Greetings family, friends and neighbors.  Today's collection of little ramblings reminds us that we don't always need to be at the top.

Nostalgic Ramblings

MAKING IT TO THE……BOTTOM

We got an early start  from Glacier Point to beat the afternoon heat on our quest to climb Yosemite’s iconic Half Dome.  The first eight miles of the Panorama Trail skirts the rim of Illiloutte Gorge and then drops down a series of steep switchbacks to the Nevada Falls bridge where we take a brief break. The next mile and a half is a steady trudge up a portion of the heavily traveled John Muir Trail in sand ground by hundreds of back packers and strings of pack mules to the junction of the Half Dome Trail. From here it’s a steep steady climb through the forest with the final yards scrambling over an unmarked trail of rocks and boulders to the domes exposed shoulder. Unexpectedly I’m struck by an attack of vertigo and eagerly retreat to a less exposed location of Half Dome’s shoulder.  My hiking buddies Roy and Katie successfully traverse the cables to the summit while I regain my wits on a shady rock and quietly congratulate myself having made it to the…...bottom of Half Dome.

Randy and I decided to work in one last Chicago tourist attraction before meeting up with the other members of our department at O’Hare Airport. We had been in the Midwest visiting typesetting and book printing vendors and planned to visit the Sears Tower, at the time the tallest building in the country, in plenty of time before our afternoon flight. It took longer than expected to get to our destination and then we learned that you had to take and escalator down to the buildings basement in order to get one of the  elevators to the observation deck. After waiting in line and  presuming that there will be a similar line waiting to get back down, we decided not to take the chance of missing our flight and caught a taxi to the airport after having made it to the…...bottom of the Sears Tower.

In the summer of 1986 I had the opportunity to take a five day white water rafting trip on Oregon’s Rogue River. The first mile or two was a period of figuring out the paddle commands, searching for places to hang on and contemplating what adventures may be waiting down the river. Our first “white water” was Graves Creek Falls. While our guide was shouting directions I quickly headed to the bottom of the raft and held on for dear life! After a few sets of rapids I gained the enough courage to sit on the edge of the raft and paddle until the last critical moment then hang on and ride the rapids. It’s really quite exhilarating crashing through  through the rapids with water smashing over the front of the raft drenching everyone and everything on board. We encountered our first real falls about three miles down stream. Thankfully the crew took the rafts over the fifteen foot roaring falls while us paying customers walked around the edge to the…….bottom of the Rainie Falls.

Jim and I were pretty excited about visiting Disneyland for the first time. It was Thanksgiving weekend in 1955  and “The Happiest Place on Earth” had only been open four months. We were well versed about the park having watched all of the Disneyland shows on TV for the year prior to the opening and knew exactly what we wanted to do and see. Dad, on the other hand loved to drive and was excited about bypassing the freeway through Grapevine in his 1949 Oldsmobile convertible and exploring a new route through Walker Canyon to Death Valley. After visiting Dante’s View, the Sand Dunes, and Bad Water Basin we traveled to Las Vegas to tour Hoover Dam, and then (finally!) to Disneyland. Jim and I can say that we were at Disneyland in it’s first year of operation, but we can also say that we were once at 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley at the ……bottom of North America. 

It doesn’t get any lower than that!                     -Bill  3/24