On Vacation

Funny thing about vacations. Think about it – Why is it that we go on vacation, exhaust ourselves doing whatever it is we do, only to return home dreading going back to work because we’re tired! What’s wrong with this picture?

Isaura and I have been on a short vacation this past week attending a family reunion in Delta, Utah. We drove out at the start of the 4^th of July weekend, traveling over Highway 50, a transcontinental highway that begins in Sacramento, California and ends in Ocean City, Maryland. It is euphemistically referred to as the “Loneliest Road in America.” Must be true because after we passed through Fallon, Nevada and began the four hundred and twenty mile jaunt to Delta, we probably didn’t see more than thirty cars the whole trip. The only signs of civilization were in the three towns appropriately spaced for such a long trek: Austin, Eureka, and Ely (pronounced: eel-ee). Highway 50 roughly follows the old Pony Express trail of yesteryear.

We had our sister-in-law, Edna, with us. She had been in Modesto visiting family, so we were her transportation back home to her hubby, Tony, Isaura’s brother. Edna is from Brazil and has only been in the States a little over three years, so as we were driving out of Sacramento toward Reno, I asked her if she’d ever seen Lake Tahoe. She had not, so I turned off at the North Lake Tahoe exit and gave her a brief tour of the area which included lunch at the Gar Woods Restaurant situated right on the Lake. Beautiful setting, excellent dining, and well worth the time spent out of our way.

We rolled into Delta about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. My wife unfortunately had one of her rare bouts with dizziness which lasted for a couple of days, relegating her to bed while family and friends were stopping by to visit. She couldn’t even lift her head off the pillow, virtually causing her to be quarantined to the bedroom. You know she’s sick when she misses church on Sunday! By late Sunday afternoon, however, she was beginning to feel well enough to come downstairs and visit with her cousin, Hazel and husband Joe.

On Monday, Independence Day, we were to spend the afternoon and evening at cousin, Rick and Lorena’s for a big family reunion replete with Barbeque tri-tip, burgers, deviled-eggs, potato salad and all the other great food stuff you would expect to find for such a celebration. Their home is on a small lake just outside of town. They and their neighbors had purchased gobs of fireworks for later that evening. The town also had a fireworks display ready which we would be able to watch from where we sat on the lake. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. Huge dark clouds rolled in about 7:30 after everyone was comfortably arranging themselves for the impending fireworks performances. The power boats that had been pulling kids and adults around the lake all day had been secured; folks were still nibbling on various food items that had survived the initial onslaught of hungry family members; and everyone who had been in the water was now out and wrapped in big towels, snuggled down waiting for the fun to begin.

A ferocious wind storm blew in which also cooled everyone down to the point where Lorena grabbed a bunch of sweatshirts from the house and divvied them out to those who had not come prepared. One of the sayings about Delta is, “If you don’t like the weather right now, wait ten minutes and it will change!” At this point, folks started saying their goodbyes. Isaura and I did the same, arriving back at Tony and Edna’s just as the clouds opened up and dumped a lot of water, effectively ending much hope for fireworks displays that night.

On this trip I managed to get in two rounds of golf at a very nice course in Delta, called the Sunset View Golf Course. Sounds more like a retirement home, but it is a well-maintained 18-hole public course. However, it was hard to ignore the cloud of gnats that pestered you from start to finish. Also, any exposed flesh was a magnet for the mosquitoes, as well. But the weather was good and I was playing well, so all was right with the world!

Tomorrow Isaura and I will begin the long drive home, only this time we’re going to try heading south toward Las Vegas, then over to Bakersfield and up Highway 99 to our home in Ripon.

I can already see it – We get home and we’ll need a couple of days to rest from our vacation!