Happy First Anniversary to Evey and Eric!

Today is their first anniversary!  I am so happy for them both.  Around 4 p.m. today, we will be arriving at their apartment, and I will be hugging Evey for an hour at least. I have not seen them since last December.

Yesterday, as many of you on FB already know, our rental car was rear-ended as we drove to the local Denny's for dinner.  Everyone is fine.  There was only one lady in the other car, a 2001 Ford F-150 pick up truck.  It crushed in the bumper and lower part of our 2012 rented Ford Fusion.  So sad.  The car was so pretty.  Here's a picture of the rear end of the car now.

Mark called the rental car company (Fox Rent-a-Car), our insurance, and her insurance.  We have GEICO; she has Progressive.  A cop also pulled up and was very nice.  He made sure we had exchanged all the required info, but if there was no personal injury, no police report needed to be filed.  I was stopped at a red light, and she was slowing down for it, but she said the sun glare made it impossible to see me.  Fortunately, she was slowing down, because if she'd been going faster we all could have been hurt.  We could have been pushed out into the intersection of a busy road and been hit broadside by someone coming down that road.  We feel very, VERY lucky that it was not worse.  Thank God!

The insurance companies both gave us claim numbers.  The rental car company said that since the car is drivable, just drop it off as planned next Monday in San Jose. If it had not been drivable, they were willing to have us swap it out for a new one last night.  I don't see how anyone could do any more than that.  Today we are supposed to hear from a claims adjuster.  I guess we might have to go see one in Santa Clara or San Jose later today or tomorrow.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, since it wasn't our fault, we don't think we will have to pay any money.  We will see.

It did sort of put a damper on the end of an otherwise delightful day. We had another great day in Old Sac at the Gold Rush Days.  We also walked over to the Crocker Art Museum, which is a beautiful place with a wonderful variety of exhibits.  We walked and walked and walked, so much that our legs and feet were aching.  I had a reasonable hotel breakfast, a Subway salad, and had planned on having my tilapia dinner at Denny's. I would have probably lost a little weight, BUT the accident on the way to Denny's blew my resolve out of the water. I was angry and my adrenalin was pumping.  When I got in there, I just craved carbs. I built my own burger on a cheddar bun, veggie burger with lots of veggies and pepper jack cheese, with fries and ice cream. I got the ice cream for free because they screwed up my burger and brought real meat! I sent it back, and to apologize for having to wait so long, they gave me two scoops of ice cream for free.  Of course, I ate it! 

I can feel the weight. It's kind of disgusting how much I'm gaining. I had not lost any of the weight I put on during the Maryland/NJ/NY trip, so this is probably another twenty pounds on top of that ten.  Crazy.  All I can say is that I'm having a heck of a lot of fun, and when we get home, I will have to try to dig down and find that will power that I had back in 2009.  I'm sure you will all hear me scream when I get on that scale the morning of September 11.

Today we are driving from Rancho Cordova to Santa Clara.  We expect that to take about three hours with two small stops to see some historic sites along the way.  That should give us plenty of time to check into the Comfort Inn in Sunnyvale, not far from Evey's apartment.  We can unpack and get ready to meet Evey when she gets home from work at 4 p.m.  I think our dinner reservation is at 7:30 to celebrate that first anniversary! 

Here are a few pictures from our Gold Rush Days. My girlfriend Laverne and her husband Kelly joined us on Sunday. I have known Laverne for FIFTY years!  And she still looks the same! 

 The first thing they said was, "Let's get ice cream," so we did! 

 Laverne, you still look so young and beautiful!  It's nice to have a friend that I've known for fifty years.  Of course, until you pointed that out in the restaurant at lunch, I hadn't even realized it had been that long!

 Taking a break in the railroad museum in Old Sacramento.

 Mark is talking to Verne about the famous photograph of the two railroads meeting up in Promontory, Utah.

 Lunch at the River City Saloon in Old Sac.  Mark and I ate lunch there last year.  Is this going to be a new tradition for us?

 Toasting to old friends!  LOL!  No offense Verne and Kelly. I mean long-time friends!

 Lots of street performers during Gold Rush Days.  These two were pretty good!

 Wagon rides were fun.  We rode one, but not this one.

 A Pony Express rider.  We have been at both ends of the Pony Express trail.  It started in St. Joseph, Missouri and ended in Sacramento.

 We walked to the Crocker Art Museum next.  This was E. B. Crocker, the brother to the Crocker who was one of the "Big Four" who invested in the railroad.  This Crocker gave up a seat on the California Supreme Court Bench to take care of his brothers investments and legal work for the railroad.  He also became quite an art collector.

 Resting in the ballroom of Crocker's mansion.

The museum had a beautiful and eclectic collection of art in the old mansion as well as a big modern wing attached to it.  If you go to Sacramento, I'd recommend a visit to this art museum.