Bassetts, CA and the Sierra Buttes

We were blessed to spend Friday and Saturday with supporters (George & Robin and Larry & Bonnie) who treated us to an overnight in Bassetts, CA. A two-hour drive north of Grass Valley up California's "Gold Rush Trail", Highway 49, Bassetts is a small village of cabins nestled about 5,300 feet up the High Sierra Mountains at the base of the Sierra Buttes in Sierra County. Geographically, it is a breathtaking region of California and the Buttes are a unique volcanic outcropping towering an additional 3,000 feet above Bassetts and the surrounding area. There are multiple lakes in the region in which to fish, float, kayak, mountain bike (MOUNTAIN bike) and just relax taking in the sun, the blue sky, and the mountain air.

While our stay in Bassett's was short, just 24 hours, we maximized our time, laughed, played games, talked, got caught up with each other after 4.5 years apart, hiked, explored, and ate well at the cabin under Bonnie (tacos filled with fresh fish they'd caught in Mexico) and Robin's (breakfast burritos loaded with eggs, sausage, and guacamole--we ARE in California, you know) tlc. Throw in several pots of Caroline's coffee, and wonderful malted shakes from the grill inside Bassett's Station, and we packed it in and packed it on with gusto.

No, we didn't make the hike to look-out tower at the summit, but we did drive to several of the lakes as well as the Butte Summit Trail Head where we took a short walk up the trail that leads to the tower.

It was a great day trip that begs a second, longer trip to the area at some point in the future. Thanks Carl (for the key to the cabin), and George, Robin, Larry, and Bonnie for making this trip possible and hosting us in such a wonderful fashion.

Here are a couple snapshots:

This is the creek just below our cabin. 

The summit of the Buttes is centered just above the trees.

Bonnie, Robin, Karen, me, and George. Larry was kind enough to take the picture!

 Karen on the trail to the summit.

 Karen enjoys the beauty of God's creation.

 This is as close as we came to the summit.

Lower Sardine Lake with the summit in the background.

We had wonderful weather, fellowship, and food and enjoyed scenery that stunned our senses.

Heading Into The Weekend

Photo Shoot
We had a great "shoot" with Sue and her assistant, Scarlet. I believe that Sue has the giftings to actually make us look good in a photo. Of course, the grounds at Empire Mine are a gorgeous setting for photography. Hopefully, Karen and I didn't detract too much from the setting...We'll get back together with Sue next week to look at the photos and make our selections.

Errands and the California Department of Forestry
Thursday we ran errands and took care of business in town. When we went to K-Mart, one of CDF's fire-bombers was circling a puff of smoke off toward Brunswick. The bombers have been flying a lot these past few days. Here are some snapshots I pulled from Google Image Files:

When we left K-Mart the bomber was gone as was the puff of smoke! Good work CDF!

Fingerprinted
While we were in town I was fingerprinted at Bank of America. We'd received a gift by check from one of our supporters and stopped in the local branch to cash it. As we didn't have an account there, bank policy required that I ink-up my right index finger and put my fingerprint on the front of the check. THAT was a first...

Bassetts, CA
This afternoon we're blessed to head up Highway 49 a few more miles for overnight fellowship up in Bassetts, with George & Robin, and Larry & Bonnie. We've never been there before but the photos we've seen of Sardine Lake look rather inspiring!

Lower Sardine Lake via Google Image Files.

Sunday Morning: Truth Seekers and Kindred Spirits
We'll be back in plenty of time to prepare for our Sunday morning opportunity to speak to the combined Truth Seekers and Kindred Spirits classes during Calvary Bible Church's first service and then to worship with everyone at second service.

Maybe we'll see you there?

Midweek Sunshine

Monday evening we met with Judy, our friend, former missionary to Africa, and member of Calvary's missions team. Between our service in Ohio and her service in Africa, we hadn't seen each other in eight years or so. We had a fun evening getting caught up, enjoyed her wonderful home cooking, and were blessed to share ideas about mission service, mission vision, and the realities of missionary service from our different perspectives.

Yesterday morning we met with two special saints, Jack (91) and Alice (88). They'd taken special interest in us after we married and it was such a joy to visit them in their home, hear about their adventures learning to operate their I-Pads, and to gain wisdom from their 68 years of marriage and faith.

Last night we reunited with long-time supporters Jeff and Susan for a BBQ under the tall pines that surround their house. After dinner we enjoyed time with their Bible study group. It was a privilege to sit-in and be included. We were warmly welcomed and blessed by the study and the fellowship. We plan to visit First Baptist next month.

This afternoon, we're off to Empire Mine State Park for a photo shoot with Sue, a photographer and friend. The mine is only about five minutes from here.

Bourn Mansion, Empire Mine

 Clubhouse, Empire Mine

 Workshop, Empire Mine

Sue and Stu have been part of our team since the early days. We hope to use Sue's work to update our "official" missionary portrait at Calvary and to provide options for some new prayer cards and/or bookmarks, magnets, T-shirts, coffee mugs, flags, hats, hand-towels, air fresheners, wanted posters....you know, all the "Keith & Karen" gear your heart desires. Be watching for our on-line store...(just kidding).

Roses and Spiritual Roots

We've greatly enjoyed the opportunity to relax the past few days, play tourist, and just resettle into the High Sierra Mountain reality. We've read, played cribbage (Karen leads two games to my one), taken (and continue to take) the time to talk about important things between us, and hiked a bit on nearby trails.

 Cribbage!

 I'm holding six points (toward the count) hoping to peg a point or two in the play.

 One of the several public hiking trails around Empire Mine State Park.

On Saturday we made the two hour drive up to Lake Tahoe to be part of the lakeside baptismal service and evening fellowship meal with our brothers and sisters from Calvary Bible Church who are enjoying a week of family camp at Sugar Pine Ridge State Park.

 A portion of Lake Tahoe.

This was Karen's and my first trip to Tahoe and it truly is as beautiful as the pictures. It was such a joy to witness the public profession of faith in Christ by the one man and four young ladies in anticipation of Christ's ultimate testimony before God in Heaven acknowledging each of these individuals as His own.

Sunday we worshiped at Calvary for the first time in 4 1/2 years. It was a sweet time of greeting, hugs, handshakes, smiles, and tears as our brothers and sisters welcomed us home after such a long time away. We look forward to continuing this reunion for five more weeks.

Calvary Bible Church, Grass Valley, CA

Today we started the focused effort to set appointments, confirm details, and arrange opportunities to share our ministry with MMS Aviation with anyone and everyone having ears to hear. We're currently booked every night this week, are already scheduling into next week and beyond, and are arranging daytime appointments as well. This coming Sunday we'll speak to combined Sunday School classes and look forward to seeing familiar faces, learning to recognize the new faces, and answering all the questions generated by God's work in our lives over the past few years.

At our borrowed "home" here, we continue to be blessed by the contemplative setting and quiet, semi-secluded location. Here are four snapshots of some of the roses we're privileged to enjoy (see, touch, and smell) within our gracious host's back yard garden.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that make this critically needed time of reunion and refreshment a reality for us. It is wonderful to be back in the mountains and back to my spiritual roots.

Cooler With Light Rain

Thursday started a little cooler, overcast, with light rain. Consequently we spent the morning working on the computer: I wrote for a while, handled MMS emails and checked the proof of the next GroundCrew newsletter. Karen working on hangar time logs, reworked the data base to make it easier to mine data, and worked up some hourly totals requested by MMS' Director of Maintenance.

Once the clouds passed and the sun rose above the pines, the grass dried out. With the grass dry, I was able to fulfill one of our house-sitting responsibilities which was to mow the yard as needed.

Here I am on the Husqvarna. Don't I look like a professional landscape artist?

Here I am in the visual context of the back yard.

We ran some errands in the afternoon and ended up at the Grass Valley Farmer's Market for the evening. It's a street fair with food, arts & crafts, local produce, and live entertainment. It was fun to be in the cultural mix again. If you wonder where all the hippies went...stop by Grass Valley for a visit. It's surprising they don't run "Hippie Country Tours" in Nevada County, CA like they run "Amish Country Tours" in Holmes County, OH.

Downtown Grass Valley

Lazy Dog Ice Cream & Karen

All natural, whole-wheat, veggie crepe: Karen

Polish Dog: Keith

One of the music venues

 The band played Celtic Rock

We finished the evening at home getting in another round of our Cribbage Marathon before calling it lights-out. Right now Karen and I are tied at one win each. We hope to play at least one round a day!

Denver Airport (Thumbs Up)
We made it to Denver without any complications and began our 3 1/2 hour layover. We actually like Denver's airport. It's still relatively modern, bright, roomy, and has lots of different shops, restaurants, and boutiques to explore. I'd rather spend 5 hours in Denver than 5 minutes in Detroit, but that's just one missionary's opinion. We spent hour 3.5 hours in Terminal B.

Heidi's Brooklyn Deli (Thumbs Up)
We ended up at a first gate, far, far at the end of B terminal in anticipation of our flight to Sacramento. Gate 90 was near Heidi's Brooklyn Deli. They offered a variety of fresh deli sandwiches, wraps, and several choices of breakfast fare to include burritos, sandwiches, and croissants with ham, bacon, or sausage. I went with the ham breakfast burrito. DUDE, ORDER THE BURRITO! The service was great, the food was fresh, and the burrito was LOADED with ham, home fried potatoes, eggs, and a mild but totally tasty sauce flavored with green and red peppers. I was so busy eating the burrito, I forgot to take a picture of it...I'd fly back through Denver just for the breakfast burrito.

Fights Delay Flights (Thumbs Down)

While I can't lay this totally at the feet of United Airlines, evidently long layovers, cancelled itineraries, disagreeable re-routings, and overbooked flights may have helped caused some consternation in one of our fellow travelers scheduled on the flight into Sac. It seems that just as we were getting ready to board the aircraft one gentleman took exception with another gentleman leading to blows being exchanged, the police being called, and boarding postponed until the situation could be sorted out between the individuals involved, the Police, United Airlines management, and the Captain of our aircraft.

Over my years of traveling by air, I've experienced flight delays due to: no aircraft, no pilots, no cabin crew, no open gates, snow, fog, bird strikes, mechanical failure, computer glitches, and a lack of tow hitches...but this is the first time (for me anyway) that a fight has delayed a flight.

Only one of the contestants made our flight.

United Airlines (Still Thumbs Down)

Yes, UAL did deliver us safely to Sacramento (even on time after the boxing bout) which might qualify as a "thumbs-up" regardless of all other considerations, but the reality of canceled and unilaterally re-scheduled and re-seated passengers did continue to play out on this flight as on the previous flight as family members negotiated with other passengers in order to sit next to each other.

Both flights were a confusing conglomerate of people and crew working out new seating arrangements inside the cabin as families that had purchased tickets together found themselves spread all over the airplane. It was hard on the crew and hard on the passengers. Then the video system had problems and the audio system didn't work for most passengers. We all had free headsets, they just weren't good for anything.The cabin crew didn't appear to be used to flying in the morning, or at least getting up in the morning, though the pilots themselves did a great job operating the aircraft.

Grass Valley, CA (Thumbs Up)

We're now settling in to life in Grass Valley, becoming acquainted with the wonderful home that we're blessed to house-sit for the next six weeks, and are appreciating summer without humidity. Karen and I are catching our breath and getting organized as we anticipate meeting with churches, friends, supporters, prayer partners we already know and look forward to meeting the new friends, supporters, and prayer partners God has yet to introduce us to.

Thanks for your prayers as this California adventure unfolds!

Heading To California: Thumbs Down

Greetings from the Comfort Suites Hotel at Port Columbus Airport (CMH), Columbus, OH. Karen and I are staying overnight in order to make an early morning departure tomorrow. We're flying into Sacramento via Denver.

United Air Lines (Thumbs Down)
Several months ago we purchased tickets on United Air Lines that had us departing Columbus at 10:30 AM with a non-stop return flight departing at 7:30 AM. Recently, United sent us a very friendly email saying they'd canceled the flights we'd purchased tickets for and had assisted us by booking us on other flights. How nice. We're now departing Columbus at 6 AM and our non-stop was replaced by a two stop flight leaving Sacramento at 5:30 AM.

Comfort Suites (Thumbs Down)
The hotel we've used before at CMH is closed so I made reservations at the Comfort Suites, just past the Hilton and Hampton Hotels all of which are only a half mile from the airport ticket counter. We checked in and the clerk directed us to carry our bags up the broad sweeping staircase to our second floor room. I asked, don't you have an elevator? And the clerk said, "No." End of discussion. No offer of help, no Bell Cap, no anything other than a "if you don't like it, lump it" attitude.

So I lugged six weeks' worth of luggage up to our room and literally had to kick the door like a cop on a drug bust to get it to swing open once the key had unlocked it. It seems the door has dropped out-of-square by over half an inch and they need to shave off even more of the upper right corner of the door than they already have.

No in-house restaurant of course, but they do have a call-out room service the details of which, once you read the fine print of the timing and cost, helps you quickly realize hotel management doesn't want you to eat here any more than they want you to sleep here.

So we used the toilet in our room and went to the only restaurant at the Airport (outside of the airport terminal), McDonald's. (Note: when we returned from McDonald's an hour later, the toilet in our room was still flushing.)

Also our door butts up to the main entry from our hallway into the hotel lobby so every time ANY of the guests in our wing of the hotel leaves or enters...We know it as the door slams closed.

McDonald's, Port Columbus Airport (Thumbs Down)
As the ONLY publicly accessible restaurant outside of the airport terminal we felt McDonald's would be a safe alternative to the Comfort Suite's "call out" room service.

No problem there until we sat down to eat our food. Karen's chicken snack-wrap had a portion of chicken the size of a rejected McNugget. My Ranch BLT with Grilled Chicken had a similar sized piece of meat in it. The entire chicken piece pulled out of the bun on my third bite and all I had left was 3/4 of a bun with wilted lettuce and a smashed tomato slice. The bacon strips tasted like fish.

There were two catchup dispensers in the restaurant, one of which was broken/empty and the other one was pumping its remaining last drops. The manager (he wore the tie) kept mopping the floor in front of the drink bar and main entrance making it rather risky to enter/leave the restaurant or to get the beverages/condiments/napkins required for a civilized meal. We each tried a McFlurry for dessert but the staff couldn't decide who was going to make them, then once they made them they couldn't find the caramel to finish them, and then they had to send someone to find the guy they sent to find the caramel.

There's a reason we've only eaten at McDonald's twice in our ten years of marriage.

At least our room at the hotel has a window facing the runway so I can watch the airplanes taking off...

Stay tuned. Lord willing, we'll be posting from Grass Valley, California tomorrow.

Now, where did we put the Tums?