1/17-21/23 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Tuesday through Saturday.

The road over was clear, bare, and dry. When I got to Deception Falls, I took a call from Robert and we had a nice conversation for almost an hour. I continued over the pass and arrived at noon. The temperature was 30 degrees. I brought my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, and then had my lunch and a nap. I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing the piano and then discovered that telephone was out. I was able to get a text message from Ellen telling me that my phone wouldn't ring.

On Wednesday morning the phone was still out. Ellen had called in a trouble report to the telephone company but they hadn't fixed it yet. They were scheduled to come and fix it on Friday morning. The temperature outside was 25 degrees and it was snowing. Ellen sent me a text message telling me she planned to take a bus to Leavenworth on Friday and we could snowshoe, spend the night, and go home together on Saturday. That was exciting news.

After practicing the piano, I went outside and improved the snow trails so they were safer and I cleared the snow off of the concrete steps. I went down to the truck and checked to make sure that our snowshoes and poles were in the truck. They were. Then I did a considerable amount of clearing projects and other odds and ends off of the dining room table. Then I vacuumed the first floor and did a minor repair on the vacuum cleaner.

On Thursday morning the telephone was working again, so I called and cancelled the service call. The temperature outside was 20 degrees and there had been a small ice storm. I practiced the piano, and then listened to the radio for a while. Then I did some dusting before having my lunch and a nap.

When I got up I went down to the crawl space and insulated the water heater pipes. Then I rebuilt the water heater restraint so that it fit the new, bigger, water heater.

On Friday the temperature outside was 18 degrees and the weather was clear. After practicing the piano, I went down to the crawl space and folded up the tarp I had used to wrap the water heater and then I brought the tarp down to the truck where it belonged.

At 11:00 o'clock I drove to Leavenworth and parked at the bus stop so that I could pick Ellen up. I watched the bus drive by and then Ellen gave me a phone call telling me that the bus company had changed the location of the bus stop without telling anybody. She told me where the bus went and then I followed later and found her. What a way to run a bus company.

After I picked her up, we drove straight to Cashmere and visited Robert and Tess at their store. We had a great lunch at their eatery. Then we drove back to Lake Wenatchee and snowshoed one of the trails at the South State Park. The weather was beautiful and the views were the best we have ever seen. When we finished we went back to the cabin and had a great time reminiscing and cleaning.

On Saturday morning we had our breakfast, packed up our gear, and left for home at 9:00 in the morning. It was a wonderful getaway and adventure.