Alex and I took Mom's RV out for a test drive this last weekend, and went camping with the scouts.  I loved the RV - glamping is a lot more fun than camping! It will be even better next time, now that we know a bit more about the RV!  (I found the instruction book after we'd been set up for a while.)  One of the other scout leaders has a very similar RV, so he helped us get set up sans instructions.

The scouts clearing off their campsite prior to putting up tents.

We camped up at Cassel - a PG&E campground outside of Burney.  They had a canal that from what I heard is stocked frequently, and runs into Baum Lake, and then Hat Creek and on to Lake Britton.

One group of scouts spent as much time as they could fishing - though some of those were actually looking for crawdads rather than fish,,,,,

Some just hung out at the canal with us rather than at camp. AJ and I took a group of 4 fishing,

I had a visitor (blue jay) in the tree above us while we waited.

We took a short hike down to Baum Lake Sunday morning.

Baum Lake

A pelican out on the lake.

The kayak trip was successful - we didn't sink, and we didn't loose the kayaks off the truck.  Woohoo!!  

And the leaves are turning.....

AJ and I are taking an inaugural kayak trip today!  Ralph bought us two kayaks on Tuesday, and I picked up PFD's and paddles yesterday.  We have an Eagle Court of Honor at 10:00, and then we are off to the lake!  I'd promise pictures, but I don't want to get my camera wet...I may try putting it in a plastic bag - we'll see.....

They kayaks were a surprise - I had talked about getting them for my birthday, but since it was the end of the season, there weren't any that I wanted locally, so I decided to have AJ build me a new computer for my birthday instead.  The new computer is up and running (love it!) so I wasn't expecting kayaks.  When I was looking around town for some, Big 5 had some on sale, - but they were clearance items, and they only had one available, and someone else had already agreed to buy it.  Ralph put his name down, just in case the person didn't follow through on the purchase, and Big 5 called him - they got another shipment in, so....we now have 2 kayaks sitting int the back of the truck.  One of my many things to do today is clear out a place for them in the shed so they don't stay in the truck all the time.

About the time Ralph got the kayaks, we got rain!  Not a lot, but still, it cooled us down and slowed the fires a bit.  We went from 109 to 70 in a week.  We are back up to 95 today, which makes the inaugural kayak trip a bit nicer.  I still wanted to take them to the lake this weekend - it's just nicer that it isn't 70 degrees and raining.

Book club is Wednesday, and I finished the bookmarks!  We read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood this month - intriguing, but not my favorite.  It had a nice twist at the end, and I wanted the book to continue (one of the signs of a good book, personally), so it was worth the read.  The bookmarks are a bit odd, I will admit.  They are supposed to represent a woman in a red cape (The Handmaids were required to wear red capes, shoes, etc. in the story)  Not a bad representation, but...I wish I could have found a better symbol for the book.  It was a challenge to design though, which is what I was looking for.  

Here's the cover of the book:

I have the baby quilt I was working on all done except hand-sewing the binding down.  I had a little help putting the sandwich together,

I also have all the blocks done for the baby afghan I started in January!  Baby Nicholas is 3 1/2 months old, but....it is a very heavy afghan,and he doesn't need one in Redding now.  Here's the layout for it - now I have to weave in end (yuck!) and put it together,  I don't think it will need much of a border on it - even a simple shell could be too much for it.

I finished up the last block yesterday up at Dave's.  He had a rock sale/BBQ with the local Rockhound Club.  He decided that he doesn't want to move the tons (literally) of rocks that he has collected, and sold some.  He knows several people in the Rockhound Club, so they had their monthly meeting at his house, he BBQ'ed hot dogs and hamburgers, and sold 12 or so crates of rocks.  He still has 'several' crates left, but one of them managed to find its way into the back of the RAV,

The BBQ was fun - the rock group is an interesting mix of characters.  I'm hoping Dave joins up with them - he and Lisa love their rocks and rock-hunting, and this would give him a nice little social touch as well,  All of them were very nice - a few were a bit odd, but in a nice way.  Nothing boring about them, which made for a fun evening.  Kind of make me wish I was around more often for their rock hunting.....

I did it!  Sunday, on my 54th birthday, I hiked Mt. Lassen.  It was easier this time than last time (in 2008 - 8 years ago!) so the exercising I've been doing must be working, that, and they improved the trail, and we took longer to go up and down this time, but I'm going with my exercise program is helping......

The view was worth it.

Some of the twisted trees at the lower elevation.

Cindy and Rachelle met us up there.  Cindy didn't make it up tot he top, but Rachelle beat us all up.

The trail near the top....and if you look in the upper right corner, you can see people on the trail above us.

Margene made it all the way to the top!

This is the half-mile left marker.  The trail is 2 1/2 miles long, and gets steeper at this point.  There were a lot of people on the trail - most were climbing faster than we were, but not all of them.

AJ went up with me too - not his idea of a great time, but for his mother on her birthday, he went along.

Alex and Rachelle had to wait a really long time for Margene and I to get up to the top.

And when I thought we were done.....Alex pointed out that the 'real' top of the mountain is over there.....

Rachelle is wearing my black jacket up above me on the rocks......I decided it was a good thing that Cindy didn't make it up to see where her daughter was climbing......

At the top.....

I made it too!

Margene made it too!

Rachelle and Alex actually went to the very top of the rocks.  Margene and I decided that we were good with where we made it to - climbing the rock was not necessary to say we made it to the top of the mountain..