Sabbatical Trip Post #4 - Trip Bummers

Well, today I decided I finally have to post a bummer. But first let me start off with the past few days. We are in Monterey, CA and have really enjoyed it. The weather has been great - a bit chilly, but really nice. And we have been so blessed to spend time with Jason's sister Lisa and her family - Mark, Justin (5 yrs) and Brody (10 mo). WE have gone to great dinners and had the priveledge of Mark cooking for us (he is a chef). Lisa works at the Presido (army training place) and she showed us the simulator shooting range and the simulator convoy area - amazing technology for training our troops. We also went with Lisa and the boys to the Monterey Aquarium and had a great time. Even Jacob went crazy and loved the touch pools and things for little people.

Tomorrow we are up at 3am to drive to Florence for our last stop on the trip. We are waking up early to avoid the San Fran trafic and to capitolize on some sleeping time for the boys since we will have about a 12 hr day.

OK, so now for the bummers. We have had a few hicupps along the way, but so far we have been able to get over them pretty easily. God has definitely been watching over us.
1) The hitch we had installed to put our bike rack on the back of the trailer came unwelded from the trailer bumper - luckily it didn't come completely off before we noticed it, the bikes were just sagging. So, we had to put the rack in George and put the bikes in Harry when we travel. No biggie
2) Jason accidentally hit a truck when he was parking Harry in a really tight spot in Avala beach - all that happened amazingly enough is the license place got tore off so he got some new plastic plugs and put the plate back on.
3) We have leared that Harry is just WAY too long for George to pull safely - Jason has done an amazing job of being attentive and on super-point as we drive. A few times the winds and passing vechicles have sent us 3-4 feet across the road. We deciede to take Hwy 101 back for our long trip tomorrow to avoid so many cars and the high winds we experienced on I-5

But the bummer of all bummers that we cannot easily fix is that Jason decided to 'donate' his wedding ring to the waves of Santa Cruz today:( So for a $500 reward, if you want to do some treasure hunting on Santa Cruz beach let us know. The ring just washed off his finger when a wave hit him. He tried to dig in the sand and waves for almost 2 hrs, but wasnt' able to find it. To those that know Jason's ring, it was his 'crown' and was of course very special to him (not to mention it was a bit more pricy than the average mens ring!). So we are both sad, but things like this happen, so we'll file an insurance claim when we get home and see what we can do I guess.

Even with the bummers, we are having an amazing time and have been so blessed to have this wonderful family time together and see our beautiful country.