Mikey~These are for you!!!

Icicles on the houses and a horse trailer in a little community above Bishop, CA. Their park was completely covered with snow!!! These are for you, Mikey~I'll post more in the next few days!

Our trip yesterday

We got as far as above Crowley Lake, which is on Highway 395, about 24 miles above Bishop. Then, the road just was too icy. Either chains or 4-wheel drive were required and we didn't have either, so we turned around. No sense in taking chances, especially in late afternoon. Many, many cars had been buried in the snow overnight and they were covered with snow and icicles yesterday. We even had mud icicles hanging on our car! We saw several CALTRANS snow plows go by us on 395 and we are hoping that by today, the road will be passable to Mammoth. That seems to be where the majority of the snow laden cars were coming from! Anyway, here are some pics from yesterday.

Sierras in the early morning

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning (DUH...). But, I'm glad I did. When I peeked out our hotel window, the moon and Venus were out and the sky was perfectly clear. I grabbed my little Canon, since in low light, it does much better than my Nikon, and headed out behind the hotel. Then the sun came up behind the White Mountains and landed on the Sierras. Oh, my! I ran across the highway to shoot some photos of the sunlight hitting the tops of the Sierras. The snow on them was being blown off by high winds and it was a pretty amazing sight! I was so busy snapping photos, I realized that now I needed the Nikon, so I ran back to the hotel, grabbed it, and snapped more pics. Then I realized that hubby should see this too, so I ran back and shouted, "WAKE UP! This is a postcard moment!" and he stumbled out of bed and grabbed his camera, too. There were about half a dozen other photography nuts (like us) out taking photos. Here are a few from early this morning, about 7:00 a.m. I took the top photo on my normal lens setting, then zoomed in for the others.

Why I LOVE the Sierras...

What can I say? The photos say it all. Actually, however, I will say that at every opportunity we have, hubby and I are off to the Sierras! We LOVE them...from Lone Pine all the way to Bridgeport. This afternoon the clouds were falling right off the peaks and it was snowing at various spots. There's something very rugged about them. These photos were shot at the Whitney Portal road. We drove up past the campgrounds there and snow was already on the ground and the wind was blowing and it was COLD!!! In fact, I shot these from inside the XTerra. It's supposed to be 18 degrees tonight in Lone Pine. Brrrrrr!!! Hopefully tomorrow the storm will have blown out and it will be clear.

NEW CAR!!!

Yup. An X-Terra (Nissan). We drove to the dealer in Riverside, CA because they were the only one within 65 miles who still had a 2010 Nissan Titan. Turns out, they didn't...it was a 4x4 Frontier. I could tell by hubby's face that he really DIDN'T want a pickup...so he asked the salesman about a 2010 XTerra. They had one left...white with gray interior. Hubby fell in love with it and since he's financing it, I agreed. I had a pickup once, in 1986, a little Nissan 4 cylinder that lasted for 17 years and nearly 200,000 miles! We gave it to our son who sold it to some gardeners and then he bought the Toyota RAV, which was used then. Believe me, I went EVERYWHERE with that little pickup (manual transmission). The muffler gave out, the rear went out, but the clutch held up, andI loved that car until the very end! ...sniff, sniff! I could tell hubby really loved the XTerra and it will take us where we want to go. We don't really want to go off-roading over rocks and boulders, but we DO want to go off on dirt roads to take photos and this will get us there. PLUS, it rides very quietly and smoothly, and at our ages, do we really want to be bumping up and down in a truck??? Hubby drove it home last night and I drove home my CRV. I LOVE my CRV, but she has 80,000 miles in 2 1/2 years, so I need to give her a rest. We'll be heading out to the Sierras this week for a few days with the XTerra. A storm is heading in Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, so there may be fresh snow up there! I'll be posting photos as we go. Can't wait to see the Sierras this time of year! Vrrrroooommmm, vrrooommm!

The RAV is kaput! Looking for a new car or TRUCK~

Well, bad news...the Toyota RAV is kaput. It needs a new clutch, new suspension, and we can't get it smogged. No, it isn't the catalytic converter and the mechanic says we need to take it to a dealer so that they could run a $700 test to see what's wrong, since he can't further diagnose it. So, hubby is out looking for a new car. He likes the Nissan XTerra or the Titan. I've been wanting a pickup for a LONG time, so I think we'll go try out a Titan today. There are some incentives now (before January 3rd) and he needs a car or truck to drive to work. His schedule is different from mine. Sometimes he doesn't go into work until 10:00 a.m. and then works until 7:00 p.m. Other days, he goes in a 7:00 a.m. (when I could drop him off) and works until 4:00 p.m. BUT, his schedule is so erratic, it would be hard to coordinate! Believe me, we've done it before and it isn't easy! I LOVE my CRV and she takes me everywhere, BUT, she isn't even three years old yet and has 80,000 miles! ACK! That's a LOT. I figure I put on 1,000 miles a month just to and from school. And, driving up the mountain on weekends, that's another 300 miles x 4x a month= another 1,200 miles. PLUS, driving around town, to and from our kids' houses...another 500 miles. While the Titan doesn't get the gasoline mileage as my CRV, it IS a V-8 engine and I could carry around horse stuff. And, the kids are always wanting to borrow a truck from one of their friends or relatives! So, off we go to check out trucks today...any suggestions? Oh, we are limited to $22,000, so that eliminates some of the Chevys. We like the Crew cab because we need room for all our camera equipment and stuff! We DO want to travel on side roads and forest roads, but don't necessarily need a 4-wheel drive. What are your truck experiences? I've added a poll on the left sidebar.

Quiet day today and more rain coming!

After the chaos of the last two days, today is a quiet, relaxing, restful one. Another storm is moving in and it is dark and dreary today. I don't feel like doing anything but staying indoors and watching movies on TV. The dogs are content to lie around us. One of them always seems to plunk down right on my feet! We had a lot of family time yesterday and I see that our daughter is already out doing her "after Christmas" shopping! I need to run out and buy dog food (I'm completely out!) and a few cleaning items from TARGET, if the crowds aren't too bad there! I'd rather be up in the mountains, but, after my bronchitis, I'm finding that I'm still very weak and I don't have much energy! I only have another week to get over it and then I head back to school. YUCK! Hubby and I may go see "True Grit" this afternoon. Actually, hubby gave me the book for Christmas and I'm LOVING it! I'll probably finish the book before we go see the movie!!!