Almanor Diary, Day 5--Wednesday, July 30, 2003

After sleeping in on Wednesday morning, I spent most of the morning helping Sharon put together billing statements and correspondence for her law practice. In the rush to get organized and out of the door at the end of last week a few things were left undone. We had been talking for a couple of weeks about how to provide Sharon with internet access so she could do some work while we were at Almanor for the week. I played around with some cellular solutions, but never found any options that would support a PC internet connection while we were at the lake. I said something to Cheryl on Wednesday morning about going into Chester to try and make and internet connection and she offerred us the use of the fax line in the office. I reconfigured her laptop to use a Pac Bell Internet account that I keep as a back-up and we were able to send and receive mail using the Dorado Inn's fax line.

After lunch, we took off for the Bailey Creek Golf Course. Hunter, Jill Wallen, Sharon and I played in one foursome, while Robby and Danny Hunter, Chris Tomasin and Nathan Wallen were in the other foursome. After the three days of great weather, the weather changed on Wednesday afternoon. As we pulled in the parking lot at the golf course, a series of thunderstorms started to move over the lake.

Sharon and I only played the front nine. I was very happy with the way that I played. I had a par on a long par five that has destoryed me in the past (>10). Coming up to the ninth tee, I thought I had a chance to shoot a 48 on the front nine which would be a very good score for me. The wheels came off on the very easy ninth hole; I hit into a fairway bunker, shot an 8 and ended up with a 50 on the front nine.

We got a few drops of rain while we were playing and watched some impressive lightning displays to the south of us over the Lake. Jack rode in the cart with Sharon and I. He has taken some golf lessons and has a set of clubs. He hit a few tee shots and putted on a couple of greens. His favorite part was raking the sand traps. He started cheering at one point when point when Jill hit into a sand trap! Once the lightning started, he mostly stayed in the cart and insisted that we end back to the cabins.

The adults went to Plumas Pines for dinner. We loaded up the Hunter and Wallen boats and headed across the lake.


The after dinner excitement was that shortly after we turned the lights on in the Wallens boat the temperature gauge showed the engine was overheating. Through trial and error, we realized that if we left the running lights off the engine temperature stayed normal. We ended up heading back across the lake running dark; there is really no boat traffic on the lake at night so it was not a major problem. Although we ended up about a half mile north of the Dorado Inn, we made it back uneventfully, albeit slowly.

I have always loved being on the lake in the middle of the night without a moon. It is one of the few places where we go that you can see the milky way; it is a very cool sight.