Herlong, CA

Luckily Herlong is only about 45 minutes away. We called Nonna and Grandpa to let them know we’d be interested in making dinner when we got there but they already had it under control. We made a salad when we got there and warmed up the bread. The name of the game was to do as much as we could while we were there so they could take it easy. It was really great to see them, as always. It had been since the wedding but I feel like we didn’t really get to see anyone during that time. I mean we did, but it was all very brief because there were so many people to see.

Per Dan’s request here’s what Herlong is for those who don’t know. Up until the mid 80’s it was a thriving military base which employed a great many people. Since then the base has been largely decommissioned and all of the services and most of the people who used to live and work there are now gone. This leaves an interesting ghost town-esque desert town. If you go down a couple blocks to the end of their street the pavement ends and the desert begins.

We spent until Monday morning in Herlong. On Saturday Margie and Dennis came up and we had a bbq, which we started going pretty early. There were 2 racks of ribs, beef tri tip, pork tri tip, corn and potato salad. It’s interesting how much longer things take to cook at high altitude. Caleb learned that lesson the next day when we grilled again with chicken. The breasts cooked well but the thighs and other pieces took forever and weren’t done by the time we took them off, even though Nonna and I had boiled them first.

Saturday we did some chores, Dan dugs out some weeds next door and I vacuumed the house. Margie and Dennis stayed that night and until mid-afternoon the next day. Sunday we went down to the shed for a little while to check it out with Margie and Dennis. Grandpa stayed up at the other house and fixed our camping chairs for us. One of them was broken from the time we took it out of the garage and we didn’t realize until the first time we tried to use it camping in Shenandoah.

I had been planning to catch up with the journaling there but it just didn’t happen. They had wireless and everything, but I decided to spend the time visiting instead of sitting on the computer. When I was on the computer I felt pretty anti-social like I was wasting the time that we had visiting them, so here we are updating days later. Better than nothing, right?

The time up there was great and it was pretty sad to be leaving. We got to talk to Nonna a lot, I wish I had as good a memory and was as good of a storyteller as she is. To all who read this, all prayers for her are appreciated. She is battling lung cancer (she hasn’t smoked for 40 years and used to walk all the time, it isn’t fair, is it?). They were going to do surgery to take the tumour out but the day of the doctor took another look and though it wasn’t feasible. She will be starting on chemo and radiation now. Like I said, please pray for her. She’s a very strong woman but every little bit helps.