Bass Lake

We are staying in a cabin by Bass Lake. I found this lake back in May when I was up here at the District Pastor's Retreat. I was looking for a place with phone reception so that I could check in with Bryan. This is what I witnessed when I arrived.

So when Bryan said that what he really wanted to do with some vacation time was find a cabin and rest, I thought of Bass Lake. We are staying on the south side, which is definitely the quiet side. After breakfast on our porch we drove to the north side of the lake.

We rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon. The basic boat we rented wasn't working properly so we got the party boat. I loved every minute of my afternoon. I got to drive.

I got to float in the cool, beautiful water.

I got to see some of the coolest clouds.

We came in from our afternoon of boating and studied the clouds some more.

Then we had what the locals lovingly call a "Fork's Burger." All I can say is "Wow!"

Yosemite Now and Then

In the summer of 1966 my family camped in Yosemite. We watched the Firefall from our campground. This picture is from a slide my father took that year.Bryan and I went to Yosemite over 45 years later. We did not camp. We stayed in a room with a king-sized bed in the Lodge. The mattress was so bad we nicknamed it "Yosemite Valley." The National Park Service ended the "Firefall" in 1968. So instead of viewing it we went up to Glacier Point, the place from which the embers were dumped down 3,000 feet. This was our view.

In the summer of 1966 my dad drove the family car through the Wawona Tree in Yosemite. It fell down in the winter of 1969.

Bryan and I didn't drive through any trees but we sure enjoyed each one...even their reflections.

In May of this year I attended a District Pastor's Retreat in Yosemite. There was record precipitation this year. This is how the Bridal Veil Falls looked in May 2011.

This is how they looked in September 2011. What a difference four months can make.

Our schedule got thrown off just a bit today when a tow truck had to tow a car at Glacier Point and blocked our escape for quite some time. So we found ourselves very hungry when we finally ate lunch at the Wawona Hotel. What a blast from the past! When I turned to Bryan and said, "This restaurant reminds me of a resort in a movie." Bryan said, "I was thinking of the exact same thing." It was like Kellerman's from the movie "Dirty Dancing." When we had finished our meal Bryan stood up and said, "No one puts Baby in a corner." We danced right out of there.

Be Still and Know.....

I leapt out of bed at 5 a.m. this morning, eager to get to the Ancient Bristlecone Pines. We left Lone Pine with our bellies full by 6 a.m. The mountains were so beautiful they looked like a painting.

Bryan wondered how I know about the Bristlecone pines. You see, I grew up with a family story about them. Every summer my parents took their family on a fabulous and educational vacation. My mother loved to plan our trips and she would spend the school year doing research on what to see. She would type on 3x5 cards interesting things about the sites we would see on the way and those would be read aloud as we traveled.

One summer we took an extended camping trip from Kansas to California and back. We hit every major National Park and interesting site along the way. I was only six so I have only snippets of memories. But I guess that one thing we either did or learned was about the Bristlecone pines. When we returned my brother began 5th grade and one day his teacher told the class that the redwoods were the oldest living trees. My brother rarely spoke in class but he raised his hand and explained that actually the Bristlecone pines were the oldest living trees. She told him he was wrong. So he went home, gathered up the information proving her wrong and took it with him to school the next day. The story was that she did not appreciate being corrected.

Even the road up to the Bristlecones was amazing. We arrived before the visitor center was open and began a mile trek through Schulman Grove. Bristlecone pines are the oldest single living organism known. Some of them are nearly 5,000 years old...older than the Pyramids. The oldest know Bristlecone pine is over 4,800 years old. It is nicknamed Methuselah and it is not identified so as to keep people from vandalizing it.

At an altitude of around 10,000 feet we walked up the side of a mountain in order to admire these old, gnarled trees. Wikipedia says that it is because their wood is very dense and resinous and therefore resistant to insects, fungi and other pests that helps the Bristlecone live so long.

When Bryan and I got to the summit of the trail we sat down on the bench that was provided. There wasn't anyone else on the trail. There were no human beings, except us, to create noise and we sat as still as possible. A bird flew by and we could hear the sound of her wings beating as she flew. It was so quiet...so peaceful. I was filled with wonder and reverence for God's creation. I began to understand the psalmists words: "Be still and know that I am God."

As we started our descent we heard another group of hikers on the trail. They were yelling between themselves. Bryan said, "Some people come up for the experience. Others are conquerors." We headed for Yosemite National Park from the east along Tioga Pass. It was a very long trip and a very beautiful trip. The speed limit never exceeds 45 miles an hour...which isn't fast enough for the conquerors who rode my bumper!

We are all checked in to Yosemite Lodge and I am hoping to see stars tonight. I am also hoping that if there are others around me they will want to experience it and not conquer it.

Some Time Away

Bryan said to me recently that he wanted to go somewhere for a week where I couldn't get good phone reception. He said that he wanted to see my eyes. So we figured out what week we could sneak away together. I made arrangements to have our 17-year-old Cairn terrier, Baby, to be boarded at the vet. Then Thursday, when I came home I found baby so weak she could hardly go outside. Then she just disappeared. She got disoriented and couldn't find her way back inside. When Bryan came home she had a seizure in his arms. It was clear to us that we needed to do the kind thing. So Friday, the day before we left, I took Baby to the vet to be euthanized. I thanked her for all she meant to my family. We got her for Matt when he was nine years old. For the last six years she has definitely been Bryan's dog. We already miss her snoring under the bed.

Today Bryan and I got up early and left for Death Valley. We met an English woman at a dinner party one time who said that whenever any of her friends or family come to visit her in Southern California they want to go to Death Valley. We decided to go see what the attraction was. When we got to Dante's View Bryan said, "That was sure a hell of a long way to come for that view."

The amazing thing about Death Valley is that it has the lowest, hottest and driest points in North America. The highest point in the continental United States is just 100 miles from the lowest point in North America. It got up to 105 degrees while we were there. We saw some amazing rock formations but the heat kept us moving.

We are staying in Lone Pine, CA. I picked it because I had read about the Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine. What an incredible place. We drove through the Alabama Hills, had dinner and then drove back through. I took a bunch of pictures but none can capture the beauty. (I lamented that truth to Bryan and he said, "That is why people go places themselves rather than just looking at pictures.") Can you see pumpkin rock?

I am trying to decide if I want to drive through the Alabama Hills again tomorrow morning.

But I really want to see Bristlecone Pines in the early morning light.

The Joys of NOAC

I have been at National Older Adult Conference (NOAC) since Wednesday. NOAC is held in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. What a gorgeous place. It was overcast and rainy until today. Now as the Brethren are loading up their suitcases and heading for their homes, the sun comes out and the place is alive with beauty.

I roomed with Shirley Boyer here at NOAC. Besides enjoying each other it confuses the heck out of everyone. I can't tell you how many people had to tell me how much they loved my father, Chuck. One man said to me today, "I am one of the millions of people who was a fan of your father, Chuck." This is Shirley sitting in the rocking chair as we wait for our ride to the airport.

I came to NOAC to preach the closing sermon. There were a little over 800 of us over 50-year-olds. The theme was "Passion and Purpose in a Changing World." I was asked to preach on the changing world part. I used an illustration of my youngest son being chosen as a LA Opera Scholar during his emo phase of life. It was a fun story to tell.

NOAC is one of the few places left in the Church of the Brethren where I feel at home. This conference is a place where people with open hearts and open minds come. There are good reasons to be over 50!