Life in Amador County, CA

So, we go on about our merry way here in Amador County. There is something to be said about living in wine country....(I really like it, she slurred...). Today we went to Sutter Creek and had lunch in a very fun place. It is called Susan's Place. Really good wines and scruptious food. I had the lobster salad sandwich and it was really yummy. Barry picked out a chianti type wine and it also was top shelf. We loved the atmosphere of the place. We ate outside on the patio, and it is lattice covered with vines and trees all around. Kind of jungly. It reminded up of sitting on Jinx and Steve's deck in Sundance. At first you think Susan's Place is a little snooty, until you see autumn leaves dropping on your table, and bitty little ants crawling on the vine next to your arm. It was oh so cool.
Then we just poked around Sutter Creek. We bought the most fun welcome mat for the trailer. It reads "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, look whos here!" Just had to get that! Lots of fun little shops in Sutter Creek so we had a good time. Doesn't take much to entertain us.
Yesterday we went up into the National Forest and fished on the Consumnus River. It is not a very big river and the pine cones were bigger than the fish we saw, but that was OK too. It was very pretty up there. Sooo many trees. Really dense foresting. Ok, Thats all for now.

Pine Grove, CA

Well, here we are in beautiful Pine Grove. It is located in the foot hills of the Sierras and is a really pretty little town. It is kind of clustered here with Sutter Creek, Jackson, and Plymouth. We are parked in our friends yard, Rick, Pat and John Richardson. Rick and Pat are in their 80s and just the best folks you would ever want to meet. Pat is very spry but Rick is starting to show his age. John is their son. He and Barry were in Nam together and have remained good friends all these years. John lives with his parents and works at the Indian casino here. We have been getting a little fishing in. We are proud to report that we DID catch some CA trout!. We fished the Meculumne River but to no avail but then we went to Bear River Lake and we did catch some rainbow there. Lake fishing is pretty different for us but we really enjoyed it. These rainbow look a little different than what we are used to. Not as much color and bigger spots. They bit the same tho! Then yesterday we went to Sacramento and fished the American River, which pretty much runs through the city. It was pretty amazing, we didn't even feel like we were in the city while we were on the river. It is a pretty large river and the king salmon were starting to run. We saw some but didn't hook into any, rats! We were actually fishing for steel head, but didn't get any of those either. We had a great time though, all the same. Went to a park area that was recommended by the flyshop, then a fisherman told us another good place to fish, so about 5:00 we went to that one. Went about 10 miles, took us about 30 to 45 mins, due to 5:00 traffic and ended up on the other side of the river from where we were fishing in the first place! Yikes, didn't we feel silly! On Sunday we took John's hot rod and Wayne and Frank and Katie joined us with theirs and we drove to Sacramento in the old cars. It was very fun. Went to the flyshop and then to a bar and goofed around. We did have a great time. Today we plan to go back up the mountain and fish some streams.
We will be here until Nov. 6th, then we will go to Bethel Island to visit friends. Barry graduated from high school with the guy. Then we will head for TX for Thanksgiving. OK, so that about brings you up-to-date. The weather is grand, and the company wonderful, so we are just hunkered down for a while. Later

Oakhurst, CA

So here we are in Oakhurst, CA. It is a little town, NE of Fresno, and there are oak trees everywhere. I don't know what kind of oak trees they are, but they have the biggest damn acorns I have ever seen! Paint me purple and call me crazy, but I always thought acorns were little round guys, but these are huge! And they are shaped like torpedos. They are about 1 1/2 inches long and real pointy. Had to keep one just so I can oooh and aaw over it now and then. We are in a funny little camp ground that sits right on the Fresno River. In my book it would be a creek, but hey, it can be called a river I guess. Very pretty little town. We walked up town before dark and couldn't find one bar that was just a bar and not a bar/restaurant. We did stop at a Mexican restaurant that had a separate bar with an outdoor deck so we had a couple Margaritas and came home. The bartender said there are a couple of little bars in town, but they are further out than we walked. Oh well, that is OK, we just came back home and had a bite to eat and fed the canine outlaws. Sara is getting so demanding since we started Rving. She barks if the water dish is empty, she barks if she wants on the couch or a chair, she is just such a queen, and seems to get more regal the older she gets. Don't know if I'll be able to tolerate her when she is really old! She is 10 now, so guess that means she is 70 in people years. Nice weather here, it is pretty cool this evening. Think we are at about 3000 ft here in the foot hills of the Sierras. Very pretty, lots of trees. Aren't sure the route we are going to take tomorrow to Pine Grove, guess there are several ways to go, so we will have to decide which we want. OK then, till next time.

Southern California

So we left Mohave and headed for LA. We had chosen the campground where we wanted to stay, so I put the address for the campground into Barry's girlfriend, (Fatsy Montana, the GPS unit) and away we went. Well, I don't know if she was hormonal or what her deal was but she took us up over the mountains coming to Valencia. It was a gorgeous drive, and no traffic, but very very steep. Once again we were glad we had the big ol' truck. So we cruised into Valencia and to our campground. Fatsy wasn't aware of the road construction, but it was close to the campground so we would see where we were supposed to go, so it all worked. Nice campground, very large, over 380 sites. One of Barry's friends from Hart High now lives on Bethel Island in Northern CA is staying at the campground so that is fun. The reunion was cocktails Friday night, dinner Sat. night and a picnic on Sunday. It was very nice. One of Barry's classmates had his '49 Woody there and it was very cute. Barry loved that. We danced a little Saturday night after dinner and there was a lot of visiting going on.
Sunday I didn't go to the picnic as Barry's aunts were coming to the campground to see us, so I stayed at the house in case Barry didn't get back in time. We had a nice visit with them. They are Barry's Mom's sisters, and one is about Barry's age, a very spread out family they were.
We found some farmer's markets on Saturday so got some good fresh stuff, oranges, grapefruit, tomatos, cukes, etc. No spinach tho....hummm wonder why. Now I read that lettuce is now suspect, guess we will have to give up salad and just eat chocolate! Now when they decide chocolate is tainted, I will be really upset. We will go back to the markets tomorrow before we head North on Wednesday.
The weather has been very nice here. Cool at night and warm during the day. It was a little foggy this AM but it burned off pretty quick. Ok, so now we are up to date. Later

Go West not-so-young man go west

So we left Cortez and headed west. Again, didn't plan on going as far as we did, but ended up in Flagstaff. Stayed at an "Adult oriented" camp ground. Expected xrated movies and such, but no such luck. There were a few kids but they don't cater to them. Lots of fairly permanent residents. Met a couple from WY that lives there for 6 mos. and then in Yuma. Too hot in Yuma in the summer. Was a really nice campground. Spent my birthday there, so the 1st of Oct. on my birthday, we just went downtown and poked around. Had a great time. Found a really nice bead store, and went to Barnes and Nobel. Life is good. We spent 2 nites in Flagstaff then headed for Needles, CA. Holy Smokes, it was horrible hot for us ol Northerners. It was 95 when we pulled in there at 4pm. yikes. Ran both air conditioners all night long. Guess that camp ground fills up in the winter too, but there were several spots when we got there. It was really in the middle of the desert. Actually, they told us just to walk our dogs in the desert, which was about 40 ft. from the trailer. Spent one night there, then on to Mojave, CA. That is where we are now. Our Verizon air card works pretty good, we have landed a few places where we don't have digital cell service, thus no internet, but not too often. It is OK not to have cell and internet sometimes I think. We were talking last night and couldn't remember if day light savings time started last week or this weekend! Pretty strange when it doesn't even matter. Oh, well, life is good on the road. Till next time.