Well that's one way to simplify

 

Well that was fun. Or not. I'm ok. The truck is not ok (at least we hope that's the insurance adjuster's opinion). I will forever be thankful for modern technology & engineering - the guardrail that didn't budge when a truck slammed into it at 55 mph & stopped me from going over the bridge, the truck built to absorb impact & decrease chance of injury, the air bags deploying like a gunshot & preventing my face from meeting the steering wheel, & the seat belt that harnessed me to the seat & stopped me from bouncing around like a rag doll.
To the three gentlemen camping down the hill that heard the crash, called it in, & stayed with me until HP showed up: thank you. To the gentleman that stopoed to make sure I was ok: thank you. To Kentz & Lindsey, for being there: thank you. Nothing I say or do will suffice in expressing my thanks & gratitude for all of you.

Lessons of the day: most trucks function in RWD when not in 4WD. And nothing is worth being in a hurry.

June camping trip

Escaping to the mountains is a supreme way to get the hell out of the heat (of which we've had an abundance this summer).  "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."  Ay-ay, el capitan.  We're outta here!

Steve working hard to cut firewood.  Me "working hard" to take pictures.  It's a rough life.

Pretty wildflowers!

We decided to make it a cushy camping trip & bring our air mattress.  What we forgot is a key piece for said air mattress...the inverter to plug into the vehicle cigarette lighter to turn on the electric pump to blow up the mattress.  Steve convinced me it would be ok to manually inflate the mattress.  I'm either passed out from emptying my lungs into the mattress or taking a nap.

 (An hour-and-a-half later, after switching back & forth, we successfully inflated the mattress.  Yay runners lungs.)

We're enrolling Brewer in modeling classes.  He's a natural.

Shell Falls

Porcupine Falls (200')

So long, summer

Old Man Winter is slowing showing his frozen face.  I'll be using this picture (one of our lovely & delicious homegrown maters) to pull myself out of the winter blues.  Where's my blanket, it's time to hibernate!

Mother Nature, you are such a tease

So much for 60+ degrees & warm sun-kissed skin.  Mother Nature, I bet dollars to donuts you are responsible for 90% of psychological cases.

Forecast

View Calendar5-Day Forecast for 82801

Monday, 11

65 | 34 °F

Partly Cloudy

Chance of
Precipitation

0%

Tuesday, 12

49 | 31 °F

Chance Rain

Chance of
Precipitation

48%

Wednesday, 13

52 | 31 °F

Partly Cloudy

Chance of
Precipitation

19%

Thursday, 14

45 | 27 °F

Snow Showers

Chance of
Precipitation

58%

Friday, 15 

47 | 29 °F

Chance of Rain

Chance of
Precipitation

21%

Source: NWS at 3:07 PM MDT on April 11, 2011

Regional Forecast for Sheridan Foothills

Just call me Sweaty Meatball

To put it simply, today's weather was insanely perfect.  Temps reached 62 degrees by noon & the sky was clear blue but for a few simple, wistful, lazy clouds.  Just warm enough to be in short sleeves, not so warm to cause immediate sweat gland action.  (Or maybe I'm the only one who has to worry about sweating - my nickname as a child was, after all, Sweaty Meatball)

Needless to say, it's obvious the entire town of Sheridan is desperate for comfortably warm days.  Out for a run after work, I saw more than a dozen people walking, running, & biking the sidewalks & bike paths.  Sadly, to see more than a dozen people doing some sort of physical activity around town is an anomaly.  Usually it's two.  And those two would be Steve & me.  Despite heavy lids from a restless night, stiff legs, & a sore left ankle, my run was wonderfully fabulous, simply for the fact that the sun shone bright & I was sweating profusely.  The last time I sweat profusely during a run was when it was 20 degrees outside, freezing rain was falling, & I was on the dreadmill at the gym.  It's the little things, people.

Weather Station

Sheridan

Elevation

3828 ft

Station Select

Now

Clear

Temperature

67.1 °F

Feels Like 67.3 °F

Wind(mph)

0.0

Sunrise / Set

6:30 AM

7:47 PM

Moon

First Quarter

More Astronomy

Napa Valley, Part 3

I wholly admit...we did a horrible job taking pictures on our vacation.  The rain really put a damper on the desire to hop out of the car & take pictures in front of every winery we visited.  So the rest will have to do...

Our third & fourth night were spent at Mountain Home Ranch.  Trip Advisor, HUGE fail.  Sure, Mountain Home Ranch is quiet & peaceful, but for the money we spent on one of their "nice" cabins, we were sorely disappointed.  The cabins are piecemeal & not the comfortable experience we were picturing.  The proprietors are very nice & cooked us a wonderful breakfast our last morning, but we don't plan to return in future visits.

 Shane, Krystle, & Steve standing in front of the lone wall heater.  I'm pretty sure the heater is vintage 1960's & hadn't been cleaned since installation.  Burning dust was a common smell.

 More rain!

 The Napa Valley Wine Train looked like it might be a fun splurge.

 Many places in Napa Valley have the stamp of approval from Guy Fieri of Diner's, Drive-In's, & Dive's.  We  ate at Putah Creek Cafe & Gott's Roadside Diner, both apparently featured on the show (unknowing to us before we ate at above-mentioned places).

 They had amazing garlic & parsley french fries.

 Our hippy cabin from the front.  What's that...SUN??  Our last day in Napa Valley & the sun came out.

 Look closely at the picture & you'll see airplane propellers.  The propellers are commonly used as fans above the vineyards - when a frost is forecasted, the "fans" are turned on & can move enough air to prevent the frost from settling on the grapes.

 SUNSUNSUNSUNSUNSUN

 Oh look, you can see colors other than gray!

 Common opulence in Napa Valley.

 Not sure what's going on here but the trees just looked cool.

 Another version of the "fan."

Robert Mondavi Winery.  No, we didn't go there.  When you see tour buses in winery parking lots, you lose interest.

Napa Valley, Part 2

Our first two nights in Napa were spent at the Calistoga Inn & Brewery.  It's more similar to a hostel than an inn (mainly, shared bathrooms).  However, it was well-priced, had a brewery on location (yes!), & rooms were spacious & clean.  The town of Calistoga turned out to be our favorite town in Napa - it was much quieter & laid-back than Napa, Rutherford, St. Helena...  If you're bothered by music late into the night, don't stay at the Calistoga Inn - they regularly have a DJ or live music in their bar, which is below all the rooms.  Their beers were delicious & the food was amazing (my first glimpse of what I consider Napa's finest feature - FOOD!).  With all the rain, we lacked the gumption to take pictures & thus did not manage to get one picture of our room.  Fail.

 We did, however, manage to snap a picture of our first night's dessert - a local wine & a super yummy peanut butter pie from the Calistoga Inn's restaurant.  The wine we found at Wine Garage, a place we knew we had to visit.  They proved to be a great wine store of friendly, knowledgeable, & NOT fancy shmancy stuck-up wine snobs.

 The next day, we made a trip to Milat, upon recommendation from the 'rents.  A family-owned vineyard, we met one of the owner's, Mike.  Very interesting guy.  Certainly not your Napa "standard" - in fact, he steered us away from the "yuppie restaurants" (his own words) & to the more local, less touristy, food places.

 Stunning California Poppies sent against the gray/green background

 Olive oil is another big venture in Napa Valley & I almost jumped out of the car when we drove by this place.  Olive oil tastings??  You betcha!  I convinced Steve to stop & check it out - we thoroughly enjoyed the incredibly variety of oils & flavors, but couldn't decide on one particular oil (& were slightly swayed with the $42 price tag for a small bottle).

RACE DAY!  It rained.  And there was lots of mud.  I lost my drive & ended up running only the half-marathon while Steve toughed it out to complete the full.

As we were trying to leave the park, a family was standing in the middle of the road, trying to take pictures.  Many of the adults in the family had completed the race; they obviously didn't care about time or the weather - they were just so proud of each other & enjoying their time together (seriously, I think there were 15-20 family members).  Needless to say, when they saw us waiting for them to move, the family member trying to take the picture came running over to our car & said "since you're waiting, would you mind...?"  We hopped out, took their picture, & in return, requested they snap our photo too.

Napa Valley, Part 1

If someone asked me to compare Napa Valley to Willamette Valley, my answer would be "Willamette Valley is Napa Valley circa 1978."  Willamette Valley is mom-and-pop wineries, where the person running the tasting room is also the vintner & the owner.  Sure, they have their fair share of big name places - Domaine Serene, Sokol Blosser, Archery Summit - but Willamette Valley is laid-back, peaceful, friendly.  Napa Valley is big money, tour buses, expensive tastings, & crowds - Sutter Home, Robert Mondavi, Silver Oak.  NOT to say it's not beautiful & filled with extraordinary wine & food.  But personally, Oregon is more our speed, while California is more the speed of the bored & wealthy.  (It probably doesn't help that Steve & I are more Pinot Noir fans - Willamette Valley is Pinot Noir country, Napa Valley is Cabernet Sauvignon country)

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip & can now say we've traveled to a new place we've never been or experienced; traveling is a must in a rich & fulfilling life (in my humble opinion), so I'm always happy to see new places.  Napa Valley vacation = success.  On a side note, a friend & I were discussing domestic traveling.  It's often easy to overlook travel within the United States as worthwhile, but it's necessary to have a combination of international v. domestic travel.  Traveling abroad is amazing but it can also be a lot of prep & sometime stress (new language, different culture & lifestyle).  Obviously worthwhile.  Domestic travel, however, is often easy to prep & make happen (not to mention cheaper).

Moving on to pictures...

 The cheap motel we chose the night before flying out of Billings in the early a.m.  Cheap, free shuttle & parking?  Yes please.  Apparently it hasn't been updated since 1962.  I had to snap a (horribly blurred) picture of the amazing mustard-yellow bathroom.  Someone somewhere thought these colors were all the rage?  Ouch.

 Attempt at self-portrait.  Notice Steve's overly happy face & my pinched nose.  He claims he saw an elephant run under the bed shortly after letting out a big stinky one.

 Smell has passed.  I do not, however, know what is going on with our hair (maybe we're going for the Crested BobWhite look).

We made it to California!

Driving the scenic route from Sacramento to Napa Valley.  Notice the gray sky?  It stayed that same color four days straight.

 The Monticello Dam.

 Best part of the dam is the spillway (affectionately known as the Glory Hole)!  See here.  I was sure with all the rain that water would be gushing into the spillway; no such luck.  It was still pretty cool to see.

 This particular spillway is from Lake Hennessy.  We weren't intending to stop but the enormous splash of water had all the motorists stopping for pictures.  I found a video of the spillway in action, splashing about the same amount that we saw.  It was incredible!