Lake Don Pedro

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Driver! We again had coffee in the sunshine at our campsite. A pair of ducks are nesting nearby and it is entertaining to watch them waddle from campsite to campsite. There are also several cats - pets or wild, we are not sure - which are driving poor Snickers insane. Why is it he ignores our two cats at home???  But, it was time to hit the road and head up to Sonora, where we had decided to spend the night on our way to Merced. 
 
We had a very adventurous day - seems Highway 49 (North, Howard, from Oakhurst to Sonora) was built before man invented 38-foot motor homes... it was a beautiful drive, and luckily we were the only travelers, as we did have to take it slow - up hill and down. We passed by two reservoirs - McClure and Don Pedro - and had spectacular views of both. The wildflowers are in brilliant bloom in the California Gold Country - lupines, berries, vetch, poppies - all spectacular. We stopped at about one o'clock for lunch at an overlook and here is a photo of our lunchtime vista:

Lake Don Pedro

We didn't stay around in Sonora - yes, it is a cute town and we had been there before - but it was crawling with tourists! How rude! A traffic jam in a two-lane town. We really wanted to get up to Columbia - just a few miles away.  Both towns are historical and full of gold-mining lore, but Sonora's old buildings are now selling books and jeans and computer software in old buildings and Columbia has kept its entire town pristine - exactly the way it 'was'. The entire town is a State Park - dirt streets, no cars allowed (horses are okay!) and people walk around in period clothing! It is just adorable and you would be able to see it if I had thought to bring my camera along. With my purse, Snickers, (and his assorted required paraphernalia) - my hands were full. There was an RV park in Columbia, but we couldn't find it, the two campgrounds at the reservoirs did not allow dogs (!!!) and since we were so close to Merced - we just headed towards DT's home town - so he could be with his bro's on his birthday.

We even took the 'long way' - and took the back roads through Chinese Camp (their elementary school has a Chinese tiled roof), La Grange and Snelling. Fantastic drive - especially the part through the BLM Horse-Riding area of Red Hills where they just don't put in bridges because they always get washed-out, so we just drove Goldie through a few creeks! Can you believe it??? (Well, you will have to, as I didn't use my camera here either.) The creeks were not exactly roaring with water, but they were bubbling along... and this was as close to 'off-roading' we will ever get in our motor home again! When we left the BLM park, we entered beautiful rangeland. Still lush and green, these rolling hills were as pretty as anything I have ever seen. I had no idea this beauty existed so close to old Merced. These hills have the most unusual rock formations... thousands and thousands of 'headstones' dot the hills. They are not actual headstones, but natural rock shards, most likely left by erosion and plate tectonics, which look like head stones! Most are about 3 feet tall and just a bit atilt. It is very eerie - miles and miles of these ghostly rocks dot the hillsides until you enter La Grange. If you blink, you miss La Grange... so now we find ourselves for the 4th time at the Castle Air Museum Campground. We take up one of the seven spaces and when we pulled in the host ran out to greet us as old friends and gave me a hug! (They don't get many campers here at Castle.)
 
This week and weekend will be filled with much fun for us - DT's birthday, all four brothers will gather, a golf tourney on Friday, and Brother Bill's puts on a "Blues and Brews Festival" on Friday at the local art center. Mom is out of town (she went on a Caribbean cruise with her sister) so we plan to hang at her house and drink all her beer.