Almanor 2005 Day 8

The week at Almanor always seems to go slow at first and then it is over. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday seem to stretch on forever, but then the next thing you know it is Saturday morning and time to pack up and leave.

We had an excellent group this year. The Hunters, Wallens, Tomasins and Wallen's brother Bob were in the four two bedroom cabins, while the Snipes and the Heringers were in the two one bedroom cabins. I particularly glad to see the Snipes back for the week after a couple of year absence.

After living in the cabin with five people for a week, it took me most of the morning to get the dishes done, everything packed and loaded into the truck. Since Sharon had left late Wednesday to come back and work on a lease and the big kids slept half the morning away, most of this work fell to me. By the time all of the boats were out of the water, the group photos were done and we said our good byes, it was after 12:00 p.m.

Traditionally, the groups heading south make the run into Chico on Highway 32 and then stop for lunch at the Graduate. I followed Tomasin down the canyon and we got to the Graduate about 1:30 p.m. We were back on the road a little about 2:45 p.m. and pulled into the Elk Grove shortly before 4:30 p.m.

With the hot weather in the valley, the weather at Almanor was great this year. We had a number of calm, hot afternoons. We never really had an afternoon during the week where the wind will come up like it can when it is cooler in the valley. There was no rain or thunderstorms this year. The only negative to this is that with little or no cloud cover the sunsets were not as spectacular as they have been in other years.

Drew asked me on the way home how long I thought this group vacation would hold together. This is the 18th year that I have gone to Lake Almanor to the Dorado Inn with this group of friends. Morgan was one year old when we went the first time; in three weeks, she is going off to college. I said that I thought it would continue for some time unless there was some kind of unforeseen event, such as the Dorado Inn shutting down. I do believe that we will start to lose some of the older kids. This year were only missing Becky Wallen. Drew noted that it might not be too long before there were some grandkids to drag along!