Thursday Rambles - Back From a Little Break

Did you miss me? Did you even notice that I had been away for a few days.  I hope not, I always try to arrange things so my readers have something fun each day, and I don't like to advertise that my house is empty when I am away.  

We left on October 23rd, flew to Reno, via Dallas.  I spoke at a conference in Reno on the 24th, a couple of very successful presentations, did a little networking, then left the the next day.  We spent a day in Carson City, toured the old Nevada State Capital, and the Nevada Railway Museum, spent the night, then went onto Lake Tahoe for four wonderful days.  While I was speaking on Sunday, and into Monday morning, it rained in Reno, it snowed heavily in the mountains.  At elevation over a foot of snow, in the really higher elevations three feet of snow.  In places it was a record setting snowfall for October.  By the time we drove around Lake Tahoe, all but one short section of the road was clear and open.  And the views and landscape were spectacular.  Lake Tahoe is described as the largest alpine lake in North America (12 miles wide and 27 miles long, at about 6300 ft of elevation.) It is always breathtaking, in a fresh blanket of snow, with the Aspen trees still in full color, it was spectacular.  We flew home on Saturday October 30th, again via Dallas, with a mechanical delay, and online rebooking, we arrived home about four hours behind schedule on a day when American Airlines cancelled 18% of it's schedule, not bad, not bad at all.  

The in-person conference was my first in two years.  It was a little strange, but it worked.  It was nice to see people in person.  A few people I have only ever met virtually.  It was a swan song for one of my mentors from 22 years ago who is taking on increasing caregiving duties for a family member living with dementia. And a small celebration with friends, the day before we left I confirmed a major promotion at work effective the end of January.  I don't talk about my work here, but it is the last step up the ladder for my professional life.  

The break at Lake Tahoe was wonderful.  We had no schedule, no expectations.  A comfortable hotel room, with a view of the lake, and a nice full size - all wheel drive SUV.  We drove around the lake, stopped whenever we wanted. When I say the roads were nearly all open, we drove around the lake the first day, to within 10 miles of the hotel we were staying in, and found the one last section that was closed, turned around and drove back around the lake. We slept late, went out to breakfast, and had a couple of spectacular dinners.  I slept 11 hours one night, ahhh! I needed that.  

No more immediate travel plans. I need to work on that.