Back on the digest

[John Hofstetter <hofs@domain.elided>]

Hello everybody,
Ol' Saline is back on the digest and feeling like he is at home with his 
digest friends. We had a wonderful trip, took a little over 6 weeks to do 
it, and I have to confess the weekend with the Stegmanns and with Howard 
at Howard's (so to speak) museum, and at the Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg museum 
was the highlight for me. Dan came up from Purdue with Jessica and spent 
part of an evening with us, but he hasn't been to the museums yet, so 
still has a great experience to look forward to. 

One of the major things to go, although not necessarily first, is the 
ability to remember names, so when I e-mailed Dan an acknowledgement, I 
mentioned Jennifer (instead of Jessica) and Jerry Lee Lewis and family 
trees that don't branch came into Dan's head, and he quickly clarified 
that he was not there with his cousin, Jennifer. Let me say on Dan's 
behalf that I don't know what Jennifer is like, but Jessica is a very 
pretty, very bright young woman who Dan says is worse than I about 
correcting spelling and grammer.

Howard's thoughtfulness was outstanding in that he gave of his time, his 
knowledge, and his friendship. Steve and Ann coming up from St. Louis was 
also much appreciated. Funny how close we've come to hold the Stegmanns 
with most of our contact being by way of the digest.

Now, we'll be in the Panamint Valley camping most of March and April, and 
you are invited to explore the idea of spending part of that time camping 
there with us on an oasis that we have pretty much all to ourselves. 
Wanda and I have been doing basically the same thing for 35 years now and 
are still getting pretty good reviews for our hospitality and guide 
services. Del from the Land Use Network will have his Jeeps there the 
week of April 4th, but they are all in his family and the people are 
great, regardless of their choice of vehicles. The deal is that we 
welcome any and all except for jerks, and the privacy of where we are 
camping makes the Death Valley experience much different than being with 
the 50K or so who camp on the other side of the mountains. 

Several of the digesters are planning on being there for a part of April, 
some others are still exploring the possibility, and if you would like to 
join in, please feel free to contact me. By the way, the only charge, is 
a $10 per night camping fee, for the owner of the oasis. Some of us are 
planning on connecting our camping in the Panamints with leaving just in 
time for Tulare, so that's a possibility. That would be a good week as 
there will be few others there in the Panamints at that time.

Glad to be back on the digest.
Glad too that I unsubscribed so that I only had 489 messages instead of 
800 or whatever.

John



John Hofstetter  "Ol'Saline's Web Site" www.goldrush.com/~hofs
"Perhaps more to remember than ever really happened"
Life Member, National Rifle Ass.     California Rifle and Pistol Ass.
Member, Sierra Macintosh Users Group and MacTwain Macintosh Users Group
Charter Member, FRIENDS OF DEATH VALLEY   Member, Blue Ribbon Coalition
Life Member, Association of California School Administrators
Owner of 79 Scout Terra "It's a legend"