Shabbos was beautiful and relaxing in the Alabama Hills.  In the afternoon, it started to get quite windy.  Saturday night’s forecast called for gusts up to 80 miles per hour.  We could see that the large living room slide was being pushed in along the top edge by the wind.  I was concerned that this deflection could bend the hydraulics and rails that drive the slide, so we brought in the bunkhouse and living room slides and had M bring in his mattress and sleep in the kitchen and B slept on the living room couch.

None of us got very much sleep last night with the RV being blown around.  In the morning, I hitched the RV to the truck to insure that the winds couldn’t snap off the forward landing gear.

Since we couldn’t go outside, we did homeschool.  By the afternoon, the winds eased a bit and we could go outside:

Trish did some more work on her quilt made from scraps of the kids’ worn out clothing:

After a bit of homeschooling, we went into town for groceries and to get a document notarized.  We also checked out some books from the one room library in town.

In the afternoon, we did some more homeschool, then got ready for Shabbos.  M found a nice afternoon reading spot:

Good Shabbos from the Alabama Hills!

Out of curiosity, I overlaid the biggest local climb back home, up Perkins drive to the top of Bear Mountain, on top of yesterday’s climb up Whitney Portal.  Perkins climb is to scale and in purple below:

This afternoon, after homeschool, we went for a short hike in the Alabama Hills in search of Mobius Arch.  The cactus were blooming:

At last we found the arch:

We found smaller arches as well:

This was the first blooming Cholla we’ve ever seen:

After the hike, we put the knobby tires on the bikes and went for a ride amongst the hills.  Some sections were pretty tough, but we had a great time:

Another beautiful day in the Alabama Hills:

Wow, what a difference a day makes, it was just beautiful today:

In homeschool, B graphed the results from a poll she did:

Wheat free cookies were baked:

And quilt squares were made from worn out clothing:

After homeschool, I rode my first hors categorie climb – 4,700 feet of vertical over 12 miles to reach the top of Whitney Portal. The climb is #5 in California’s 10 toughest climbs and is said to be more difficult than the Tour De France’s Col du Toumalet.  The last 500 feet of vertical were really tough, and despite being on the edge of multiple muscle cramps I managed to ride non-stop to the top:

I took a couple photos on the way down:

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Trish and the kids worked on some art.  B’s painting is on the left, the other two are Tricia’s:

I think I’ll go to bed early tonight, hopefully I can walk tomorrow.

Today was gloomy and cold, so we stayed inside after homeschool:

Tomorrow should be sunny and warm.