Our RV Adventures

My great-niece Stahlie Calvin posted this news on Facebook.

My Uncle Theo Calvin is being awarded the French Legion of Honor from the Consul General of France. He’s also received several awards that were lost in the shuffle after the war.

The Legion of Honor is France’s most distinguished decoration and is bestowed for acts of bravery during the fight for the liberation of France during World War II.

Theo landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6th, 1944, and fought his way across France.

Here he is with my Aunt Virginia in the summer of 1949 in front of their house in Athens, AL.

Oh, and that’s me he’s holding.

And here he is in 2006.

The Consul General is presenting the award to three other veterans at the same time. You can read more about it here.

http://athensplus.com/VeteransReceiveLegionofHonorAward2012.htm

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Jan and I headed out for an early lunch. We figured if we got there early enough we could beat the crowd at Jimmy Changa’s, the new Mexican restaurant we ate at a week or so ago. And we were right. We got there about 11:30 and got seated right away, but by the time we left about an hour later they were on a 45 minute wait.

Jan had the Ground Beef Taco Salad and I had the Mexican Caldo Soup again. Jan said the Taco Salad was delicious, the ground beef very well seasoned.

Leaving the restaurant, we checked out several feed stores and hardware stores in the area looking for deer corn. Jan uses the deer corn to feed the many ducks in the area. But deer season has ended since we last bought any, and so it’s getting hard to find. We’ve got a couple of more places to check before we give up.

Our last stop was at our son Chris’ to see if I could fix a couple of problems with his and Linda’s laptop. Turned out deleting and reloading the printer driver fixed the problem.

We finally got home about 4:30 after another nice, but cold, wet day. And it looks the same for the next several days.

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Thought for the Day:

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the Body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind . . . Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." – Thomas Jefferson

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Well, today was even more boring than yesterday, at least for you readers.

I hadn’t actually planned to go anywhere today, at least until dinner. But I was halfway expecting a call from the client that I just finished setting up her new computer with a new OS and a new version of MS Office (2010). She and her husband spent the last month out in San Diego and just got back yesterday afternoon. So I was betting with myself whether she would make it through the weekend without having to call me.

Well, I lost (won?). She got on the new computer about 11:30 this morning and was on the phone to me at noon. So I ended up going up to her house for a while to get her straightened out, and while I was there, I talked to her husband about what he was looking for in the new computer that I’ll be getting him in the next month.

By the time I got back home it was almost 4pm so Jan and I headed out to Chili’s for dinner, and then right down the road for a Wal-Mart visit.

And that was about it for the day.

Like I said . . . BORING!

So following in the footsteps of recent blog reposts of snow, big trees, and great scenery, here’s our first visit to Yosemite National Park in 2010.

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Thought for the Day:

For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else. – Sir Winston Churchill

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Oh WOW !!!!

Originally posted on April 29, 2010

We left the rig about 9:15 am heading out to see Yosemite National Park. As we got closer to Oakhurst, the 2nd town over, we started to see a lot of snow on the mountains that wasn’t there yesterday.

After stopping for gas in Oakhurst, we headed north about 5 miles and entered the Sierra National Forest, which borders Yosemite. Along the way we encountered more and more snow, which gave us some incredible views.

Another 10 miles later we entered Yosemite National Park at the Ranger Station. Because of the heavy snow last night (between 6 and 12 inches) we were told we that we needed either chains or a 4 wheel drive vehicle with snow tires to enter the Park. We had the 4 wheel drive, but no snow tires, but lucky for us they didn’t really check, so we got in. As it turned out, the roads were pretty clear and we never needed it.

We did see several snow plows during our drive so I guess they did a good job. But the higher we climbed the more snow we saw. We finally topped out about 6500 feet, with snow covering everything but the road. And the views were spectacular.

After a lot of hairpin turns we came to the area known as Tunnel View, which of course involves a tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel there was a large viewing area looking out over the valley, including BridalVeil Fall. Yes, for some reason it’s called Fall, not Falls.

As we got closer, the Fall got more and more impressive.

We stopped at the Fall viewing area and walked up the 1000 foot trail to the base of the fall. With all the spray in the air, it was almost like it was raining.

Then it was on to Yosemite Village, which is the turnaround point for the trip, with more great scenery along the way.

As we got close to the Village, we saw the other big waterfall in the park, Yosemite Falls. Yes, this one is called Falls, not Fall. Don’t asked me why.

After buying some souvenirs at the Yosemite Store, we stopped and had a bad lunch at the Lodge. The best part was the cookie we had for dessert.

We also saw a lot of Sequoias in the Park. For some reason I always thought that Sequoias and Redwoods were the same tree, but they’re not. It turns out that Redwoods are only found in northern coastal California up near the Oregon border.

Coming home, we started seeing first rain, then sleet, and finally, sleet, hail,and snow, all mixed together.

We got home about 3:30 pm, glad to be back where it was warm and dry.

More tomorrow…

Late Update:

Tonight on CSI they investigated a murder they thought was done at a shooting range. Although the name was different, the store they used was the one where Jan did her machine gun shooting when we were in Las Vegas earlier this year.

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