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Friends Randy and Andy invited us
over to their home in the village for drinks and appetizers. They
bought Larry's book and gave money to FoodBank Lakeside. |
Friends Brian and Marilyn invited us
to their home for a lovely dinner and a round of Hand and Foot. In
pre-COVID days, this was a weekly occurrence. |
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Friends Ron and Jean invited us
to their home for dinner and, yes, a round of Hand and Foot. |
Carmen picked us up at LAX and took
us to Cal State LA, for our second shot, in half the time as our first. |
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Carmen works from home and the
kids put a place holder in her chair when she is not using it. . |
Dakota commemorated her one year
anniversary to taking school online by baking and decorating a cake. |
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We rented a car, and stopped at
dozens of RV dealerships. Our first night was at Indian Wells Resort
in Palm Springs. |
We then drove to Sierra Vista, south
of Tucson to test drive an RV, which we passed on. We got a chance to
catch up with Larry's niece Diane who now lives there. |
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We met up with friends Dennis and
Nancy at a park in Benson. They are two Arizonians who took COVID very
seriously. |
We spent that night in Tucson, where
we benefited from this nearby casino. For a 45-cent spin, we got $212.
We were on a roll! |
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After stopping at five dealership
in Tuscan and Phoenix, we found this 25' Forest River Solera, on a Sprinter
chassis. It was a one owner and loaded. |
It has one slide with lots of storage
and has three beds, one that converts from a table, one over the cab and one in
the back of the RV. The kids will love this!! |
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Our next big adventure was in
Sequoia National Park in east central California, home to the largest and
oldest trees in the world. |
We stays at this all-inclusive lodge,
where social distancing was taken very seriously. When we were not playing
in the snow, we played cards and did puzzles. |
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Glorine celebrated her 73rd
birthday on this awesome trip. After surviving a stroke and
sequestered for a year due to COVID, she still looks and behaves like she is
37 years old. |
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National
Parks are next to one another along the Sierra Nevada. Together they make
up over 202,000 acres of trees and soaring mountains, including Mount Whitney at
14,494 feet. |
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Many of these trees are over
2,000 years old and some have fallen, leaving spectacular walkways like this
one. |
The
temperatures were in the mid-20s to mid-30s, which made for great snow
adventures, including tubing and sledding. |
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This tree named General Sherman
is considered the most massive living organism on the planet. It is 36' wide
and 275' tall. It is said that one of its branches is larger than any
tree east of the Mississippi. |
Hiking is by far the most popular
activity, with trails running every which direction. Hunter invented a new
way to explore this particular trail and Mike and Carmen were more than willing
to oblige. |
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After a cross country sky outing
and a snowshoe outing, Dakota took Grandpa Larry on a sled ride back to the
lodge. |
On our drive home, we passed this
field of hundreds of oil derricks, most of which were pumping oil.
California is ranked third, behind Texas and Alaska. |
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Once we arrived back to Carmen
and Mike's place, we spent the remainder of our time relaxing soaking up the
sun (after our time in the snow) and enjoying their awesome pool and hot
tub. |
As we sat enjoying their fire pit, we
saw this full moon. Myth has it that this particular moon is called a Worm
Moon, because earthworms and other such critters arrive after shortly
thereafter. |
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After arriving back to Ajijic, we
found that Glorine and two other ladies (Paula and Christine) were featured
on the front page of the Guadalajara Reporter. It is the one-year
anniversary of FoodBank Lakeside! |
In addition to volunteering, we also
resumed our daily and weekly rituals, including gym time, Tai Chi, walking and
biking. This new bike lane will run west of Ajijic to San Juan Cosala and on
to Jocotepec. |
