We left the KOA in Lodi after five nights and drove a few hours north to Placerville. With the Placerville KOA as our base, we visited Lake Tahoe on Friday, Sutter’s Mill on Saturday, and Sacramento on Sunday. The KOA had a flock of ducks, a flock of geese, and three pigmy goats. We fed the ducks each day, at least until Toby and I got stung by some bees while we were feeding!
Lake Tahoe is quite beautiful, especially Emerald Bay. Lannas Jason told us that his college roommate Graham was there on the same day we were! We stayed on the south side of the lake, almost running out of gas because we hadn’t looked at the gauge.
Although it was a very warm day, we had a great time walking through the state park at Sutter’s Mill. They have recreated the lumber mill that James Marshall (first to discover gold in California) built in 1848. Despite the Gold Rush that they started, we learned that both Marshall and Sutter died penniless. We had a delicious lunch at the Argonaut sandwich shop and drove up to see the statue of Marshall pointing toward the river.
When we got home there was a new RV at the park. We decided that it must be an RV with a mother-in-law suite!
On Sunday morning after breakfast we drove to Sa
cramento, about 35 miles away. The traffic was relatively light and the capitol was easy to find. We left Toby in the car for about 30 minutes while we walked around inside the capitol. Then the three of us spend over an hour walking around the grounds. It is just fabulous – including orange trees and huge cedar and magnolia trees among others, plus beautiful roses and other flowers. Toby also found some little admirers.
After leaving the capitol we went across the Tower Bridge and down to a part of town called Old Sacramento. They have train rides, costumed people, and lots of shops. The shops included souvenir shops, candy shops (chocolate and salt water taffy), and restaurants. We ate fish and chips, then Lannas and Toby did some people watching while I checked out the shops. One of the people in costume was riding around on one of those bicycles with a huge front wheel.
Monday morning we left Placerville, heading northwest to Redding. Again there were lots of orchards, this time more peaches, apricots, and plums. We also saw huge fields of rice, flooded with water. It turns out California is the second largest producer of rice in the country.
After about three weeks in California we have noticed several unusual things about roads in this state. They have call boxes about every mile, on every road! Especially in the valley, there are huge flowering shrubs in the medians and on the sides of the roads. These sometimes go on for miles and miles! The roads in the mountains are usually pretty well maintained, but the Interstates have been very lumpy and bumpy. The lumps and bumps are especially noticeable in the coach.
Monday night we stayed at a private RV park right on the Sacramento River. It was very beautiful, with sloping grassy fields leading to the banks of the river. The sites had concrete pads and lots of plantings around them. It was very pleasant with the breeze off the river.
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