Mary lives in the gold country of California. With no river really nearby, the local folks cool off by going fluming. The flumes were built during the gold rush to provide water to sluice the creek beds in the search for gold. The water flows downhill from higher elevations and there are many miles of flumes in this area. With the temperature at 96 someone said "Let's go fluming!"

The first step is to drive several miles up a narrow, single-lane road. At last we arrive at the bridge crossing the flume.

Here's Mary, The Fluming Queen.

The floaters head up-flume about one mile with their tubes.

Three of us stayed behind to await the arrival of the flumers.

Kristanne cools off in the flume with a glass of wine.

Here they come! Virginia and Theo in the lead, Mary and Austin in second place and Cedric and Owen have yet to round the curve.

Now to get out of the flume!

Refreshments awaited the floaters.

Here's a link that present the history of the flume here in Calaveras County:
http://uticapower.com/utica_power_authority_history.html

All original material Copyright - Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com

Here's another unusual RV!

http://www.rvtravel.com/blog/weirdrvs/2009/06/rving-russian-style.html

All original material Copyright - Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com

Here's another unusual RV!

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/29/detachable-motor-home-concept-makes-me-w...

All original material Copyright - Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com

So yesterday Mary and I flew from Seattle, WA to Sacramento, CA. It was the first time I've flown since 1991 and I still don't care if I never get on an airplane again. In general, a pain in the butt!

All in all everything went smoothly. The flight ran about 30 minutes behind schedule. But the big pain was when Mary's thingamajig wouldn't work.

To make a long story short, Mary's son Ken had left her car for her pickup in the long-term parking at the Sacramento Airport. That's when we found out Mary's thingamajig wouldn't work. Dead battery!

Here's a picture of Mary's thingamajig.

So Mary called her daughter who lives about 20 minutes from the airport and who has a spare key to Mary's car. Bottom line...about 1.5 hours lost getting access to her car.

Instead of arriving at Mary's House when we should have at 8:30 PM, we arrived at 10:30 PM. We are here for Mary's July 4th family gathering. We will fly back to Seattle. July 7th.

All original material Copyright - Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com