Changed plans.....

Cousin Margie  suggested an alternate route from Klamath Falls, due to delays from construction.  We headed off onto a "shortcut" over the Highway 5 in Sounthern Oregon and had an adventure.  We had been on the phone with Evan and Janice in Washington DC to get highway info, but despite no reports of delays, we took off on the shortcut, and an adventure.  Winding roads into pine forests at 2 - 3000', with mysterious roads disappearing into the trees.  No real civilization until we found a campground - with all sites full.  Driving around found us at the "horse" camp, and an empty spot on the lake - no motels for miles around, so we had another wonderful place to be, without the horses and campers.  A mist on the lake met our morning, and we wound out of there to civilization, not really too happy about leaving such a beautiful place.

Higway Five  south from Oregon is another adventure,winding through mountains at 4,500' - through great green valleys, and then all of a sudden this huge mountain, Shasta, appears as if right in the middle of the road.  We were on our way to spend a couple days back in Lodi, and except for the last hour of driving, our views were those that people pay big bucks for.  Lodi is always magic as Robert and Dave know a not too secret place for the best ice cream, and they really get Bridget upset as we all really know better about eating all that sugar and fat.  Shasta must reminded us for miles about ice cream.  That must be it.

Mokulumne River - below - we floated, paddled and tried to calm Koa, who really, really didn't like being in his little boat, but wanted to be with us, no matter what.  The current was still running quite fast, in late August, due to snowmelt runoff, and while it was hot on top, nobody was tempted to dive in.  Except some poor guy along the shore, who said he was trying to get his courage up to swim - while shivering in the shallows, probably wondering why he even thought of it.  Five hours later, we were glad we hadn't gone further upstream as despite the current, we had to paddle. We celebrated by going out for excellent, gourmet Mexican dinner, and oh, my, the best ice cream.  We are adults, we can do that.

Really, folks, if I get on the kayak, I won't tip it over, really, truly.

On our way to the mountains for more R &ampd R, we spoke to Jeff who asked if we could stop by to help take down the gutters off his roof.  Robert spent 2 1/2 days with Jeff tearing off his roof while I worked inside the air conditioning.  The temperature was in the 90s plus - so I  cooked fun stuff to keep the guys happy and quilted, thinking that boot camp was at work on the roof, while I was perhaps eating bonbons.  Not really.