I went to the OPC youth snow rally at Leland Meadows. It was a great experience all and all.
Things kind of got started on the wrong foot literally. After work I picked Penelope up in Hayward. We had already packed everything the night before. Just one problem. Penelope's Mom had insisted on seeing her snow boots earlier. Which did not pose a problem in itself but Friday afternoon she was busy so I picked P up from a neighbors house, and had no access to her apartment. And no access to the boots!!!
This circumstance was understandable she had stuff to take care of that afternoon that even I would agree were a higher priority than the boots. But to be honest I was furious about this boot situation. I was in a bad mood the whole way up. Now I had to by a pair of boots costing both time and money and where was I going to find them? And didn't everyone understand how much effort I'd put in to planning this whole trip out?
Actually I'd been anxious about the trip all week.
What I didn't realize at the time and wouldn't until later was that I had made a much bigger and more preventable blunder myself in trip planning. More on that below.
So we set off slowly in traffic.
I figured we'd be able to find snow boots at a store once we got closer to the snow.
Our first attempts were in Oakdale.
Super Kmart strike 1
Payless shoe source Strike 2 I guess thats why they don't call it boot source
Big 5 (I thought this was a lock although probably over priced) Strike 3
You couldn't by a snow boot in Oakdale if you $1000 cash and $2000 worth of Subway coupons. What a town.
At this point I was acting irked with P.
When we had got all the way to Sonora (where the church was we were staying at) we hit TJ Max No luck. But they directed to that great haven for all weary travellers WAL MART.
And Wal Mart as usual saved the day. We got boots, socks, and received probably the best customer service I've ever got in my life. You just can't find people like that around the Bay Area.
The guy in the shoe section was very friendly. First he apologized for not having proper snow boots. Then presented a good alternative: Gollashes. He even made a joke when I said "15 bucks that's a good price" he said, "and you get a right and a left for that so its 7.50 each". He explained that Gollashes would be OK with the proper socks. And he was an expert on sock material.
I meant to just start off mentioning the boots briefly but this is running kind of long.
Any how problem solved.
At about the same time we were at Wal MArt something occured to me. I had been so preoccupied with having the right clothing for the snow that I hadn't brought anything for us to sleep on. I knew we were going to be sleeping in a church building. What did I expect there to be beds? What a Bozo? I wasn't going to purchase new sleeping bags at that point though so I figured we'd rough it for one night sleeping in our clothes.
Once we got to the church things took a turn for the better. We had a good worship service. I always enjoy worshipping God in circumstances different than my norm. And there was even a sermon on on anger. Go figure.
That night P made out better than me with sleeping arrangements. One of her new buds let her use a blanket.
I slept (barely) on the floor wearing one jacket for warmth and using the other one as a pad (kind of) with my back pack for a pillow. Oh well most times I can't sleep anyway when I'm not home even if there is a bed.
At 4:43 am I woke up for the last time. I went into the hallway and read the Bible by the bathroom light. I read Titus and Psalms 16 thru 20. Something struck me about 18:1:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
David refers to God as his strength. Actually dependence on God for strength, victory, and deliverance is a repeated theme in the Psalms that I've probably read about a thousand times. What struck me this time though was how it relates to something else that has been on my mind.
That is the Fear of God. I confess that I often don't feel a fear of God, and that I think I aught to.
What struck me Saturday morning, sitting outside of the little boys room marked "sons of the King", was that David was dependant on God every day for strength, and if I depended on God more I would fear him more. If I really recognize that withoug God's help I can't accomplish anything (literally) I would fear him more. Another post on this later perhaps.
So Saturday Morning before breakfast I went for a little walk near the Church. Sonora is such a pretty town. I would love to live somewhere like that someday. I think. There is a Christian School there that is also a thrift store. How charming. There is a trailer park right next to the church. I wonder what they charge for space rent. Just a day dream. For now anyway my commitments are here in the South bay.
I had a good talk over breakfast with a guy from the South San Francisco Church. We were surprisingly like minded. And he had some insights about stuff in the Presbytery.
Then up to the snow. It takes about 40 minutes to get from the church in Sonora to Leland Meadows. The drive up was great. The roads were clear and there were awe inspiring views of the Sierras from the 108. You know when you have to keep your eyes on the road, but glance over and see the valleys, the pine covered mountains, and the snow and it's so awesome then you swerve out of your line a little bit then back to the road. It was like that.
I have memoires as a kid driving through similiar mountains and being able to look out the window non stop while listening to Beatles songs. Love Love me do. Although that was probably on the way to Tahoe further north.
This made me want to listen to some classic oldies I didn't have any Beatles so I played the Supremes on the MP3 player.
The snow play was great. The actually snow was just OK. It was icy not fresh. But I'll take icy snow with clear roads over glorious powder and having to dirve through it at least on this trip. Penelope had a great time. She's seen snow once before on our somewhat disastrous trip the winter of 05 into 06. This was the first time she really got to spend a lot of time playing in it though or did any kind of sledding. We hiked up the little hill and slid down on our inner tubes. One high point was that you are allowed link together with other people and a couple of times we slid down the hill with almost 20 Presbyterians linked together on innertubes. But then we couldn't hold together and as Presbyterians tend to do we split. Me & P stayed together though which we also tend to do.
I think I might have travelled faster on the inner tubes then I have before on skis. I'm not sure. On an inner tube you try to go as fast as possible and do nothing to try to slow yourself down. On skis if I were going that fast I'd probably snow plow to slow myself down or turn or end up falling over.
And at about 3 we were on the road again. Praise the Lord that I was somehow awake enough to enjoy the whole day and drive home. The drive home was Fabulous too. I really love driving long distance accross the valley. There are few things I enjoy more than driving on the 205, with some good tunes on in the background, seeing the fields and the mountains in the distance under the big sky. I like this even better than hiking or jogging. I think this is because when I hike or jog there is big focus on my own effort in the activity. Where as seeing the clouds and the faint pink beginnings of a sunset crusin down the hiway all I know is God's good creation.
Then the 84 thru Livermore and the memories of all those Fellowship Dinners and everything looks and feels so good, and then rolling into beutiful Fremont on the 680 and then home.
God is good to drop big blessings on an anxious little squirrel like me. Blessings so big I can't see my way out of them.
Those who fear him have no lack
There and back on a tank of Gas...
