It Always Good to Come Home

We arrived home on Friday at about 6:30 pm. It took us 11 1/2 hours to drive from Kennewick, Washington to Chico. It was wonderful to pull into our driveway and see Chelsea running out of the house to view the new car for the first time. I promptly reminded her that this is the new "family" car. Her look at me told me that she knew I wasn't kinding anyone with that one. This car is hers in every practical sense, as I'm not going to be driving it and neither is Dan. She was tickled with it and asked if we could go driving the next day.

I finally found out the result of the union vote. The vote was to determine whether or not members were willing to take a pay cut in order to save jobs. Gratefully, 54% of the members chose to vote FOR the pay cut, thereby making the likelihood of my unemployment less likely. I won't know for sure until next week, but signs are definitely looking better.

Mom did a great job looking after the kids. She had dinner ready for us upon our arrival home. I know she didn't really know that we would be arriving then, but she quickly started serving us the dinner she had prepared, which was very sweet.

The End of a Wonderful Vacation

After our amazing drive on Tuesday, we felt like all of our expectations for this vacation had been met and that from here on out, any further great experiences would be icing on the cake. Tuesday night we spent in Bozeman, Montana. Upon arising we found a great little breakfast place before embarking on our drive west. I have to tell you that the area around Bozeman and points west of there have got to be my favorite spot on the planet right now. I could easily see myself spending more time there. The people were so nice and I don't know who was in charge of designing the buildings in town, but it seemed like there was a "grand plan," as all the buildings seemed to fit so well with the mountain setting. We stopped for gas around 11:30 am and after finishing filling up the tank, Dan said, "I think we should call Bob and Cathy (Dan's cousins) and see if they are still in Anaconda, Montana." They manufacture and sell decorative shirts at craft shows all across the country. They had finished up a show in Anaconda, which was only 30 minutes from our present location. Bob told Dan that they had planned on leaving for their next show in Washington State on Wednesday. Dan thought we might catch them before they left.

Dan dialed Bob's cell phone and as luck would have it, they had just finished packing up and were about to leave. They agreed to postpone their leaving until we could get there and suggested we meet for lunch. So we made the 30 minute drive and found them easily as the town is so small that you can miss it if you sneeze. We had a quick lunch and briefly caught up on each others lives. We always love seeing Bob and Cathy. Before we went our separate ways we shared and took pictures.

What a wonderful opportunity to happen upon family and include them in our vacation.

From Anaconda, we continued our trek west and north. Our plan was to get to the gateway of Glacier National Park. Because we ate out for lunch, we decided to pull over by this beautiful lake and eat our left over sandwiches from Subway.

When we arrived in Columbia Falls, our "final" destination, we found out very quickly that motels are booked months in advance. Who knew that Glacier National Park would be such a hot spot. Dan was able to convince the woman at the first motel to call a couple of motels to see if they had any rooms available. Dan was able to locate a motel about 4 miles up the road in Hungry Horse, Montana. We made the quick trip and were immediately concerned as we pulled into the motel. The lady who greeted us was the sweetest person, but when she showed us the room I knew that I couldn't stay in the room. To say it was below standard (and our standards are not that high) is an understatement. I made the excuse that I had to have internet access so that I could find out whether or not I still had a job. She immediately got on the phone to a friend who owns a Motel 6 (I told you are standards are not that high) in Kallispell, located 30 minutes west of Hungry Horse. We were able to reserve a room. We profusely thanked the nice lady and retraced our steps back to Kallispell.

Our plan today was to drive through Glacier National Park and then started heading south for home. We entered the park, paid the $25 entrance fee, and joined the throngs of people who apparently had the same plans for the day. Going was pretty slow as the line of cars could only go as fast as the lead car, but we didn't mind because views were beautiful. About 20 miles into the park and as we are zig-zagging up the side of the mountain, we come to a complete stop. It is like a parking lot. We sat and sat for about 15 minutes and there was no indication that we would be moving. Dan and I looked at each other knowing that we still had 30 miles of road ahead of us before we would get through the park. We did the math and we simply could not afford an entire day in the park and still arrive back home when we planned. So, we turned the car around and headed the 20 miles out of the park. It really was a shame as we really did want to experience the park, but the crowds were just too great. If you've ever been to Yellowstone, you can appreciate the size of the crowds at Glacier Park, as they matched the crowds at Yellowstone.

The remainder of the day was devoted to covering as much territory as we possibly could as Dan wants to get home by Friday night. We made it through the panhandle of Idaho, enjoying the beautiful views that Idaho has to offer. We were able to finish the book that we started at the beginning of the trip, Tsar by Ted Bell. I highly recommend this book. It is suspenseful, romantic, terrifying, and informative. We arrived in Kennewick, Washington at about 9 pm and were able to find a motel easily. Kennewick is about 1 1/2 hours below Spokane. We plan on getting up early tomorrow morning and drive until we arrive home. It will be a long day, but once we get the smell of home in our noses, we're much like a barn sour horse.

The Top of the World

After leaving Colorado, we were able to make it all the way to Cody, Wyoming by nightfall. I didn't take any pictures of Wyoming yesterday as there really wasn't anything we saw that was picture worthy. We chose to go to Cody, Wyoming because the last time we came to Wyoming we came with Chelsea and Cody and had a terrific time. We wanted to revisit a place that we had such fun with the kids. Upon our arrival, we quickly found a motel and headed for the Mexican restaurant that we went to years before with the kids. We had very good memories of our meal there, so we were sure that we would have a similar experience this time.

The name of the restaurant is Viva La Comida and it has tables located outside in front of the restaurant which enables customers to watch the traffic cruising up and down Main Street. Believe it or not, Cody is quite a happening town. It is a haven for motorcyclists and the night air is constantly pierced with the thundering sounds of Harley's. We both ordered margaritas and began taking in the nightlife of Cody. When dinner arrived we were disappointed to see that the quality of the food was not as we remembered it, but it was still lovely to sit outside and enjoy the goings on.

The next morning we arose early and I asked Dan to take me to the restaurant that served the best huevos rancheros that I've ever tasted. I've dreamed of these huevos, I've told anyone who would listen how great these huevos are, and now I had a chance to have them again. I noticed that I began to salivate well before our arrival at the restaurant. With great anticipation we entered the restaurant and were immediately seated. The waitress handed us our menus and I almost said, "don't bother because I already know what I want." But I didn't. Instead I looked on the menu, seeking to find the long awaited dish. First read through I didn't see them. Second read through I didn't see them. Third read through my heart began to sink. I said, "Dan I don't see the huevos on the menu!" He carefully looked over the menu and they were not there. They no longer include huevos rancheros on the menu. I figured that it is just as well. Considering our disappointing meal last night, maybe it is better to simply remember the best huevos ever, rather than experience the disappointment of yet another subpar meal.

Once breakfast was history we set out for Montana. We headed north out of Cody and began climbing the moutain range. Little did we know that we were going to experience one of the most beautiful drives of our lives! We decided that we would stop at all of the scenic turnoffs and read all of the historical signs. The first turnoff yielded us the following gorgeous view.

As we got out the car, we noticed a group of people bending down and holding their hands out to "something." As we walked closer we saw these tiny chipmunks eating out of people's hands. Dan ran back to the car to get our bag of sunflower seeds and bent down to see if the chipmunks would eat out of his hand.

The little creature did not hesitate for a single second. He even placed his little paws on Dan's fingers. There was no fear whatsoever.

We got back in the car and began our slow climb up the mountains. Each ascent up the mountain would end with a beautiful plateau, followed by yet another ascent.

Our next scentic turnoff provided us with the beauty of this roaring river and waterfall.

Another couple was nice enough to take our picture...together!

Just to give a sense of the size of this waterfall, about 1/4 of the way down this picture you will see a man on a rock taking a picture. He is dwarfed by the massive rocks.

This is the view of the river and waterfall as we walked up the tiny path to our car.

Here are more of the amazing vistas that we enjoyed on our drive to Montana.

Wyoming definitely went out with a bang rather than a wimper! Finally our continual climb up the mountain range reached its apex and we were greeted with this awe inspiring view.

You can see that there is still snow on the ground on the far left of this picture. It was quite windy and chilly up on top of the world. By the way, that is not my designation. There is a sign that says it is the top of the world.

A very nice couple from Georgia offered to take our pictures together and we immediately accepted. Even though this spot is called the top of the world, we continued to ascend for several more miles before we started our descent into Montana. Our first stop was Red Lodge, where we stopped for a sandwich at Subway's. We then headed out for Bozeman where we found a motel for the night. Dan and I agree that the drive from Cody, Wyoming to Red Lodge, Montana has to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world.

Colorado Adventures

We spent our first night in Cortez, Colorado. Upon checking into our motel, the desk clerk told Dan about the nearby National Park, Mesa Verde. The brochure she handed him sounded instantly like something that we would want to check out. So, after breakfast we took off for Mesa Verde. It was a quick 15 minute drive.

Upon driving up to the booth at the entrance of the park, we were greeted by a nice looking female park ranger. The sign stated that the charge for entrance into the park was $15 per car. As Dan was reaching for his wallet the park ranger told us that today entrance into the park was free. The conversation went something like this:

Park Ranger: Welcome to Mesa Verde. Today entrance into the park is free. This free admittance is made possible by the stimulus bill.

Me: The stimulus bill? How does giving us free entrance into the park stimulate the economy?

Park Ranger: Well, they have told me to tell you that providing free entrance into the park will provide those who can't usually afford to come to the park the opportunity to see the park.

Me: How does this create jobs?

Park Ranger (with a mischevious smile): Madam, as long as I'm dressed in this uniform, I can only say what they tell me to say. I am not free to tell you what I really think about this plan, but you are free to interpret my statement any way that you want.

Thus began our trip into the Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is known for the cliff dwellings built by Anasazi Indians. We drove approximately 15 miles into the heart of the park where we found this first set of cave dwellings.
Here is our first glimpse of the cave dwellings as we began the 12 minute hike down the hill. The hike involved zig-zagging down a very steep grade. We wondered how well we would far the walk back up as we passed panting and sweating vacationers who were making the trip back up the hill.

The cave dwellings were absolutely amazing up close.

We weren't allowed to actually walk into the dwellings as they were chained off. You can see the black soot that remains to this day from the fires.

They did, however, allow us to climb down into the undergrown Kivas. The wood ladder is seen the the right foregrounds. Kivas were used during the bitter cold winter months by the tribe to cope with the cold. The park ranger told us that the entire tribe would congregate down in this kivas. The space is really quite small and I have a hard time imagining an entire tribe hanging out in such small corners.

You can see this person is coming down the ladder, thus entering the kiva.

After our climb down into the kiva, Dan being Dan started a long conversation with the park ranger. Because I know how long these conversations can take, I chose to continue to explore the cave dwellings and took some of the following pictures.

The park ranger told us that this cave goes back as far as 60 feet in some places.

I loved the ordered demonstrated in these rock pads for grinding grain.

I took this picture on the far end of the cave dwellings to show the entire area of the settlement. That's Dan in the red shirt, still talking to the ranger.

Once we saw all that we wanted to, it was time to begin the trek back up the hill. I'm standing on the walkway below Dan and you can see the next walkway above Dan's head, thus showing the zig-zagging path, as well as the steep grade of the path. I have to admit that we had to stop several times to catch our breath. The altitude really made catching our breath quite difficult.

Here's another view from above of the cliff dwellings we had just visited.

I think I still look okay after the difficult trek up the hill. No worse the wear.

We got back in the car and were able to spot other cave dwellings throughout the park.

Once we finished up with our trip through Mesa Verde about 2 pm, it was time to head north. We ended up in Leadville, Colorado at the end of the day. Leadville is about 45 minutes south of Vail, Colorado.

We woke up very early the next morning as we had the most uncomfortable bed and we simply couldn't bear trying to sleep anymore in them. We left about 6 am, which is very early for us. We decided to drive to the town of Avon, which is right next to Vail, for breakfast. We found a Denny's, ate a quick breakfast and were back on the road.

Vail is such a beautiful area and you can smell the money in the air. One of the reasons that we are taking this trip is to look for property that we may purchase for use once we retire. Vail would be a beautiful place to spend one's retirement years, but it is clear that you have to have considerable resources to be able to buy property there.

About 1/2 hour outside of Vail, we came upon Lizard's Head Pass. We simply had to pull over to capture this beauty with a picture. Just as we pulled up, we saw a single drop of water hit our windshield. It was about 2 inches in diameter. We looked around to see from whence the water drop came from. Nothing, we could see the source. I roll down the window to begin to take a photo and a second big drop of water hits the windshield. I click this picture and the we see a third big drop of water. Now we're really curious. Where are these drops of water coming from? We open the moon roof on the car and just as we do we see a big flash of lightening, which is immediately followed by a downpour. I've never seen raindrops this big! I captured the following video of the thunder and rain. The "storm" lasted about 5 minutes and then it was over and the sun came out.

Next stop is Wyoming.

It Sure is Hot in Phoenix!

My day began at 1:30 am as I couldn't get back to sleep for fear of oversleeping and missing our flight. Oh by the way, today is the day that we began our vacation. First stop was Phoenix, Arizona to pick up our new "family" car. We were picked up by AJ, one of the nicest and most knowledgeable used car salesmen that we've had the pleasure of working with, and believe me if you know us at all we've dealt with many used car salesmen. Upon collecting our bags, we walked out to the curb and waited about 2 minutes and there he was. We made the quick trip to the dealership and within an hour of landing we were on the road. Here's our new family car.

As you can see it is a claret red 2003 Honda CRV. We were so pleased that the car in reality lived up to all the pictures provided on line. The inside is extremely immaculate

It also has one of the most important requirements. Lots of good cup holders. I should have taken pictures of them, but I'm sure that soon I'll be including a picture of those as well. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell, filled the car up with gas and hit the road.

First stop was Flagstaff. What a beautiful mountain town it is. We pulled over upon leaving town to take a quick picture of each of us with our new ride.

Before leaving Phoenix, we stopped at Fry's (similar to Raley's) and picked up two styrofoam coolers, a couple of bags of ice, some beverages and snacks.

We like to be able to continually hydrate without stopping all the time. It works for us.

We decided not to go through Monument Valley as we've driven through there numerous times and wanted to get to Cortez, Colorado to spend the night. Even though we chose not to make that wondrous drive, we still had the opportunity to see some amazing rock formations. This one reminded us of a crowd of people. I took this from the car driving 70 mph. Not too bad. We're staying the night at the Econolodge. I'm dead tired and look forward to catching up on my lost sleep from last night. More later from the road.

Oriented to Place and Time

I had to check with Dan today regarding what day it is. I was correct when I told him I thought it was Friday. I didn't win anything for having the correct answer other than the satisfaction of knowing that I'm still oriented to time. This is what happens when I'm not working and I don't have an event, like the Fourth of July, to help me keep track of time. I don't want to do any class prep until I know for sure if I'll be back next semester. The union is voting this next week on whether or not to accept a 2 day per month furlough, which translates to a 9.5% pay decrease. Amazingly the union didn't advise which way to vote. They said that this was too personal an issue for them to say one way or another. The other two unions involved on campus have already voted in favor of the furlough plan. So, I have to assume that our vote will probably go the same way, which is good for me, as this will mean less layoffs and because I'm full time, I'm further up the layoff food chain.

Dan is busy online looking for a new family car. We need this car so that Chelsea can drive herself and Cody to school next year. We're looking at Honda CRX's. We plan on buying the car somewhere west of the Mississippi, fly there, and then drive the car back by way of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. This will be our vacation. The kids opted out, so my mom will be staying with the kids while we're gone.

I've lost 22 pounds. I'm having a hard time believing this fact as I still have a rather large tire around my waist, but that's what the scales told me this morning. I have noticed that my butt is getting flat, which is very strange as I've always had a lot of junk in my trunk. In fact, my large rear end has always been the bain of my existence, so for it to disappear in this unexpected fashion is quite disconcerting.

Tying Up Loose Ends From July 4th

I said in my last posting that I regretted that I didn't have a picture of Cynthia Van Auken, Kasey Cowen, and Nancy Henry. Matt Miller was kind enough to pass on these photos. Sorry Nancy, but I still don't have a picture of you!
Here's Cynthia, our fearless leader. If it hadn't been for her efforts organizing the original tea party rally on April 15th, we wouldn't be where we are today. Ed Vallerga said to me in an email yesterday that for those of us that were at the first organizing meeting on May 5th, it is highly evident the growth and strides that our fledging group have made since that day and he is right. Only those who have been there from the very beginning can truly appreciate how far we have come and it all began with Cynthia. Cynthia is a veteran to the world of politics. Before moving to Chico to be close to her children she was a politically active resident of Atlanta, Georgia. She ran for congress against Cynthia McKinney, who by the way is sitting in an Israeli prison right now. She was arrested for running an Israeli naval blockade. The ship she was in was providing supplies to the Palestinians. Forgive me for that ADHD movement. What I'm trying to say is that Cynthia is experienced in the ways of the political world and it is helpful to have that kind of resource available to a developing group.

Kasey Cowan is in the white shorts and dark head visor. She is talking with Dan Logue, our State Assemblyman. Just to remind you, she was the one to work on logo development, t-shirts (which turned out to be a major source of fund-raising), and setting up our website.

Matt took this picture at the Elk's lodge parking lot prior to our cruise. He was able to capture more of the numbers assembled, but it is still an incomplete representation of our numbers for the cruise.

At the end of the day, Matt was able to finally take a picture of our booth. Ed Vallerga and Jim Fiack worked the booth to the very end.

But, remember, this is what our booth area looked like for the entire day!

Even though press coverage was practically non-existent, one intrepid reporter from the Chico Enterprise Record (our local paper) wrote the following article. I was impressed because she actually reported the events of the day as they actually happened without editorializing or trying to minimize or disparage our efforts. I believe that Stacey Kennelly, the author, of this article was a former student of mine. I sent her an email thanking her for actually being a journalist. Here's the link to the article: http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_12756138

July 4th Tea Party Cruise and Rally

On April 15, 2009, a tea party was held in the Downtown Plaza. I snuck away from work for about 45 minutes to stand in the plaza to show my support of the tea party movement. The MC of the event was a nice woman who stated that she had the position by default, as the person who was supposed to MC for the day was unable to do so. I did not know that woman's name, neither did I remember seeing her anywhere around town. Little did I know that I would, not only learn her name, but become quite involved with her and others like her. Her name is Cynthia Van Auken. I don't remember how, but I managed to find out who was responsible for the planning and implementation of the tea party on April 15th and that person was Cynthia. I sent her an email letting her know that I was interested in helping in any way that I could. I received a prompt reply, with a meeting date and time, May 5, 2009. Dan and I had been invited to a Cinco de Mayo party, but immediately cancelled those plans in order to attend the tea party organization meeting. While some may think it rude to back out at the last minute on a previous committment, we felt it was more important to focus on fixing the mess our country is in then to celebrate a Mexican holiday by drinking margaritas (and I love margaritas!).

We arrived a few minutes late to that first meeting. Believe it or not Dan and I got lost. Cynthia was already speaking. We tried to cause as little disruption as possible as we found our seats. There were about 25 people in attendance at that meeting. Most of them have continued to come to meetings, but some have fallen away. But that evening meeting gave birth to a new movement here in Chico and yesterday, July 4th, was the fruition of a little more than 2 months of planning and working. I had an inkling that our day would be successful when a few of us decided to support our fellow tea partiers in Oroville, by attending their event on Friday. We were all surprised when we drove up and saw the numbers in attendance. We grabbed our hats and signs and joined the ranks of people lining the streets with their signs. It was so heartening to hear the almost non-stop honking of cars that were passing by. Three elected representatives showed up. State assemblyman Dan Logue, Tom McClintock, and Doug LaMalfa all said their piece, each voicing the same values of Tea Party Patriots. This enthusiastic outcome in Oroville gave us all hope that our event would be successful as well, but there are always doubts.

As I've stated in prior posts, I was in charge of the booth at Bidwell Park. I'm unsure of how I came to be awarded this responsibility, but I know that I didn't want to let anyone down. The booth in the park was not the only event of the day. A cruise around town with decorated cars was the event to kick off the day. Before we could participate in the cruise we had to set up our booth. Because we were so busy getting the booth set up, no one had time to take pictures, so I have none to share with you, but I can say that my heart was warm when I saw how many people showed up to help. Dan and I were met by Cynthia Van Auken, Ed Vallerga, Nancy Henry and her granddaughter Cora, Matt Miller and his girlfriend Kasey (sorry I don't know your last name). We had the Surburban and BMW emptied before you could whistle the Star Spangled Banner and the tent and tables were up with equal speed. I believe we had everything set up within 20 minutes.

It was time to head over to the Elk's Lodge which was a rallying point. Again, we were shocked when we drove into the parking lot! There were so many cars there and they were all decorated, which meant they were there for our event. I'd estimate about 40 cars, maybe more and each car had multiple occupants.

Here's Matt decorating his truck with a great sign and his girlfriend Kasey is the beautiful woman on the left who is cut off on the left side of the picture. The gentleman in the hawaiian shirt is BK Brooks, and I don't know the name of the nice lady in the foreground.

I decorated my car with three signs. The signs said, "Cap Taxes and Trade Politicians" "Government Stay Out of my Healthcare" and "I'll Keep My Guns and Money, You Can Keep Your Change." I affixed the signs with magnets as we were told that we were going to drive at funeral procession speed and therefore the signs should stay on.

Then it was time to go over the route, unfortunately Dan chose to talk through these instructions which meant that we didn't hear the route (the route was changed at the last minute because of construction in the area). Unfortunately, no maps were passed around, which proved to be the downfall of the cruise.

While waiting to get started we tried to get to know as many people as possible. This is Dudley, he literally join our group on meetup.com that morning. He brought his beautiful red Harley, decorated with streamers.

Here's Celia and Dean King who have been constant participants and supporters of our group.

The gentleman standing and talking to the people in the car is Jack Lee, the organizer of the cruise. This is a classic car that really added a little something extra to the cruise.

I thought they were the cutest couple on this scooter/motorcycle. I failed to get their name, but I did express my gratitude for their coming and joining us.

Let's call the cruise a learning experience. First of all, I understood funeral procession speed to be about 10-15 mph. The leaders of the procession took off going about 25 mph, which resulted in our signs immediately being ripped off my car. We had to pull over and retrieve the signs off the street. By the time we got back into the procession, most of the people ahead of us were no where to be found. The small group we found ourselves with had to drive an average of 35 mph and we never located the rest of the cruise. We had no idea what the route was, so we blazed our own trail, but we were driving so fast it made it impossible for us to display our signs most of the time. Finally I told Dan that we should just head over to the CARD center, our second rallying point and wait for the cruise to come to us. It turned out to be a good idea because there were tea partiers waiting there who weren't participating in the cruise but wanted to participate in the march into the park. Unfortunately I didn't have enough presence of mind to take pictures. By the time the cruise people started arriving we had approximately 20 - 25 waiting. Not all of the cruisers made it to the second rally area. I think many probably felt frustrated and headed home. Jack Lee never showed up. We waited until 10 am, but could wait no longer for stragglers.

Matt Miller, Dan and another gentleman assembled our banner. That's Matt in the middle. If we could bottle his enthusiasm, knowledge of the issues, and his common sense and give it away, our country would be back on track in no time. Matt is an important person to this movement. He's an idea man, but he's not all idea and no action. He's a doer as well. This day came to be in no small part to his efforts!

Here's a partial picture of our group participating in the march. That's me on the right holding the banner. I don't know how I got so lucky to hold the banner, but I held it with pride!

Then we started marching. That's Cynthia Van Auken in the middle holding the banner and again, I don't know the gentleman's name who held the other end of the banner.

Dan tried to capture pictures that showed the number of people in our march, but unfortunately these pictures fall short.

I was grateful for every person who got up out of the seats and chose to make their voices heard at this march.

We marched into Bidwell Park across the creek and into the area where the booths were located and the free speech area. I took the banner over to the booth where we mounted it at the back of the booth.

Here's Dan and I standing in front of the banner and you can see our core values printed on the side of the banner. It's a lovely and colorful banner. I think it was money well spent. We all wore the national Tea Party Patriots red t-shirts so that we, as a group would be easily identified and noticed.

Upon arriving at the booth, we were informed that from the time we left the booth and until our arrival they had been bombarded with people interested in our group. We were dumbfounded and tickled all at once. We stayed busy throughout the day. More on that in a minute.

Our U.S. Congressman Wally Herger and State Assemblyman Dan Logue were both speakers in the Free Speech area. My friend Ronda turned to me and said, "Let's go get them and bring them to our booth." I was game so Ronda and I set off to find them. We quickly found Assemblyman Logue. He immediately recognized us from the Oroville rally and said he would be glad to meet us at our booth. We then found Mr. Herger and he greeted us warmly and happily with a warm hand shake and said he had planned on coming to our booth anyway. So we escorted him back to our booth. We had a very nice opportunity to visit with him and share what is on our hearts regarding our country. We told him that we would be visiting his office on July 17th for a mini-tea party regarding healthcare legislation. He was so pleased as he really needs to feel the support of his constituents on this issue.

Dan and his friend Brad (peeking his head out between Dan and Mr. Herger's heads) stood and visited for about 30 minutes with Rep. Herger. He gratiously agreed to take his picture with each of us. In the background to the right is State Assemblyman Dan Logue. He assures me that he is going to hold strong to not raising taxes more to deal with California's budget crisis. I told him that I didn't care if it meant that I lost my job (which is a real possibility). We simply MUST get this state's budget and spending under control. He hugged me and said that we need teachers such as myself in the university system and he appreciated my willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

Here I am with Rep. Herger. He's the salt of the earth kind of person, but I made clear to him that we are watching and he will have our support as long as his votes hold true to our core values, but if he strays he will see our support dissolve quickly.

I chose this picture to show that our group is comprised of young people, and not just a bunch of old disgruntled farts. We also think this young woman is quite artistic.

The following pictures show the constant activity at our booth through the day. Our booth is the tan colored tent. You can't really see what our booth looks like because people were in front of it all day. We were passing out free pocket constitutions, information on our group, contact information for all elected officials, and handouts on the pressing legislation of the day.

I had a lovely conversation with the Asian gentleman in the sunglasses. He's a former teacher and so he had a lot to say about our broken educational system.

You can sort of, kind of, see our booth in this picture, but the people just kept on coming! It was so validating to see the support we received. Just to show the difference in activity between our booth and the other booths, we couldn't resist taking the following two pictures.

This is the booth for the ACLU. Their booth looked this way all day. I felt bad for them because, in spite of their tent, they were in the sun all day long. Actually I didn't feel bad for them, because they are a horrid organization who have done far more harm to this country then good, so I say let the sun shine on them.

Here's the demoncratic booth. The guy in green is one of the booth people and this is a picture of the side of the booth. The front of their booth is on the right. No one is there and this is what their booth looked like all day long. The most action they saw was when Ronda, Dan and I paid them a visit. We touched their flyers and the man in green said, "Don't touch that!" I guess they assumed we were up to no good because of our tea party t-shirts. Ronda responded, "That's not very open minded of you. We just wanted to see what your group has to say." The man remained defensive and testy, but Ronda was game. She stayed there and talked with them for at least 45 minutes. Ronda is not a confrontational person. She is very soft spoken and non-threatening. I think they soon saw that she simply wanted to have a conversation and so they did. Dan started talking to the man in green. His name is Forrest. Forrest made a negative comment about our Revolutionary War stating that we could have broken from England without bloodshed, just like Canada. I'm not kidding folks. The man said, "just like Canada." Dan tried to educate him by stating that Canada is a Commonwealth of England. That they didn't break away from England. That's why the Queen is on all their money. Forrest didn't quite have a come back for that one. Yes, people, Forrest gets to vote like the rest of us. Could this possibly be why we find ourselves in the situation that we find ourselves in? I'm just asking.

To end this long entry I have to acknowledge some important people that enabled me to put this booth together.

This is Betty Schumacher. She's a veteran at booth organizing. She kept giving me words of advise. Passing me informational pamphets and being a general mentor. I love Betty and it has been worth joining this group just to meet her.

This pistol of a woman is Ronda. Sorry Ronda, but when you resist being in pictures, this is the kind of picture you take. Have you ever heard of self-fulfilling prophesies? When I had my breast cancer scare it is Ronda that I turned to. I asked her if she could step in and take over the organizational duties if my biopsy came back positive and without a blink of the eye she said, "yes." Thank God it wasn't necessary for her to take over! She put together all of our petitions, supplied most of our decorations, as well as our sole hanger to display our t-shirts for sale. By the way, we sold all of our t-shirts except for three. Major source of fundraising. I am so grateful for my new friend Ronda.

This is Celia and Dean King. My apologies to Matt Miller and Teresa Frawley. I didn't get pictures of the two of you, but you did a stellar job manning the booth.

We closed out the day with Ed Vallerga and Jim Fiack manning the booth. They both did a great job representing the group. When Ed wasn't manning the booth, he was out working the crowds. He played a big part in our success for the day.

Tom Kozik showed up with his big flag and showed his on-going support for Chico Tea Party Patriots. I also want to acknowledge Kasey Cowan for her developing our logo, ordering of the t-shirts and banner, and tables she loaned us for the booth. All in all it was a terrific day. I'm really looking forward to our next meeting this Tuesday to see how many new Tea Party Patriots attend.