The Eleventh...

Yesterday was our 11th month wedding anniversary... already! In one sense it seems like we've been married for a very brief moment in time, but then recall all that has occurred during that eleven months and it feels more like forever. I decided early on, to celebrate monthly wedding anniversaries because there is a better chance of reaching our Golden Fiftieth Anniversary(months). Not much of a shot at fifty years due to our advanced ages as newly weds.

I've been 5 hours away from home all week, working. Due to the price of fuel and the long distance, I had planned not to go home for the weekend. However, I got home-sick, and the temperature was already over 100 F by 10 a.m. , and it was our anniversary. When I called Jerry to let him know I was headed home, he went out and bought fishing licenses. The plan being to head up to a nearby mountain lake for some fly-fishing.

I got home mid afternoon, we packed sandwiches and drinks and headed for the mountains. But not until I had played with the crazy kittens, played with Cort, patted the horses, and wandered about admiring the flowers and gardens. Well, 'admiring' isn't exactly what I did when viewing our vegetable plants.


It was several degrees cooler at home than it was down in the Central Valley where I've been working. And it cooled more as we drove further into the Sierras. We stopped several times and hiked a bit, never did stop to fish though. The drive was just too nice.



Join us on our drive!

It doesn't take long for the vegetation to change from a mixed forest to a predominant evergreen forest. The clouds were building rapidly and the temperature drop was refreshing.

I love seeing the mountains in the distance.




And the clouds kept building deeper and darker. In some areas the pavement was dark, wet and steamy from recent showers.

This is the forest just west of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Lots of trails, camping, rivers and lakes in this area. There was NO traffic

We drove off on a small logging road and found a nice clearing for our dinner picnic.

We had each eaten half a sandwich when the rains came down. Finishing dinner in the truck seemed a better choice than braving the rain and gobs of mosquitoes. There was plenty of thunder booming all around.

On the drive back home, we pulled over to enjoy this colorful sunset.

I took a lot of sunset pictures, playing around with different settings and effects; this is one of my favorites.

Did you notice this little detail, to the left of the first sunset? Smoke from a forest fire. We noticed two separate fires on our way home. Jerry has a scanner in his truck so we were listening in on some of the firefighters and helicopter pilots discussions. I had no idea he had a scanner radio..... He has a lot of electronic and phone stuff in that truck. I guess 11 months isn't enough time to know everything about Jerry.

This morning there were news reports of over 400 fires started in northern California from that storm and all of the lightning strikes! We could smell smoke in the morning air when we got up today. No fire threats close to us thankfully.

This afternoon I drove south again and here I am for another week of work.

This area suffered 108 degree temperature while I was gone. Man! That is hot.

Sweet dreams everyone.