Jim Leaves for Seattle

Oy!  It's been an eventful 24 hours.  Yesterday it became evident that Jim would have to go to the GPNW.  What was not clear was how quickly did he need to be there.  It's very difficult to get timeline information out of a doctor.  Ask a nurse, they know everything.
We immediately went in to text book hair on fire planning mode.  We decided to drive Jim to Reno today, he flies out Thursday.  On paper it looked like a good plan, what we didn't know is how damn long it takes to get there.  Lots of up and down, single lanes, stop lights and etc.  I ended up dropping him in Carson City, where he got in a taxi to take him in to Reno so that I could turn around and head back to Bishop.  It was taking way too long to get there, so that was the revised plan.  The second revision is that Jim changed his flight back to land in Mammoth which is 40 miles north of here.

It's a beautiful drive.  The scenery is spectacular.  This is a lake with cows and white birds.  I don't know what they were, they're big with black on the under sides of their wings.

It's unfortunate that this picture did not turn out better.  See the lumpy clouds on the bottom and off to the right?  Those are lenticular clouds, which indicate really high winds aloft.

Between Mammoth and Bishop southbound, there is an 8 mile 6% down grade.  I really would have liked to have had engine braking for that one.  The drive from Bishop to Reno next week in the bus is going to be long and slow, there is much up and much down.
Isn't that pretty?  I stopped at an overlook midway to gather my nerves and let the brakes cool off.

So, Jim is staying the night in Reno, he'll fly out on a non-stop in the morning which will get him into Seattle about noon. 
Jim's Mom has had enough suffering and has called in hospice.  They arrived today and will set about making her comfortable, which is something she hasn't been in a long time.  We don't really know what will happen next.  We do know that she's ready to go.