Back to Hollister for work and fun-aerotow over Sierras

I took the Amtrak coach starlight from my new home in Eugene, OR south over the Cascades and past Mt. Shasta on a clear full-moon night.  I had to get the conductor to turn the lights off in the almost-empty observation car at about midnight when we passed by.  It was a beautiful sight.  The moon was overhead and visible through the roof windows.  Picture-taking would have been difficult but it looked something like this, only darker:

My old(he's younger than I) boss at the Hollister Soaring Center, Quest, picked me up at the Salinas train station.  I spent the first of many comfortable nights with my fellow commercial glider pilot, Doug Padrick.  10am the following day found Doug and I launching in the Duo Discus behind Charlie Hayes in the Cherokee.  We were aero-towing the glider OVER the Sierra back to its home in Minden, NV.

Over the Diablos and across the Valley with the snow-capped Sierra ahead!

There's Doug in the back seat.  Nice to have two pilots and dual controls!

We're feeling real comfortable now at 12000' with Minden in easy glide and S. Lake Tahoe airport right below us:

Now we have released from the towplane and are headed for the Carson Valley just on the other side of this "little hill" ahead:

Mission accomplished:

Now the most difficult part of the trip for me, sitting in the rear seat of the Cherokee, without controls, while we make the return flight over the High Sierra in a single-engine airplane.  One of the reasons I transitioned to glider from power was to remove that anxiety!

Climbing out of Minden headed for Hollister:

Passing Lake Tahoe:

The high peaks wilderness west of Lake Tahoe:

Back over the Diablos, passing Pacheco Peak, almost to Hollister:

We were blessed with fantastic weather, we had good equipment and proved ourselves to be competent pilots.  Who says work has to be drudgery!