Home Again, Home Again!

[Our beautiful, misty valley]



[One of my favorite autumn trees]



[Gorgeous colors that pop from the background without a flash]

I'm so glad to be home! I love the fall colors and the beauty of the mists as they rise from the valley. It was quite a trek getting here, though!

I stayed with a friend in San Leandro for a few days after the Renaissance Faire. This let me have dinner with my friends on Wednesday night and see the Peaches show on Thursday. Having been up 'til the middle of the night, I wasn't ready to travel the following morning.

On Friday, I met a new friend and stayed up too late again. (Ah, the social opportunities of the city!) I intended to leave at 10:00, but awoke at 5:00 with a start, "what if it snows on the Siskiyou Pass?" My van is barely powerful enough to pull the trailer. There's no way I could control it in the snow. The trailer would just pull me right off the road.

I checked the weather prediction and saw that it might snow as early as noon. The pass is seven hours away from San Leandro. Eeek! I needed to leave RIGHT THEN! And so I did.

The drive was harrowing. Every hill would find me in the slow lane, down in second gear, going about 30 miles an hour. On my first downhill descent, I learned that I cannot brake significantly or the heavy trailer would push the van at whatever angle it happened to lie. I really thought it was going to push me off the road. I took a break at the next rest stop to recover my wits.

After that, every descent was also taken at about 30 with the van still in second gear to provide engine braking. There were no more scares.

When I got to the pass, the weather was nasty: pouring rain and very cold. It didn't feel quite cold enough to freeze, thankfully. As I crested the summit, the raindrops started splattering on my windshield. It was turning to snow. Oh, crap! At the slightest sign of slipperiness I would pull off the highway and stay in a campground until it passed. This would be a few days according to the weather reports.

Five minutes after I passed the summit the weather broke and the highway was dry. The weather hadn't crossed the mountains. Hooray! I was home free! About twenty minutes later I saw two snow plows rushing up the mountain in the other direction. The snow really wasn't my imagination. I was VERY lucky!

I've been home a few days now and the rain hasn't let up significantly. The trailer is tarped to keep the plywood on top of it as dry as possible. The booth and merchandise get delivered to Annie tomorrow. Hooray!

Last year was a mild winter. This year looks a little more serious. At this rate, we're going to have a year's worth of rain by Thanksgiving.

The roof of my cabin has a leak, but it can't be fixed until the roof is dry. It's just too high and dangerous to attempt until then. We'll have to make due with a bucket until it can be fixed. It's no big deal. I just don't want to cause structural damage by letting the ceiling stay wet for too long.

When I return from Annie's, I'll have another beam to weave. I have no idea what color it will be. Brown? Peacock? Joy red? I'll find out tomorrow!