What are we doing in Lone Pine?

What we are doing in Lone Pine right now is sitting out our colds. They aren't terrible, and we know that we can be miserable here, or miserable going out and looking at things, so I think we'll head up to Bishop tomorrow. We've paid for a week at this park, and have no intention of giving up any already paid for time, so we'll make it a round trip.

We'll have to leave early so we can have breakfast at Jack's (Thanks to Russ and Donna for the tip). Then we'll probably head to Schat's bakery for some Sheepherders Bread (thanks again to Russ and Donna!).

Yesterday's blog included this picture of a marshmallow on fire.

That picture evoked this comment from Judy of Travels with Emma: "The secret to great marshmallows is never letting them catch on fire! :)" Now, Judy is a nice lady and all, and meant no harm I'm sure, but the two of us prefer to toast the marshmallow, then let it flame just a short moment, blow it out, and eat it. We don't bother with s'more any more. So here's the question for today: how do you prefer your marshallows? Nicely tanned, slightly flamed, burnt to a crisp? Do you still do s'mores?

Back to the question -- what are we doing in Lone Pine? Lone Pine is a way stop on our journey to some family adventures. Our first adventure will be in Minden, NV, just south of Carson City. Our younger daughter Kathie is graduating from college! She's already a grandmother, still has a 16 year old at home (in fact, today is Sam's 16th birthday -- happy driving!). Husband Shawn has been so good, making it possible for Kathie to do what she had to do to finish her schooling.

The second big adventure is to celebrate older daughter Deb's 50th birthday! She is putting together an event near Fiddletown, CA (gold country), and we're all gonna be there. It'll be a weekend in a VRBO. Yes, we wondered about that too. A VRBO is a Vacation Rental by Owner. Folks who own nice places they don't use all the time rent them out (after careful screening, I'm sure) to others who want a change of venue or a family get together.

Oooo oooo oooo! We just made a change. Suzy had to get a couple of prescriptions filled at the local pharmacy. The entire process, including the pharmacist's call to our own regular place, lasted maybe a half hour! Try that in a big city! Afterwards, we decided to take a trip up to Whitney Portal. This is the jumping off place for serious hikers heading to the peak or to other attractions in the area. Whitney portal is at 8000 feet (the town of Lone Pine is closer to 3700 feet), and the air was clean and pure and smelled like heaven!

Melting snow cascaded down the mountain. While the roads were cleared, there is still a lot of spring cleaning to do with downed trees, broken off branches, etc. We were looking forward to a visit to the little store and grill, but they won't open until Memorial Day weekend. Bummer!

Did we get some good pictures? Yeah, we did! Take a look at our new header, in case you missed it. Here are some others:


Flowers and Mt. Whitney



The Whitney Portal Road

 

Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine Campground



Suzy at Whitney Creek



Whitney Creek



Intrepid hikers camped near the snow level.



A friend.

 

Mt. Whitney from the road (Whitney is the peak visible through the depression on right.



Massive Sierra Nevada!

 

More Whitney Creek

If that's not enough to get your appetite whetted for seeing Mount Whitney, let us know -- we have more pictures from this day in  ... Our Life on Wheels!