We took a short weekend off of working on the boat - and went to Placerville to do some work for Jeff, then to Lodi to kayak with Bridget and Dave. Jeff is the fellow who drove for hours to work on I'O because he likes to do boat work - well, we like to work on houses, so we drove up to his beautiful part of the country and did drywall and insulated heater ducts. Placerville is probably named for placer mining and is in the fooothills of the Sierras, full of hills and valleys and fruit stands. It had the name Hangtown as it was built on some steep hills. Beautiful place. Lodi, is in the central valley with parks, lakes and the Mokulumne River running through it. Some pretty big fish splashed around us with some pretty big idiots on Seadoos, but the peace and beauty of he place was barely disturbed. A huge turtle sat on a log to watch us glide by - at the end of the day I felt something that had been missing for awhile: relaxed. It was an unusual feeling - but one we are going to find a lot in the future. Living for the now is tough when you are peparing for a long trip, but I muttered something about finding out how the"real America" lives - sitting around a table, outside, under trees and talking with friends. People do it in summer all over the place, except we used to run from an air conditioned car, to air conditioned houses, to air conditioned restaurants. Some of the best parties that I remember at our house in Az. were outside, sitting around under the trees. Strange how perspective is created by where we live.