20 Jan 2013
It’s starting to feel like summertime! It was in the 60s today and I even managed to
get a bit of color on my face from being outside. There are few things in life I enjoy more
than taking a little time to soak in the sun.
I’m too restless to just lay around all day at the beach like some
people can do, but shutting my eyes and lying back in a lawn chair in order to
feel the warmth of the sun on my face for a few minutes is next to heaven for
me. The fact we were in a beautiful
campground, surrounded by the sounds of nature, was just a bonus.
Dani and I headed up to Eastman Lake before breakfast. The campground is just lovely and used
frequently all year round, except in the summertime when it’s over 100 degrees
and no one braves it, as there are few trees for shade and lots of open
space. The fact the rattlesnakes come
out of hiding then is also a deterrent. The
landscape is foreign looking with short ground cover and large rounded boulders
protruding all over. Rolling hills surround
the horizons. The lake is man made and down about sixty feet because there has
been no rain.
I asked Kaleb how the Passport to Purity program went and he
just laughed. I guess every activity
they were supposed to do somehow didn’t go as expected. He still appreciated the information it
provided and Kory said it was the best time he’s had with Kaleb – allowing them
to talk heart to heart about some things they’d otherwise never talk
about. They tried to go gold panning but
Kory couldn’t find a creek with running water.
This area is known for gold panning, but I guess a person needs to know
where to go. They also went in to Fresno
to eat at a Sushi bar but Kory couldn’t find it so they ended up at Panera
Breads. This is where advanced planning
always comes in to play and why I’m the planner, but this was Kory’s deal so oh
well. It didn’t seem to hurt the process
any, so that was good. Kory gave Kaleb a
1/10 ounce platinum coin as a reminder of this weekend. Kaleb was thrilled with that as he likes to
collect coins and precious metals.
Kory, Kaleb and I walked down to the water’s edge and hung
out for most of the morning collecting rocks with big chunks of mica and just playing
around in nature. Some of the hills the
boys climbed climbed are actually under water most of the year so Kory found
fishing lures and floats at the top of them.
Funny. We saw all kinds of birds,
lizards, a rabbit, ground squirrels, hawks and eagles. After dark we heard owls hooting to each
other. Such a contrasting experience in
nature for the image I otherwise have of California – just non-stop freeways
and massive housing developments. It’s
comforting to know there are such remote places for people to escape to in this
state.
I’m not sure why Dani and Chris like to go camping because
they do the same thing here they do at home – sit around and read or talk to
their neighbor. Their neighbor is here,
too, with his dogs. Everyone here has
dogs and everyone seems content to just sit around and chat. I’m more inclined to go exploring and see
what there is to see, rather than just hang around the campfire, but since Dani
is here and I don’t get to see her enough, I had to adjust my
expectations. So we talked away the
afternoon.
Kaleb played with some other kids in the campground while
Kory and I, Chris and Dani all took naps – as if the talking exhausted us all.
Ha. We grilled some portabella mushrooms
for dinner and afterwards played cards while Dani and Chris watched a movie in their
camping trailer. Once we close the blinds on our RV, it just feels like we are
home - so except for the fact we didn’t have any internet connection, it was a
normal “at home” evening for us. Life is
good.
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