We had originally planned to get our tree with our bible study small group on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There are 6 of us couples in our group and thought it would be super awesome to all go together. One couple found out last minute they couldn't make it due to poor planning and work scheduling. Then another couple pulled out, then another. Sunday church came around and we found out that only two couples could go no problem and due to homework the third couple decided holding off till the next week would be a good idea. It was a tough thing for me to agree too... I hate plans being solidly set for a while and people not keeping their plans. We did wait till the next week.
Church Sunday rolled around and as we were in the same situation as last week. Things completely fell apart. Two couples could only go Saturday, two could only go Sunday, one couple was sick and one was out of town. GOOD HEAVENS!
Our good friends who are also in our small group and the wife was in our wedding as I was in theirs; Liz and Dan were able to go. I had chatted with another couple (Shane and Emma, also good friends of mine) earlier in the week about maybe going with us and they ended up being free to go. At least it didn't fully turn out to be a dud. This was our last chance to go get our tree, so we went for it.
We have lots of National Forests around us and they have this fun deal where you can buy a $10 permit and cut a tree on their property.
We took an hour drive up Hwy 32 to Butte Meadows where everyone from our area goes. There is a National Forest ranger station just in town up there where you can get the permits. Much to our dismay, there was a sign on the door saying that they closed early due to weather. This is the only place we knew of around that sold them; the nearest place was in Chester, maybe 40 miles away. There were a bunch of other unhappy people who showed up when we did to find the same note.
Emma remembered years ago you could purchase permits at the pub in town so we hoped back in the car to go see if it was a chance they still did that. More frustration came over us when the guy behind the counter said "How do you say it? S... O... L?" How classy! Not. He could have just said sorry and not rubbed it in our face. We got quite upset.
One more cafe/pub in town and we headed over there. After people get their trees they come here to get fries and hot cocoa. Hoping that maybe someone has an extra permit we could buy from them. Unfortunately, the only person who did have an extra just sold it as we walked in the door. We were all so unhappy now. Ranting about the people leaving so early when they knew how many people were going to come up that day.
The waitress told us what had happened and we got even more angry. "Due to weather" it had nothing to do with Butte Meadows, there was no rain/snow or anything for that matter. The ladies left because of bad weather up the road on the way to their home in Chester. They should have just waited it out if that was an issue, it would have been safer and a better idea all together.
Battling what to do, we talked it out a while and decided to risk getting caught. We figured that there couldn't be rangers patrolling since the ladies in the office weren't even there. The CHP don't stop people either. If for some reason we did get pulled over we had a very good reason and we tried as hard as we could to go about it the right way. All those other people who came up late decided to risk it too, so we figured we would be fine.
We drove up the mountain and found a good spot to park and started trekking out. It didn't take too long and we found a tree. We actually had success finding trees only feet away from each other.
Mad it down the hill and back home with no problem. It was an exhausting day!
On the following Wednesday we got our tree decorated.
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