Chapter 13: Relocations

The second half of the school year passed quickly. We continued to chip away at establishing some sort of foothold on that other Earth. Mostly it was just a matter of a little better organization and timing. We weren't really thinking about finding gold so much as just being able to move around, being safe and exploring. The resources my Dad started bringing to bear began to make me wonder just a little at whether all the McKesson wealth had remained behind in North Carolina as I'd always thought.

At first, transportation had been a big issue, but one evening Dad pulled into the yard in a U-Haul van, one of the larger ones. In it were three matching forest green Suzuki King Quad 700 ATVs. That night, after midnight, Dad, Mom and I pulled into the parking spot nearest that downtown Jump Point — Yes, we'd started calling them that — and quietly wheeled the three machines close enough for me to pull the three machines through with me, where I made sure they were all pushed a little farther from the jump point. Satisfied, I quickly moved back through, and we were back home with the front door locked in five minutes. It had been the first time Mom had seen me make the transition, and that along with the excitement and danger had her pretty riled up. Dad told me to go ahead and head to bed, and he'd make sure to get her calmed down. Based on the gleam in his eye I had my suspicions about just how he planned to calm her down, but heck, they're in love, so what's wrong with that?

Once I was the ripe old age of 15 ½ years that is required by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, I was able to get my learner's permit. Ginny had gotten hers almost a month before me, and I had been counting the days until I had mine.
Once spring arrived, Dad and I spent the occasional Sunday driving here and there in the area around Angel's Camp. Dad and I used the driving time as something of an excuse to scour the Angel's Camp area for any jump points, preferably ones that were in isolated areas. And we pretty much washed out. We had found nothing new, not even any of the weaker ones.

We had officially given up on our quest by the Sunday in May when Grandma and Grandpa Carson came back to check on a couple of properties. The pleasant Christmas visit, with the easy trip up to Tahoe had been the final straw it seemed, and they were now actively looking into moving. When they got to the house we had a nice lunch, and then Grandpa let me drive his 1970 Pontiac GTO to Green Horn Creek Resort. In addition to a very nice golf course the resort had quite a few houses for sale in what amounted to a gated community. It took several minutes for the buzz from driving an authentic 70's muscle car with a 350 Horse power engine to subside. Grandpa actually apologized for not still having his original GTO with a 400 Ram Air IV engine and manual transmission. He said it was a sweet convertible model, and he loved it, but there were only 24 of those models that came off the production line in 1970, and he traded it to a collector 10 years ago for the one I had just driven and a considerable chunk of change.

Officially, we looked at three 'properties' that day, but really, I had stopped looking after the second one. Smack dab in the middle of the driveway of that one was the jump point we had been looking for.
Once we'd looked at the third home, Grandma and Grandpa both agreed that they wanted to talk it over, but that they were very interested. The four of us piled into the GTO and headed home. I pulled into the driveway and handed Grandpa his keys, and thanked him for the chance to drive his 'Goat'. He cackled at that, thanked me for keeping the shock and awe to a minimum, and suggested that I might get to drive it a few more times if they bought one of those houses. I suggested that perhaps I could endure that kind of hardship, and we headed into the house. On the way in, I motioned to Dad to hang behind a second, told Grandma and Grandpa we'd be right in, and waited for the door to close in front of us. I walked back towards the GTO as if it might be the topic of our conversation, and while we walked that way, I whispered to Dad
"How hard do you think it'll be to talk them into buying the second house?"