John and Elaine first went to help her daughter Laura while she was recovering from a surgical procedure. This was from June 22 to June 26. They had recently installed a large above-ground swimming pool in their backyard, and here are photographs of John enjoying it in the hot desert weather.

On the Monday we went up to visit with Elaine's brother David and Betty at their home in Kernville, at the head of Lake Isabella in the lower Sierra Nevada. Although they have a very small backyard he has managed to put a lot into it, including a hut which looks like a very old Western cabin. He collects antique tools and stoves, etc.

At that time there had been a lot of rain up in the mountains, and the Kern had made the lake deeper than it had been for some years, and the river Kern above Kernville was still very high. We went up the Sierra Highway to see the river and took a photo at the Kernville campsite where we had camped in August 2003 with Laura's kids, so we could compare it with a photo taken at the same spot then.

On our way home we spent a night at Olive Dell Ranch, a nudist park in Colton which Elaine had never been to, and I had not been there for years. The son of the owner had recently taken it over and it had already been improved a lot. We slept in a tiny A-frame which did not even have a table, but the bed was alright. It is a very friendly place with more teenagers than is usual.