Over Tioga Pass in January?

After having more than enough of life's curves, I headed off to Ice Skate with good friend Ann's skates on Tenaya Lake. Tioga Pass is still open and that hasn't happened this late in the season since 1935! There is hardly any snow and it was WARM! The only problem was that Tenaya Lake was literally groaning and resonating with the sounds of cracking ice! I've never heard a sound so ominous. A few people were skating, but it seemed risky to me, so I headed higher with a new plan. 

I ice skated (IF you want to call it that!)  for a bit just outside the kiosk heading to the East Side of the Sierras and had a bit of lunch.

Woa!

yikes, backwards!

Aaaaaaahhh!

Oh, there we go!

Weeee

Mono Lake (on the way to hot springs)

 I then went for the hot springs in mammoth! I met an interesting young man 

( shoulda gotten his pic) from near Duncan in British Columbia. He had come back to the spring for his sun glasses. This kid was a real free spirit. He traveled & lived out of his VW camper van and was headed to wherever, maybe Mexico, not sure. He seemed a bit on the "herb", so kept forgetting stuff.  This was a new place for me and after finding that it had only one hole and a lot of people coming & going, I didn't have much time in there

Ahhhhh!

I

The boardwalk to the spring

 I love my backyard!!!!!!

Hot Spring fluff

 

Phantom of the boardwalk, or Shady Lady (moose & squirrel again)

Hot river and boardwalk

The view

Hot River Phantom

Hot snake river

Icy bubbles

 Heading back, I decided it would be nice to get more of a soak and went to Bridgeport, but so did everyone else! Sigh...

This ladies is why old men still find old women attractive! Blurry vision and low lighting are a woman's best friends! Forget the diamonds. I guess that's where Lizz & I differ...

Sometimes it's the little impromptu adventures that make life doable. Cheers and Happy New Year 2012!

Muses from the crisis zone

The day began like any other day in January except that the weather was warm and spring like. It was an unusually dry winter so far, with no rain or snow in the forecast. Denise started her day nervously pressing her coffee and watching the phone. "Surely the restraining order will go through" she said to Rocky the cat who clearly just wanted some of the cream she was pouring into her coffee. It had been 8 months since Denise had left her husband and just as she was getting some momentum on the divorce paperwork, he was beginning to escalate again.

Denise went outside to hang her laundry when the phone rang. She didn’t make it to the phone before it went to message. The message was Kimberly from the crisis center. Denise tried to call Kimberly back, but kept getting a recording that she was calling her own number! While Denise looked in the phone book for another phone number for the crisis center, her phone rang. “Hello, is Kimberly there?” said a man’s voice on the line. “No” Denise answered, what number did you dial? The man reported the phone number of the crisis center that Denise had been trying to call!

Several more calls came on Denise’s phone for the crisis center. All the while Denise had to explain that there was a problem with the line and the crisis center had the phone company working on it. It was difficult to deal with job hunting on line and divorce papers with all the calls!  In the mean time, Denise got the news from Kimberly that the restraining order had gone through and would be served probably that evening, so she should leave home to be safe.  

Tired of hiding and having her life disrupted, Denise decided to stay put and lock up. Later that afternoon, she began preparing locks and boobie traps for defense just in case. The phone rang again. This time it was a woman asking for crisis center. “I’m sorry” said Denise, she then explained the phone situation to the woman. The woman, in a voice that told a story of a rough life began telling Denise her troubles. “you DO realize that I am not crisis center don’t you Dear?” Denise interrupted while stringing trip wires inside the gate just in case her crazed husband made his way over in the dark. “Oh yes”, said the rough sounding voice. “you just sound so happy!”. Denise stopped tightening the trip wire and thought a second or two. “Well I AM happy!” she said. The woman began telling Denise about her trouble at the safe house with trying to operate the hot water heater. The conversation ended with both women laughing, and Denise smiled her way through the rest of the day.

Jeannine Andre    This is a true story that happened the day before my adventure over Tioga Pass. The names have been changed etc, etc...although permission was given fully for printing the story.