My Bike!

This is a pic of me on my bike that I sold when I got my ATV. She was a pretty little bike! When I got this bike, the goal was to ride ahead of Button in her Jeep to check out the trail ahead and spot her through any rough spots. I quickly found out that bikes like to go fast on the trails and Jeeps go slow on the trails! I did have a lot of fun on this little bike though. Did I ever down it? You bet I did!! LOL I even have a scar on my face as proof of it!! It doesn't really bother me though. After a short while really, I told Button if she would get an ATV I would sell my bike and get an ATV also so we could ride the trails together. She finally went for it...so I put my bike up for sale. I sold it within 2 weeks and got my ATV about 3 days after Button got hers! Looking over my left shoulder you see another person coming around, that is Tony, Button's nephew. We still ride together sometimes, with him on his dirt bike and us on our quads!


Here is another pic of me coming down a hill. There wasn't much room when you got to the bottom of this hill before you HAD to make a turn so you had to be prepared! It was fun going up the hill too, but again, you had to be ready to make a turn....or hit the trees! No I never hit the trees! This is a nice area to ride and there are some trails here too. We don't go here anymore though because the trails are not very long. We prefer to get on a trail that is longer and more things to see etc. You notice how dusty it was here. Typical for California in the area where we live. I have adopted the nickname of "Dusti" when we go riding now. I always ride behind Button when we take the quads out and I get to eat her dust as well as the dust that I create! Gotta love it! Nice to reflect back sometimes on the good times you have had in this life! This weekend Button and I are going to take the quads out again. No, we don't plan on getting lost this time, but we are planning on doing the Buckskin Joe trail again! That is a nice trail with some technical areas that make it a lot of fun! It is supposed to be a nice weekend and we are going to take advantage of it before the snow comes, although we like riding the quads in the snow as well. As long as the snow isn't too deep! Happy Trails!

WHO DAT?

WHO DAT SAY THEY GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS? What a wonderful fantastic game the Saints played last night against the Falcons! Both teams went into this game at 2-0 with 1st place on the line....and DEM SAINTS WON!!! 23-3 it was! It was an awesome game and the excitement was so real and unbelievable. I have been a Saints fan for years and years and have always been made fun of for liking such a "loosing team" but my thought has always been that "one day" the Saints would put a hush on that negativism and maybe just maybe THIS is the year it will happen. Saints win or loose, I am a Saints fan and have never been embarrassed to admit it. Unlike many people that will root for one team only, I also root for the 49ers and the Raiders. Raiders being 3rd on my list however, I will root for the 9ers over the Raiders, but when the 9ers play the Saints, I will root for both and may the best team win. BUT....I will say...if the Saints were to play the 9ers and it would mean advancement for the Saints to get closer to the Bowl...and the 9ers don't have a chance really, I think I would have to pull for the Saints. Afterall, they have never made it to the Bowl. But...again...THIS may be the year for them. GO SAINTS!!!!!

It's Sunday!

Not too much going on today really. It's been a little while since I posted and just thought I would at least make a comment on here! I think I must be doing this mainly for a type of journal anyway. I've never been one to write a journal but know many people who do. Maybe that is something I should pick up.
On reflecting on my last post, I personally think it was pretty neat to meet Thomas Kinkade. I'm glad I had that chance to do so....thanks to Button. My kids think it was neat too.
Not a good day for the 49ers today....will keep my hopes up for the Saints tomorrow night though. Maybe they can pull it off with the rival...Falcons...grrrr. Will see.
Need to let my truck do some work and carry a load of wood...but I don't know if I will let her do that today or not. Need to...but I guess I don't always do what I need to do either. lol
Ok girl...that's enough for now. I will see ya next time.

Do YOU know this guy?

Last night, the 16th, Button had her 30th high school reunion at the Sequoia. It was well attended and proved to be a lot of fun for Button. I enjoyed myself alright, but it was kinda weird not knowing anyone! But, after getting there, there was a band playing all the "old songs" from the 70s, and I took a look at the drummer...I have always loved the drums...but anyway, I knew the drummer!! He used to work where I work now. He quit a while back to go to another job and I hadn't seen him since he quit. I was quite suprised to see him there! He came and spoke to me and told me that someone else from my work was there...he thought! He wasn't sure if it was her or not. He was right though, because a little later she came over to me to say hello. She knew I didn't graduate from her school because I have only been in California for 6 years, so she was suprised to see me there! I told her it was Button's graduation class! Button remembered her, although not too well. The #1 thing that was said about Button from her classmates? She was the "tough girl"!!! You didn't mess with Button! Personally, I think it was pretty cool that Button went to school with this guy in the picture! He was so EXCITED to see Button and he got SEVERAL pics of her and him together. He even got one of me and Button and him! He seemed to really think a lot of her and mentioned that she comes up in conversations quite frequently. Isn't it amazing how you can not see or hear from any of your old classmates and then you have a reunion like this and find out how much your former classmates have thought about you and talk about you etc? It was all good and a fun time was had by all. Oh by the way, if you don't know WHO this guy is.....it is the "Painter of Light", Thomas Kincade! I'm sure he is the most widely known person in this class. For you local people here, Kevin House was there as well, although I didn't get a pic of him! I just wanted to post this pic of Kincade, and I'm sure Button may talk of her reunion on her blog so you will have to check it out.
Watching the football games today. Hope you have a great Sunday and even better week ahead. Until next time.........................

Formal Dinner Attire

This is the "formal dinner attire" we wore at dinner on Saturday night. Yeah I know the pic is small but you can still see the jest of it! I don't really like pics of myself anyway!! We had a most wonderful dinner served under the stars, and again, you can read about it on Button's blog! This was a very fun weekend, and I look forward to it again next year!

The campground that we all stayed at was Big Meadows Campground. There are 53 sites at this campground, and we occupied all of them! Everywhere you looked there were Jeeps! Well, there were some SUV's but the majority of them all were Jeeps. Some of the rigs had to be towed in due to the fact that they were modified to the point where they were no longer street legal, OR they wanted to save their gas for the runs! Button's jeep was eyed by most everyone there though. She really does have a nice jeep, and it finally got to do what it was built to do this weekend. I don't know who enjoyed the weekend more....Button or RedDawg!

Hell Hole Jeep Run :)

I truly love this pic of Hell Hole Reservoir. This run was done on Saturday the 9th of September. You can read about the run itself from Button's blog...Jeeps, Quads and Radios. She did a great job of telling about it from the drivers standpoint. Check out her blog if you want more info on the run than what I will say here!

A little about the Hell Hole Trail. Hell Hole is located NE of Auburn and Foresthill, and west of Lake Tahoe. We were 20 miles from the Ralston Fire that is still burning at the moment. We were on an hour evacuation notice at all times. The foresty powers that be, almost didn't let us go in, but after a couple hours wait, they finally gave the approval.

Hell Hole Trail is a DIFFICULT trail that is narrow and steep with challenging rock ledges. It is a long drive (about 2 hours actually) on a short (only 4 miles long), but terrific hardcore trail. It ends at a very secluded spot along the shores of little used and impressive Hell Hole Reservoir. At 1/2 mile into the trail a monument credits the Capital City Mountain Goats (CCMG) for adopting this trail. You can also catch a view of the reservoir far below at this spot. The trail gets rougher and the first real challenge is at 2 miles in. There is a series of continous dramatic and difficult ledges for about a half mile or more before you reach the end. Driving along the rocky shore is difficult rock crawling. It is very steep and rough near the bottom.

You can look at the pics on Button's blog to get more of an idea of the terrain. There's really not any use in duplicating those pics here when you can see them there! We will talk about this trip for a while to come. We truly enjoyed ourselves tremendously. This was a great way for Button to celebrate her birthday, and for me to celebrate being in California for 6 years now!!

Labor Day

We are trying to recover from Saturday still!! We had dinner plans for Saturday evening but since our "adventure" kept us from that...we did our plans on Sunday..which turned out well of course! A late night out on Sunday, it's a good thing we didn't have to go in and "labor" at our jobs today! Today, after sleeping in a little, we decided to take a drive to where we are going to be camping next weekend and doing a Jeep run. It's a good thing we did that little drive today, because IF we would have had any prob in finding where we needed to be, it was best to have it worked out before Friday! The directions we had were good...but not totally right on...but we have it down now and no worries for next weekend!!!
My neck and shoulders are still very sore, but hopefully they will be fine before the Jeep run this coming weekend. If not, it might just prove to be a rough weekend for me. But no matter, I'm looking forward to the run! We are going to do the Steamboat Mountain run with the CCMG and be camping at Big Meadows Campground. That is a nice campground, and we are looking forward to it.

Did you hear about Steve Irwin? He is the "Croc Hunter", maybe you are more familiar with him from that name! Anyway, he died today (Monday) at the age of 44. He was filming a show called "Oceans Deadliest" and he was stung by a stingray. Normally that would not kill you, but it reached through under his ribcage and hit his heart. By the time medical crew got to him, they pronounced him dead. How sad this is. At this very moment we had his movie Crocodile Hunter on in his memory. Love his accent!

Have a great week this week, and I will post again when I have the chance...even if it's something short!! Thanks for reading...and take a few minutes to leave a comment...if you like!

The Adventure of Saturday the 2nd!!

What a day, and I DO mean DAY, of riding we had!! The first pic of just a pic of the view from a place we stopped for a break after having lunch at the Leek Springs LO Tower. The middle pic I call the "pregnant tree" which was undoubtedly impregnated by the tree in the next pic which I call "Mr. Tree"!! These trees were pretty close to each other and I think you can understand why I call the latter one "Mr. Tree"! It truly was a beautiful day on the trails and we did enjoy the ride. For the most part anyway. Can you get lost in the woods while trail riding? YES! Can you get lost in the El Dorado National Forest? YES!! Can you get lost if you have the "new" map of the trails? YES!! Oh, did I mention we got LOST???? LOL It's a long and interesting story, but we did indeed get lost. With dark fastly approaching and the quads almost out of gas, we finally did find someone that could and did help us. We were truly miles and miles from where we were needing to be. Bottom line...we called a friend to come pick us up at PiPi campground and she arrived at 10:15pm. We then had to go to where my truck was parked near the Leek Springs LO Tower, drive back up to just past PiPi & pick up the quads that we left at a camp, THEN drive all the way home. We finally got home a little after 3am! Oh geesh. What an adventure! We have now been dubbed the "ATV Mountain Bunnies"!! Love it!! All we can do now is just laugh about it, but let me tell you for sure, when we were in the midst of all this, it was NO laughing matter. We have always helped other people out in their times of need, and this time it was our turn to be on the receiving end. The friend who came to our rescue, spent the remainder of the morning with us, but had to be up at 6am because she had to be at work at 7am. What a sweetheart she truly is. For her we are forever grateful.

6 Years!!!!!

What a day this is! It is starting out beautiful and will stay that way!! Today, 6 years ago I arrived in California. What a stormy rainy day that was. I will never forget that!!

Today at work, we are having a bbq. It's payday. The beginning of a 3-day weekend!

What more could one ask for?

Have a beautiful Friday!