Rubicon Trail

Last weekend, my friend, Justin, took me to one of the best 4-wheel truck/Jeep trails in the West. The Jeep company has named a line of Jeeps after the trail, The Rubicon". Dictionary.com defines the word:

Ru·bi·con (rōō'bĭ-kŏn')
n. A limit that when passed or exceeded permits of no return and typically results in irrevocable commitment.

The trail is a tough 4x4 trail from the West side of the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe on the East. It is actually on old trail used since the California fourty-niner goldrush. Go to this site for some history.

The trail was FUN! We took Justin's Jeep Unlimited with a lift, large tires, and other things that make it very capable in tough terrain.



The actually difficult section of the trail is only 17 miles long, but it can take up to two days for a group to make it through. We left Sunday night and camped near a creek a little ways into the trail. The next day, the Gold Hills 4x4 Club met with us to run the rest of the trail. We went over some tough terrain that day, the toughest of the trip. I was tired and dirty when we stoppped to camp at Buck Island Resovoir high up in the Sierras.


We were happy to get to camp that evening. Justin and I headed down to the lake for a swim/bath after setting up camp. I grabbed a beer and sat wroung the camp site listening to stories and realxing.

The next morning we hit the trail. That day we went through Big Sluice, Rubicon Springs, and over Cadillac Hill. When we all got off the trail, but some had some boddy damage and other broken parts. We started with eleven Jeeps, but only seven made it through.

I loved it...Thanks Justin for taking me along.

Camping!

Here in the Sacramento, CA, when the summer comes, we go to the Sierra Nevada mountains for relief. When it's 90 degrees in the valley, the mountains may be 10 to 15 degrees cooler.

Sarah and I went camping this weekend along the South fork of the Yuba River. To get to the camping spot, we have to 4-wheel my truck in and cross a river. The camp site sits along the river, secluded from most of civilization.



Our tent along a creek:



We camped for 3 days and had a great time swimming, fishing, and four-wheeling.

For breakfast the last morning, we had Zoe the Cat pancakes...


Sarah and Paul eating breakfast:

Sarah Graduates

Sarah just graduated from University of Kansas with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering!

YEAH SARAH!

Going to Kansas

I'm moving! I gave two and a half months notice at work. The decision has been made.

I'm going to move to Kansas to be with Sarah as she finishes graduate school at University of Kansas. Sarah has been accepted for the Fall semester of school and has a summer job with Boeing Aerospace for the summer in Houston, TX. We move into our new apartment in Lawrence, Kansas on August 6.

I have been practicing a few things for this "union":

"Yes Dear"
"I will put the seat down, sorry"
"I will squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom, I promise"
"Yes Dear"

For all of my friends in California, let's get together as often as possible before I go .

Here's Fishy Fishy!

Hobbies, leisure time activities, what ever you want to call them…I love to do many of these. I have more hobbies than I can keep track of. Fishing, remote control trucks, video production, reading, etc.

When it comes to fishing, I have done crazy things just to catch fish. I have hiked up and down steep canyons, fallen in cold rivers, traveled to foreign lands, driven hundreds of miles, and spent…well never mind.

Fifty miles north of the famous Napa Valley resides a large bass fishing lake, Clear Lake. I will be traveling there tomorrow with a bass fishing club I recently joined. We have friendly fishing tournaments every month. When I was getting ready to go, I had all my fishing lures laid out when I realized that I have a quite a few.



I have been collecting these for over 10 years now, but it still seems like a lot. This is only my bass fishing lures. I also have trout lures, flies, and Steelhead lures. I do tie most of my own fishing flies, but lures I just have to pay up for. Some things I found in my tackle box have never been in the water and likely wont. Others have been in the water so much that I may have to retire them. Some lures have teeth marks from fish, and some are so rusty that I should get my tetanus shot before casting them.

Wish me luck….in being able to choose a lure before the sun goes down.

Italian Night

I have been wanting to try Eggplant Parmesan for a long time. I got the stuff and it was actually easy. The recipe called for 2 eggplants. I made enough to feed a large family. Well, now I have lunch for a few days!

BEFORE...



AFTER...



My Dinner (and a few lunches).



Mmmmm...it is good!

Bean Hollow

This last weekend I drove to Bean Hollow State Beach on the Pacific Ocean, below Half Moon Bay. On the way, I visited with my friend Nicki and Steve's in Walnut Creek, near San Francisco. Nicki's dog, Pria, was happy to see me. I gave her a stuffed octupus as a gift. She seemed to like it!

After the visit to Nicki's, I drove to Bean Hollow State park for a remote control truck competition. There were harbor seals on the rocks near us.



The picture below is my truck on the sandstone rocks on the ocean.




On on return home, we met up with Nicki and Steve for a Chipotle burrito dinner.

Now I have to retun to work :(

The End of February

I have been lazy with my blogging lately. I have been doing things, just not sharing.

Two and a half weeks ago, I went to Kansas and visited sarah and Zoe for a few days. We had a good time in snowy, cold Kansas. We had fondue nd wine for our belated Valentine's Day dinner.




I flew back to California to find my sister, Sandy, was visiting with her family. We went to San Francisco, saw the Pier 39 area, downtown, Union Square, Chinatown, and Little Italy.

Here are the Mayberry's with Alcatraz Prison in the background.

My Nephew, Matt, loved the live crabs in the restaurants, which tasted delicious.

We went to a park with the BEST playground and we played.

We went to Chinatown and saw these frogs for sale.

Weekend and More

Since the new changes in this Blogger thing, it now takes me forever to log in and get to this point. By forever I mean about 3 minutes. I tried to find a place to submit my complaint but that was harder than logging in just to blog! Jeeez...ok now about my adventures.

I went to a place north of Reno, Nevada called "Moonrocks". Moonrocks is an area of weathered, rounded granite sticking up out of the high desert. The ground was covered with decomposed granited. The rounded erosional pattern of the granite bedrock outcrops here is called spheroidal weathering.















My purpose for this field trip was not for the geology, but to compete in my latest hobby, remote control rock crawling. This is 4-wheel drive trucks that can climb the rocks. Seen in the picture below is my truck. I won some money for placing 2nd in my class.
















In this next picture is a bridge we had to cross in the coarse set up for us to run our trucks on.



I had a lot of fun playing around and meeting all these people.

Gone Fishing

I went fishing today! Here is a picture of a steelhead trout I caught in the American River in Sacremento.



I helped a guy named Bruno land this huge steelhead.

Sushi Night

Sarah and I made Sushi tonight for the first time. It turned out nicely. We had two types:
-- avacado, shrimp,smoked salmon
-- avacado, calamari, shrimp

We ate lots! Mmmmmm...

San Francisco and a New Year

For the New Year, I have been lucky enough to have Sarah around. I don't get to see her much, but she is here for a couple of weeks! With Sarah around, we always have lots of adventures.

Yesterday, we were in San Francisco.

Sarah had to take the GRE (Graduate school exam) at the 100 block on California Street in downtown SF. We arrived a little early to the building and found a coffee shop to sit and wait in. We noticed there was three coffee shops on this corner. At 9:30 we went to the testing center on the bottom of a tall skyscraper. She checked in and was told the rules...

"You can not bring anything in with you. No calculator, pencil, paper, NADA! You can NOT have a watch. You can not have anything in your pockets. Turn your cell phone off and leave it too. NOTHING."

She was told to say goodbye to me.

"Ok, that's long enough, you'll see him again."

She entered the testing room as I heard the test warden ask, "Are you sure nothing is in your pockets?"

Great, now I had four hours to kill.

If I could be left anywhere for four hours, San Francisco is top of my list. It is a fun, energetic, and always interesting city.

I am always told not to drive in the city, but I always do. I don't mind thousands of crazy drivers in crowded streets which I don't know well. So, I drove away from downtown towards the North Beach area. I spotted a beautiful church next to Washington Square, a park. I parked here, fed the meter, grabbed the camera and started to take a look around.

Here is the St. Peter, Paul, and Mary Cathedral:


To the East was Telegraph Hill. I could hear and see a flock of wild parrots circling the monument at the top:


I walked down to pier 39 which is the biggest tourist area. I needed some change to put into the parking meter when I returned to the car. I spotted a friendly looking shop keeper and asked about getting some quarters. I got my change and the three dollar cigar I had to buy, lit it up, and continued to walk.

I returned to the car, filled the parking meter, and was off to Chinatown and Little Italy. I arrived in Little Italy and looked around. I found a place we would be eating when Sarah gets out of the exam, The Steps of Rome Caffe. Across the street was a funny named restaurant, The Stinking Rose, a reference to garlic.

Walking around Little Italy, I came to an invisible line that separates it from Chinatown. Suddenly I am in "China." I could smell the strange herbs, dried fish, and vegetables being sold in the street. I was the only tall, white guy around. If there is one place I feel safe as any other, it's Chinatown. I looked around at all the things being pedalled...mops, ginger roots, fresh meat, and many unidentified things. There is Chinese writing on everything.

I returned to the downtown area as it got closer to the end of Sarah's exam time. I walked along the Embarcadero on the San Francisco bay. Checked out a farmers market.

Sarah called me and I picked her up. We went to Steps of Rome to eat. They didn't have the souffle she came all the way from Kansas to eat, but the food was good.

As we were driving out of the city, a guy pulled right in front of us. I stopped somehow. The crowd on the sidewalk made sounds of disbelief, "Ooooooooh!" Sarah and I looked at each other, and went on.

This near accident reminded me of the other close calls Sarah and I have had...

Greece on a scooter when a car pulled out in front of us...
Leaving the Colorado mountains after a snow storm, bumper to bumper stop-and-go traffic, on ice. Now that was fun!

Weekend in San Diego!

Wild Parrots?
Breakfast with Shamu and Santa?
Uncle Tom Changes Poopy Diapers?
Killer Whales?
Light Saber fighting?
A First Birthday?

It all happened this last weekend. I was in San Diego, California at my Sister Sandy's house. I got to hang out with her hubby Mike, my nephew Matt and the newest Niece, Cassandra.



Outside my Sister's house, a flock of wild parrots flew over. Strange. We left to have breakfast with Shamu and Santa Claus at Sea World. We ate as the Orca whales did tricks for us. Santa walked around and visited us all, then we went for pictures with him on his sleigh. After breakfast, we took off to see the rest of Sea World.
We visited Shark Encounters, got wet on the Journey to Atlantis ride, and saw polar bears, dolphins, and walrus. We had a great time at Sea world.


While the parents went out for a company Christmas party, Uncle Tom was the babysitter. We played for hours. Then disaster struck! I smelled poopy diapers in the baby girl!

"I was not properly trained for this. Where are my safety goggles and respirator? Matt, do you know how to change diapers?" I asked the five year old.



Matt exclaimed, "Yeah, but that's smelly and I'm busy with my toys right now."

So, I took a deep breathe and peeled off the diaper. Not good. The worst I have ever seen, and I have seen maybe three or four other diapers in my days. After turning green and using at least twenty baby wipes, she was as fresh as new. I put the new diaper on. All done, oh, oops, I forgot her pants. So, then we played until the parents came home.

The next day was Cassandra's first birthday! We had some butterfly cake, ice cream, and birthday gifts. She got cake all over herself and then opened up her present, a rocking horse. She loved riding it!


Sadly, I had to fly home after the party and return to my life.

Shamu and Santa!

I leave for San Diego, CA tomorrow! I am going to visit my sister, Sandy and her hubby, Mike. Also, my nephew Matt, a new neice, Cassadra will be there.

We are all going to see Shamu the killer whale for breakfast at Sea World. Santa Claus will also be there.

Breakfast with Shamu and Santa!

Let the fun begin!

Turkey Day

Sarah and I drove to Sedalia, Missouri to be with part of my step-family. We had great food a Magie Schwarz's sister's house. The food was so good and the company was also. I saw some of my nephews, Nic and Roman.
We celebrated my one of my niece's second birthday. She is Carly, Billy and Margie Schwarz's newest girl.

So here are pics of Carly's second birthday.





We had a fun time and now we are relaxing at home. Well, I am. Sarah is doing school work.




I have been re-training Zoe. I have been teaching her to eat leaves and other things.



Tonight, we are at Sarah's house watching movies.

Weekend

It's almost Turkey Time

Click Here to hear turkey gobble.

I woke up this morning and drove to the city of Davis. I ran a 10k there called the Turkey Trot. I was not first; I was not last. It was a good run, but i am out of shape.

Work is going ok. This last week at work, I was inspected by the State of California (ELAP). I had many things wrong with the lab that I have to correct. It was a little nerve racking preparing for the on-site inspection. I am doing a bit better now that it's over.

Aside from work, I have been playing with my remote control trucks, helping a friend organize an old stamp collection, and running.

I am going to Kansas to be with Sarah for Thanksgiving. I am not sure where we are eating yet. I will be working for Christmas.

Quarters

For some reason, I started collecting those US state quarters. I started putting all my change in a jar, sorting through it for state quarters, and then getting rid of duplicates. So, now I have a fair collection of them. I turns out that I have 34 of the 40 released so far.

So, now I am on the look out for:

New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, North and South Dakota

So, send me your money! :)

**Update: I got North Dakota 11/6/06

Halloween Night

I am at home relaxing tonight. No kids knocking on the door.

2 weeks a go Sarah came and visited me. We went to a lobster feed (paid for by my work).

This last weekend I visited my Grandmother in Visalia. When I was driving I noticed my truck was at 150,000 miles. It seems I have put about 85,000 miles on it since I bought it. I can't believe that it is still going! I had a great time with my grandmother. I also saw my mom, step-dad Bill, and Daisy the dog.

I have been playing with my remote control trucks, working, and hanging out with my friend Justin.

California Crazies and a 4th Anniversary

This morning I went to get coffee and there was grown adults jumping around in the parking lot. It looked like some sort of fitness boot camp. One guy is yelling and all these people were doing what he told them... "Get down and give me forty!" Oh well, I wasn't about to join them, despite my need to actually exercise.

I have been going to work and building remote rock crawling trucks. I have been going to a fly tying class and visiting with friends. It finally cooled down here and the weather is real nice.

Speaking of weather, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) sent me a letter saying that I would receive a discount of 15% this month off my energy bill. The letter said:

"Electric customers will receive the credit on their October bill based on the bill received for the summer heat storm which blanketed California from July 16-27."

"It’s a perfect example of the strong customer focus we’re establishing for PG&E."

How sweet of them to help us po' folk struggling after the "storm" we never noticed.

I will see Sarah in about 2 weeks. She is flying out here to visit. I will be in Kansas City area for Thanksgiving. Sarah and I just had our 4th year anniversary. i flew out to KC and we had a great time. We had a nice Italian dinner and exchanged gifts. She gave me a very nice dress watch. It was really great to see her. Sarah's 23rd birthday was yesterday, the 29th. I gave her a penguin,



and the largest book about SPACE I could find.



Zoe the cat and Sarah were doing well.

Here's a pic of my two girls.

Awww

Fishing in McCloud

I went on a fishing trip to the McMcloud River in Northern California. I stayed there a week. My Dad, Justin, and his family were all there. I went flyfishing for trout almost every day I was there. I know, it's a tough job, but I have got to do it.

We ate great food, fed chipmunks by hand,



and caught some trout.

Dad with rainbow Trout

Dennis with Brook Trout


We had a lot of fun!