Veggie Voyagers

Couple travelled 30 states and 3 Canadian provinces between 7/07 and 5/08 running their 1987 Ford truck on straight veggie oil. The blog continues with a focus on the natural world and energy politics from a personal perspective

Monday, June 30, 2014

Boy toy Birthday

 The eve of my 67th birthday found us at the Roseville REI, marooned by a leak in a fuel line.. in the morning we made it up to Loon Lake on the edge of the Desolation Wilderness. We found a good spot by a campground boat launch to hang out for the next few days.
 Michael had done a lot of research on boats that would work well for us with some of the effects of aging and illness. He came up with a porta-bote, a foldable polypropylene boat that is very strong and stable and can carry an electric trolling motor. He built the simple but ingenious rack for it on the side of the VV and fashioned the dog cart to transport it.
We had good luck with the boat but the trolling motor battery didn't hold a charge well (or rather, the charger wouldn't fully charge either on our solar or on our neighbor RVer's generator) and so we had a nice long paddle with the feeble assist of the dying motor across a broad sweep of this beautiful lake the second day returning to the VV.
 I think it is ironic for me... hater of plastics and styrofoam-- to have this boat but it really does feel secure in choppy water and I like that.. putting that trolling motor on the canoe seemed very tippy.
 We love Loon Lake. We first went there with our friends Linda and Ann back in 2001 right after the tragedies of 9/11. That week helped us have some peace and distance from what the nation was experiencing. We've been back a number of times since. I think it is the most accessible large high mountain lake in the Sierra with the most interesting topography.. those great granite boulders and sloping granite slabs.
 I took many photos to get this one of this small elegant butterfly.
 On the fourth day we had to come home and naturally that was the hottest day... 104 degrees by the time we got down to the valley but first we had to have a flat and poor Michael, of course, changed it. The brakes tried to burn out coming down into the American River canyon south of Auburn and we had no air conditioning, of course. We stopped to swim at Stumpy Meadows Lake and again on the Sacramento River in Marysville.
We mostly forgot it was my birthday in any candle-fancy way but it was a precious time and I am very grateful to have achieved 67 years especially with my creative and hard-working spouse by my side.

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