, which we took until the Pointed Rocks trail which according to sign posts (not the map) joined the Training Hill trail, and back to the Western States Trail (aka Wendell T. Robie trail).

Return to Mt Diablo and Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day chocolate is just a distant memory but my flowers bloom on.  Really enjoying these. Ted bought 3 bunches for $12,  I think our Raley's has great flowers.

Took Friday off and went hiking at Mt Diablo with Pam.  The Back Trail comes out about 30 feet from the Eagle Peak Trail on the Meridian Fire Road so it was deja vu all over again (Eagle Peak  hike).  Didn't see a whole lot of special interest on this hike, but the day was beautiful and we had a fine time.   Feeling rather sore today so skipped the bike ride.

Up along the Meridian fire road the manzanita were in full bloom

The Back Trail runs along the ridge in front of Eagle Peak.

 

Drought and coding

This has been such a remarkably dry winter.  Here is the view from the top of the hill taken on Jan 19. Finally have gotten some rain Jan 20-22, 6 inches, and another .75" Feb 7.  Good thing too since those 20 daffodil bulbs I had planted last fall (ok I was a bit late but I think I got them in before November was over) were left in a state of suspended animation.  Finally are seeing the tips of some of them popping up.
Have been very dull in January.  Slaving away on my computer, learning how to get my Access froms and reports to work.  Also learning how to use CSS and Javascript and reworking some of our websites.
Other than that not much excitement since the Christmas flurry of activity.  Planted a bare root Santa Rosa plum and have resumed working in the yard. Trying for an hour a day. Lots to do out there.

My Cat Collection

When I was in grade school I loved cats.  My room had pictures of cats all over the walls and I spent most of my allowance and birthday money on cat figurines.  I had spied them in Johnson Hills Department store uptown and was quite taken with these figurines.  My brothers and sisters always knew what to get me for Christmas.  So fierce was my cat passion that my parents eventually broke down and let me get a live one, but that's another story.
My Dad had boxed up the cat collection and mailed it too me about 5 years ago.  Unfortunately, for an intelligent guy his understanding of how boxes are handled by UPS is rather naive and they arrived with a few broken paws.  Since I didn't have anywhere to put them in our little house they have been living in the mailing box until Ted hauled it out of a corner the other day and suggested I "do something" with them. He later suggested that I could display them in the fireplace heatilaters. 

The fireplace now has a insert, so the old heatilater system built into the brickwork is nonfunctional. One day when I needed a break from the computer I got some cardboard, lined the bottom of the upper heatilater with cardboard so none of the cats would fall down the back ventilation slot, and set up some of the cats.

Since I still had some cats left I went over to the other side of the fireplace to do the same.  I didn't think I would bother with the cardboard liner, but I had forgotten just how many cats I had.  But no worries, I wasn't going to knock any of them over.  No sooner had I had that thought than oops, I knocked over a cat and it disappeared down the back of the heatilater. Oh no! I winced expecting a crash! It didn't happen.  Got down on my hands and knees, took the grate off the heatilater and looked in.  No smashed cat. Huh? Started feeling around and discovered there was no connection, there was insulation on the roof of the bottom opening.
Got out a mirror and flashlight, wedged myself into the corner between the fireplace and the wall, carefully removed the remaining cats,and with much craning about finally could see in the mirror that the cat was lying on some insulation at the bottom of the ventilation slot.  Got out the Norco grabber and tried to grab the cat by the neck, simultaneously holding the mirror, the flashlight, and the grabber.  Immediately dropped the grabber down the heatilater. Arggghhh. Luckily with more contortions was able to retrieve the grabber. 

Over the next few days, Ted and I came up with many plans to get the cat out of the fireplace.
I used my head lamp wrapped around my wrist so I could manuever both the mirror and the flashlight at the same time, but was not able to manipulate the grabber in that cramped space in mirror image view. 
Ted had the idea of using the shop vac to suck out the cat.  That didn't work either.  Finally we wrapped the web cam I got for Christmas in a plastic bag, loaded its software onto the lap top, and with me holding the laptop and Ted wedged in the corner, dropped the web cam down the hole.  Now Ted used the grabber, contorted to look at the laptop and tried to manipulate the grabber to get the cat.  Brought up a piece of wood and the clasp from a change purse ( I had visions of antique coins and striking it rich) and then Clink! Oh no! We had knocked the cat into some other space, the web cam showed the cat had dissappeared!!
Looked in the bottom heatilater again, no cat.  Felt around and around in the bottom heatilater and finally felt a passage to the back side, groped around and felt the cat! Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!! There was the cat, with narry a scratch on it.

Ta Dah!!!

The rest of the cat collection.  The wayward cat is on the left side.

My Birthday 2012

This year for my birthday I decided it would be fun to go to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area.  I hadn't been there for decades, but remembered it as being very pretty due to the proximity of the Sutter Buttes.  Also decided I would like a cheesecake for my birthday cake.  There is a great recipe online for a cuppucino cheesecake that F made for her junior recital.  I made it myself, because I didn't trust Ted to make it without modifying it too much.  As it was I modified it quite a bit myself because it is so rich plus I was lacking some key ingredients, like the espresso powder. and it still turned out quite tasty.
We left here about 10.15 and picked up F at her apt in Sac at 11, dropping off the cheesecake for later.  Well actually what with one thing and another we didn't really clear the city until 11.30 at least.  Drove on up the highway without incident.  Had a heck of a time getting our money into the slot in the Iron Ranger.  Had to resort to quarters as didn't have enough $1s, finally just put them in one at a time.
Took a short walk on the nature trail, had lunch, drove the auto tour, and then walked the other nature trail. 

Day was hazy but mostly clear skies and moderate temps.

Had a great time and saw a lot of birds.  My favorite were the snipe, spotted by a sharp-eyed F.  I'm sure we could have driven the loop again and seen some birds we missed the first time around.

Lots of geese, but only in some spots.

I loved these hides, they are really well done.

Sharp-eyed F spotted 3 snipe at one of our stops on the auto tour.  Who knows how many we missed.

We took our last walk starting at about 4 pm.  The great horned owls were already starting to hoot, and they kept it up till after moonrise.  The moon was full and we got to enjoy both sunset and moonrise. 
Had a great dinner at Star of India in Yuba City.  Finished up with the cheesecake at F's.  My birthday cheesecake has slowed down my effort to shed the extra Christmas weight.