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Mammoth is my happy place.....

mantispf2000

Turbo Monkey
Aug 9, 2001
1,793
243
Nevada, 2 hours from Mammoth
Ha, got you to open and read this. Without getting all misty eyed, tomorrow is Alaina's 15th birthday (why else do you think I ask for #814 for my plate at events?), and wife and I will be celebrating it at our "happiest place on Earth". We do have a few things we'd like to do, though one of them is not spend the whole day cycling. Maybe the gondola to the top, canoe/kayak at Tamarack Lodge, balloon release......you get the idea. I know it's going to be bittersweet, yet very fun.

I still wonder what may have been "if". How many miles would I have on the van by now (I'm up to 283k and counting)? Would she be flying to Phoenix to see that part of the family? How many phones would I have burned through with all the calls from guys or friends? Oh well, oh well, oh well.......

So share with me......... alone, with family, or with your child/niece/nephew/grandchild, where is your happy place? And yes, if you want to get demented, go ahead. Celebrate tomorrow with us.
 

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,430
1,949
Front Range, dude...
Will do amigo...having a beer to celebrate what would have been my friend Sams 22d today. Enjoy your happy place...Alaina will be smiling down on you.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
I have amazingly clear memories of Winchester Lake in CT when I was very young. It was nothing special, just a small lake surrounded by mostly woods (I wonder if it's still undeveloped?), but I used to go there with the kayaks/canoe with my dad all the time. We'd wake up before sunrise, make PB&J sandwiches, and go paddle through the morning mist on the lake. There was a little island out in the middle, not more than 30' across, and we'd stop there to eat the sandwiches and watch the fish jump. I remember learning how to skip rocks in front of the spillway on that lake - one of the first things I remember anyone teaching me.

I haven't even seen it since we moved when I was 11. Part of me would like to go back, to see it again. Part of me wants to keep the memory of it intact without finding it's been developed, or they've torn down the bridge across the spillway, or something like that. It's one of my fondest memories.

Enjoy your day tomorrow.
 

ButtersNZ

Monkey
Jun 6, 2013
176
10
My dad's been racing cars since before I was born. I remember at an early age helping him and his guys in the garage prepping the car before track day, and have fainter memories still of being carried out to the van at 5 am in the morning. But I'll never forget the smell of avgas and sounds of race cars crackling and popping in the distance as we reached the track.

I'm 29 now and it's my 3 brothers and I who drive. Not so much in the competitive sense like the old man did, but we have a race car that's been built up over the last 10 years and in all fairness it's pretty quick. Now it's dad, me and my brothers who work on it the night before, and drive out to the track to spend the day racing. I would say that is my happy place.
 
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