Tetherball!

Tiny Victories and Mildly Terrifying Moments

“Who throws rocks in a pool?”

I overheard the pool maintenance guy saying this as he questioned his life choices while I sat nearby reading my book. I giggled.

A few minutes later, two little boys rode by on scooters and I heard one of them say, “I thought you were brave, Justin.”

Apparently Justin had declined his brother’s dare to do God-knows-what on that scooter.

Campgrounds are excellent places for eavesdropping.

My level of excitement at discovering a tetherball at our campground was embarrassingly high. There is just something nostalgic about tetherball that instantly transports me back to elementary school.

Lee says this means I’m a super dork. 😂

I convinced Maria to play with me and am proud to report that I still have tetherball skills. Or maybe—and this is admittedly more likely—Maria simply didn’t care nearly as much as I did.

Have I mentioned that I’m competitive?

That tetherball had no idea what it was getting itself into.

Final score:

Jen: 3

Maria: 0

I would like the record to reflect that I absolutely schooled her.

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Rainbow Pool in Groveland turned out to be an unexpected hidden gem. Calling it a “pool” is a little misleading. It was more like a beautiful lagoon tucked into the forest.

Lee braved the cold water while Maria and I lounged in the shade with our books. Between the waterfalls, tree canopy, birds flitting around overhead, and the complete lack of a schedule, it felt downright luxurious.

That evening, Lee unveiled a projector and screen he had brought along so we could watch movies under the stars.

In theory, this was a fantastic idea.

In reality, the three of us spent an embarrassing amount of time pushing buttons, checking settings, unplugging things, plugging them back in, and pretending we knew what we were doing.

To this day, I have no idea whether the problem was Wi-Fi, technology, or user error.

Actually, it was probably user error.

We gave up, made s’mores instead, and called it a win.

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The next day we drove up to Glacier Point, which everyone told us was a must-see.

They were not wrong.

It was breathtaking.

Yosemite Valley is stunning from the bottom, but Glacier Point gives you an entirely different perspective. Sometimes that’s what we need in life—a different vantage point that helps us remember how precious life really is, even during the difficult seasons.

Now, speaking of difficult seasons…

Am I the only person who physically leans toward the mountain while driving along a road with a cliff edge?

You know, just in case basic physics suddenly decides to become optional?

I spend those drives alternating between marveling at the spectacular views and turning my head away so I don’t have to see how close we are to plummeting to our deaths.

Meanwhile, Lee is calmly driving and enjoying the scenery.

Lee is an excellent driver.

I still almost peed my pants.

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Stanislaus National Forest borders Yosemite, so we passed through it several times.

At some point Maria started pronouncing it in a forceful German accent:

“Stan-ees-LOUSE!”

For reasons I cannot explain, this became hilarious.

Eventually I looked up the name because I was curious why a California forest seemed to have a German-sounding name.

Down the internet rabbit hole I went.

It turns out the forest was named after a Native American leader named Estanislao, whose name was later anglicized to Stanislaus.

So no, it wasn’t named after a German.

But we will probably continue saying “Stan-ees-LOUSE” for the rest of the trip.

Speaking of naming things, I spotted a beautiful bird with bright blue feathers and what appeared to be a mohawk.

“It’s a blue jay,” Lee confidently declared.

Alas, it was not.

It was a Steller’s Jay.

Naturally, this led us to invent an entire backstory.

We decided two men discovered the bird together and immediately began arguing.

“That’s obviously a blue jay.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes it is.”

After several minutes of debate, one of them finally got fed up and declared:

“Forget it, Bill. I’m naming it after myself.”

And thus, Steller’s Jay was born.

We may not know much about birds, but we do know how to create completely fictional origin stories.

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Finally, on our drive to Lake Tahoe, I drove the RV for the first time.

It’s huge. Every bump sounds like the entire contents of the vehicle are about to launch themselves into my lap, and every turn feels like a small engineering experiment.

Other than that, it’s exactly like driving a normal vehicle.

Mostly.

I may or may not have gotten a little aggressive with the steering wheel while avoiding a giant logging truck.

But we’re all still alive.

And honestly, at this stage of the adventure, I’m counting that as a major success.

Lake Tahoe, get ready.

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