Tahoe Traveling Tidbits

Somehow Crosby road trips never go down without a hitch… and I’m not talking about the trailer hitch.  What was supposed to be a 14 hour road trip turned into a 17 hour saga.  Of course, you are privy to the nitty-gritty details right here on MSJ! Lucky you.

Somewhere north of Coso Junction and south of Bartlett on Highway 395 in the interior of the great state of California we stopped for fuel and when I hopped out of the car, curious if I could still feel my feet, I heard a hissing noise.  Even though I needed to desperately visit the restroom, I silently investigated the sound until I determined that it was coming from the front left tire.  Not good.  No, not good at all.  I informed Captain, My Captain, and went inside.  My husband did indeed solve the problem somewhat temporarily with Fix-A-Flat …. and tire repair job in an aerosol can.  Amazing!  The hissing behind us, we ventured back onto the 395.

Sadly, a vibration began not long after the F-A-F was sprayed into the tire.  The vibrating increased until Bishop, CA.  We love Bishop, CA.  If you haven’t been there, you are missing not only the certified purest water in the nation, but an award-winning bakery with the Original Sheepherder Bread and a lovely park with a creek and baby duckies. We stop there every year… both directions.  It has remarkable views of the Sierra Nevadas to the west and another nameless mountain range to the east… and snow-covered peaks.  Lovely sight to behold.

A tire shop was needed… badly.  Rick decided to leave Larisa, Keeve, Trixie (the dog) and myself at the wonderful park and take Austin to go find a tire.  We didn’t really plan the park adventure very well.  We had no cell phone, no watch, no money, no knowledge of where Rick and Austin went, no food and we discovered later, no cardboard or sharpie pens to make signs that read “Stranded, Starving, Sad.”  We figured we could make a few bucks while we waited, but no.  We weren’t even prepared for that!  Larisa did have two water bottles, but at 91 degrees, they didn’t last long. 

At the park, we were resting peacefully (before the panic, the realization that we were indeed stranded, and the hunger set in) on a bench watching mothers and toddlers feed the ducks in a small lake.  The scene was right out of some romantic movie with Weeping Willow trees, a gazebo and everything, except I was on the park bench with my daughter, son, and our dog, not my lovable husband.  Anyway, Trixie was behaving quite nicely….. until a maintenance man drove by on a golf cart.  She took off like a shot, between my legs, under the bench and after the man.  Her leash is one of those retractable thin rope kind that only work on dogs less than 12 pounds.  Stupidly, I grabbed the rope and felt the burn on my pinky finger almost immediately, but not quite fast enough to let go and be free from rope burn.  Owwwie!  Stupid dog.  Now I was stranded and wounded.

We moved to the bakery patio on main street, hoping to see our van shortly… with a new tire.  The kind lady behind the counter, wearing the little Dutch white hat pinned to her hair, did fill our water bottles several times for us.  And there were samples put out every 20 minutes of sticky buns, chili cheese bread, the award-winning Sheepherder bread and shortbread cookies.  At least we wouldn’t go into a diabetic coma!  Well, come to find out.  It was while we were sitting at the bakery we realized the extent of our unpreparedness.  We did spy a cardboard box behind the store adjacent to the bakery that we could have used for a sign, but we still didn’t solve the no-sharpie pen problem.  We played “Name someone who has that car” for 90 minutes as each car drove by.  We named almost everyone we know, but in Bishop there are a LOT of truck drivers, so Pastor Dan and Regan won.

Eventually Rick did return and the tire with the hiss was not the vibrating problem at all.  The right front tire developed a bulge, probably because it was not receiving the same attention, love and care as the other front tire… so it caused the vibrating front end, hoping for some love.  So, two new tires later…. Rick came to save us and thankfully ended our bakery loitering situation.

See?  Crosby road trips are the BEST!

My Son, the Creative Genius

My son Keeve is eternally leaving little signs of his creative genius around the house.  It brings a smile to my face each time I find some little ditty that he has spent his energy on…. for no real reason at all.  Just because.  He is 11…. I don’t remember my older son going through the 11-year-old-creative phase… maybe this is unique to this child.  Who knows? 

Our first example above is the Trix cereal box that has been carefully altered to read Trixie….. the name of our dog.  Notice the font size and type were recreated with precision.  Wow!  Such artistic talent!  The Trix box was not complete without the editing done by my dog-loving son.  And besides, Trix are for kids.   This is the boy who has asked for Sharpie permanent pens for Christmas more than once.  He LOVES his Sharpies.  They are so useful.  And they write on practically anything, whether it is supposed to be written on or not.

Exhibit #2 is the school work/microphone station at the back picnic table.  This is not a temporary set up in the happenstance that a song breaks forth from his soul today alone.  The golf putter is taped to the stool and the table for future song outbursts in this particular math-doing seat.  So ingenious!  So creative!  So useful…. especially when he’s supposed to be doing math… right after he finds a putter in the garage, a stool from his brother’s room, the packing tape from the pantry, etc. etc. etc.

Our final exhibit, the bejeweled Bible.  I remember picking out this Bible for him in the Christian bookstore, thinking that he had out-grown the little boy Bibles and needed a grown-up, leather-covered Bible.  Within the first month, he wrote out two particularly significant verses on the cover in ball point ink (why didn’t I think of that?)…. John 3:16, one known to many.  But he also included Job 3:2…. “he said.”  That’s it.  He said.  It is a complete sentence as it contains a noun and a verb.  Keeve is fond of this verse… I’m not sure why? 

And the jewels in the shape of a cross… what can a mother say?  He did do a very careful hot gluing job because there is no trace of hot glue gun strings running from jewel to jewel.  The heart in the middle of the cross did this mother’s heart good.  The cover wouldn’t be complete in this child’s life without Sharpie pen too, of course.  What could be of more importance than his name?  Naming your belongings is why Sharpie pens were invented, right?  Right!

I love my Keeve. <3