"Moving Van" and "Otto Parts" - Part Two of Two

In the spring of 2007 I got reacquainted with Van and have been meeting regularly for lunch and/or coffee and talking occasionally on the phone. He is now married and has four kids.

Van was going on a back packing trip with his oldest son and wanted to get in some hiking before the trip. He called me and said he was interested in hiking part way up Mt Si and would I like to join him, the plan was to go to the 2.5 or 3.0 mile marker. The total Mt Si hike is four miles with a 3,100 foot elevation gain. I invited my 6, 7, 8 and 9 year nephews and niece to join us.

When we started up the hill the goal was to only go part way, but the competitive spirit got the best of us. Our goal soon became to make it to the top. Van took the lead and I was the sweeper.

Trying to keep the children between us was a chore. One kid at a time would fall back and start whining. By the time we got to the top three of the four had taken their turn complaining. After three hours we made it to the top. When they got to the top they all forgot all their troubles and had tons of energy.

On the way down I made the mistake of not telling them that we all have to stay within sight of each other. One of the boys decided he was going to be the first one to the car and took off, the rest of us couldn't keep up with him.

I finally had the oldest boy carry my pack and I took off after the run away. I was worried for his safety and keeping my uncle responsibility. I soon learned that I am not as fast or agile as I used to be. My goal was to catch him and tell him a few things and maybe a spanking. Hikers coming up were yelling at him to stop and then yelling at me for letting him get away.

I didn't have to worry about spanking him for the ground did the work for me. He ran around a couple and fell. When I arrived the couple had stayed near him. We washed off the dirt and put bandages on the knee wounds. He then stayed very close to the rest of us.

At the end of the hike, at the trail head we took the pictures below, (sorry for the picture quality, they were taken on my cell phone). The "run away nephews" didn't want to get into the picture. When he later walked by the same sign I snapped his picture.

Van, two nephews, myself, and niece.

Copy of another Blogger's Post - Sex

Today I read a blog post by "Llama Momma" at
http://llamamomma.blogspot.com/

I decided it needed to be seen by others.

"Monday, September 8, 2008
the one where I talk about sex
Cameras were everywhere on that first day of school. Parents hovered like the paparazzi, snapping photos and waving. And when the kids went in, the crowd dissolved into a mixture of tears and happy dances. (I was one of the Moms doing a happy dance, by the way.)

As we walked home, I chatted with neighbor, who had taken the day off work to commemorate the day. Her husband is a stay-at-home Dad.“What will you do with your day?” I asked. Both of her kids were in school all day for the first time.“Oh, I don’t know,” she said.

“You can go to lunch! You can take a nap! You can have loud sex during the day!” I joked.“Now why would we want to do that?” She asked, as if I had suggested pulling her toenails out one at a time.

To keep romance alive. Because your husband looks good to a lot of bored housewives on this playground. Because you can. I think all of these things as we part ways.In our sex-saturated culture, it seems that married sex is an oxymoron.

Chrysalis is hosting a conversation today on Marriage and Romance.

After eleven years of marriage, I’ve got a few things to say about romance and how it evolves and changes over the years, especially when children come along. But I’ll keep my advice short and sweet: one way to keep romance alive in your marriage is to have more sex.(This is the part of my blog where I try to forget that my dad reads it. And my grandpa.)

But really. Next time your husband winks at you across the dinner table, don’t roll your eyes. Wink back. Marriage is not meant to be a miserable endeavor. Flirt. Have fun. Have sex. And see if the romance meter in your home rises."

"Moving Van" and "Otto Parts" - Part One of Two

In 1989, oh so long ago, I went on a road trip with a friend Van. I knew him from a Church singles group, he is now married and has four kids. Our first Stop was Crater Lake, Oregon.

Then Reno .

Then around Lake Tahoe.

We saw the Ghost town of Bodie, CA.

On the Fourth of July we ended up in the little town of Lee Vining (population 488). This town is sandwiched between Mono Lake and the east entrance to Yosemite National Park (see map above). This town has only two roads, Highway 395 and a parallel, two block long, residential street.

On the fifth of July we would be going through Yosemite and then on to my relatives in San Jose, while Van visited a friend of ours that worked at Mt Hermon Christian Conference Center near Santa Cruz, CA.

The whole reason I am telling you this travel log is this holiday afternoon we had time to kill. We decided to throw a Frisbee to each other on this small towns residential street.

We were throwing it back and forth to each other, neither of us knew how to do fancy throws or catches. and having an OK time. It was kind of hard for I thought, "everyone else back home is celebrating this holiday with picnics while we were filling our time throwing a Frisbee in a rural town in east central California.

Four small local boys, aged 5, 4, 3 & 2, were watching what were doing and somehow what we were doing appeared to be more interesting than what they were doing. Finally the five year old, Jose, asked if we would throw it to them.

None of them had ever thrown a Frisbee before and we began attempting to teach them. We would say "Jose throw it to Roberto", or "Julian throw it to Juan", etc.

They had a lot of trouble with this new toy, their past ball throwing motions made this disc throwing action difficult. Actually the two year old, Juan, was the best thrower.

We threw the Frisbee around with them for a about a half hour when Jose asked us what our names were. I responded, "This is Van and my name is Otto". They started laughing so hard that they couldn't remain standing. They rolled around in the street laughing so hard that they couldn't control their tears. They decided to call us Moving Van and Otto Parts.

We finally got back to throwing the Frisbee and they had the greatest time saying, "Roberto, throw it to Moving Van", "Otto Parts throw it to Julian", "Moving Van throw it to Juan" or "Jose throw it to Otto Parts". They would all laugh every time they tossed the Frisbee.

Our hands were getting worn out from this throwing motion, our fingers were red, puffy and sore. We didn't care for it was so amazing for us to interact with these kids that couldn't stop laughing and giggling. Both Van and I had smiles on our faces as we threw the Frisbee around.

All good things must come to an end and finally their parents came out and told them they were going to be going into the big city of Bridgeport to watch the fireworks that evening. As they drove off they yelled out the windows, "Good bye Moving Van and Otto Parts".

We were disappointed that the boys had to leave, it was no longer fun just throwing between the two of us. We soon ended our game.

We had a wonderful trip but what we most remember was the Frisbee tosses with the four kids in Lee Vining that called us "Moving Van" and "Otto Parts".

Mailbox Peak - Labor Day Hike

A hiking group that I am involved in had a hike planned for labor day to climb Mailbox Peak, about forty five miles east of my home. The posting for the hike said this:

'Says Ira Spring about the hike to Mailbox Peak: "The trail is rough and varies from steep to very steep to awful steep.'

Here is a good article that describes this hike: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2008016454_nwwmailboxpeak260.html
Here are the hike details:
Distance: 6.0 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 4000 feet
Hiking Time: 5 hours
Difficulty: Most difficult"

In addition the Washington Trail Association had this to say about this hike:
"Mailbox Peak is not typically the sort of hike that is chosen for the casual hiker's easy outing. The summit, which has an actual mailbox at the top, is reached by a rugged trail that climbs three miles and gains over 4,000 feet, sometimes at a grade as steep as 40 percent.The steep, rugged character of the trail makes it one of the most difficult hikes in the I-90 corridor. Mountain climbers, local hikers and even firefighters have lugged heavy packs up and down for conditioning for decades."

I (Otto) was tentative in attempting this hike. On Sunday I talked with someone who had done it before and my competitive drive kicked in, "If Suzi can do it, I can do it".

Not knowing for sure if I was going to go, I did not drink a lot of water the night before or the morning of.

As I drove to the carpool location I thought "what am I doing". Fortunately the first 1/4 mile is pretty gradual. As I walked this initial part, it gave me that feeling you have when you are going up a roller coaster, with the unknown ahead.

Then the true climbing began, I was the slowest of the crew. The others would kindly take multiple breaks to let me catch up. I soon started quoting the Lord's Prayer to keep myself going. Each step was a huge effort.

I brought along adequate water but consumed it quicker than expected and had to borrow from others, (thanks Rick and Bob). After nine previous hikes this summer I felt I should be able to make this, with only minor difficulty, boy was I wrong.

We finally made it to the top.

Rick took picture



(Bob, Liz, Vic, Eric, Linda, Jonathan, Sara, Mark, Suzi, Nancy and Rick) Otto took picture

It took us two and a half hours to get to the top, and then stayed a half hour for lunch.

I am thinking maybe an hour to get down. To come down I was advised to tighten my boots so my heel was held to the back of my sboot and my toes wouldn't ram into the front. I bent down to tie the left boot, having no problem. In attempting to tie the right boot I slowly fell over. I felt like the Arte Johnson Laugh-In tricycle skit.

On the way down, stepping down rocks and then tree roots was very cumbersome. I learned that "Roots Are Not My friend", the second you touch one your boots become like skate boards. It took us two hours to descend.

Once at the bottom my legs felt like rubber, and they were very sore. That evening my legs became almost useless.

The next day it was hard to keep my balance, my thighs were painful and walking down a hill or stairs sent pain alarms to my brain. Three days later I am finally able to walk without a lot of discomfort.

It will be a while before I do this hike again.