April 23, 2010

We haven't been able to write sooner as we have had either no internet connection or so sporadic that we couldn't do anything. That is how it goes sometimes when you are away from civilization.

We did do some sightseeing and went to Placerville where we looked around for awhile. Another day we went to Jamestown to the Railroad Museum. We took a tour through the roundhouse and learned that a lot of movies and t.v. shows were filmed here; such as High Noon, Petticoat Junction, Back to the Future 3 etc.  We also took some trips to Sonora where we saw a mural in progress in the Tuolumne county library. The mural is done by a very talented young artist who has been working on it for 6 months now and will need another 2 months or so to finish. She started on the left (where she is standing) with the sunrise and will end up with sunset on the right. The part you see is only about 1/4 of the total picture.

It has been very rainy and we even had some snow a couple of times. We have had the heat on every night and some times even during the day. We do a lot of walking around the campground which is very hilly and most every day (if it is not raining) we walk to Columbia which is 1/4 mile to town and 1/2 mile back. That is what the locals say as the walk back to the campground is all uphill. It sure is getting me back in shape.
Tonight we are going to a play in Sonora. The name of the play is "Shipwrecked".  We haven't been to a play for years so this will be a very nice experience.
Monday we will be going to Yosemite and look around there. We are really looking forward to that and to seeing the great big trees we have heard about and seen on t.v. We are hoping the weather will be nice.
We are sure missing the warm, sunny Arizona weather but will be seeing that soon again as we are heading back to the Petrified Forest on the 1st of May. We are looking forward to being there again as we have good memories from the time we were there before. We will also be close to our acreage and will be able to spend some time there and visit with our friends. We might even make some new friends as more people have moved in that area. We will make it short this time as we don't know how long we are connected. More later.

First week! March 31 through April 7, 2010

Well, it has been a week since we started out on our new adventure. We had planned to do the trip in 3 days -- taking our time getting to our destination which was 49er RV Ranch in Columbia, CA. However, the driving was so pleasant and there were not too many camp grounds where we wanted to stop that we drove to Barstow, CA where we found one campground. It was an o.k. campground so we spent the night there. The next day we drove all the way to the 49er RV ranch with only one problem which occurred somewhere before Modesto. We were enjoying our drive when all of a sudden some big sound came from the back of the trailer. We looked back and saw a pick-up truck coming from behind us (kiddy corner) that had blown a tire. A small part of the tire hit our trailer and fortunately didn't do too much damage. We were lucky the driver of the pick-up truck was able to stay away from us. We arrived at the 49er RV ranch after 5:00 P.M. and were glad to be there. We met Bill Meissner (the owner of the 49er RV ranch who welcomed us and showed us our site. It was cold so we didn't do much unpacking. We met some of fellow workers and hit the sack early. We had rain on Friday and all through the night. On Saturday Bill invited us to walk to Columbia and show us the town. It is a real old town and it is quite interesting to see but we were cold and didn't spend much time there. The next day was Easter and we walked to Columbia to see the Easter parade but it was still cold and damp and I didn't feel very good so we didn't wait for the parade and went home. I went to bed and had some hot tea and stayed put the rest of the day keeping nice and warm in bed. Monday morning we woke up to see a dusting of snow everywhere; which meant it was still cold. We worked 4 1/4 hour and has some good training. It should be fun. We do need to learn the reservation system which might not be too easy as we have never done that before. However, it will be a good experience for the future. We worked the next couple of days and have tomorrow (Thursday) off. Gary had his 70th birthday and received some cards and a SendOutCake which we will bake some time soon. We had a campfire in the park on his birthday which was fun as Larry played the guitar and we all sang along and they sang Happy Birthday to Gary. Gary played the
washtub base.

Picture below shows our campsite which is very nice and close to the office so we never have to walk very far to go to work. Also, we get to meet the campers who check in after hours but we never have that many and they don't come late at night.
Tomorrow (April 8) we are going to Placerville to check out the motels for when we meet Jan and Berry from Holland who are making a long trip through America. We will meet them on May 31 and spend the night with them.