Old-fashioned weekend

An Old-fashioned Weekend - Yosemite, into the Central Valley, on to Ventura

The end of my first NAL program. The fun parts of Friday - the end of paperwork and cube truck packing, an afternoon with friends along the Merced River and a very chilly dip with the sun quickly setting behind Glacier Point. Yosemite always reminds you of its grandeur, and if you get caught up working too hard or busying around like in the city its not long before you round a corner in the trail and are reconnected to natural place strictly by the view.

I went to Camp 4 to unload (read 'give away') some extra perishable food from my trip and felt immediately at home. I was also immediately again aware that I haven't climbed for over a month now and my finger continues to heal at a snails pace. After a long work week, it's quite hard to turn down an old friend who is ready to go get on the rock. But, I had to..... go there .... get here ...

Working for NAL is often equivalent to working as a long-haul truck driver. Just when I thought I was going to have a normal free weekend I found myself blasting out of Yosemite, passing through San Jose, up to San Rafael, and then returning to Ventura. All this traveling remember is via a E-350 cube truck that gets about 8 miles a gallon. Today alone I spent over $200 dollars in gas.

Pulling always onto I-5 always makes me feel like a true blooded American – the highway traffic on a Sunday is big trucks, RV's, SUV's, trucks pulling ATV's, boats, and trailers of all sorts. I make a phone call to a couple other Natty's leaving Corvallis, OR just as they pull onto I-5; the concrete connection to my friends across the west coast. Again, I am cursing through the land at 70 MPH, alongside the RV's, as I climb the grapevine and descend into the smoggy basin of L.A. Metro.

I send this post from the new wireless connection at the NAL warehouse - another place that begins to feel like home. Ready to leave the city and head for the desert.