Kentucky and Amazon.com

Mo and I left Daphne and headed up I-65 for Kentucky. We planned on taking 2 days to get there. The first day we would stop in Huntsville, AL and visit with Sarah, Josh and Samantha. We had not seen them since we left last year and just the stories about Samantha make you miss being close to the family. So we met the at a Walmart close by and we then went to Logan's Steak House for a fun meal. Samantha and I ate as many p-nuts as we could and Josh and I drank as many beers as we could. It was a win win for me! We talked and caught up for a couple of hours at least. Samantha had the camera walking around taking pictures of everything and nothing, just having a good time being a kid, Thank You Lord for my precious grandchildren! Josh took us back to the Walmart and we climbed into bed for a nights rest. Tomorrow we would head up the road to an area we'd never seen before.
The drive was amazing, it had been many years since either of us had seen the colors of the leaves change in the fall and we were driving at the perfect time to see it. We tried to capture the colors through the windshield but it didn't work, here is some of the effort...

As you can see, what we saw didn't show up but take my word for it, it was incredible.

We arrived in Campbellsville, KY and got to our campground and registered and got a site. We had visited last year and gotten a tour of the plant and seen the campground but the owner of the campground had expanded the site area by about 3 times more then when we had seen it. It was basically a big tierd gravel parking lot with electric, water and sewer connections.

This is looking from the lower side and if you look close, right in the center, you can see a Jolly Roger flying. That's our spot!

This is from a bit further away, directly behind me is Amazon.com building. 

 As you can see, there were no trees at all. this whole Heartland Campground was built to accomdate the seasonal force that Amazon hires each Christmas. Amazon paid for our site and utilities plus paid us a good wage.

I turned around and snapped this picture of the building, the total distance from our door to Amazons door was only 7 minutes. We walked every day, rain or shine.

We were there to work and that we did! The first week we only worked 5 hours, or a half days, the second week we worked 4 - 10 hour days. Then the same the third week. then the forth and fith week we worked 5 - 10 hour days. From then on we worked 6 - 10 hour days with anything over 40 being overtime. We were so beat when we got home Mo couldn't fix any dinner! We made some great friends there, David & Judy; Eddie & Joyce; Roger & Cheryl and many others. They were all in the same boat as us, beat up bad after work. We found out about the local college, Campbellsville University,. They allowed us to eat in the cafeteria and it was not only great food but very affordable. So that's where we got our nutrition from. The work was fast and demanding, not necessarily hard but we used different muscles then normal. We used hand, wrist and arm muscles to pack and fold boxes etc. We could hardly sleep at night for the soreness, Vitamin I was taken in excess but was needed badly!
We decorated our house for Christmas....

It really looked good at night, there were lights all over and a tiny tree in the front windshield.

Anyway, we survived and finished on December 23rd, stayed until the 24th and rested. We had been getting up at 4am so we slept in until 7am, packed up and drove to Knoxville, TN where we stayed overnight and went to the children's' Mass at 5pm. The place was packed of course but it was a great Mass, the children did a beautiful job of singing and put on a short skit at the end. We hadn't been to Mass in 2 months, since our work schedule included Saturday and Sunday, rare for us, so we were happy to be there.
We left Christmas morning and drove to Red Top Mountain SP where we will stay until Dec 29th. All of the children and grandchildren will be at Michael and Carin's house in Canton, GA on the 27th. It should be a blast!
More about Christmas in the works..........

Traveling back home and beyond

We left Mammoth Lakes heading back to Daphne,AL. We were on a cannonball run, We had a celebration to go to! GrandMommie would be turning 80 years old soon and Julia had planned a surprise party. The party would be a surprise and Mo being there would be an extra surprise too. So we put the pedal down and headed east. we drove about 450 miles for 3 days and then stopped in Tyler, TX for 2 nights to rest and fill our fresh water and empty our holding tanks. We stayed in a State Park that was quiet and peaceful, I got in a run and Mo had a good walk, and we rested. We got back on the road and went on to Daphne where we stayed at Maher State Park on the causeway. We got there two days before the party so we had to keep a low profile so Mo being at the party would be a surprise still. We visited a couple of friends and watched a football game at Debbies and just enjoyed being home. The party was a huge success, Thank You, Julia. GrandMommie was shocked, her friends were there, Fr Deasy and his sister was there, Monette, Kim, Debbie and Chuck and even Sam, Leah and little Oscar were all there. To be 80 and in such good health as GrandMommie is, is a true reason to celebrate, and she's the only grand and great-grand we have! A real distinction, I say. Here's afew pics we took.....

 The cake. The 'Little Cake Shop' made it, it turned out beautiful and tasted great!

 East Shore Cafe hosted the party, they closed off the large dinning room for us. here we are greeting people as they arrive.

 Mo holding Oscar, Leah, Oscar Mom, Sam and me. This picture, to me, is a keeper.

 Just makes me proud....and smile, Mo too.

 Shortly after GrandMommie arrived and recovered some.

 Great GrandMommie and Oscar.

Julia, GrandMommie and Mo unwrapping presents. It was a great party, GrandMommie was surprised and pleased, I think, and we all enjoyed the lunch served and the friendships shared.
We took a pictures while we were at Maher Park, Ollie came and stayed a night with us, which of course was special. here's a few of the pics we took.

 Hoisting the Jolly Roger for the arrival of Ollie.

Solving the problems of the world. While he was there we went alligator hunting and found only one, but that was enough for both of us! Ollie is one cool kid!
Of course Debbie fed us like we were family while we were there,

 Ollie, Chuck and I caught 2 lizards before dinner, Debbie wasn't letting us near the door with those critters.

 The Cajun Witch in her environment.

 We all had this look on our face as we patiently waited for dinner.

 Debbies' cooking is well know to be the best, her witch powers aren't to be doubted either!

 Mo's lending a hand getting it on the table.
Our visit to Daphne included attending the new 6pm Music Mass at Christ the King and a visit to the school on Monday to see friends and teachers, play with Oscar and Ollie and a quick trip to Fairhope to see my running friends. (wish I could have run with them!) We had a wonderful time visiting, the rush and extra expense to get there was well worth it. We loaded up to leave with a little choke but we were off to a new adventure at Amazon.com for a job that would take us until Christmas.

The End...... ?

Well we got to the end of our first season of working in the Sierra Nevada Mtns at Crystal Crag Lodge. It was a great summer, a lot of hard work, great adventures in the area and lots of new friends. Mo and I both agreed we would like to return next year for another season, the owner and managers welcomed us to return, so we'll be traveling back next May.
We were so busy I didn't get to post in the blog as I'd like to have, I didn't get to run as much as I'd like to have either! Mo worked hard, too, and she also was ready to crash early every night. We had such a great summer it's hard to recap it in words, we even just about stopped taking pictures. I'm gonna post the pics we did take and, again, just give a brief comment about each.

Here is Mo trying to show the size of the trees, this one is 'average'.

The summer was really moving fsat, seemed everyday started and all of a sudden it was evening, there wasn't a day that past that something eventful didn't happen. The cabins had a wide variety of guests but mostly everyone came from the southern area of California, San Fernando area and Los Angeles  mostly. Everyone was great and really glad to be in the cool climate. They were coming from HOT desert conditions and we were consistantly in the 40' to 70' range. I think I said previously that the cabins are on a lake, Lake Mary, and so almost everyone fished. There were groups of fishermen that would rent several cabins, 3-6 cabins, and fish and party the whole week. We saw a lot of fish caught, Trout was the main fish, and since moany guests were there to fish and relax, not cook and clean, we got a fair share of fresh trout to eat. I'd throw them straight on the grill! We'd eat our fill that night and I'd debone the rest for sandwiches the next day. (or fish tacos...YUM!) Some days bears would come through, actually, quite often. It was kind of comical at times, the bears are very smart, they know the fishermen are along the bank with stringers of fish, lunchbags and drinks. The bears would just walk along the shore line, the fishermen would move up to the road when they saw the bear coming, the bear would eat the fish, the lunch and then move on down the shore to the next meal! We always knew when they were coming when we say the fishermen coming up to the road and then going back down in a way that resembled the 'wave' at a baseball game. There was one mother bear that had two cubs, one black and one brown, that came all summer. We got to see them grow from little babies to big fat chubbies ready to hibernate for the winter.
One of the highlights of the summer was when Michael and Carin came out to visit for almost a week. They flew into Los Vegas, rented a car a drove up. They stayed in the owners apartment above the lodge. We hiked and jeeped as much as we could together and they explored the rest of the time either in the Jeep or the car. her are a couple of pictures of a hike we took one day, this is only a few of the many but ........

 Here we are starting the hike, it was a gorgeous day

 The trail enters the JM Wildernes and runs beside several mountain lakes.

 Well as we were hiking up Michael informs us that Sarah dared him to jump in one of the lakes. Now you might guess that a dare from a sister is not to be taken lightly and Michael of course then double dared me too. So, here Michael is coming out of a snow melt lake at 10,000' elevation. When he dove under and came up you could hear him holler a mile away !

 Here I am coming out.....fast! (Forgot to rotate the picture again)

 Well here you go Sarah, we did it! We got dressed quickly and had some lunch. That seemed like a good turn around point so we headed back down, it was probably about a 12 mile hike that was perfect!

While Michael and Carin were there we went on a jeep drive to a canyon we knew of called Silver Canyon. Mo and I drove up it a ways earlier in the year but it was late so we didn't go all the way. We got there and I turned the Pilots seat over to Michael. Carin sat up front with him, we didn't know she wasn't fond of heights, that just added to the entertainment!

 As we headed up the canyon 'road' we had about 6 water crossings, we came upon these mountain goats about stream #3. there were two that we saw and they weren't spooked at us, this is maybe 15 feet away.

 They just kinda walked up the hill aways a looked back

 Here's a shot looking back down where we came from

 This is a good section of road, I can tell because Michael took the picture!  on the left it is a steep high drop off.

 Again, a shot from where we came from.

 We made it to the top and had another couple take our picture.

 At the top there is a Bristle Cone forest. These are the oldest living plants on earth. Some date back to before Christ. This is a very protected area.

 Some of the blooming flowers that were everywhere. These are Indian Paintbrush

We all sat around the fire at night and Tom entertained us with his music. We went on other adventures but as you can tell, you just had to be there to experience it. Looks as though Michael and Carin are going to return next year and bring Sarah and Josh with them. THAT will be a time to remember! Who knows, maybe Sam and Leah will come too.


Moving on;
Later on, the first of August or so, Debbie and Chuck had a business trip scheduled to Los Angeles. We made arrangements at our work to take an extra day off and drove down to meet them. You have to understand, Debbie is Mo's closest friend, maybe ever, so this was not to be missed! We made our hotel reservation close to where they were staying, maybe two blocks away, and left early to get there. The drive was easy and the sights kept our attention. It was great to see them both. Here's a couple of pics we took.

"THE WITCH" and Chuck aka Bubba Chuck

and Mo and I. Here is a picture of the famous sign. Mo and Debbie drove around until they found it.

 We had a faarwell breakfast and headed back to Crystal Crag Lodge.

August and September seemed to fly by, all of a sudden we where looking at the end of the season and starting to get ready to close up the property for winter. The Lodge closes on Columbus Day for guests and that gives us about 5 days to shut it all down. Clean and inventory the inside, clear the porches, remove outside lights, board up windows, doors, chimneys, turn off water and drain all pipes, turn off gas and the list goes on. well we were warned.... Tom and Pam told us it usually snow a bit the first week of October. AND IT DID!

 This was the dusting we got.... to begin with.

 Looking up at Tom and Pam's place

 The next morning

 Stepped outside and took this pic, it was about 7am

Looking across at the cabin and Pam coming home later that day

 I managed to move my jeep but it continued to snow

This is a picture of the road, it snowed non stop for two days plus some of the third day, a total of about 14 inches.

We continued to work through it and although Mo and I were truly worried we were going to get stuck there. Tom and Pam assured us that after seven years experience, it would melt in time. We trusted and sure enough the snow melted and we broke up the ice in the driveway a little more each day and we pulled out right on time, actually a day early. I have to say, we worked hard at Crystal Crag this past summer but we really enjoyed it. The clean air, the people we worked with a guests we worked for, the mountains ans the wildlife all played a part in making this past summer a wonderful memory. We're looking forward to going back next year and then....who knows, maybe the next, too?