1/9-11/18 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at noon and discovered that there had been over a foot of snow and that there was a 2-foot berm in front of the driveway thrown up by the snowplow. I could see that Mike had not been in to plow my driveway. The snow was about as heavy as mashed potatoes so it was very heavy to shovel away.

After spending an hour shoveling out a place to park, I parked the truck and got stuck. I just left it that way and then spent another hour making trails to the concrete staircase, shoveling off the staircase, and making another trail the rest of the way to the cabin.

Then I hoisted the flag, fed Roxie a dog biscuit, built a fire in the wood stove, brought my gear up from the truck, and then called Mike and asked him to come over and scoop out my driveway.

I had just finished my lunch at about 3:30 when Mike showed up. He scooped the driveway out between my truck and the road so I could back out and park in the road while he cleared the rest of the driveway and parking area. There was a lot of snow, so he made some pretty big snow piles. The scouts are coming up next week, so they will appreciate those big piles. That's where they dig their snow caves.

After Mike left, I took a nap and relaxed for the rest of the day.

On Wednesday I devoted the day to cleaning up the cabin. Ellen and Marilyn were coming up for the weekend and the week after that, the scouts would be up. I started on the front porch by removing a bunch of lumber. I unscrewed Dr. Dick's rebar cutter from the deck and moved it out of the way and I unscrewed the grinder from the workbench and brought it down to the crawl space. I wanted the porch deck to be as clear as possible because the scout parents typically sleep out there. I cleared the workbench and its shelf completely so they can use it for their kitchen.

When everything was cleared out, I swept the porch and the log wall. It looked pretty spiffy when I finished.

After lunch and a nap, I split three rounds of firewood and stacked it. Then I vacuumed the loft floor and about half of the first floor.

On Thursday morning Dave called first thing and we had another delightful conversation. Then I finished vacuuming the first floor and did some more tidying up. Next, I set up a cot in the living room in case Marilyn would rather sleep there than up in the loft. Finally, I trimmed a bunch of loose threads that were sticking out of the straps on Ellen's snowshoes. Last time I noticed that those threads interfered with the buckles and they collected ice as she walked.

It snowed hard all morning and it was piling up fast, so I had an early lunch and left for home by noon. It continued to snow all day and I heard later that it snowed two feet. I followed a snowplow all the way up, over, and down the other side of the pass.

1/12-13/18 Ellen, Marilyn, and I spent Saturday night at Camp Serendipity.

I called Mike before we left Seattle and learned that it had snowed two feet on Thursday and that my driveway was plowed. That was good news. We stopped to pick up Marilyn and she fixed us a great lunch. We proceeded on and arrived at Camp Serendipity shortly after noon.

Since Marilyn had her snowshoes with her, she and I made a snowshoe trail from the hairpin turn where the truck was parked up to the cabin. We also snowshoed back down to the truck which packed the trail enough so we could walk on it with boots alone. Then we all brought our gear up to the cabin and sort of settled in.

I turned on the cabin lights including the outdoor flood lights, so we would have light when we returned, and then the three of us took off for Leavenworth. We had some trouble finding a parking place, so we ended up paying $10 to park at a restaurant parking lot.

Then we took in the sights of the Ice Festival they were having, we took a long walk in the park at the river, and then we spent some time in a bookstore.

We had reservations at the restaurant for 5:00 but we showed up earlier and got seated right away. We had a great Italian dinner and then got in the truck and headed back to Camp Serendipity. It was nice having those floodlights on.

I built a fire in the stove and after showers we watched "About Schmidt" on DVD. None of us really knew what to expect and we were surprised at how good the movie was. It left you with a lot to think about. Marilyn chose to sleep on the cot in the living room and she said it was very comfortable.

On Sunday morning, for breakfast, I fixed eggs, toast, and li'l smokies for Marilyn and me. Ellen had her usual light brunch later on.

When the dishes were done, we headed for the snowshoe trails at South Lake Wenatchee State Park. The weather was clear and still, and the snow was nice so we had a pleasant walk around the loop. When we left, I unknowingly dropped my cellphone.

We drove to Plain so Marilyn could visit Plain Hardware. She bought a little gift there and then we returned to Camp Serendipity. In a short while, I discovered that I had lost my cellphone. Thinking, and hoping, that it might be in the truck, I went down to check. While I was down there Paula called to tell us that a guy had found my phone and had called her with a message for me to call him so I could get my phone back. It was a great relief to hear that and I was glad the period of anxiety only lasted for about 20 minutes.

Ellen fixed lunch for us and when things were cleaned up and packed up, we left for home. On the way, Ellen made contact with the guy who found my phone and learned that we could pick it up in Mountlake Terrace where he lives. We drove there on the way and I got my phone back. It worked out well. I saw that it was my mistake that caused the phone holster to fail. When I got home, I fixed that mistake and put the holster back together again. It topped off a nice adventure.