May was an Interesting Month

Brent Burns came to out little town and entertained us with his Trop Rock and patter. Some of the neighbors stepped in to help out too.

Found out this evening $500 was raised for the aviation scholarship fund because of this event. Hoorah!

The next day I took a different route to Coulterville for the monthly fundraising breakfast for their museum. My usual route was closed because of the road damage caused by our horrendous downpour the previous month. The road I did take had also been closed but was open that day. Here are some pics of the damage I saw on Priest-Coulterville Rd. Each of these was from a different section of the road.

Some clean up was done but the road still needs major repair. In the meantime, these sections are down to one lane.

A few days later some friends of neighbors came to visit with their bikes. I was asked to act as tour guide. My pleasure!

We rode to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

Next day Jenn flew in from Missouri. The plan was to fly to Oakland to pick her up but the weather didn’t cooperate so I started to drive down to get her. In the meantime, the weather cleared so Dan went and got her while I stopped at the Costco in Manteca to do some necessary shopping. It all worked out.

Next day, Jenn and I met her cousin, Sarah, in Sonora. Had a great time visiting and wandering.

A Trip to Yosemite was in order so Jenn and I went to the Tuolumne Grove to see the giant sequoias. We got there early and had the place almost entirely to ourselves. The dogwood were in bloom too.

As Jenn headed back to the SF bay area to spend time with family and friends there, Dan and I headed to Big Sur to spend some time with Julia and her family.  But before that, we spent a day preparing food and feeding close to 100 people who were in the area for an auction. Whew! We needed a relaxing trip to the coast.

However, it wasn’t to be such a simple trip. I was going directly from Big Sur to Paso Robles for the Great Western Bike Rally. So, Dan rode his motorcycle so he could go home after Big Sur and I drove the car. We stopped outside of Modesto for breakfast but when we left the restaurant, Dan started honking his horn and waving at me to pull over. I had a flat tire! Fortunately we were by a fuel station because, of course, the spare was flat too.

Once we got that taken care of, all was OK for the rest of the trip.

It was good to have several days of nothing to do to recover from the previous several days. One of the other issues we dealt with was our airplane not starting on the day we flew Jenn back into Hayward. After Dan dropped Jenn and I off in Hayward, he had taken the plane to Palo Alto so he could pick up Bryan from Stanford. When he went to start the plane, it wouldn’t. Fortunately we have friends who fly to Palo Alto for work and one of them was there to rescue Dan. Bonnie ended up coming to Hayward to get me and then flying to Concord to drop off Bryan before flying home. Ay yi yi!

Although hwy 1 was destroyed north of where we were camped, we could still get to Julia Pfeiffer State Park where we took a walk to McWay Fall.

Dan and I also stopped to enjoy views along Hwy 1:

My next stop, Paso Robles. I arrived in time to join Jack, Phil, John, and Al for a ride to San Miguel and back. Then, while they went grocery shopping, I went to do laundry. So nice to have some clean clothes again…

The next morning Jack decided to go home. He’d had a rough night. I was sad that he had to leave. Getting old sucks.  Before he left, he did join us at the donut shop.

The rest of us headed out to do Peachy Canyon in reverse. At least that’s what I was told. Phil and I got separated from the rest of the group (Louis, Sydney, Ron and some others had joined us by then). When they were not at the next corner, Phil and I made the decision to turn left (which was the reverse route). Turns out the others had gone straight. Since there was no phone reception, we couldn’t call. All made it back safely but we sure took different ways to get there.

Saturday’s ride was a variation on the Hollyhock Hop that I did last month. We all managed to stay together. The ride also took us to Sculptera Winery. Phil and I had ridden out there a few years back but it was worth going again.

The next day’s adventure took us back to San Miguel but the return was more round about. One thing we confirmed, Airport Road has been repaved, hallelujah!

Our last night so we went to The Oddessy for dinner then wandered around the town park.

Before I headed home, I went to bay area to see family. Surprise for me, I got to see Chelle, Alex, Brittany, Amanda, Kirk, Melissa and Evie. I was only expecting to see my two daughters. And I did get to see them too. 

Jenn, Melissa and I were able to spend time together at The Lake in Newark.

And then I came home. Now I’m starting on the June adventures.