Friday morning (well, just after noon, but way morning for me), as I’m in that kinda-asleep-but-kinda-not condition that you get to experience if you don’t wake up to an alarm clock, I heard the text-message chime go off on my phone.  At first, I try to ignore it, after all, I’m still “asleep”, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I pick up the phone to see what was up.  Ted sent me a message, saying  “pack your bags ur going to bass lake for the weekend!!!!!!”.  Well…  you can’t argue with something like that, so I started packing.

Here are some pictures and details of the weekend.



It started off playing store tag, with Ted and Joe telling me to meet them at the Jamba Juice in Oakhurst.  I took a turn too early, by about a block, and ended up in the Von’s parking lot instead.  Once I figured out where I was, I mosey’ed on down to the correct location, just to not find them!  I called, got Ted’s voice mail, and basically said “where are you, I’m here!”.  A moment later, Ted calls back, and says they’re at Von’s!  So now I bee bop back up the street to Von’s, and join the weekend already in progress.

Here’s the “cabin” at Bass Lake:

That night, we had a nice BBQ of goodies and then later a nice time in the hot tub.  Yeah, we’re roughing it big time in this mountain “cabin”.

Saturday, we’re up and early, oh around 10 or so, and head out to see what kind of trouble we can get into in and on Bass Lake.  Our compatriots in crime for this jaunt are Ted’s dogs, Ava and Jazmin.

The lake is calling.  Hear it?  Time to rent a party barge!

And look who gets to do the safety briefing!

I’m sorry, I missed that, could you go over it again?

Well, anyway, afterwards, off we go, for a two hour cruise.  Ted sure knows how to throw a weekend!

Captain Jim at your service.  Please keep all body parts within the vessel until we come to a complete and anchored stop.

After a tour around part of the lake, it’s time to go swimming.

The weather started getting rough, our tiny shipped was tossed, if not for the courage of our fearless crew…

we might have ended up drifting into the private boat club’s docks!  Wind came up, and our time was running out, so we put-putted back to the dock.  Another chance to see Red.

A late lunch at the Mexican food restaurant (I’ve forgotten the name! It’s just next to the vacation rental office, though) was very enjoyable.  The food was very good, and the owner was a great hostess, warm and friendly to talk with.  Eat there next time you go to Bass Lake.  Yolanda is her name.

A nap rounded out the afternoon, with a ginormous thunder clap breaking the quiet about an hour in!  I thought something had blown up in the house, until I heard the next big clap a moment later, and then the rain started.

It didn’t last long, and didn’t deter us from joing the Kampout at Texas Flat Campgrounds later that evening.  Arriving just in time for dinner, we enjoyed catered tri-tip and chicken, beans, potato salad, bread, and birthday cake.

Catered by Yosemite Falls Cafe, the food was excellent!  Check out the Kampout’s web page for details about this 31 year tradition in central valley LGBT society.  (first year for me. I will probably go again, as long as I don’t have to tent it if I stay overnight!)

The stage show later was something to see!  Since it was dark, I don’t have any pictures of that to show you, but you can check out the Kampout’s pages above to see more.  Here’s the stage where the evening’s entertainment took place.  The theme was 2011, a Space Odyssey.  Campy ’50’s sci-fi was the theme.

Something landed in the camp, and I’m not quite sure where it’s from!

Now, that’s my kind of a tent!

After dinner and the evening’s entertainment, back to the “cabin” for a well deserved rest.

Sunday was a lazy day, we loitered around the house for a while, then went down to Ducey’s for lunch.  Good food, reasonable prices, and we got to eat on the patio.

After lunch, Joe (l) and Ted (r) rented jet skis to play on the lake.  I didn’t much care to ride one of them, so I decided I’d just head home, and call it a weekend.  The guys took to the water and I’m sure had a grand time.  Hopefully no houseboats were damaged this time.

Home after just under a two hour drive, and what did I do?  I mowed the lawn.  Not the most auspicious way to end the weekend, but at least the yard looks halfway presentable.  After staying in a ‘vacation home’ that is much nicer than my ‘actual home’, I suppose I should do more to make it look presentable.  We’ll see how that goes!  Right now, I’m grungy from the yard work, I’m hungry, my feet and legs are a bit sore, and I’m ready for bed!  But it’s still too early for that, so I suppose I’ll see what’s on the DVR.

I wonder when I’ll have another spontaneous weekend??