A morning walk to the river.Phyl would NOT take one more step onto the rickety dock. That’s the Kern River, by the way.A tour of the shop.Carol’s painting studio:Upstairs a movie-watching area: Lunch at a Basque restaurant:My third “first” of the weekend: I drove Jerry’s Prowler! Yee-haw!Next, an art show featuring 33 cast pickups painted and embellished by local artists to celebrate Bakersfield.The main purpose for this weekend was to celebrate Carol’s birthday. Four birthdays from the 11th-22nd!

This was a first for me – a ride in Jerry’s plane from McClellan to Bakersfield with Dave and Phyl.This is the way to fly! No long security lines, no waiting, drive your vehicle up to the plane to load luggage, and take off within 15 minutes. Love it! Jerry and his 6-passenger Duke.We flew at 17,500 feet and arrived in ONE hour thanks to a terrific tailwind.Evening activities:Feeding cats,Bonnie the mule,and quite a few raccoons.Another first for me:That was my first and, most likely, my last 1/4 of a cigar.

At Thais and Lenin’s. Carson can sit up really well now and crawling is next.