During a December phone call with son Matt in California, he told us that his oldest, Montana, was playing JV basketball at her high school in Truckee (California). During high school, I loved watching our team play as I sat with the band so told Barney I’d love to go watch Montana play. He researched their game schedule for home games and flight times into Reno (30 minutes from their home) and set us up for a 1-week trip in January to visit family.
Our uneventful trip to California took us though Las Vegas where we got to have lunch at our favorite restaurant in the airport. Can’t believe we’ve been through this airport so many times that we have a favorite restaurant!
At the Reno airport we saw this sign advertising one of the state’s claim to fame: “the loneliest road in America”. We traveled this road in June 2019 and loved every mile!
When we arrived in Truckee, we woke up to a winter wonderland, kinda.
Barney planned our visit for a time when Montana had 2 home games since away games could be up to 3 hours away—one way. That’s what happens when small towns only have 1 high school so have to play teams from other towns. One night of basketball can have up to 5 games: JV girls, varsity girls, freshmen boys, JV boys, and varsity boys. Truckee’s teams are really good and fun to watch.
Of course our plan didn’t work out as perfectly as it was planned. Montana had a touch of the flu when we arrived, so playing in the first of her 2 games while we were visiting couldn’t happen. She was well enough, however, to sit with her team and go out with all the Truckee teams afterwards for pizza.
The second game of our visit was scheduled for the Tuesday before we flew home so we got to actually see her play, and she was good. In fact, she had earned the Most Improved award since she had never played before (but had watched lots of games on TV with her dad).
During the game, Tucker enjoyed being sandwiched between his dad and Pops.
While Montana wasn’t well enough to play on the Friday night game, she was well enough the next day to join the team from Reno that she used to play with for a scrimmage game in Sacrament.
Montana decided that she wanted to stay with her current team since they play so much faster and with greater skill. Mom was somewhat hoping Montana would want to return to Reno since it was closer and teammates were already friends.
Tucker
Tucker (6th grade) is only playing indoor soccer this winter (but we missed that game), but he certainly is getting his exercise in. Boreal Mountain ski resort has an indoor trampoline building, Woodward, next to the lifts for no-snow indoor kid fun. An annual pass allows young people to go between skiing (snow boarding) and trampolining as often as they like. Tucker goes a couple of times a week, and boy is he good on the trampolines!
In one of the areas the kids can put on a skateboard and jump. Tucker really gets some air in the picture on the right.
While we were upstairs watching, the staff organized a dodge ball game that really drew in the guys and a few of the gals (picture on the left). The back half of the building has these ramps for skate boards and bikes (picture on the right).
What’s nice about this setup is that the young teens and preteens can have freedom to do what they want, when they want. Food is available for a modest price, and staff is watching over everyone to keep them safe. Parents can drop off middle school students (and older) and pick them up later instead of having to hover over them every minute.
As grandparents we’ve enjoyed watching our grandkids grow up and develop abilities and talents they were born with. With Tucker we’ve seen his artistic ability with his drawings and the welding he did over Christmas with his dad. Another talent he has is creating order out of chaos.
Peggy’s office downstairs had become a dumping room when she downsized her job from executive director to fundraising and grants. One of our (Barney’s) projects was to move out a desk, chair, bookcase, and lots of stuff from the room. Peggy was able to “share” furniture with others in the neighborhood, and then she and Barney moved around what was left. I got out a dust rag, but we still had just a plain room.
That evening, Tucker took over and rearranged everything to make the office inviting for his mom to work in.
Peggy and Matt
After getting her office ready for her to work in again, Peggy was able to sit down and relax with Buddy.
So what was Matt doing while we were visiting? Working most of the time. But he and his dad did get some time together in the garage to work on the Scout.
We had such a good time with the Mountain Martins and can’t wait for a next visit! They’re talking about coming out for Christmas. Yea!
