Hello again, glad you're back. Our
last episode concluded on Friday, August 2nd, while we
were parked at the Harmony Ridge RV Resort just outside of Nevada
City, California. We are up here in the woods with mediocre power
and weak internet service, but boy are the evenings nice. Very cool,
very quiet – great sleeping. We have been here about a week now
and will be leaving this coming Wednesday.
Saturday, August 3rd, we
left the coach after lunch and drove back down to Grass Valley for
some more exploring. We first stopped to pick up one geocache, just
to make sure we got at least one find credited for the day. We then
headed for the Empire Mine State Historical Park. This park is
located on the southeast side of Grass Valley and is a very large
piece of property, 856 acres protected by the State of California
Parks Service. Our first stop was the visitors center where we
learned a little about the history of the area and the mine. This
area, Nevada County, was at the heart of the California gold rush of
1849. As with nearly all gold strikes in the area, exploration and
discoveries of gold started with surface finds, panning for gold in
stream beds and finding gold along seams at the surface. However, in
the Grass Valley area not much gold was near the surface, so they
began to do hard rock mining, digging tunnels into the granite
hillsides. The Empire mine was founded in 1850 and the first
diagonal shaft dug into the hilltop. The mine was a fairly small
operation until 1869 when William Bourne, a successful businessman
and entrepreneur from Massachusetts bought a controlling interest.
Bourne invested heavily and modernized the mine and it's processes,
greatly increasing the output of gold and silver. Bourne's son
William Jr. took over after the sudden death of his father in 1874
and the mine remained in the family until William Jr. became gravely
ill in 1929 and divested the family interests.
The new owners increased their holdings by buying a number of
other nearby mines and continued operations
until 1956 when the mine was closed. The price of gold had been
frozen by the government at $35 an ounce for decades and it was no
longer cost effective to bring mine it in these types of hard rock
mines. During the 106 year history of the mine they brought up 5.8
million ounces of gold, enough to fill a box 7 feet on each side.
Estimates are that this represents only about 20 percent of the gold
that lies under the ground in this area. When the mine closed there
were some 367 miles of tunnel, some reaching a mile below the
surface. The State of California purchased the property in 1975 and
created the historical park. However, the previous owners, Newmont
Mining, retains the mineral rights – just in case.
Since the mine was closed fairly
recently in historical terms, only about 50 years ago, many of the
structures and much of the equipment was still on the site when the
State bought the property, including the company offices, equipment
sheds, machine shops, a 4,600 “cottage” built by the Bourne
family in 1897. The only major structures no longer standing are the
mill, although the foundation is still evident, and the original
headframe for the mine. We spent about two hours touring the site,
including a tour of the Bourne home, complete with “living history”
reinactors acting as tour guides. They were dressed in period
clothes and represented members of the Bourne family and their
servants. They put on a very nice presentation that was very
educational.
After our time at the Empire Mine, we
set out to do some more geocaching. We finally finished about 5:00
with eight new finds for the day, along with two DNFs. We made a
quick stop at the Grass Valley Elks Lodge, but it was not open. It
is beginning to look like we many not get a pin from the lodge for
our banner since we don't seem to be able to find the bar open. We
then headed back to the coach where we stayed in the rest of the
evening. As a side note, when we returned to the coach we were
pleased to see that the power had remained on and inverter was still
working properly. Yea!
Sunday, August 4th, we went
out about 12:30 or so and drove a little bit north of the RV park on
Highway 20 to a restaurant we had seen the other day when we were
geocaching. The 5 Mile House is a rustic bar and grill located at
the turnoff to Scotts Flat Lake and when we went by the other day it
appeared to be pretty busy so we decided that we would try Sunday
brunch today. The inside of the place was very “woodsy” with
wood paneling and a nice bar. It wasn't real crowded, but there were
a few couples in the bar eating. They have a decent sandwich menu
and for brunch they serve breakfast most of the day, which is what
Jackie really likes. We were both a little disappointed when neither
of our first choices were available. Jackie wanted an asparagus
omelet, and I wanted the Ahi sandwich. They were out of both. I
ended up with a green chili burger, which was actually quite good,
and Jackie got broccoli in the omelet instead of asparagus. She was
happy with the omelet too, and they really did burn her toast just
like she asked.
We had a very pleasant lunch and the
set out to do a couple of caches along Highway 20 before going back
to the coach. We drove north for a few miles for one cache, but
unfortunately, were unable to find it. It appears there had been
some roadwork recently in the area and there was no cache to be
found. We were able to find two other caches along the road,
however, so we have now extended out caching streak to 40 days and
are still good for the 31 days of August challenge. After caching we
went back to the coach where we just relaxed the rest of the day. By
the way, power is still good. I believe that the culprit for the
inverter problem was the ice maker. I unplugged it the other day and
we haven't had any inverter problems since. The ice maker has been
acting hinky for a while now, sometimes working, sometimes not. It
may be that a loose or broken wire in the ice maker is the root of
our problems. I hope it is that easy.
Monday, August 5th, we
decided we needed to do our laundry. We left the coach after lunch
and drove to Grass Valley to a laundromat we had seen in the Safeway
mall when we were there the other day. We got our laundry done and
caught up on our computer stuff while we waited. We have very poor
internet at the RV park, none the last couple of days, so we brought
our laptop and tablet with us. The laundry had free wifi, so we were
able to get caught up on everything while the clothes washed and
dried. During our time there we also found a geocache that was
located in the parking lot where we were, so we continue our caching
streak. Yea. After our laundry was done we did a quick trip into
Safeway for a couple things then went back to the coach for the rest
of the night. We BBQed a nice filet outside and had a great dinner.
Tuesday, our last full day in the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We drove down into town after lunch
to do some geocaching. We were able to get four new finds, along
with one DNF, within an hour or so. Once we had our caches we headed
back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. Not much else to
do since we've pretty much seen all of Grass Valley and Nevada City.
Wednesday, August 7th,
another travel day. We left the Harmony Ridge Resort around 10:00
and returned south, 59 miles and 3,200 vertical feet, back to the
Carmichael Elks Lodge. We were fortunate to arrive about noon and
find two empty spaces. This lodge does not take reservations, so you
take your chances with finding an opening. The second open space was
filled later in the afternoon, so it was good we got there early. We
got the basics done, utilities connected, coach leveled and satellite
tuned in, then we went into the lodge for lunch. They serve lunch
here every weekday and have a really nice lunch menu. Jackie had a
grilled chicken sandwich and I had a Reuben. Both were very good and
the total for the lunch was under $14. Hard to find a fast food
place for that.
After lunch we went back to the coach
and finished getting things setup inside and doing a little cleaning.
Although it was very beautiful up in the woods, and we enjoyed our
exploration of a new area for us, it was nice too to be back where we
have phone and internet and decent, 50 amp electric. The only
downside of staying here at the Elks is that they have no sewer at
the site. However, we are only here for five days, so that is not a
big problem for us. Once we got everything finished we went out to
get at least one geocache for the day so as to keep our streak alive,
as well as get another day in the every day of August challenge. We
were able to get our cache quickly at a nearby park and get back to
the coach where we relaxed the rest of the day.
Thursday, August 8th, which
would have my mother's 87th birthday. My mother was the
youngest of thirteen children, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1926.
She had six sisters, and over the years each of her sisters developed
Alzheimer's syndrome. The disease didn't appear to affect the male
members of the family, only the females. Of course, its' only been
Alzheimer's for the last forty years or so, before that it was
“dementia” or “senility.” I remember as a young kid back in
Milwaukee, mid-50's or so, my mother's oldest living sister Mary
seeming to be, to me at the time, a bit crazy.
For my mother the noticeable memory
lapses started in the mid-90's, when she was in her late 60's.
Although she never talked about it, at least not with me, I know she
saw it coming and knew it was going to happen eventually. She had to
be scared of the inevitability, but she never let on. I know my
stepdad was aware because he set up a long term care insurance policy
and took some other financial actions to be sure that she was taken
care of. Good thing too, because he died in 2002 and she had to be
put in a home, which would have been a big financial burden on the
family had he not thought ahead as he did. Mom passed away in 2008,
but she actually left us about ten years before. You left way too
soon mom, miss you.
We left the coach about 1:00 just to go
out and get a few geocaches for the day. We ended up with four new
finds in a little under an hour. We then went back to the coach and
relaxed for a little bit before leaving again around 4:00 to go to
dinner at some friend's house. Dave and Karen Van Egdon live in
nearby Citrus Heights and are RVing friends that we met through Peggy
and Vernon Bullock. We have known them for about three years now and
were with them only a couple of weeks ago in Mineral, California at
the Bullock's anniversary party. Karen invited us to dinner at their
home when she learned that we were going to be back in the Sacramento
area.
They live in an older, but still nice,
mobile home park and have a very nice, spacious modular home. Karen
loves to cook and she went out of her way to fix some really great
stuff for us. Way too much food for just the four of us, but she
said she rarely gets to really cook, so she just went crazy and
planned on the leftovers. She made four separate appetizer dishes,
bacon wrapped shrimp, grilled shrimp, cucumber sandwiches and
prosciutto wrapped melon bites. They were all excellent. We had
cocktails, munched and talked for a couple hours before she set
dinner. For dinner she made both a pork loin and a tri-tip, white
and sweet potatoes, and Italian style sliced tomatoes with cheese and
balsamic vinegar. Everything was outstanding and we ended up
stuffing ourselves. She even served dessert a little later, with
chocolate brownies, ice cream and fudge sauce. Yikes! We finally
staggered out with our full bellies and headed home about 9:00 after
a very nice evening with friends.
Friday, August 9th, another
great day in the works. The weather for the last two weeks in this
part of California has been just fantastic. We left the coach about
1:00 for a trip to the local Fry's Electronics store. I needed a
part for the laptop that I use for navigation and instrumentation for
the coach when we drive. It's an old laptop that still has a slot
for a PCMCIA card, an interface that has gone out of common use. We
have had this laptop for about six years and the USB ports on it have
quit working, but I was able to buy a PCMCIA card that had two USB
ports on it that enabled us to continue to use it for the coach.
Both the GPS and the Silver Leaf engine monitoring system use USB
inputs. Recently, when the Silver Leaf box blew out, it took one of
the ports on the card with it. Unfortunately, when we got to Fry's
they no longer stock the USB cards with the PCMCIA interface. They
sell them online, but not in the stores. It's still a fun store to
shop in, so we spent a half hour or so wandering around looking at
stuff. I bought couple small items, but not what I went there to
get.
After our shopping we were able to find
a geocache located not too far from the Fry's store, thus extending
our consecutive caching days streak to 47 days. We then made a
couple of stops on the way home, one at Target and one at Ross,
looking for something for Jackie to wear to the luau at the Elks
Lodge tonight. We couldn't find anything appropriate, so we decided
to just improvise and went back to the coach. About 6:00 we met with
our local friends Bill and Kathy and Kathy's granddaughter Bella, and
went into the lodge for the luau. Jackie had found something in her
closet that looked close enough to Hawaiian, and I have lots of
tropical shirts, so we looked pretty ready for a luau.
There were probably over a hundred
people in attendance in the ballroom and they had lots of decorations
up to lend it a luau theme look. They were selling raffle tickets
for a number of gift baskets they had built, so we had to buy some of
those. Around 8:00 they served dinner, which was fantastic. They
had BBQed a full pig outside, so they had pork ribs and pulled pork,
they had some chicken and they also had some grilled coconut fish
that was outstanding. The tickets for the event were $20 apiece, and
the food was very good. At 9:00 they started the Hawaiian show.
There is a local group called Aloha
Hawaii that does hula shows. The leader, who sings and plays the
ukelele, was clearly of Hawaiian, or at least Pacific, descent. He
sang a number of Hawaiian and Tahitian songs in the native language
while four girls danced. Three of the girls looked islander, the
other was Caucasian, but was a good dancer. They put on a 45 minute
show with a couple different costume changes, styles of dance, and
audience participation. Bella got up, with Jackie's help, and danced
with the hula lesson, and I ended up getting picked for the men's
Tahitian dance lesson. Got to wiggle my hips and shake my booty a
little in front of a hundred people. After the Hawaiian show they
had the drawings for the gift baskets and we won a very nice one with
some wine, a couple nice glasses, a candle and crystal candle holder,
and a book of jokes. Not sure what the p
Saturday, August 10th, we
went out caching after lunch again, managing to get seven new finds
in about an hour and a half. After caching we did a Costco run for a
couple of things. I mentioned in the last chapter that I was
frustrated with Costco because they no longer offered the Court
Classic tennis shoes that I have been wearing for ten years or more.
Well, in one of the advertisements we got in the mail a couple weeks
ago they talked about a new tennis shoe coming out in mid-August. We
looked and sure enough, a new Kirkland tennis shoe. It looks a
little like the old Court Classic, but a little more modern looking.
Still only $16 though, about a dollar more than the old ones.
After shopping we headed back to the
coach and relaxed for a while before going over to the Elks Lodge at
about 6:00 for karaoke night. It was a pot luck, so we took some
potato salad we picked up at Costco and found a booth in the bar.
Even though karaoke doesn't start until 7:00 the place was packed.
We had a cocktail and some light food and waited for the singing to
start. A little closer to 7:00 we were joined by our friends Bill
and Kathy, and one of Kathy's friends that she works with, Peggy.
The singing started at 7:00 and we finally left after 10:30 when I
sang my third and last song. Only three songs in that period of time
because there was a huge rotation, twenty singers! There were only a
few of the group that probably shouldn't sing, most were pretty good.
The gal doing the karaoke won a weekly drawing the lodge holds, and
collected about $1,600, so she bought a round of drinks for the
house, which had to be close to 50 people. Yea, free drinks! When
we left the lodge we walked back to the coach and went to bed. It is
nice being parked in the parking lot of the bar you are going to hang
out in.
Sunday, August 11th, our
last day in Carmichael. We left the coach about 2:00 to make a
Walmart run. On the way to the store we picked up a few geocaches,
finding four in less than an hour. We did our Walmart run and then
went back to the coach where we just relaxed the rest of the day.
Monday was another travel day. We left
the Carmichael Elks about 10:30 for a very short 25 mile drive to the
Placerville Elks Lodge, southeast of Sacramento. We didn't even hook
up the car, Jackie just drove behind me for the trip. The
Placerville lodge is actually located in the very small town of
Shingle Springs, just to the south. It is located in an industrial
park area but is a nice little lodge with about nine RV spots with
water and electric hookups. They don't take reservations, so there
was always the fear that they might be full. However, when we got
there there were three spots open, so we were able to get parked and
hooked up right away. We were completely set up before 1:00.
After we were set up we went out to do
some geocaching and a little exploration of the area. We were able
to get four new finds, our first in this part of the state, and one
DNF. After our caching we went back to the coach so Jackie could
start getting ready to make dinner. Regular readers may remember
that Jackie has a cousin, Pia, that lives in Grover Beach, near Pismo
Beach in the Central Coast area of California. Several years ago,
she was dating a guy named James who worked for the State of
California in Sacramento. They dated for a few years and then broke
up, but they remained good friends. James has a house in Shingle
Springs and it turns out that Pia, along with her current boyfriend
Korby, are visiting there for a while. We first learned this a few
days ago and had made plans to have dinner there tomorrow with James,
Pia and Korby. When we got into town Pia called and asked what we
were doing tonight. It seems James is out of town until tomorrow and
Pia wanted to get together tonight too. Jackie invited them over to
dinner.
Pia and Korby arrived about 6:00 and we
sat around and talked and had cocktails until dinner was ready.
Jackie made some chicken enchiladas, along with the required rice and
beans. We had a very nice dinner and visited until they left about
9:00. We last saw them a couple months ago when we came through
Pismo Beach, and we will see them again in a couple weeks when we
return to the area for a while. Pia and Jackie have always been very
close, so she loves to spend time with her.
Tuesday, August 13th, we
went out after lunch to do a couple of geocaches for our cache of the
day challenge. We actually ended up with four new finds in a fairly
short time period. After caching we went back to the coach for a
bit, but left again around 5:00 to go to dinner at James' house in
Shingle Springs. Pia told us that when James learned that we were
coming to Shingle Springs for a short stay, he told her that he
wanted to have us over to his house for dinner. All we had to do was
bring some steaks or whatever meat we wanted to BBQ.
We got to his house, which is only a
few miles from the Elks Lodge, and found a very nice, older home set
way back in a private neighborhood. The house is on five acres of
rolling hills and is about 40 years old. James has had the house for
almost 35 years. He showed me around the place and I was quite
impressed. I was also impressed with the bright red 2011 Shelby
GT350 Mustang he has in his garage. He said it was his play car, and
I can believe that.
We had cocktails and snacks while James
and Pia were busy in the kitchen getting dinner ready. We ate about
7:30 with some great steaks, a salad of veggies that James grew in
his yard, and some killer garlic mashed potatoes that were James'
secret recipe. After dinner we had another drink and talked for a
while longer. We finally left about 10:30 for the short ride back to
the coach. We had a very nice evening with friends and family and
enjoyed it very much. We will see Pia and Korby again in a few weeks
when we are back down in the Central Coast area of California.
Wednesday, August 14th, we
left the coach about 1:30 and drove to Placerville for some
sightseeing. We have never been to Placerville. Placerville was
another one of the hundreds of small settlements that popped up in
northeastern California after the discover of gold in 1848. It was
first known as Dry Diggins, based on the fact that there was no
running streams in the immediate area and soil had to be dug up and
transported to some source of running water to get the gold out. It
later got the name Hangtown from the numerous hangings which took
place in the early years. The town was incorporated as Placerville
in 1854 and at the time was the third largest city in the state. The
town became a regional center for support of mining in the area,
which allowed it to survive while most other gold rush towns withered
and died. Today the town has a population of about 10,000 and is
primarily a tourist destination and high end bedroom community for
the Sacramento area.
We stopped and picked up one geocache
to meet our cache of the day requirement, then drove around downtown
Placerville for a while. The old downtown is quite large and still
has a lot of the original 19th century buildings. We
parked the car and spent a couple of hours walking around downtown,
mostly going in some of the many antique shops along main street.
After our touring we made a quick grocery stop and then went back to
the coach for the rest of the evening.
Thursday we went out after lunch to do
some geocaching. It was supposed to be another hot day, somewhere in
the low 90's, so we picked caches that didn't require too much effort
in the sun. We had a pretty decent afternoon and managed to get ten
new finds, along with one DNF, in a couple of hours. As often
happens with caching, we got a couple of little history lessons about
the area. A lot of times a person hides a cache and in the
description of the cache they tell you a little about the area where
the cache was hidden. We learned today about an old family amusement
park called Sam's Town, that used to be just down the street from
where we are staying. It closed up in the 80's and is now a shopping
center. We also learned about a big RV campground called Crazy Horse
that closed several decades ago and is now a big subdivision of nice
homes.
After our caching we went back to the
coach to cool off. About 5:30 we went into the Elks Lodge for
cocktails and dinner. Tonight was their pasta night. We had a drink
at the bar and got to talking to a couple of members about the lodge
and the area in general. After our drink we went to one of the
tables and sat with another couple who were parked out in the parking
lot. Bob is a retired Marine, an officer, so we had a lot to talk
about. His wife Donna was also very nice and talked to Jackie a lot.
They just bought a house in Shingle Springs and are living in their
coach until they have it ready for move in. The dinner was good.
They had both spaghetti with meatballs and another pasta with a white
sauce. Jackie had both, I stuck to a nice big helping of spaghetti
with red sauce. After dinner we went back to the coach for the rest
of the night.
Friday, August 16th, our
last day in the foothills. We left the coach about 1:00, after
lunch, and drove north about twelve miles to the town of Coloma,
California. Now, if you are like me, that town name probably doesn't
do much for you in terms of relevance. If I add that one of the
residents of the town was George Marshall, you may still not see the
importance. However, when I also say that Marshall was a partner
with a guy called John Sutter, and that the two established a sawmill
along the East Fork of the American River, the memory banks from your
high school history start to stir. On January 24, 1848, George
Marshall was digging out the exit chute from the mill's water wheel
to increase the flow of water. At the bottom of the stream he saw
some brightly colored metal – gold! There's GOLD in them there
hills! They tried to keep the discovery secret, but eventually word
got out and by the end of the year the 49'rs were a' comin'. All
tolled, some 300,000 people, mostly men, came to California over the
next couple years as part of the California gold rush, and it all
started here in little Coloma, current population, 500.
We drove up there to visit Marshall
Gold Discovery California State Historical Park. Unlike the Empire
Mine Historical Park we visited a few weeks ago in Grass Valley,
there is little of the original structures left. The State has
recreated some of the artifacts, including the sawmill, however, the
mill is now a couple hundred yards from the river where it had
originally been built. Most of the town of Coloma is within the
boundaries of the park and there is a network of roads that let you
drive around and look at the various locations. It was in the
mid-90's when we arrived, so we went into the visitor's center and
looked at the displays and then drove around and looked at most of
the other stuff. We didn't hike around the place to look at the
actual locations on the river.
We were able to get some geocaches in
the park, and we also got a couple on the way back down to
Placerville. We ended up with seven new finds for the day, along
with one DNF. After we got back to the coach we just stayed in the
rest of the evening.
Today was our last day in Placerville.
Tomorrow morning we head about 65 miles south to Lodi, California,
hopefully to stay at the Elks Lodge. It has been just about two
weeks since we published, so this seems like a good spot to close
this chapter. We will be moving from Elks Lodge to Elks Lodge for
the next several weeks, so we will try to get new episodes online
every couple weeks. I will close with a little saying that I came
across somewhere on the web recently that I think sums up our
lifestyle pretty well. “We travel not to escape life, but for life
not to escape us.” See ya soon.
