Almanor 2015

 

 

I am back at the keyboard after a glorious week away in Almanor. It has been a busy week since I got back with Darla off to Kansas City and her annual conference with her jewelry business. I had a visit from a Home Office Manager and went to Walnut Creek for the claim deposition that I've been preparing for over the past month. I was off to a golf tournament in Marysville today and Darla's return flight from Kansas City has been delayed from 11:30 to 2:30 tomorrow morning because the plane they were going to use out of Los Angeles to KC was hit by lightning and taken out of service. The planes in LA were grounded for 6 hours while the weather past.

 

Almanor was a different vacation this year as the weather was pretty iffy all week. We arrived on Tuesday and you could see the clouds building as we approached Chester and the Lake. Jennifer called and they were driving through Reno and the weather there was heavy rain and wind. They were delayed about 90 minutes as the rain was driven so hard that the road speeds were down to about 35 MPH.

 

It was dark in Almanor when we arrived, but so far no rain. Well, that didn't last as the cell landed right over us as we finished unpacking and wind came up, a little rain and then some heavy hail. I could hear the hail hitting the Plexiglas bubble in the second bathroom. I ran to the back bedroom to look at the car and saw Darla running like a crazy woman through the pelting hail and throwing a beach towel over the front end of the car. I opened the window and yelled that. "You're crazy!!". She just wanted to protect the car and the hail was about the size of ping pong balls.

 

McKenny and Jennifer got there about 4:30 and we ran out in the rain and helped them with Sam as McKenny carried Maceo, the dog, into the cabin. We visited for awhile and the weather finally died down so we could get them unpacked. We had a great visit, enjoyed dinner and played some games that night.

 

We woke up the next morning to sunshine. We had breakfast and took the jet ski down and put it in into the water. Jen tied it up to the slip while I ran the trailer back up to the cabin to store it. We ran the ski a bit, but the weather was turning again by shortly after noon and we had rain by 2 PM.

 

McKenny had received a phone call about a new contract that his firm was signing and he found out he had to be in Washington DC on Monday. Their plan was to stay until Tuesday, but they had to leave on Sunday so he could get on the plane Monday morning. Sam was not understanding of the change in plans. The boys and Becky were supposed to arrive Wednesday night and that got changed as David had extra work and had to be there all day on Wednesday. Sam had a little event on Wednesday night because of the two disappointments. She carried on and Jennifer really handled her well. I was very impressed with the way Jennifer stood her ground with Sam and settled the situation down.

 

The next day the weather was overcast and iffy and Jennifer and McKenny decided to go into town and do some shopping. Darla and I stayed with Sam and the dog and played cards and games. Sam got bored about mid morning and said to me that she wanted to "build" something. I took her out into the woods and we started gathering wood and built a teepee. Sam gathered moss and made a carpet for the floor and used pine cones to frame the carpeting. It was very creative.  

 

 

 

 

The boys and Becky arrived in the afternoon and it was a grand homecoming as Sam was really excited to see the kids. The weather turned sour again and we sat and played games and visited and made a huge dinner.

 

Friday Jen took the ski out in the morning and then Darla and I went out in the afternoon and ran the ski. The reeds in the water were really high and the water intake would get clogged. We had to get in the water and pull the reeds out of the intake to get the ski going again. The water was really shallow around the docks and in spots near the shore. We had to take the ski out about a half mile to get into deeper water.

 

Saturday Don put his boat in the water and David, Darla, Sam and Don's family took the boat over to get gas and then found a nice spot to pull the kids on the blow up raft behind. Sam was a little concerned about leaving Mom behind, but wanted to be with Luke. At one point she turned to Darla and said, "I didn't know this would be so much fun." When she was on the raft with David she told him, "This is the BEST day of my life!" Pretty dramatic, but pretty funny.

 

Saturday Darla's brother came into town and Earl and Frances, Darla's parent's took us all out to pizza on the peninsula, which is a tradition. They were celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary. We all had a great time and Sam and Luke played the whole time, coloring on the paper covering on the table and playing with Becky.

 

We went back to Don and Alicia's to visit and Earl took the opportunity with his whole family there to share his faith. He said that he and Frances were getting older and there was no guarantee that they would be with us much longer and it was important to him to make sure that we all knew Jesus Christ as our personal savior and that we turn our lives over to Him and assure our futures in Heaven. I was touched by his sincerity and by his courage and faith in sharing his inner hopes and prayers for his family. He told each of us that he prays for our salvation every day. It was powerful stuff.

 

We left about ten thirty as Jen and McKenny had to take off early that next morning. I went to bed about 11 and was pretty emotional saying goodbye to them. I'm very proud of how Jennifer is conducting her life. She is a very good Mom and McKenny and Jennifer are really good together. They work things out together and always discuss everything together. I was very impressed with McKenny's work ethic as he was on the phone every day preparing for their new venture, hiring workers and setting up appointments. They were up at 4 AM and I heard them as they were leaving. I got up to pee and said goodbye to Jen again as she was getting Sam into the car.

 

The boys left on Sunday afternoon as Daniel and Becky had an 8 PM flight. Darla and I had lunch in town with Don and Alicia and Steve and Kirsten. We went out on the water that afternoon and then had dinner at Don and Alicia's with Steve and Kirsten, Earl and Frances and Darla's aunt Tracy and uncles Stan and Junior.

 

Darla and I were up early on Monday and it was a glorious day and we ran the ski hard. Don and Alicia came out and Darla rode the ski out to deeper water and we tied the ski up to the boat and just floated for a few hours in the 80 degree heat. Darla and I called over to see how much cleaning we had to do at the cabin. The old owners gave us a small book that required cleaning the floors, the bathrooms, the kitchen and the deck. The new owners wanted us to wipe out the refrigerator. That's it. In fact they sent someone over to the cabin when we were packing up to make sure we weren't cleaning. I like the new owners.

 

We had dinner over at the Plumas Pines resort on the way out of town and the gang that was left joined us for dinner. It was a great visit.

 

The drive down the mountain was a little hairy in the dark. At one point we saw a deer on the side of the road and it freaked me out. He could have darted in front of the car and jet ski. I was pretty tense driving down the mountain and it turned out I was right to be as we came across two more deer that were jogging along the side of the road. As much as I thought I was prepared, I still swerved and luckily we kept the truck and ski from fishtailing, although it freaked me out pretty good.

 

I will leave it here and perhaps add more about the rest of my week later. We were able to relax at home on Tuesday and take it easy before Darla left for KC on Wednesday. I hope you are all good and I'll touch base again in the next day or two. Ciao.