Sierra Nevada Foothills, Last Chapter

Hello again, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, August 16^th, while we were in Placerville, California camping at the Placerville Elks Lodge enjoying our last full day in the area.

The next day, Saturday, was another moving day for us. We packed up and left the Placerville Elks about 10:30 and started the 65 mile trip south to the Lodi Elks Lodge. The Lodi Lodge is actually in the little town of Woodbridge, just north of Lodi. We have stayed at this lodge before. They only have about eight spots, but most of them look out over a big, green park that is part of the lodge property. The lodge building is the former Woodbridge Country Club, which the Elks bought when the club built a new clubhouse.

They don't take reservations at Lodi, so we were hoping that there would be a vacancy. We were surprised when we pulled into the lot and saw that there was only one RV in the lot, and it belonged to the park host. We thought we were really lucky until we saw some signs that the RV park was closed for an event. There were a bunch of tables and chairs set up on the lawn too. The camp hosts came out to greet us and told us that the lodge was having a luau tonight and that they had told the camp hosts to close the RV park and not let any RVs in because there would be so many people coming to the event. However, they said that they would allow the spot right next to the camp host to be used, and they said we could have it. Yea, we have a place to stay.

We got moved in pretty quick and went into the lodge to see if they had any tickets left for the luau. We had fun at the Carmicheal luau last week, so we thought it would be fun to go to this one too. The bartender had tickets, so we bought two and are going to our second luau this month. We then went out to get a quick couple of caches. It was nearly 100 degrees, so we didn't want to be out too long. We were able to get three in about a half hour, so we have now extended our consecutive days caching streak to over 50 days and are still on track with the every day in August challenge. After caching we went back to the coach to cool off.

After we had cooled down a little we changed into our luau clothes and about 5:00 went outside for cocktails out on the lawn with the camp hosts and some of their family. Although it was warm, we were in the shade of some big trees and there was a little breeze, so it was quite nice. Around 6:00 we walked across the lawn to where they had the luau set up and bought a cocktail from the bar there so we would have one of the bar's glasses. For the rest of the night we would refill from out supply in the coach.

We got a table and visited with some of the people sitting around us who were members of the Lodi Elks. They had over a hundred people at the party and they were a very friendly group. Around 7:00 the served dinner, which was pork, of course, chicken, a nice salad, some fruit, and sweet potato fries. The quality of the food, which was all cooked at the lodge by volunteers, was very good and they gave you plenty to eat. At 8:00 they started the entertainment, which was another local dance group specializing in Polynesian dance. This was a larger group than the one at the Carmichael lodge last week. This group had four male singers and drummers, a couple of which danced occasionally, and five very attractive girls who did most of the dancing. As with the group last week, they had about four costume changes along with different styles of dance. They didn't do as much audience participation as the group last week, but overall they were a more talented and entertaining group. They put on a show for nearly an hour, after which the DJ started playing some 50's and 60's rock for people to dance to. Overall it was an excellent luau and we were glad that we had the opportunity to come. The people were great and the party a lot of fun.

About 9:15 our friend Fern Lenordini stopped by the coach to visit. Fern and her husband Andy live here in Lodi, not too far from the lodge, and operate a vineyard. They don't make wine, they wholesale the grapes, which are very nice old vine Zin, to other people to make wine with. Fern and Andy are the primary reason we stop here in Lodi every couple years. We knew that Fern was going to come by this evening because she and Jackie had talked earlier in the day. She had been working at her daughter's restaurant this evening and wanted to come by and visit after work.

This has been the first time that we have been able to actually talk to Fern since the death of our dear friend Colleen Cohen last month. We actually met Fern and Andy in the Coachella Valley through Barry and Colleen. Fern and Andy had a winter home in the same country club where Barry and Colleen lived at the time and Andy was one of Barry's best friends. We became friends with them back in the late 90's and have stayed fairly close since. They are older than we are, in their late 70's, and they have sold their place in the Coachella Valley, so we only see them when come through Lodi.

We spent an hour or so visiting and catching up, but mostly talking about Colleen and her sudden illness and death. Fern left a little after 11:00 with the promise that we would get together with her and Andy sometime during our stay here in Lodi. After Fern left we went off to bed.

Sunday, August 18^th, I went out as soon as I got up and got a couple of Sunday papers. We like to relax on Sundays with the paper in the morning. We decided that this was going to be a stay at home day, something we hadn't done in a while. We did go out about 2:00 and got our cache of the day, but we only drove about a half mile, got the cache and went right back to the coach. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be hot, over 100 degrees, so we will not be doing too much caching for a couple days at least. We spent the entire day inside, doing a few chores, playing games and watching TV.

Monday we were looking at another 100 degree plus day. I was craving an In & Out burger, and there just happened to be one not too far from the Elks, so we went there for lunch. After lunch we found four quick geocaches in or near the parking lot of the shopping center in which the In & Out was located. This took care of our cache of the day requirement. Once we found our caches we drove south into nearby Stockton to visit the Best Buy store to pick up a part I ordered. I had needed a small part for the old laptop that I use for navigation when we are driving the coach and because the computer is about nine years old, ancient by computer standards, the part I needed wasn't available in store stock, even at Fry's Electronics, which has most everything. Best Buy did have it online, so I ordered a week ago and had it delivered to the store in Stockton because I knew we would be in the area this week.

After I picked up my part we spent an hour or so walking around the mall that was adjacent to the Best Buy. Actually, Best Buy was one of the anchor stores, which is a little unusual. A number of the shopfronts inside the mall were vacant, including one of the three big anchor store locations. The Macy's was still at one end, but I don't know what the other store had been as there were no signs visible from it's previous life. Once we were done with our mall walking we headed back to the coach where we spent the rest of the day trying to stay cool.

Tuesday, August 20^th, we left the coach after lunch to do our laundry and some other errands. We first stopped and picked up one quick geocache for our cache of the day, then went on to the laundromat, which was only a couple miles from the lodge. It took a couple of hours to get all the laundry done and then we stopped at the local Walmart and Safeway stores for supplies. Once our shopping was done we headed home and stayed out of the heat for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Wednesday we went out after lunch again to do some geocaching on our last full day here in Lodi. The weather had cooled off somewhat, in the low 90's today, so we set a goal of getting ten new finds, which would take us over the next milestone of 5,600 finds. We cached for a couple of hours and were able to get our ten finds, along with two DNFs. Yea! After caching we stopped at a couple of stores so Jackie could look for a small table she wants for inside the coach. She wants to replace the rather ugly tray we use at the end of our dining room table with something a little nicer looking.

We didn't find what Jackie wanted, but at our last stop at Staples, the office supply store, I found a very nice office chair on sale and bought it. I have been wanting to get rid of the original barrel chair in my back “office” that came with the coach. It is an OK chair, but it is too low for working comfortably at my desk, which is where I spend my time when in the back. I found a nice, high back leather office chair on sale for $90 that was very comfortable and just what I wanted. After we packed the box with the unassembled chair in the back of the Jeep we headed back to the RV park.

Thursday, August 22^nd, another travel day. Since we have been staying at Elks Lodges for the last few weeks in sites with no sewer we have been limiting our stays to five days. We could go longer, but it would be inconvenient. With a five day stay we can dump the holding tanks, move on to the next lodge and stay another five days. Today we left the Lodi lodge around 10:30 and started south on Highway 99, heading for the town of Oakhurst, California and the Elks Lodge there. We have never been to Oakhurst, which is located about 45 miles north of Fresno and 45 miles south of the main part of Yosemite National Park.

The drive, about 150 miles, was a little taxing as there was a lot of construction on Highway 99 south of Stockton and a lot of traffic too. Once we got off 99 and started east towards the Sierra Nevada's on the secondary highways the roads got a little narrow and the coach started running a little hot as we hit the grades leading up into the foothills. Oakhurst is only a little under 3,000 feet elevation, but with nearly 100 degree temps even climbing that far with the coach puts a lot of strain on the engine. We never overheated, but I was in the yellow zone a couple of times.

We finally got to the Oakhurst Elks about 1:30 or so and found a spot in their RV park. I had been concerned that we might not be able to get into the park since, unlike most Elks Lodges, have their park open to the public. It is also only 12 miles from the south entrance to Yosemite, and is the closest RV park. However, Jackie had talked to someone at the lodge yesterday and they said they only had a few rigs in the park. When we got there we found they did only have two on the lower level and two on the upper level. The upper level is not not suitable for big rigs like ours, so we found a nice spot on the lower level, which is still a hundred feet above the highway on a bluff, and got settled in. The lodge was not open,

but they have a self service check in. The sites, which have water and 30 amp electric, are $15 a night for Elks, $25 for the general public. After we had a little lunch we went out and got one geocache, our cache of the day, in a parking lot across the road from the Elks, and then went back to the coach to keep cool in the nearly 100 degree heat of the afternoon. We are going to be here for five days, and have plans to visit Yosemite at least once, assuming the big wildfire burning to the north of us doesn't close the park. We have our fingers crossed.

Friday, August 23^rd, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching in the Oakhurst area. We cached for a couple of hours and were able to get six new finds, along with one DNF. One of the caches was a virtual that took us to the Fresno Flats Historical Park, a cute little area with a number of restored buildings from the time of the founding of Fresno. A good place to provide a little information about the town of Oakhurst.

Unlike the other “Gold Country” towns we have been to over the last few weeks, like Nevada City, Grass Valley, and Placerville, Oakhurst was not founded as a mining town. The town was founded in the late 1850's and was populated at first by people who had come to California for the gold, but were unsuccessful and disenchanted with the mining life and wanted to settle down to a more normal lifestyle. The town, which was founded as Fresno Flats, soon became the center for local agriculture, ranching and timbering, as well as providing some support for the many mining towns scattered around in the higher mountains.

The town also became known as the gateway to Yosemite, the area which had been placed under Federal protection by Congress and President Lincoln in 1864, the first instance of wilderness land being set aside specifically for conservation and public use. This action set the stage for the creation of the National Park system in 1872, with Yellowstone being the first actual National Park. Yosemite gained that status in 1890. The name of the town was changed to Oakhurst in 1912.

At the turn of the century the town was bypassed by both the regional railroad and the new highway into Yosemite and when the depression closed the main timber mill the town was close to fading into history. However, in the late 30's a new highway, Highway 41, was built from Fresno into Yosemite National Park and the road was built right through the middle of Oakhurst, bringing new life to the city as a tourist town, supporting visitors to Yosemite. Although the Census Bureau set the 2010 population of Oakhurst at just over 2,800, the town, in various publications and on the official highway welcome signs, set the population at just over 13,000. The Census Bureau only recognizes the population within the six square mile boundary of the town as recognized by the State, while the town considers the larger surrounding area in it's estimates.

After our caching we made a quick stop at the drug store for a couple things and then went back to the coach to cool off and relax for a few minutes before going to the Oakhurst Elks Lodge for a visit. Having looked at their website, we knew that the lodge wasn't open on a regular basis, but that they probably would be open tonight for Friday night dinner. About 5:00 we went up to the lodge, which is on the second tier of the mountainside on which the lodge and RV park are built, and is directly above the coach, accessible via a staircase. We found about a dozen people or so in the lounge already and we sat down at the bar for a drink. The volunteer bartender was the Exalted Ruler's wife and the ER himself was taking orders for dinner. They had spaghetti and meatballs tonight, so we decided to buy a couple of tickets. We had cocktails and chatted with the bartender and a couple of other people while waiting for dinner. We also picked up a lodge pin for our banner. Dinner was served at 6:00 and we all went into the dining room. They served dinner family style, just putting bowls of food out on the tables for everyone to share. We were at a table for eight and had a very nice chat with all of the people. This is a very friendly lodge. The dinner was quite tasty and included dessert. After dessert we excused ourselves and went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, August 25^th, we were showered, dressed, and out of the coach by 9:45 this morning, heading north to visit Yosemite National Park. We were about 12 miles south of the south entrance to the park, and about 45 miles from the main part of the park in Yosemite Valley. I talked a little bit about the history of the park in yesterday's entry, so I will give just a few of the pertinent facts about the park here. The park is nearly 1,200 square miles in size, however about 89 percent of that land is designated as wilderness and is mostly inaccessible. The park gets nearly four million visitors a year and the vast majority of them spend all of their time within the six square miles that comprise the floor of the Yosemite Valley.

It took us a little over an hour to get to the visitor's center in Yosemite Valley, including a brief stop on the way to pick up our one needed geocache for the day. The roads are narrow, hilly and curvy, and within the park the max speed is 35 MPH, which makes for slow going. It does make it easier to see wildlife though. We saw an eagle perched on a rock next to the road, two different coyotes, several deer and a lot of the little mammals and birds that populate the area.

What we didn't see were bears, of which there are estimated to be five or six hundred, mountain lions, or bobcats. They are a little more recluse, living back in the wilderness areas. Many years ago the Park Service relocated the bears that used to hang out in the valley and were the big tourist attraction. Bears are still a big topic of discussion with regard to safety, but they are rarely seen anymore in the populated areas of the park, and when they are they are immediately subdued and shipped off to the wilds again.

Although the bears that used to sit on the road and beg for food are gone, we did find one coyote that had learned a thing or two about people. He was laying in the dirt in a turnoff at the side of the road, just looking like a skinny, scroungy dog, but, of course, everyone who spotted him had to stop and take his picture. When we came back an hour later going the other way, he was still there, but now standing next to a car letting them throw food out of the window for him. He wouldn't get closer than a few feet to the car, but he wasn't running away either. He has figured out that laying around looking “cute and wild” and getting people food beat running around in the heat trying to catch squirrels. Work smarter, not harder.

We spent about ninety minutes walking around the village, going to the visitor's center, checking the shops and museums and having lunch at one of the restaurants. We then continued our driving tour of the valley and also taking the ninety minute round trip drive to Glacier point, a destination on top of one of the mountains overlooking the valley that gives you a view of the entire valley from nearly 4,000 feet above the valley floor. After driving around the park for a while, taking in the sights and enjoying the

splendor of nature, we headed back to the coach, getting there about 4:30, just in time for cocktails. We stayed in the rest of the night.

Sunday, August 25^th, we left the RV park around 1:30 and drove about a half mile down the road to the Golden Chain Theater for an afternoon of community theater. A few days back, while we were caching in town, I saw a poster for this theater advertising their summer melodrama presentations. We noted that they were having a Sunday matinee performance today, so we decided to take it in. The tickets were only ten dollars and they had free popcorn and a full bar, who could resist.

I have been to a number of community theater productions over the years, but never to a true melodrama theater, where the audience participates by booing the villain and cheering the hero throughout the play. We got into the playhouse, were greeted by some very nice people, and went to the bar where I got a beer and Jackie got some wine. We got our free popcorn and went to our table.

Today's presentation was actually two separate short melodramas, the first was “Run to the roundhouse Nellie, he can't corner you there!” This was a three act play that takes place around a railroad yard. Before the play started a couple of girls got up in period costume and performed the Can Can. We were in the front row of tables and at the end when the girls took off their garters and flung them into the audience one landed on the table right in front of me. The play was cute, lots of booing, hissing and cheering. In the end the villain was run over the train he had hoped would hit the heroine whom he had tied to the track.

The second play was called “The Shagwood Secret” and took place in a saloon. Some of the same actors played in both plays, but the second had several more than the first. The hero from the first play portrayed the villain in the second, and was a much better villain than hero. All together, including the brief intermission between plays, they put on a two hour show that was very entertaining. Very cheesy sets, cheesy acting, cheesy lines but great comedy, especially he second play. Lots of laugh out loud moments. It was a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. After the play we stopped and got one geocache for our cache of the day and then went back to the coach where we stayed the rest of the evening.

Monday was already our last full day in Oakhurst. We left the RV park about 12:30 and drove a mile or so south to El Cid, a Mexican restaurant we have noticed has always got a lot of cars around it every time we drive by. It was moderately busy today and the service was a bit slow to get started. They had an interesting menu with lots of choices. We did notice that they are not an inexpensive place, not real pricy, but a little higher than you find at most mom and pop type Mexican places. The three item combo selections were almost $13. I had one with a red chili burro, enchilada and taco, Jackie had one with a chili relleno, chicken taco and chicken enchilada. Both meals were good, but not exceptional. Given the fact that this place is popular, the other choices in town must be pretty bad. If we were in the area again I probably wouldn't come back.

After lunch we decided to drive down to the Bass Lake area for some sight seeing and geocaching. Bass Lake itself was the first hydroelectric project in central California, with the first dam being built in 1901. The current rock and earth dam was built in 1910 and the project is still producing electricity for the San Joaquin Valley. The lake itself is not real large, about a half mile wide and four miles long, however, it is a major recreational asset for the area with several

marinas. There is also a very nice housing area along the north shore which has about 600 homes, many of which are very large and nice. We spent a couple of hours driving around the neighborhood, looking at homes and geocaching. We ended up with ten new finds.

After our caching we took the long way home by driving south from the lake to the town of North Fork, then heading west to pick up Highway 41 where we drove back north, through Oakhurst and eventually back to home. It was a very nice afternoon.

Tuesday, August 27^th, was another travel day. We had the coach packed up and pulled out of the Oakhurst Elks about 10:00 headed straight south on Highway 41 to the City of Fresno and the Fresno Elks. The trip was only 44 miles and the first ten miles out of Oakhurst were up a very steep grade, so we decided to not hook up the car and just let Jackie follow me for the trip. The trip went quickly and we found ourselves in the Fresno Elks, hooked up, set up and ready to go caching before 1:00. We have stayed at the Fresno Elks several times before. They have ten sites behind the lodge with water and 30 amp electric with all of the sites overlooking a retention basin that is always full of water, so you basically have a nice lake view, complete with ducks.

After we had lunch we went out to pick up our mail, which we had sent to the UPS Customer Service Center in Fresno, and to do some caching to ensure we had our cache of the day. We picked up the mail and started caching, getting four new finds and one DNF before deciding that the mid-90's temps and humidity were a bit too much. With that we went back home where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening. I did a few chores around the house, including finally putting together my new desk chair that I had bought a week ago when we were in Lodi.

Wednesday, August 28^th, we went out after lunch for a Walmart run. On the way we stopped and picked up our necessary geocache of the day. Only three more days to complete the 31 days of August challenge. After shopping we went back to the coach and put stuff away and cooled off from the almost 100 degree temps. About 4:30 we left again for a quick run to Costco and then to go over to Jackie's cousin Stephanie's house for dinner. Stephanie's husband Ron is working out of town, but she and the kids will be there and we wanted to be able to spend some time with them.

We picked up a couple of roasted chickens at Costco, they make the best, and then stopped at another grocery for some mashed potatoes and mac and cheese, so when we arrived at the door we had a complete dinner. That included some vodka for Jackie and I since we had picked up a couple bottles at Costco. We had a great time with dinner and visiting with Stephanie and the two younger kids, Bryce and Madi. The older son, Tyler, came home just before we left. Tyler graduated from High School last spring and is now going to Junior college in Fresno. We finally left about 9:00 and went back to the coach for the evening. We will be back with the family on Saturday to do some geocaching. The two kids really enjoy caching, and on Saturday Ron will be home for the weekend, so we can see him too.

Thursday, August 29^th, we headed out from the lodge about 1:30 and drove to a nearby mall to go to the movies. Today we selected We're The Millers, a romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudakis, one of the Saturday Night Live cast members. The crux of the movie was that Sudakis was a small time drug dealer who gets pressured into going into Mexico to pick up a load of marijuana and bring it back across the border and up to Denver. He decides that the best way to avoid problems is to rent an RV and get a fake family to accompany him. Aniston is a a stripper who lives in his apartment building. He also gets help from a teenage boy who lives in the building and a homeless teenage girl who happens by. There is no redeeming social value to this film, it has no life meanings, no messages, and there is no reason to go see it unless you want to be well entertained for 90 minutes. The writing is great, if a little raw, but then they are a drug dealer and a stripper. Some great action parts when they are being chased by the Mexican cartel folks, and, being a romantic comedy, everything comes out great at the end. Both of us really enjoyed the film which had a lot of laugh out loud moments. After the film we went out and did a few geocaches, getting four new finds and one DNF. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 30^th, we went out after lunch to do some caching. We were able to get four new finds in less than an hour. We then decided we needed to get some fuel for the Jeep and a badly needed car wash. The car wash was busy and the Jeep was so dirty they had to run it through twice, so pretty much killed most of the afternoon. After our chores we headed back to the coach, cooled off a bit, changed clothes and drove over to the Clovis Elks Lodge, only about five miles away from the Fresno Elks where we are parked.

We went to the Clovis Elks to meet our friends Jeanne and LeRoy Foote for dinner. Jackie and Jeanne went to high school together in Los Angeles and were not in touch until a couple years ago when they reunited as a result of the school's 50^th reunion. We had dinner with them back in April when we came through Fresno on our way north. They were at a large table with a bunch of friends and we had a great time with everyone. After an hour or so of cocktails they served dinner which was some very nice New York steaks cooked perfectly. We were ready to leave about 9:00 but Jackie and Jeanne had been talking about geocaching and Jackie found that there was a cache located only a few hundred feet from the lodge, so the four of us walked over there so we could sort of demonstrate geocaching to them. We found the cache, which was a very nice hide, and they were impressed. After that we got in the car, drove back home and chilled the rest of the evening.

Saturday, August 31^st, we had told Stephanie that we would be over in the morning so we could go out and do some geocaching with her kids before it got too hot. We were out of the coach by 9:45 and on our way to Stephanie's. When we got there we chatted for a bit with Ron, her husband, who was home for the weekend. He is working on a big solar energy project out near San Luis Obispo and is only home on the weekends. About 10:30 Ron, Stephanie and their daughter Madi got in the car with Jackie and I and we went out for some caching. The other two kids were busy with friends. We were able to get nine new caches, along with a DNF, in a couple of hours. Each of the members of our little “team” for the day had at least one find and everyone seemed to have a good time. I think Ron and Stephanie would geocache on their own except that they already have a busy schedule with the kids and with work for the two of them.

After our nine finds we decided it was getting too warm and Ron had some things he had to get done around the house, so we went back and dropped them off at home and said our goodbyes. We may see Ron again next week when we are in the Central Coast area, but we probably won't see Stephanie and Madi until next spring. After we dropped them off we drove to the BJ's Brewhouse restaurant not too far from the Elks and had a nice big lunch. We have been to a couple different BJ's stores now around California and really like the place. They have a great menu, good portions, and great food. I had Jambalaya which was nearly as good as what I have gotten in New Orleans. Jackie had a chicken pasta dish that she said was good too. After lunch we went back to the coach and just stayed in the rest of the day.

Sunday, September 1st, the 15th anniversary of Jackie and I being together. It was this day in 1998 that I moved from Phoenix to Indio to be with Jackie. Fifteen wonderful years and I am looking forward to spending the next fifteen with my best friend and best love exploring everything life has to offer. We spent the morning as we usually do on Sundays, reading the paper and watching the news. About 11:00 or so we left the coach and headed over to Jeanne and LeRoy's house in Clovis. Jeanne is a retired hairdresser and still does friends hair in her house. She had offered on Friday to do Jackie's hair today, so we were on our way over there for that. They have a very nice, older home in the suburbs of Clovis. Jeanne gave Jackie a haircut while LeRoy and I chatted. The haircut turned out nice and I think Jackie is happy with it.

After the haircut we took Jeanne and LeRoy in our car and we drove to Sal's Mexican Restaurant to meet the two other couples with whom we had dinner on Friday at the Elks. They were already in the restaurant when we got there, so we didn't have to wait. Jeanne told us that Sunday lunches at Sal's were something this group did quite often. The food was pretty good, a lot better than we had at the place in Oakhurst last week. We had a nice time talking to the group. After lunch everyone followed us back to the Fresno Elks so they could see our coach. Jeanne and LeRoy hadn't seen it since the remodel, and the other two couples just wanted to see what we lived in. They are all RVers, but none of them have a big RV. We showed off the coach and talked for a while before everyone left to go back to their homes. After everyone left we went out and got one close-by geocache, just to keep our consecutive days streak alive, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing.

Monday, September 2nd, Happy Labor Day. Today was a moving day again. We left the Fresno Elks about 10:30 and completed the arduous 47 mile trek south to the Visalia Elks Lodge. Since it was early on the holiday we didn't have much traffic and it was an easy trip. There was only one other coach in the lodge RV park and they have 16 spaces, so it is not real popular when the temperatures in are close to 100. We parked and got set up pretty quickly. For the first time in a couple weeks we have 50 amp electric service, so we can run both A/Cs. Yea! Once we got set up we went out and got one geocache for our streak then returned to the coach for an easy day off. No labor on labor day!

Our move here to Visalia marks a good spot to close this chapter and get it published. We will be here for four days and then we move over to the Central Coast area and San Luis Obispo. The weather should be cooler over there and we get to spend time with Jackie's family. Until the next episode, remember the words of the famous storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.” See ya.

Sierra Nevada Foothills, Part II

Hello again, glad you're back. Our last episode concluded on Friday, August 2^nd, 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 3^rd, 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 4^th, 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 5^th, 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 7^th, 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 8^th, which would have my mother's 87^th 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 9^th, 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

erson that put this one together was thinking, a romance package with a book of jokes, but it was fun to win something anyway. After the drawings we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. It is nice to be able to go out for a night of drinking and partying and then being able to walk a hundred yards back to home.

Saturday, August 10^th, 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 11^th, 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 13^th, 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 14^th, 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 19^th 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 16^th, 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.

The Foothills of the Sierra Nevada

Hi friends, welcome back to the story. Our last episode concluded on Thursday, July 18^th, when we left the tiny village of Mineral, California and drove to the Red Bluff Elks Lodge RV park. This after a week-long celebration with Peggy and Vernon Bullock and a dozen of our closest friends in honor of the Bullock's 50^th Anniversary. After our early afternoon arrival in Red Bluff we did a quick grocery run and found one geocache to keep our streak alive. After that we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach, trying to stay cool in the triple digit temperatures.

Friday, July 19^th, the weekend heatwave was supposed to start today. They were forecasting temperatures over 100 degrees in most of the upper Sacramento River valley, which is the area we are in. We left the Red Bluff Elks about 10:30 and started south towards Paradise, California, a little town of about 20,000 just southeast of the City of Chico. We have never been to either of these places, but chose Paradise because it is a smaller town and is in the foothills of the Sierra's, about 2,000 feet elevation, which should make it a couple of degrees cooler than Chico. We arrived at the Paradise Elks Lodge around noon and got set up in their RV park behind the lodge.

We are a little concerned because the electric here is only 30 amp, which means we can only run one air conditioner at a time. The weekend is supposed to be extremely hot, even at the slightly higher elevation of Paradise. It is supposed to be 99 today here and 101 tomorrow. We went to the lodge and registered, paying for our five night stay. Oddly, the bar here at the Paradise Elks is only open during the day on weekdays. It is seems strange for a bar to close at 5:00, but that's their hours here. We did get a lodge pin for our banner, our first “new” lodge pin in many months.

After getting setup and having lunch we went out for a geocache and to do a little touring of Paradise. We have never been in this part of California before. We found one easy geocache just across the street from the Elks, thus keeping our consecutive caching days streak going at 26 days. Yea! We then set out to explore Paradise. Paradise was founded in the late 1890's during the California gold rush, which was taking place in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east. By the early 1900's the gold had petered out and the town's economy turned to farming and ranching support. The area has a lot of olive and nut groves as well as dairy and cattle ranching.

I ended up driving south on the wrong road and we found ourselves driving back down the hill towards Chico. Since we were there anyway, we decided to make a quick visit to the Chico Elks Lodge. Chico has a very large lodge building with a nice bar and a huge ballroom, which they rent out for functions. There is also a nice RV park at this lodge. Unlike Paradise, they have no sewers at the sites, but they do have a few 50 amp sites. We had a cocktail at the lodge and visited with a couple of members. We also got a lodge pin for our banner, making two new lodges in one day.

After visiting the lodge we went back up the hill to Paradise. It is only about 11 miles from Chico, but there is only one road that leads directly from central Chico into Paradise, appropriately the road is called Skyway. Once we got back up into town we went back to the coach and tried to stay cool. So far the one A/C is keeping the coach reasonably comfortable, although I can't spend much time in the back in my office because is is too hot back there and we can't run the air. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach watching TV.

Saturday, July 20^th, today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, about 101 even in Paradise. Yesterday afternoon we got a call from Peggy Bullock that she and Vernon were planning on coming down to Chico today for the big Farmer's Market, which is in downtown Chico on Saturdays. She said they have a lot of nice produce. I think they just miss us. They told us the market was only open from 7:30 to 1:00, so she said they would meet us there at 10:00. We would shop and then go to lunch somewhere. We left the coach at 9:30 and headed back down the hill to Chico. We were lucky to find parking right away right next to the market area. Peggy and Vernon arrived later and we spent about 90 minutes walking around the market together. It was mostly produce from local farms, but there were a couple of farmers there selling meats and cheeses as well. There were a handful of craft booths, but it was mostly food. We ended up buying some fruit and Jackie bought some ground lamb from one of the farmers. She loves lamb, I don't care for it. With the ground lamb she can have a lamb burger sometime when we BBQ and I can have beef.

After shopping the marketplace we met Peggy and Vernon at a restaurant which was part of the local Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Sierra Nevada is a big local brand of beer in the Northern California area and their headquarters is here in Chico. They have a very nice restaurant with a nice menu. I had fish and chips, which were very good. Jackie and Peggy both had a curry dish that they said was delicious. Vernon had some kind of flatbread dish that was basically a steak kabob with a salad. He said it was very good too. After lunch we said our goodbyes to the Bullock's again and headed back up the hill to Paradise. Although it was very hot, we stopped and picked up one geocache just to keep our streak alive. We then stopped at one of the big antique stores in town. There are a lot of antique stores in Paradise and we like going through them. We hope to spend a little more time looking around in them on Monday.

We finally got back to the coach about 2:00 or so and I noticed that the air conditioning was making an odd sound, like it was straining. I checked the voltage coming into the coach and found it was about 104 volts instead of the 120 it should be. That is about the threshold where our surge protector will cut power to the coach to avoid damaging appliances. Things like air conditioners and microwaves do not like low voltage. I thought it might be a temporary thing, so I turned on the generator. With or generator running we could run both A/Cs, which was nice since we were able to cool the coach down and be comfortable. After a couple hours I shut down the generator and checked the voltage, expecting it to be back to normal. It was actually worse, getting down to as low as 96 volts. Our protection device kept shutting off power to the coach. After trying a couple different things, including changing power pedestals outside, I decided that the Lodge's wiring was just not sufficient to handle the high load caused by the extreme heat. We made the decision that we had to leave the park and find somewhere with better power.

We did a quick packing up of the coach, which was really rough in the high heat, and I went into the lodge and explained our problem. They were nice about it, saying they didn't know what the problem was, but that it has happened before. They did refund our money for the four nights we wouldn't be there. About 5:30 we were on the road again, about the latest we have been out in a long time. Of course, the sun doesn't set until about 8:00 this time of year, so we had plenty of light. We drove to the Chico Elks Lodge, which was only about a 16 mile trip, and tried to park in a spot there.

Unfortunately, they only had two 50 amp spots and both were taken. I tried parking in a 30 amp spot, but was not happy with the results. The spot was very short, leaving me out in the driveway an uncomfortable distance. The satellite dish on the roof was blocked by trees, and worst of all, their voltage at the pedestal was only 106 volts, almost as bad as Paradise. I did a little quick internet search and found a regular commercial RV park in Chico, only five miles from the lodge. By this time it was after 6:00 and the office was closed, so we couldn't verify that they had a spot for us. Since it was fairly close Jackie went out on a scouting mission to check the park. She called me after she got there and said they had plenty of empty spots and to come on over. I hadn't done any setup at the Chico Elks except to plug into the power, so I undid that and left the Elks to drive over to the Almond Tree RV Park. It was a quick drive and we got into our spot, a nice 50 amp, full hookup place. The power was great, 120 volts and a full 50 amps. By 7:00 we were hooked up, setup and cooling down with a nice cocktail.

Although this place is twice the cost of the Elks Lodges, at least we don't have to worry about the power being bad. In this heat that is the more important issue. We are just going to stay here for the remaining four days of our stay in the area. It was a busy day, with a nice start in the morning and early afternoon, and very hectic and stressful in the late afternoon, but it is all over now and we are happy to be here.

Sunday, July 21^st, another blistering hot day predicted for Chico. It seems that we picked the wrong summer to visit this area. The weather gurus are saying that the temps this summer are about ten degrees above the normal seasonal averages. We decided that today was a good day to go to the movies, the air conditioned movie theater. We left the coach after lunch and headed for the theater in Chico. We got into a 2:00 showing of the movie “The Heat” which stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. The film was a fairly standard copy “buddy” movie with Bullock as an uptight, unpopular FBI agent forced to work with an McCarthy, an uncouth, wild Boston PD undercover officer. Both Jackie and I are big fans of McCarthy, the plus size star of Mike and Molly, Bridesmaids, and the most recent movie we saw, Identity Thief. Although the plot was formula, the writing was perfect for McCarthy and the movie was hilarious. I am sure this kind of mindless, slapstick comedy is not for everyone, but it is just the kind of escapist comic film that we like. I give it four large popcorns.

After the film we worked to get a geocache for the day to keep our streak of consecutive caching days alive. We struck out on the first one we tried, had to post a DNF, but we persevered and found the second one we looked for. It was way too hot, and too close to cocktail hour, to continue caching, so we headed back to the coach where we stayed the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, July 22^nd, my daughter Tracie's birthday. Happy Birthday Tracie! Another hot day predicted, although a couple of degrees cooler than yesterday. We left the park about 11:30 and went out for lunch at local Mexican restaurant. Casa Ramos had good reviews for both their locations in Chico and Peggy Bullock had mentioned that they had been there and found it good also. The restaurant was pretty typical Mexican inside, lots of color and kitsch. The menu was not typical in that there were few of the normal combination plates and no ala carte menu. They also had a couple of things I had not seen in a Mexican restaurant before, including a lamb shank, which is what Jackie had. It was presented in a chili sauce and Jackie said it was very good. I had the red chili plate, which had very tender and tasty beef chunks, although it was a little milder than I would have liked. There was lots of food and we both enjoyed the meal.

After lunch we went out to do some shopping. Our first stop was a Supercuts so Jackie could get her hair trimmed. After that we went to Costco. We are a little disappointed with Costco in that they seem to have discontinued several items which we have come to rely on over the last few years. They no longer carry the big barrels of sourdough pretzels that I love, nor do they carry their Kirkland brand Court Classic tennis shoes. That has been the only brand of tennis shoe I have worn for about 15 years. We have now been to a half dozen different Costco's and none have these items. I even wrote an email complaining to them about it and got a generic form response about only offering items that sell well. Poop on them. If they didn't have cheap booze and good meat I would stop going there. We also took the time to try and get a geocache for the day. Like yesterday we struck out with the first one we looked for, but scored the second, thus keeping our streak alive. After that we headed back to the coach and watched TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 23^rd, we left the coach after lunch to go do our laundry. There was a laundry at the RV park, but it only had two washers and we had two weeks worth of clothes and linens. We found a nice new laundromat not too far from the park and got all our clothes done at one time. After a couple hours we were done and went out to do some caching. It was still hot, but about five degrees cooler than the weekend. We cached for about ninety minutes and got six new finds, including our number 5,500, another milestone. Yea! We also had one cache we couldn't find and had to DNF. Once we were done caching we headed home for the rest of the night.

Wednesday was another travel day. We packed up and were on the road at 10:00, headed south towards Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento. The trip was about 100 miles, so we got into the Carmichael Elks Lodge a little after noon. We have stayed here at the Carmichael Lodge a number of times. They have good 50 amp electric and water, no sewers at the site, but they do have a dump on the grounds. The important thing was the good power so we could fight off the heat. They don't take reservations, but there were a number of open sites and we got settled in for a five day stay pretty quickly.

Later in the afternoon we went out to look for a geocache for the day and to go to Walmart for a few supplies. We finished our shopping and picked up one geocache on the way home. We are now up to 31 consecutive days of having at least one cache. Yea! We then went home and relaxed the rest of the night. We did get a late afternoon visit from our friends Sharon and Curt Minard. You may recall that they were with us in Mineral at the Bullock's anniversary party. They live in Carmichael and are members of the Elks. They knew we were coming into town and stopped by just to say hi and to introduce us to Curt's mother, who is 94 years old and spending some time with them. They also had one of Curt's grandsons with them. They didn't stay long, but we did make plans to meet them at the Lodge for dinner tomorrow.

Thursday, July 25^th, Jackie's brother Dennis' birthday. Happy Birthday Dennis. We left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. We first made a quick stop at a nearby jewelry store to get Jackie's wedding ring fixed. Some of the prongs holding the stone had apparently got snagged and bent. She had the same ring fixed for the same problem back in May, so we went back to the same jeweler. He said he would have it fixed by tomorrow and that she must have gotten it hooked on something because the prongs were definitely damaged.

After the quick stop we did some caching for about hour or so, getting four new finds. We then decided it was getting a little too hot, so we went back to the coach to relax for a while. When we pulled into the lot we noticed that some friends of ours from Indio had their coach parked in the back row of the lot. Bob and Gloria Baron were members of the Indio Elks Drifters RV club back when we still had the house and were active in the Indio Lodge. They still live in the same country club where we had our house and are still members of the Drifters. We have not seen Bob and Gloria for a couple years, although Jackie keeps in contact with Gloria through Facebook and emails. Gloria had emailed her this morning asking if there was room at the Carmichael Lodge because they were leaving the Lake Almanor area and heading south. We hadn't expected to see them at the lodge already.

After a little rest and time to clean up, we walked over to the Baron's coach and visited with them for a while. It was nice to catch up and talk about our mutual friends back in the Coachella Valley. We asked them if they wanted to go to the Lodge for dinner, corn beef and cabbage, and told them that our other friends the Minard's were going to be there also. They thought that was a good idea. We went back to our coach for a little while and about 6:30 or so Sharon and Curt Minard arrived, with Curt's mother Millie. A few minutes later Bob and Gloria walked over and we introduced everyone. We talked for a few minutes and then the seven of us walked over to the Elks for dinner.

We got a nice table in the corner and had a cocktail and enjoyed our dinner. This was a meal cooked and served by volunteers, much the same as Jackie and I used to do back in Indio at the Elks. The corn beef and cabbage was very tasty, just not enough for my appetite, but we had served some cheese and crackers at the coach before we came over, so that took the edge off a little. After dinner Curt and Sharon went home and the Baron's went back to their coach. We just watched TV the rest of the night.

Friday, July 26^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and took Benji the cat to a local Petco to get his claws trimmed and get his little plastic “soft paws” glued on the nails. The plastic covers really help to keep him from digging up the carpet and other fabrics in the house. He is generally good about using only his scratching post, but like all cats he sometimes forgets and starts to dig something else, usually the carpet under the table. After his appointment we took him back to the coach and had lunch, then went out for some shopping.

We stopped and picked up Jackie's ring and then drove to one of the large shopping malls in Sacramento. We really didn't need anything, we just wanted to kill time and get a little walking done in an air conditioned space. We spent a couple of hours walking the mall, window shopping and generally wandering around. We didn't buy a thing. After our shopping tour we did a little bit of geocaching. We couldn't find the first two we looked for, but we finally struck pay dirt and found one not too far from the coach.

We went back to the coach and I started to make up a big pot of chili for dinner. Jackie had invited her friend Kathy and her husband Bill, who live in Citrus Heights, the next town north, for dinner. They arrived about 6:00 and we had a nice time catching up. We last saw them in May when we came through Sacramento. However, they hadn't seen our new changes to the interior of our coach, so we had a good time showing off. We had a very nice dinner, the chili turned out great, and had a fun time talking and reminiscing. They left to go home about 8:30 and we just chilled the rest of the evening.

Saturday we decided to have a little down time, so we stayed around the coach for most of the day. We did leave for a half hour or so after lunch to go out and get one geocache to keep our caching streak alive. About 6:30 we left the coach and drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant, Urbano's, to meet Kathy and Bill for dinner. They recommended this restaurant and said they eat there often. The place was in a strip mall and parking was difficult, but we finally found a spot. We ended up in a booth in a side room in which a large party was having a pre-wedding dinner. They were fairly well behaved, so it didn't impact our dining much. The food was OK, not the best, but they certainly gave you a lot of it. Both Jackie and I ended up taking some home for lunch. After dinner we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 28^th, we went out after lunch and took a drive to Sam's Club to try and get a couple of the things that we used to be able to get at Costco, but which they stopped carrying. We did manage to find the big bag of broccoli and the shrimp scampi we use, but no tennis shoes or sourdough pretzels. I had looked online and found that Cost Plus World Market carried the Utz sourdough pretzels I like, and there was one nearby, so we went there after Sam's. Yea, they had the big barrel of pretzels. On the way home from shopping we stopped and picked up a geocache so we would have one for the day.

About 4:00 we left the coach and drove to Curt and Sharon Minard's house for dinner. They live about a mile from the Elks Lodge, just outside the Carmichael city limits. They have a very nice, older tract home that they have extensively remodeled. They have a nice pool and even room to park their motorhome, which is the same size as ours, in the side yard. We had cocktails and chatted for a while before Sharon started dinner. At dinner the other night at the Elks Lodge the Jackie and Sharon had a conversation about abalone and the fact that the Minard's were going on an RV outing with one of their RV clubs in a few weeks and they would be on the coast of Northern California diving for abalone. I have never had abalone but Jackie said she used to have it all the time, before it became endangered, and used to love it. Sharon said they go abalone fishing every year and that they had some in the freezer and that's what she would make for dinner on Sunday.

For those who don't know abalone is a very large mollusk, a sea snail, which used to be very prevalent along the Pacific coast. A few decades ago abalone became endangered from overfishing and environmental issues, so commercial taking and sales were banned. California allows sport fishing of certain varieties of abalone, but there are very strict limits and regulations and it is unlawful to sell abalone under any circumstances. One of the things about abalone is the meat of the snail is very tough and needs to be sliced and then pounded to tenderize it. Sharon spent a half hour pounding the daylights out of the abalone she was making. She breaded and pan fried the abalone and served it with some pasta and vegetable dishes and some garlic bread.

We had a great dinner with good friends and really enjoyed the evening. For me the abalone was a bit of a let down. I had expected great flavor, but it really didn't have much. It wasn't bad, but it didn't really taste or feel any different to me than a calamari steak. The squid has the same look and texture. Nonetheless, Jackie was delighted to be able to eat abalone again after a couple decades. We chatted for a while after dinner and finally left to go home about 9:00.

Monday, July 29^th, another travel day. We had the coach packed up and ready to travel about 9:30. We had to stop for fuel but then headed to our next destination, Nevada City, California, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento on I-80. We are going to a private resort called Harmony Ridge, which is one of our membership parks under the Resorts of Distinction group. We have never been here before, in fact we have never been to that area before. The drive was uneventful and we arrived at the resort before noon.

The resort is very rustic, looking more like a forest service campground than a resort. We did get a full hookup site, however, with 50 amp, water and sewer. By maneuvering around in the spot I was able to get the rooftop satellite to come in, albeit without High Def, but at least we have TV. We have no telephone or Verizon internet because we are in the middle of the woods, but the resort has WiFi, so we should be OK.

After we got setup we went out to explore Nevada City, which is about three miles south of the resort. Nevada City, population about 3,000 is a quaint little town built in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The town was founded in 1849 during the gold rush and was one of the most important cities in the area during the mining era. It now relies on tourism for it's economic support. There isn't a flat spot in the town, it is all built on rolling hills, including the very interesting looking downtown. We spent about 90 minutes driving around the town, including the residential areas. There are some very nice, very large houses, as well as the more typical mountain cabins. Clearly the area has some wealthy residents.

We did find the Elks Lodge, but it was not open until 4:00. We did manage to get in and pick up a bulletin from the lodge because there were some people working inside. We will visit again sometime during our stay. We also did a little bit of geocaching in town, finding three and getting one new DNF for our efforts. This now extends our consecutive days of caching to 36 days. Yea us! After our caching we headed back to the coach.

When we got back to the coach I found that the electricity was cutting out. We had left the air conditioning running when we were out and the voltage had dropped to where it couldn't run the A/C properly and was cutting in and out. The voltage was down to just over 100 volts. This is the third time in a week that we have run into low voltage out in the boonies of California. I don't think PG&E, the electric company around here, is doing a very good job. Fortunately, it is cool enough up here at 3,400 feet that we shouldn't need to run the A/C, so I am hoping we can get by on the low voltage when it drops in the afternoon. We didn't go anywhere else for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, July 30^th, we went out after lunch and drove to the town of Grass Valley to do some exploring. Grass Valley is the larger neighbor of Nevada City, with a population of nearly 13,000. Only three miles separate the two towns and both were first settled in 1849 during the California gold rush. As with Nevada City the town is built on a series of rolling hills and valleys with little flat ground. The downtown is similar in appearance to Nevada City, with most of the old, turn of the century buildings still being used, but is much larger. Our first stop was at the DeMartini RV dealership, located on top of a hill at the north end of town. DeMartini is a major player in the RV market and a few years back, before the RV economy tanked, had built this huge, very pretty dealership in Grass Valley. Because of all the problems we have had lately with poor power in RV parks, I wanted to stop in and check their RV parts store to see if they, by chance had, a power boosting device called an Autoformer.

They are made by a company called Hughes, and are very well known amongst the RV crowd. Basically it's a large, heavy transformer that can boost the voltage ten percent when necessary. So if you have only 100 volts at the power pedestal, the device will boost that to 110 volt, which is about what you need to run appliances like air conditioners. I had looked online this morning and knew that they cost just under $400, but after all the problems we have had I was willing to think about spending that much. I really didn't expect a small parts place like a dealership to have one, I figured we would have to look at someplace like Camping World, but DeMartini's was there so we stopped in.

I'll be darned if there on the shelf, alongside the more standard surge suppressor and other electrical parts, was a 30 amp model of a Hughes Autoformer. There was no box, no price tag, either on the device or on the shelf, and no other papers or documents. I looked at the unit and it appeared to be slightly used, only because it had a couple scratches and the plugs showed some signs that they had been used. However, it did not appear to be very old. I got one of the guys at the parts counter to come over and I asked him how much the unit was. He wasn't even sure what it was, but he took it into another guy in a nearby office, and came out a second later and said, “he said $500, but I am thinking $50. Does that work for you?” I had no idea if he was joking about the other guy saying $500, but I suspect he was. I don't think either of them had any idea what the unit was or did. I told him “wrap it up” and we bought it. The gal at the checkout desk even put the actual selling price at $45 so that the total, with tax, was just a buck over the $50 the counterman quoted. What a deal!

After this great find we drove around for a half hour or so and then parked downtown and spent about two hours walking around, looking in some of the many shops and antique stores. We also picked up one geocache that was right downtown so that we would have one for the day and continue our consecutive days streak. The temperature was in the mid 80's and most of the sidewalks were shaded, so it was very comfortable walking around. About 4:00 we finished our shopping and we decided to stop by the Nevada City Elks Lodge, which opened at 4:00. Grass Valley also has an Elks Lodge, which is right downtown, however they didn't open until 5:00. We will have to hit that one another day.

We got into the Nevada City Lodge and had a couple of cocktails at the bar. There were only four guys in the bar, three of them past exalted rulers, and we had a very nice time talking to them. One of them had lived in the area all his life and the others were long time, 20 years plus, residents. We bought one drink and the lodge bought us a second. We got our lodge pin for the banner and left after about an hour. We headed home and I set up our new voltage booster on the power pedestal. It worked great and we were able to run one air conditioner with no problems whatsoever. I am really happy with that great find. We had dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 31^st, another great day in the woods. We went out after lunch to the local Safeway to do some shopping. When we finished that we spent a little time doing some geocaching on the way back to the coach. We ended up with four new finds for the day, which has extended our caching streak now to 38 straight days. Now that we are used to going out for at least one cache each day we will be ready for the challenge posed by Geocaching.com, the “headquarters” for the sport, which is to get at least one cache each day of August.

We got back to the coach and put away the groceries and then relaxed around the coach until about 5:00 when we drove back down to Nevada City for their Hot Summer Nights street festival. These festivals have been an annual thing for the city for a number of years. This year they held three, each on a Wednesday night in July. We were fortunate to find a parking place very near downtown, mostly because we went early. The street fair really didn't start until 6:00 and we were there before 5:30. They close off the entire old downtown area and set up street vendor booths. In addition, most of the stores and restaurants are open in downtown. We had a great time walking around the booths, and looking in some of the shops. This is a very “hippy” sort of area with a lot of old, unrepentant hippies walking around. I guess that is fairly common in some of these Northern California small mountain towns, just like it is in parts of Oregon.

About 6:30 we stopped for dinner in a place called Matteo's Public, which was a nice little pub in an old building, right across the street from the place where the Nevada City Elks Lodge had it's first lodge hall at the turn of the century. It was a cute little place with a fairly typical pub menu. The service was very good and the food was excellent. My burger was one of the best I have had in a while. Jackie had fish tacos, which she said were very good as well. After dinner we walked around some more, enjoying the festival and enjoying the people watching as well. We finally left about 8:30 and headed home for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, August 1^st, a new month begins. We left the coach around 3:00 and drove into Grass Valley to do a little geocaching and then go to the street fair there which starts around 5:00. We found three caches before we decided to go and find a place to park for the street fair. Like yesterday, we lucked out and got an open space very close to the area of town they closed off. We spent a couple of hours walking around the street fair and visiting some of the shops in the old downtown area. One of Jackie's sandals broke while we were caching and she went into a consignment store and found a great pair of designer sandals, in her size, for $12. Problem solved!

We had dinner by snacking on stuff from some of the booths at the street fair. We had some fried calamari and fries and then later a nice slice of pizza. In our wanderings we stopped in at the Grass Valley Elks Lodge, which is right downtown and just outside of the area that had been closed off for the festival. We had read the lodge's bulletin online and it said they opened at 5:00. We were hoping for a cocktail and a new lodge pin. Instead, we found the lodge open, but it was bingo night and they are not allowed to sell liquor when they are open to the public for bingo. Rats! I guess we will have to stop in another evening.

After the street fair we headed back to the coach, arriving back around 7:00. We walked into the coach and found that there was no power to any of the outlets in the coach. Our coach is wired such that all the 120 volt receptacles in the coach have to pass through the inverter, which has a circuit breaker on it. We have had minor issues in the past with this breaker popping at odd times. I checked the inverter and sure enough the breaker was out. Unfortunately, this time when I pushed it back in to reset the inverter started making really loud buzzing noises and the breaker popped back out again. I continued to do trouble shooting for a half hour and determined that the one output circuit on the inverter that supplies the outlets was not working. The charger part of the device was still working, charging the coach batteries that supply the 12 volt DC current for all the lights and fans and such. The inverter circuit that supplies power to the microwave was also still working. It was just the one for the outlets inside that was not working right.

Since it was too late to contact anyone for advice, I just left the inverter alone and ran a couple of extension cords into the coach and plugged them into the 120 volt receptacle on the power pedestal. I then plugged all our TV stuff into one and all the computer stuff into another. This will give us 120 volt power for the time being and give me time to contact the Magnum people, who made the inverter, tomorrow and see if they can help. After an hour of frustration I finally had things taken care of, jury rigged a temporary fix, and relaxed with a cocktail and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 2^nd, after my morning coffee I started doing a little more checking on the electrical problem, mostly with the intent of having as much information as possible when I tried to call Magnum Energy's customer service line. Just for the Hell of it I went out and pushed the open breaker back in and damned if it didn't stay in. No noise, no circuit breaker popping back out. I went inside and checked the outlets and found that we had good power at all the outlets. The inverter was working again.

Nonetheless, I got in the car and went to the top of the hill to call Magnum Energy. We don't have good phone service down in the canyon we are camped in, so we have to get out of the hole to make or receive calls. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get through to the customer service people. I was on hold, or waiting for a call back for nearly an hour and finally decided to give up trying to call. Since the situation was not a dire as it had been last night I decided that an email to Magnum Energy would probably work to try and come up with an answer. I went back to the coach and put together a comprehensive description of the problem and sent it off to them. I then went about disconnecting all my jury rigged wiring and extension cords and plugged everything back into where they were supposed to be. My final bit of troubleshooting was to switch the output leads on the inverter. Now the outlets were on the one the microwave used to be on and vice versa. I figured that if the other breaker now started to pop it would indicate that the problem may not be with the inverter at all, but something in the coach wiring or something plugged into one of the outlets.

After lunch we went out to get a couple of geocaches, wanting to keep our own personal challenge of extending our consecutive caching days streak alive, as well as the Geocaching.com challenge for the month of August, at least one cache a day. We also wanted to visit the Scotts Flat Lake campground, which was located on Scotts Flat Lake just a few miles from the RV park. One of the people we met at the street fair the other night had mentioned that they had a great RV campground down there. We headed down towards the lake, which is south of Highway 20 on a pretty narrow, curvy road, picking up a couple of geocaches along the way. We finally found the campground, which is operated by the Nevada Irrigation District. It was a big campground, right on a very nice lake, but the sites were very rustic with no hookups at all. Even if we wanted to dry camp there we didn't see any sites that would fit our coach, and the prices were very high. They wanted $30 a night for a campsite on the lake with no hookups. We did a ten minute drive through and then left. This would not be a camping destination for us.

One of the other caches we found was alongside Highway 20 and was the grave of a two year old boy that had died back in 1853 while on a wagon train heading for California.  The route of the highway roughly follows one of the primary emigrant trails from the mid-1800's.  Local residents have adopted the grave and now there is a nice granite monument, a fence around the grave, and a monument put up by the State historical society.  There are all kinds of toys and stuffed animals around the grave left by passersby.  This is the kind of thing about which I always tell people caching does.  The sport takes you to places you ordinarily wouldn't find or know about.  Driving by at 60 mph you might never see this little turnout and the history it provides.

 

After our little exploration of the area we went back to the coach for the rest of the day. We had a nice pot roast cooking in the crock pot and we had great dinner and just stayed in the coach. As far as the electric goes, we did have an outage on the outlets again early in the evening. This time it was the other breaker, the one I now had the outlets running through. This time, however, the breaker reset the first time, the power came back on and we had no further problems during the evening. This would indicate to me that I need to start exploring possibilities outside the inverter as the source of the problem. A big challenge considering the miles of wiring inside a modern motor home.

Although we are going to be here in the woods for another five days before heading back down to Carmichael, it has been about two weeks since we published the blog, so I will close this chapter here and get it put online. Until the next time stay happy and enjoy life. Bye.