"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy......"

Tim and Laila joined TLE, Brenda and I for breakfast Sunday morning......the girls cooked up some of the left over Mexican food into the scrambled eggs.....it was a great breakfast!  Then it was time to think about getting dressed to go riding one last time on this trip.

In another life time, back in the mid 70's, I remember getting off chair # 9 at Mammoth Mountain on Christmas day at the very beginning of a beautiful, windless, cloudless ski day.  A John Denver song was playing over the loud speaker at the top of that chair lift......"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"......as I stood looking toward the Minarets Sunday morning (a scene I have seen in both summer and winter many times over the years) with the sun on my shoulders, I was thinking of how that view, and that sun hitting my shoulders out of a clear cobalt blue sky, just made me feel at peace, and very happy.  I could still hear the refrain of that song echoing in my memory from so many decades ago.

Sunday morning Paul and Mark decided they would go fishing before heading home, and Richie headed home with his wife and son.....they had arrived early Friday morning and had already ridden 2 days, so it was just Brenda and I who headed down Canyon Blvd. to the Village to pick up the first shuttle of the day at 9:30 am.  Frankly, I was a little bit beat after the 32 miles we had ridden Saturday and would have been just as happy to sit at the condo drinking a second, and maybe a third cup of coffee.  I guess, ultimately, it was the thought of gazing upon that long view one more time, and maybe the fact I had bought a two day ticket that finally got me motivated enough to get dressed and ride.

Just before Brenda and I left to do our last ride of this summer at Mammoth TLE spied a mamma bear and her cubs walking through our parking lot....

.....to think we have been waiting all summer to see bears at South Lake Tahoe, and to see them we have to drive 150 miles south to Mammoth Lakes!

Brenda and I finished our 14 mile final ride with our usual Big Ring trail competition to see if we could do it one more time without pedaling, and we both did.  We were back at the condo loading our bikes on our cars by 11:15.....in all we covered 46 miles of downhill over two days.

Within an hour after our one run of the day Brenda was on her way back to SoCal, and then Paul and Mark returned from fishing and were gone in a few minutes, too.  As always, I do not look forward to saying "until next time", but this time it will only be a short few months until we are back in SoCal with them for a month, or so.

Tim and Laila followed us into town where we dropped off the condo keys at the rental agency, and then headed over to John's Pizza Works to have lunch and say our "until next times".  It was so great to see Tim and Laila this weekend.  Here are a few pics of our time together.

Then it was our turn to make our run back north to SLT and our last two weeks at Tahoe Valley Campground.  We left Mammoth just before 2 and were home by 5, even with a quick stop at TJ's in Carson City.

We now have 9 work days, and only 6 days off left in our sojourn here.....WOW, where has the summer gone?

Thanks for stopping by!