Sometimes, when I type the blog header with the date and the city names, I think it sounds a little like I am starting a Captains Log for a ship that is lost at sea. Day 28...rations are running low and the crew is starting to look at me strangely. If we don't see signs of land soon, I fear all may be lost...

Everything on the USS Big Trip is sailing along fine, however. Today was some travel and some sight seeing, all on the way to spending two days in this little National Park just southwest of here starting tomorrow.

One minor aside to the smooth sailing - you will see a picture below of a little tree-related issue we had back home with the storms that have been blowing thru Southern Wisconsin. This doesn't speak to bad luck, because you can't travel for this long without some hiccups. What it speaks to is the blessings we have with the folks we have surrounding us on this trip and in our lives in general. One of our super neighbors watching over our place spotted and let us know first thing this morning (thanks, TS!). My super lumberjack Father swung into action and sliced and diced things into order before noon. These folks as well as other friends, family and neighbors - all managing our mail, being ready to help and then those super star co-workers dealing with our crap while we are out playing. We have said thanks before we left, we will say it again when we return, but I don't think everyone really knows how much we appreciate the support we are getting. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

We had not planned on stopping in California's capital city, but Kim started thinking that one State Fair should be on our All-American trip, and the California version in Sacramento was the only one where the date and place would work. So we stopped.

Believe it or not, this State Fair was like none other - it was hot, everything was expensive, it had a big midway full of carnies trying to talk you into playing games and endless trailers selling junk food. Oh, you say that sounds like your State Fair as well? We did really enjoy ourselves, but it was what it was as far as a fair goes. It was good to be able to get the girls some traditional summer fun and complete junk food. And I got some meat on a stick which is always a good thing! (For the detail oriented, it was a battered and deep fried pork chop on a stick. And yes, it was really good.)

We left the fair and headed from Sacramento (Elevation 30 feet) up, up, up to Lake Tahoe (6,300 feet) in just a couple hours. Remember Crater Lake a couple days ago? Play it again, Sam. The same endless variation on the color blue, the same drama, the same beauty. We caught two bad weather days in Crater Lake, but our swing through Tahoe was Bluebird perfect. On a beauty scale of 1 - 10, I would still put Crater Lake at a 9.5 and Tahoe in the high-8's, but man, great, beautiful stuff. Different settings of course, as well. Crater was beauty in pristine isolation and preservation. Tahoe is beauty surrounded by amenity, recreation, wealth, etc. Two different kinds of cool. I would vote Crater in a beauty duel, but where Spokane was the place Kim and I thought we might be able to move to and be happy, Tahoe has a future romantic escape written all over it. Good job, Tahoe - Rawr!

On to Minden, Nevada (state number 18 for those of you keeping track at home) for the night and then on to a National Park I have yet to visit. Cheers!