California Dreaming Part Three

Otherwise known as the Wit and Wisdom of Three Merry Hikers...

My first day in California gave rise to a number of memorable bits of wit.

1.  Keep your pants on—let’s make that a theme for this vacation!—M.    

M.’s cousin S. regaled us with stories about losing his pants in Mexico. (He’s young— it’s most appropriate to leave the circumstances to the reader’s imagination.)  M. and I believe that keeping one’s pants on is the best way to keep our party drama-free.  J

2.  If the bathroom is not the exactly the way I want it to be, I’m going to be upset about it for the REST OF MY LIFE!—Cousin S. 

M. and I were quite amused by the melodrama of S.’s trials and tribulations as he works with a contractor to remodel his bathroom. 

    3.  You know what, M.?  Love is a battlefield.—Jen

We were listening to the radio as we drove to the cabin, and I heard the unmistakable opening to Pat Benatar’s iconic song.  At least, that’s what I thought.   Jen, can you hear what this song is?  Because Love is a Battlefield was already playing in my head, I couldn’t hear anything else, until it was so clear I could no longer remain my reverie.  And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson…  Yep.  Mrs. Robinson.  I felt ridiculous, M. laughed, and another memory was made.

    4.  Mokelumne.—Jen 

Mokelumne Hill is located between Sacramento and Arnold, where we’re staying.  Mokelumne is just fun to say, like Mna Mna.  I was punchy on our drive—I’d been up since 5:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and silly words like Mokelumne just begged to be repeated, voice deepened, syllables annunciated and drawn out:  Moooo-ke-lummmm-neeee!  (It made M., who was driving, a little bit nuts, so after I exhausted the word, I stopped.)

    5.  Put a geek in the forest and he’ll find the wifi.—Cousin S.

Cousin S. works in I.T.  As he drove to the cabin, he searched for wifi hot spots with his phone, essential as his friend J. was joining our merry little party on Sunday evening.  In our 21^st century constant connectedness, going off the grid makes coordinated rendezvous a bit… complicated. 

    6.  No SHEET!—M., Cousin S., and Jen

After arriving at the cabin, an adorable A-framed structure with a vaulted ceiling, wooden stove, outfitted in country kitsch, we looked for our sheets to make up the beds.  We searched every nook and cranny of the place.  There weren’t any sheets or towels to be found.  M. called and left a message with the friend whom she was renting the cabin from, then consulted the email which gave directions to the place.  In little teeny-tiny print, at the bottom of the page, stated:  Sheets and towels are not provided.  It was 5:00 on a Saturday evening, and we had no idea where to go to find home goods.  The three of us jumped in the car, drove into town.  As M. and Cousin S. went inside the store to look for food as well as the unlikely find of sheets and towels, I struck up a conversation with a woman outside the supermarket.  She told me there was a Wal-Mart about forty-five minutes away, in Sonora, and gave me directions.  I thanked her, hurried inside, and told my compadres that I had discovered the location of a relatively nearby big-box store.  We would have shopped locally—but the shops of Arnold do not carry textiles.  Curious.

Our drive to Sonora was thankfully uneventful.  The directions were easy to follow, Wal-mart was open, as was a nearby Safeway, where we completed our grocery shopping.  On the way back, we stopped at a bridge with the most amazing view.  The sun was setting, mountains going on for miles, river winding gently through the valley.  If the cabin had come with all of the necessary accoutrements, we most likely would have never seen this bit of beauty. 

In the end, even though we had planned on an easygoing evening at the cabin, our adventure (leading us to all kinds of happy accidents) was the stuff that vacations are made of.  It is in the inconveniences, and how we handle them, that true memories are made. 

         

Author’s note:  The author is chronicling her California vacation in a series of posts.  Since there is no wifi (or cellular connection of any kind) at the cabin, she is typing into Word, to be applied to the blog at the earliest 21^st century opportunity.  This post has been brought to you by the free wifi provided by the Gold Country Roasters a coffee shop located in the heart of Murphys, a quaint mountain village in Calaveras County.  The photo above was taken on that voyage home from Sonora. 

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