Our Story from Start to Beyond the Grave: Not with those tires! (49)

It’s Monday, September 15, 2003, and first thing I wake up to is my man in my bed. Wow, here I am in heaven again. We have a lot to do today. One of the things I had not planned on doing, was replacing 2 tires.  You see Jace*—- once upon a time was a tire man. He use to sell, change tires and align them. While driving about yesterday, Jace*—- looked at my tires. Ugh, that didn’t turn out well. He explained that we were at risk driving up to mammoth on 2 of the tires on my car. Well, they didn’t look that bad to me, but I knew better than to argue the point with my Jace*—-. He knew better than me of course. So, we got up and started out to various tire stores. Keep in mind that we still had to pack the car and drive to Mammoth.

I let Jace*—- be in charge of the tire subject, but had told him that one of the tires had been bought at a Goodyear in Orange county not very long ago. I had the receipt for the purchase. Jace*—- felt that any Goodyear store should honor it, well that didn’t happen. It was a real eye opener of how things worked in California for him. You see people are really a lot different in Texas. They are more personable and reasonable. Sorry Cali people, I have lived here all my life and I love you all, but things are so much different in Texas. After going to a few Goodyear stores in the South Bay, trying to reason with them, we were on our way to the OC. There we finally got our tire business done. That was a fiasco, needless to say and took way too much of our time.

We got back to the apartment around 1 pm. Now it was time to throw everything together for our trip and pack it. We had our clothes and essentials packed, but we had to pack food and spices etc for the trip. Then there was his tackle box, the fishing rod all of the important things in life. Important to my Jace*—-. Moving as quickly as we could, Angie, Dan, myself and Jace*—- carried things out to my car. A little 2002 Toyota Corolla and the packing started. Jace*—- amazed me how he was able to pack everything in my car putting it together just like a puzzle. Everyone piled into the car and we were off to the Sierras. Angie had seen Mammoth with a church group, I had been there before with family, but Jace*—- from Texas, and Dan from Florida had never seen Mammoth.

We got on the freeway around 3 pm and hit rush hour traffic in the South Bay, in Orange Country and really most of the areas until we hit Palmdale. Once we got into Palmdale, we stopped to get some fast food and came across a Krispy Kreme Donut Store. Well, of course we had to stop and get some donuts. Jace*—- picked up a newspaper to see what was going on locally. After a few minutes break we were back on the freeway. Jace*—- took in the scenery which at times was nothing but desert. We got another hour or so in and we came across a rest stop and seemed like everyone needed to take a bathroom break, stretch their legs and Jace*—- wanted to smoke a cigarette. We lost Dan and Jace*—- for a while, but before long they wondered on back and once again, we were on the highway. Before day turned into night, we got to see a herd of elk. My man was thrilled to see such a sight. Remember he was a hunter, deer being his main game to hunt, so this was the very first time he saw elk. In total, because of the traffic it took us 8 hours to get to Mammoth. By this time, I was kind of turned around because of being in the dark. We stopped at a liquor store, buying a few items, we asked how to get to the 4 Seasons Condos. The young guy behind the counter took out a map, explaining that he has only been in the area for about a year. He showed us the map, going along the mapped roads with his finger until he came to where we were to turn. He smiled and said, “This is were you turn.” Great I replied as I thanked him. Could you give me the name of the street? He looked again at the map, gave me kind of a cheapish grin and replied, Street. What!!!! No, I told him, I mean the actual name of the street please. He pointed the street out on the map and sure enough it was labeled “Street.” Well, great I guess I just go to street. Luckily, as we got closer, I remembered where we turned.

Once we got there, we cautiously got out of the car as bears were known to frequent the area. We got everything out of the car in one trip and safely entered the condo, Angie and Dan were tired and went off to their room. Jace*—- and I started a fire in the fireplace and listened to music. It was peaceful to see the fire dance and very romantic. Oh, what a night.

Next entry, we see Mammoth and the lakes. What fun.