The truck is back and running like a champ with it's new (rebuilt) transmission. YAAAAA truck! Mattie and I had a great week while waiting for it. Here is a brief report:
We spent two days in South Lake Tahoe. It was busy, smokey, crowded. We went on some great walks around the Taylor Creek Visitor Center, up to Fallen Leaf Lake, and had good meals and beers with a view of Tahoe. Mattie and I sat together on the shore and watched an epic stand-up paddle-board race, while a drunk married couple had an even more epic shouting match behind us. We smiled at each other and I gave Mattie a big hug.
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| New buddies along Taylor Creek. |
We left Tahoe and were happy to head back towards the Carson Wilderness for some painting.
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| "Caples Lake," 8"x10" oil on canvas board |
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| "Charity Valley Sundown," 8"x10" oil on canvas board |
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| "Hope Valley Meadow," 8"x10" oil on canvas board |
We did a few others - some were sacrificed to the Dirt God, and some were sacrificed to the Terrible Painting God and immediately wiped off. But I like those three.
I got pretty ripe and took a bath in the meadow:
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| Cleanliness is, unfortunately, not a state of mind. |
Little Mattie kept watch over the valley. Warrior watchdog.
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| The most beautiful mustachio'd girl in the whole world. |
After a week of being in the wild, we headed into Markleeville to be brainless and watch some baseball, then headed up Poor Boy Mine Road (I can't say that fast, even once - I say "poor boor" every time) to camp for the night. We slept well under the stars.
Then around 7:00 this morning, Mattie dog started growling.
I didn't hear anything, and suspected that a few deer might be walking by that were invisible but to her superdog nose. But she insisted on danger, so still I looked. Then, not two minutes later, a low rumble gradually rose from the hill behind our transient home. Then over that hill came A STAMPEDE. A STAMPEDE OF COWS. Hundreds of cows - baby cows, horned cows (I guess those are bulls...), lady cows, running cows, mooing cows - cows that did not give a darn about us being in their way and if anything looked like they might like to try and use us as part of their path.
At that point both Mattie and I started totally losing it - Mattie barking and shaking like a rabid beast, I just waking up in a total panic at the thought of death by cattle, taking a picture as they roared down the hill at us, then throwing the dog in the Jeep then following myself as the first of the herd started parting around our auto-refuge (which was starting to feel very small and unimpressive compared to the lumbering crowd it separated).
Mattie was still freaking out completely and I just stared awkwardly out the windows not knowing what to do at all except to continue sitting there like an idiot. Looking back it reminds me a little of a great scene in one of the greatest movies of
ALL TIME.
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| Wild west adventures. |
When the dust had started to settle - LITERALLY - two caballeros came riding down the hill with misbehaving cattle-puppies behind them. I rolled down the window, gave a little wave, and through broken english gathered that they were moving the cows down to a green and perfect pasture along the East Fork of the Carson River just a mile or so below. As they rode away I happened to get a picture of one of them, and though I don't usually like painting from pictures, this one is just begging to be put onto a big canvas.
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| I love everything about this picture. |
They disappeared as quickly as they had come over the hill, mooing towards their new home on the river. Our beds, which had been left outside during the chaos, were miraculously intact. Mattie and I looked at each other when they were gone, both understanding that a cow-stampede wake-up call was probably a once-in-a-lifetime event in dog or human years. We had a good laugh together, loaded up, and got back in the car - passing a happily relocated herd on the opposite side of Highway 89 as we drove back to town.
Now, after a week spent in some of the most beautiful country anywhere - and with much thanks to Uncle Dan, Aunt Dianne, and Selena for their great generosity, help, and company - Mattie and I are heading south on the 395 towards Lee Vining, and some of the greatest Laughing Places of all time.
Everything is wonderful, and we miss everybody.
Love as we head back on the 395 SOUTH,
Allison & Mattie
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