No fireplace, no TV, come on man!

This is the last day of the marmots’ vacation in Mammoth Lakes. They are exhausted from the day before and just want to lazily bask in their successes while recovering enough to make the arduous drive the next day.

The marmots stop in “The Village,” the newer shopping and dining area, to look around, buy some Mammoth Lakes paraphernalia, and fulfill Marmot 02’s fantasy of getting a caramel apple at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory while they’re here. They have some success, buying a hat and shirt and getting that caramel apple, which is saved for later. Marmot 01 also buys some crappy chocolate from RMCF out of desperation but is sorry as the marmots always are when they make that mistake. The chocolate is stale and inferior in almost every way to what they are accustomed to, especially for the price. The marmots lament the end of their vacation, but at least they can be excited to get back to civilization where quality chocolate is more readily available. Hopefully Mammoth Lakes will have a See’s or an indie chocolate shop by the time the marmots next return. One consolation is a fun photo session with a badass angry-bear sculpture in front of the RMCF.

Don’t Molest the Bears!

Next stop is the post office to send postcards to their peeps back home. From there the marmots venture to the Bookie Joint to buy some goodies for their moms. Then they head to Graphic Conclusions, a store Marmot 01 remembers her mom really liked, to pick up some more souvenirs there. Last stop of the day is the Mammoth Lakes ranger station, where they hope to find Meadow, the stuffed pika they have pledged to adopt. Sadly, there are no pikas to be found. The marmots commit to order one from the Yosemite Conservancy online.

Looking forward to the Saturday night USC game, Marmot 01 decides they should head to the Vacasa office to tell them for the fourth and probably last time that they did not fix the cable, nor provide a remote control—in addition to everything else. Nancy, the same customer service person the marmots talked to the last couple of times, is clearly sorry she works for such a crappy company but she says there is nothing she can do until the general manager comes back on Tuesday. Maybe the manager will offer a discount when she comes back. Nancy hands over two remote controls that she just has sitting in a drawer though. The marmots take them home and the first one they try works immediately.

Why didn’t Vacasa just hand over the remote when they were first alerted it was missing, wonder the marmots? “God I hate property management companies,” Marmot 02 mutters for the thousandth time.

Don’t know how this picture made the cut?!?!

The final excursion is back to Convict Lake, where Marmot 02 greedily devours her caramel apple while sitting on a rock in pure marmot fashion. Marmot 01 reads to her about Mammoth Lakes history, flora, and fauna. Did you know mule deer migrate to lower elevations in winter? Or that a snowshoe hare is white in winter and brown in the summer? And did you know that pikas are related to rabbits and must always live in temperatures below 77 degrees farenheit? The marmots learned all of these things and more, but—let’s be honest—by now they have probably forgotten most of them.

Back to Convict Lake

Back at the marmot ranch for the last time, Marmot 02 makes pancakes and sausage for their final dinner in Mammoth while Marmot 01 rants about the cable going out every ten minutes. She finally downloads an app to watch it on her tablet, but the internet is also unreliable and cuts out during some key plays. She superstitiously pets Tuolumne as the game heads to double overtime.

Tuolumne the marmot, helps power USC to victory over Texas in overtime!

The announcers are clearly rooting for Texas, which annoys the hell out of Marmot 01. Tuolumne gets the win, though. “Winning is better than losing,” says a relieved Marmot 01. Now it is time for bed as the marmots need to get up early to get back to Medford the next day.