SPRING has sprung

"Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, where last year's careless driver is!" - BurmaShave

Slower times allowed you to read the BurmaShave signs posted along the hiways and byways of America.  Now we have instead AMBER ALERTS.  I am sure we had children abducted back then, we just didn't have a national data base - wasn't even a word for data base!  People also took summer vacations of two weeks to a month to recharge their batteries, their bodies, and their souls.  Fast forward to the present and many a family gets a few long weekends, if that, each year!!  

One of our resort guests was chatting with me about how she wanted to have a bed and breakfast UNTIL she talked to an owner who was lamenting the fact that it was a 24/7 business...the phone was always ringing with reservations, in the middle of a movie, or a quiet conversation with your family!!  I told her that in the 51 years of marriage we had never had anything BUT a 24/7 career!  Computers that need fixing do not care if you have something else to do.  I remember the baptism of our first son - his dad kept his hand on his beeper (vibrate was a few years away!!) since he was on call that morning!  A family doesn't have sickness on your schedule as a mom, and that includes the INN years when an employee getting sick meant an extra shift for "mom"  - the boss!  Then there is being a pastor, also a 24/7 schedule (supposedly with FOUR WEEKS vacation! (:-D)  So it is just the way life has been for US, thank GOD it is not that way for everyone or we would have NO BUSINESS at The Rivers Resort in beautiful downtown Strawberry, population 164 and holding!

The flowering plum is blooming and with the 75 degree weather this weekend, those buds should ALL be open by Monday!!  That means just one more Spring snow storm - TRADITION, TRADITION!!  I put all of the snow shovels away yesterday, just to make sure we will have that one more storm!!  After all, the FISHERMEN are coming NEXT weekend - that would seem like a good time for a snow storm, and it wouldn't be the first time!

Call soon for your summer reservation; the spaces are getting fewer and ESPECIALLY for the large cabins. We do have one week in Cabin #5 - the first week of July!

Happy Easter from the Central Sierras

It is a LOVELY weekend here in Strawberry, chilly in the early morning, but great weather by noon.  Since several schools were out LAST week, and even more are out this coming week, Dodge Ridge is staying open until next SUNDAY !  So if you haven't had those skis out of the garage yet this year, it is not too late YET!  We are expecting a storm on Tuesday, and possibly one on Saturday which will add to the base at the ski area and make for the best skiing - fresh always trumps "machine groomed" even if those groomers are geniuses at finding and moving around the white stuff that makes skiing possible in a relatively DRY winter!

We have vacancies at The Rivers Resort and if you mention MountainMartha you can have the off-season rates THIS WEEK even if our rates are not SUPPOSED to change until after Sunday the 15th!!  I'm just the curious sort RE: guests READING my blog!!

The daffodils are blooming as far up the mountain as Sierra Village, but the flowering plum next to the Post Office in Strawberry has NOT bloomed yet, so we still have some more storms coming!   Cal Trans moved the winter closure point to Eagle Meadows Rd to allow folks to find some snow to play in.  The Leland SNOW PLAY is open www.snowplay.com as well as DodgeRidge.com where you will find the best web cams in the Sierras!!  I think that everyone must check the weather using the web cams as I get very few "Is it snowing?" calls anymore.

We are thankful that this weekend is a sunny one for all of the Easter Egg Hunting children, but will be thankful for the additional moisture in the high country - we need that as well!  Have a blessed Easter and be thankful!!