Just another day in the mountains, with many injuries

Yesterday I had a sneaking suspicion I f’ed up my car getting here…..

And then this happened…..
Yes, that is hail and heavy, heavy rain. Gotta love those mountain summer Thunderstorms!
Luckily we found this rocky ledge to hide under and try to keep our cameras and our beers dry.
Ten Minutes later the sun shine returned to the Deep Creek Area and we got to really enjoy ourselves creek side, floaties, leeches, sharp slippery rocks and all.
And that’s when I broke my toe.
The floaty started to escape down stream, I went sloshing through the creek after it, slipping on under water rocks I couldn’t see, and crack! Broken toe’s for me. This is of course the second broken toe this week, different foot though. Yea me!
It looks like were having such a great time, right? Then I had to go and grab my bff’s boob. It really was an accident. (I swear only one beer was involved in this creek trip)

So yes, today is officially the first day of summer! You know it is officially summer time when it is time to go to the creek to swim, float, fish and drink beer. That means off roading in my Subaru to get there. Apparently, sadly for me, that also means feeling like my alignment is fucked up driving to work the next day. I almost lost control of my car on one turn on Highway 330, and I was taking said turn BELOW the speed limit, at like 45, when I have been known to go 65 at this corner. Lets just say by the time I reached work I was almost in full panic attack mode wondering how much THIS was going to cost me. I’m kind of glad I manged to read up on how to stop a panic attack, otherwise it could have been serious.
But you know what? Yesterday? So worth every minute of panicky, panic today. This picture? Is pure happiness.

Sitting on a floaty with my best friend (Who I only see once a year as she lives on Okinawa) in my favorite creek. Okay maybe I did ruin the moment by vibrating the raft (What? I have a lot of fiber in my diet?) A day spent at the creek amid the thunderstorms, pouring rain, hail, good friends and cold beer is a excellent way to spend the Fourth of July
I mean once you move past broken toes, sprained ankle (Off I go to CK Physio – or somewhere similar at least) and angry car. A day at the creek with the best of friends is well worth these little hiccups you have along the way.
So how did I sprain my ankle, after breaking toes you ask? Well, we finished with our floating, farting (Oh wait, that was just me) and beer drinking; took a few pictures of girls on rocks (Because come on! Its girls! Girls on rocks!) and started the hike up. I almost fell on my face. Luckily, twisting my ankle in the sandy dirt saved me. No kidding, worst ankle pain of my life. So what do I do? We still have a mile hike out, and lets face it, no one wants to carry gassy Amber. Not even the best of friends! So I powered through, hiked all the way out. Honestly my rapidly swelling toes hurt more in my sneakers then my ankle did. Until this morning that is, when I tried to go for a run, and realized, yeah, my ankle hurts. Time to start wearing an ankle support, I think. Apparewntly this is the Greatest Ankle Compression Sleeve you can buy, so I’m going to take a look. After our day at the creek, I was so sore from that crazy hike for two days, then on the third day I did the same hike again with a friend. That was yesterday, yes toes and ankles still sore. Today I spent the day floating in Big Bear Lake with Janette and oh man, my toes hurt today. No more hiking or running for a few days. I need to let my poor broken body heel a bit.

So that brings us to my Tar, my Baja, my ‘ru, whatever you want to call it. I almost fish tailed across the highway going hella slow going down the mountain. I got to work and I was freaking out, thinking I had MESSED up my alignment off roading. I get off work that night to find a flat tire. I have never been so happy to see a flat tire in all my life! Although it did mean spending three hours at Costco in 100 degree heat and humidly to get it fixed, just so happy to have my Tar back in working order, driving fast in the mountains in the summer time, sun roof open, mountain breeze blowing my hair… Perfection!

And please enjoy this picture of ducklings at Big Bear
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