Utah Trip

Two weeks ago, we took a quick trip to Utah with our friends, Gary and Sue Hadley. We left on Thursday and drove straight through, stopping long enough at Mao and Cathy's to have dinner with them. Mao barbequed some steaks and we had a very enjoyable meal with them and the kids. Cathy was finally looking like she might be carrying a baby even though she is eight months along.
We drove to Park City where we stayed at the Hadley family cabin. The next morning we had breakfast in town and then drove to the base of the Uintah mountains past Oakley to the Smith and Morehouse area at the head of the weber river. We had been told of some forest service trails that were particulary nice to ride. We unloaded the four wheelers and took a beautiful ride up in the mountains where we stopped to have a little lunch before heading back down the trail.
The next day we drove to the Homestead Inn for breakfast then made our way over to Strawberry Reservoir and found some dirt roads and trails that headed up into the mountains west of the reservoir. The roads were pretty dusty and dry and not as pretty as the first day, but we had a great ride. No one managed to roll a quad on either day.
We then loaded up the quads and drove to Daniels canyon where we had booked a room at Daniels Summit Lodge. We washed a little dust off of our faces and changed shirts then hurried over to meet with a wrangler that had agreed to take us up into the mountains on his horses. All of the horses were good looking, well mannered animals and we had a great time. We rode for about two and a half hours up into the quakies and pine trees. Because it has been a relatively wet spring and summer the area was very green and lush and quite beautiful. We saw a few deer and lots of deer beds. Our only incident on the trip was when we topped out on the ride and were giving the horses a chance for a breather when suddenly Gary's horse dropped to his knees and started to roll over. Gary managed to avoid getting rolled on but the horse stepped on Gary's foot as it got up which resulted in some pain and a blackened toe nail.
We came down off the mountain, took a quick shower and then met for dinner at the dining area at the lodge. The food was great and the rooms were excellent.
Nancy and I got up fairly early the next day and drove to Sunny's where we helped make some breakfast for the kids and picked up Jade for the trip back to California. We packed a lot of activities into a couple of days and had a great time.

Falling Rocks

I got a phone call today at work. When Nellie transferred the call to my office, she informed me that the caller was my cousin, "Falling Rocks". I knew immediately that she was referring to my Navajo cousin, Larry Bennett.

Larry came into my life when I was about 12 years old. He and his brother Leslie were taken into my Uncle Bill and Aunt Ruby's home as part of the Church's Indian Placement Program. They had them every school year and then they would go home to Arizona for the summer. There finally came a time when Larry didn't want to go home for the summers so he started to stay all year round. He eventually graduated high school then went on to college and became an engineer for Utah Power and Light. He married a local girl and raised a beautiful family.

He has always been my cousin as far as I was concerned. We fished and hunted together and spent family vacations in the Uintah mountains. Larry could spot a deer further away than anyone I ever knew. Not only could he spot it, but he could tell you if it was a buck or doe before anyone could get binoculars on it to see for ourselves. One of my favorite memories was a horse back trip into the Indian lands in Arizona. His dad arranged for some horses and we spent four days and three nights exploring Anasazi ruins and old Navajo sites. We carried only what we could put in our saddlebags and slept on the ground. Larry claimed that it would be warm and that we wouldn't need a sleeping bag. He was so wrong. I spent three miserable nights trying to keep from freezing to death. Larry, on the other hand, was quite comfortable in his sleeping bag and space blanket.

Larry has never lost his Navajo accent, and he was always a little difficult to understand. When we spoke today I noticed that he was harder to understand. We exchanged greetings and then he asked, "Guess What"? I said, "You sound like you have been drinking". He said it was worse than that. He had suffered a stroke three weeks ago. He had been feeling poorly and went to see his doctor on a Friday, but was checked out and sent home. The next day he was in his home when he suddenly wasn't able to stand and fell to the floor. They got him to the hospital and they diagnosed the stroke. He has lost the use of the right side of his body. However, they have been working with him and he has already recovered the use of his leg, but his arm is still quite useless. He has made great progress, but still has a long way to go. He's working hard to try to overcome this.

We're all pulling for you Larry. We'll keep you on the prayer list until you get back to normal. At least as normal as you're capable of being.

I have the best wife!!

Yesterday mom and I were scheduled to attend the Orange County Mormon Orchestra and Choral presentation at the Segerstrom Center in Irvine. It was awesome! Afterwards we ate dinner at the Claim Jumper in the mall across the street and had a nice meal. It was a great evening, but it got a lot better.

On the way home, she asked If I wouldn't mind if we stopped by the Hadley's house because she needed to pick up some stuff that would help her on a lesson she had to prepare for church. When we got there, we were greeted at the door by Su and "her" new dog. I was excited to see that she had located an adult male Wheaten Terrier from a rescue organization and it was a real beauty. While I was playing with it Nancy informed me that it wasn't really Su's dog, but that she had finally given in to my begging for a house dog and that she and Su had been working to locate one for me. I was absolutely floored! Knowing Nancy, this isn't anything that I would have dreamed she would do for me.

He is 1 and 1/2 years old and is neutered. He is house broke and kid friendly, and best of all, he doesn't shed. I know that Nancy is not as excited about this as I am, and I will probably have a big payback that I will owe her in the future, but it will definitely be worth it. I have already decided on a name for him. I am going to call him Ed, which is short for Special Ed.

On to the Sequoias

As a continuation of our trip, we got up the next day and travelled to Sequoia National Forest. We had to go west toward Fresno then south on Hwy. 99 until we got to 190 East and went back up the mountain toward the forest. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the sky was cloudless, so despite the snow in the higher elevations, it was really pleasant. We made a couple of stops for photo ops and took some pictures of the wildflowers that were blooming everywhere.

We were a little higher, so the snow was quite deep. There were times it felt like we were driving through a tunnel of snow because it was five or six feet deep right next to the road. We even put some snow in our little cooler to keep our drinks cold.

The giant sequoia trees are really amazing. We saw the General Grant tree and the General Sherman tree, two of the biggest on record. They are almost 2900 years old and are immense. A person standing at the base of one of these giants is really insignificant in size. It is like a mouse looking up at a six foot tall person.

After spending some time up there we headed down the mountain taking an alternative route that brought us out in Visalia. We had a late lunch at the Black Bear Cafe in Tulare. As we went into the cafe, I noticed a sign advertising a horse sale, so I asked the waitress if she knew where it was. She told us it was at the fair grounds, so after lunch I talked Nancy into driving there to check it out. We got there for the end of the sale so we only saw about four animals auctioned off. The last ones into the sales ring was a couple of pack mules that seemed to be great animals but they only sold for about $150.00 each. Nancy was afraid that she would have to restrain me from bidding on them.

After the sale, we jumped in the car and headed home. We arrived about 8:45 pm. We were tired, but we had a great time on our little weekend adventure. I think we both decided that we would try to do this a little more often.

Yosemite Trip

Nancy and I are combining a business trip with a little pleasure trip this weekend. We left yesterday morning and drove about four hours north to Visalia where we did an enrollment meeting for one of our larger clients. We then traveled another two hours north to Merced and did another meeting. We then ate a quick lunch and travelled east and drove to Yosemite. We had never been here before, so we thought it would be a pretty drive. We were not disappointed.

As we headed east into the mountains we drove through beautiful green hills past cattle ranches and horse farms. We saw a lot of orchards where the most common crop was almonds. When we got into the pines it was equally picturesque. We made several stops to enjoy the view. We really enjoyed Bridle Veil Falls. Not only was it beautiful, it was impressive to hear the sound of the water pounding the grainite at the bottom of the falls.

We stopped in a little town called Oakhurst, where we located a Shiloh Inn with a vacancy and booked a room. We found a little mexican restaurant called El Cid where we had a great meal and watched the end of the Michigan game and the Duke game.

We are on our way to see the giant sequoia trees today, and then we will be home later this afternoon.

Swallows Day

We made our annual pilgrimage to San Juan Capistrano to watch the Swallows Day parade and participate in some of the festivities. The parade starts at 11:00 am, so we usually leave our house at 6:00 am to take my truck over to park it along the parade route. This year we found a place in the Ralph's parking lot and I backed my truck into a spot facing the street. Then at 10:30 we drove back and unloaded the cooler and snacks and lawn chairs and set up our viewing stand in the back of the truck for the best seats in the house. J.R. and Casey and their kids joined us just as the parade was starting.

It's always an interesting parade. There are lots of equestrian entries along with the usual bands, clowns, baton twirlers, and dancing groups. I'm a big fan of the horses. Ethan seemed to have the same interests, although he was equally interested in the frosted cookies and licorice in the cooler. The girls liked the colorful costumes and the horses. This year's parade had 192 entries, so it was longer than we had patience for. About two hours into it we folded up the chairs and crossed the street to the Mercado to get some lunch and look at a few of the booths. We had a great time, and it was a good excuse for me to put on a cowboy hat and my boots.

Looking For a Recipe!

Yesterday Nancy and I were running a few weekend errands and after going to the OC Swapmeet we stopped at Omar's Birds on El Toro Road and purchased a few things for Tango, our African Grey Parrot. We bought his normal mix of seeds, some wood chips for the bottom of his cage, some extra goodies including peanuts, some seed he particulary likes, and two different mixes that you soak and then warm as an extra treat. You would have thought we had ten birds when you looked at all the stuff on the check out counter. It cost a small fortune.

While we were there we saw some large parrots climbing all over a cargo net that they had draped over some large tree limbs that were part of an out-of-cage play area. It looked like the birds were having a lot of fun with this net. In fact, I was so intrigued by it that when we got home I drove over to Lowe's and purchased about 50 feet of 1/2" hemp rope with the goal in mind of building my own mini cargo net to create a climbing area inside Tango's large cage.

After about 45 minutes I had created the net and the next step was to hang it inside his cage. I opened the door to let him crawl out and then with the assistance of Nancy, I began to secure it to the cage. Tango was watching me rather intently from the top of the cage as I began to tie the net to the top right corner of the rear of the cage. Suddenly he dove at my hand and clamped on to my left thumb. I reacted by jerking my hand away. Unfortunately for him, he didn't let go resulting in him being jerked from the top of the cage and into the wall and then falling to the floor. The end result was two large wounds in my thumb and a parrot with some likely body bruises and and an expanded vocabulary of cuss words.

Nancy has talked me out of just killing him and throwing him in the garbage, but I have decided that after spending all that money on him and his upkeep, I am going to cook and eat him. Does anybody have a recipe for parrot? The nearest thing that I have found so far is a recipe for cream of asparakeet soup.