September already

The view from the back of the speedboat

Paul at Yosemite
Yosemite Valley
Patrice and Paul at Lake Tahoe
Big trees

Today is Monday the 6th (Labor Day), the unofficial last day of summer. Officially there are about 2 weeks left, but the weather is saying Fall. I still have about 3 weeks left on my "Vow of Shorts" taken in Bakersfield California about the 15th of February.
Yesterday we were at Gail and Randy's for the Labor Day weekend BBQ. Must have been about 20 people there, and I had a couple of comments about the lack of blog postings. Apparently some people actually read this stuff! So, I will dilligently attempt to do a better job. If we start lagging again, blame Joyce!
We spent the last full week of August at Angels Camp California with Patrice and Paul. We had a good dose of summer there, as the temperature exceeded 100 degrees on 2 days (104 & 108), and the rest of the week was in the mid to upper 90's. But we returned to mid 60's, and that's where we're stuck. We had a great time on the trip. We put a little over 1000 miles on the rental car. We spent one day at Lake Tahoe, and one Day at Yosemite National Park, with the rest of the time poking around Calaveras County. We saw the Giant Sequoias and lots of neat little towns that sprung up just after the gold strike of 1849. We even rented a speedboat for a couple of hours one afternoon. We traveled a lot of roads that we had never been on before. The only disappointment on this trip was that the Ponderosa Ranch Tour no longer exists. We drove out there only to find that the ranch house is a private residence. I was looking forward to seeing the Hop Sing mannequin standing in the kitchen again. Everything is probably in a TV or Movie museum somewhere.
Tomorrow we are heading out on a short Motorhome trek to White Sulphur Springs Montana to visit with friends Tary and Wayne for a few days. There weather is about the same as ours, with highs in the mid 60's, and overnight lows in the low 40's. I've even got 2 pairs of jeans packed, along with several pairs of shorts. I'll definately need to bring a jacket along.
We will probably get home around the 15th-16th, which will give Joyce about a week to get ready for her trip (without me) to New York City with Patrice for an early birthday (Patrice's) girls getaway, for about 10 days. During that time I am hoping to get the new windows installed in the house and fire up the smoker a couple of times. I'm thinking it's about time to do a briskit again.
We are still looking at a 7 day Carribean cruise with Ron and Diane (Tulsa friends) on the 7th of November. It will be 2 years tomorrow that we met them on a similar cruise. I hope to get everything nailed down in the next couple of weeks.
Now that we are all caught up again, I will attempt to add a few pictures from the California trip.