Glorious moon.

April 17, Big Bear Lake, California.

Two of the circus trucks didn't make it to Big Bear Lake, up in the San Bernardino mountains.
In order to avoid the longer road up the mountains from Hemet down in the valley, Gustavo, the "24-hour man," who maps the route for the circus among many other things, had us go all around them via the I-215 and 15 freeways to California state highway 18 on the other side of the San Bernardino National Forest, instead of driving up that same road from the Riverside area. The stretch of mountain road on the desert side is three times as short but it is just as steep, and two of the big rigs gave up half way to the top.
Our Dodge truck, a 3500 dually diesel engine truck, was struggling all the way, and we were worried about it too, but it did fine. I went all the way up at 15, 20 miles an hour in second gear, watching the gauge for signs of overheating, alternatively behind and in front of Fridman and his big rig.
The road was beautiful. I don't remember driving it when I was working in the area because we would always drove from the west side. Near the top of the ridge we were greeted by a glorious moon, jumping out in front of us, bathing the whole mountain in silver light, disappearing behind a curve and startling us again around the next, playing hide and seek, big enough to touch.
And this morning I woke up to the sight of a mountain slope draped in immaculate snow. Big Bear was one of the few good things about living in Riverside.