Travelogue #4 1/2Yikes!

Yikes! It's snowing! We're in Lakeview, OR, in the SE outback. The plan was to get some household chores done (laundry), then pack the car for a foray to the Sunstone Gem Collection Area(BLM) near Plush. Well, the best laid plans......Finished the laundry, came back to the rig for lunch and a "little nap" and this is what we woke up to see!

There was a little flurry-I thought how cute......

I pulled the door open....

Same picnic table as the first picture-we're in a white-out!

The birds are flocking to the underside of the rig-we have electricity and we have the heat cranked up...

It's all Jack's fault...he washed the car yesterday...

OK, I said I don't like the heat but this is ridiculous!!!!!

Hello/Goodbye/Hello -Travelogue # 4

Susanville was a blast-and it was very easy to get comfortable at Camp Garoppo but we have places to go and people to see and events and other surprises around the next bend.....We got as far as Modoc National forest, about 55 mi. from Susanville. We're still on 395......

L to R: Jack, Richard , Me, Babe and her friend Peggy all wishing us a safe trip

e's

And here's our goodbye shot-Everybody sees pictures of folks coming-here's our version of people going.....

Modoc National Forest campground is at 5,000 ft.

We went to Hayden Hill 'cause the map says it's a Ghost Town...all we saw was an abandoned water tower... We went a little further and found a gold mining operation. couldn't go too far as the road was blocked and gated.

The background is the gold mine... We went on an extensive car trip through the Sage Hen mountains..beautiful scenery. Stuff you don't get to see when you're on I-5.....

Folks use the local rocks for fence posts and wrap them with wire reinforcement. It's very unusual... The color of the rock is very pretty, too. You can tell when you're close to the gold mine-this is the kind of rock you see.

This was another unique item... we don't know what critter did this but they picked the pinecones clean!

Part of our campsite is this babbling brook...

Camp Modoc-I could have stayed there for a few weeks... We took tons of pictures of views, flowers and the like. I don't want to embarass myself by posting them here 'cause I don't have a clue what they are-maybe another blog....

Travelogue #3 Susanville

The trip from Tahoe to Reno was stormy-rain, snow, sleet-but Jack handled it all very well. There were warnings on the pass re: high winds but we made it! We took a few days to refresh and regroup. Mostly, I needed to get some attention to my knee. After many, many hoops I landed in the ER of Renown Hospital where the ER doc was willing to inject me-this had never been done before in the ER! Anyway, I'm on the mend and to keep the pressure off I gave in and bought a walker with the seat attached. At least I can keep up with Jack (a little bit better) and my endurance is tripled. So, enough of Reno and on to Susanville.

I think most of you know we planned to follow 395 up through CA. Well, I have a dear friend here in Susanville that I hadn't seen in 15 years! Needless to say, I was really looking forward to the reunion. We had chatted briefly before we left Coarsegold, so I called her while in Reno to give her an update-she was in Reno! So, we met for dinner and I told her we'd be in Susanville Wednesday.

The ride from Reno to Susanville is beautiful...We named these the "paint by number" mountains....do you remember your first paint by number kits?

Besides the Paint by Number Mountains there were incredible cloud (angel) formations. Hello, Georgia!

This is camp Garoppo-FHU and unlimited stay! The building on the L is a huge garage that can hold two or three RVs...

This is part of the view we had at camp Garoppo

Casa De Garoppo built around 1986

I'm not sure how tall this fireplace is...maybe 15 feet...but it is all feather river stone. Babe tells me that Dick brought 40 tons of it in his truck-I wonder how many trips that was?

Babe (woman in the middle) is the hostess for the weekly sewing group. There can be 2-12 ladies show up and every kind of sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet or just visiting happens here.

I was teased as the "young un" because I was only in my 60s......

Babe and I in our matching walkers...It's been a wonderful visit and I'm so glad we reconnected.

Tahoe-from all sides

I came to California in 1977, and remember the first time I went to Tahoe. It was a hustling bustling place, full of skiers, gamblers and just about anything else you could think of...Jack was here approx. 20 years ago, so we both had our images of what the place looked like. Sadly, the economic downturn has hit here, too. Jack went into one casino and said it felt like a ghost town. I'm sure it will survive and thrive again because this is truly a gem in the wonders of the world. Lake Tahoe can grab you with its beauty from every side.....

Lake Tahoe is the third largest fresh water lake in the US. At 6,225 ' elevation, it is 22mi. long, 12 mi. wide and 1645' deep. We're headed for 89 and this is one of the few areas open...I believe they plan to open this weekend for Mother's Day.

Can you see the specks in the Lake? We believe it's a Male Loon, followed by his mate. Jack found three pennies and one quarter with his detector...

On the lookout at Emerald Bay

Look closely-there's a Scandinavian Castle at the shore...

Take another look! It can only be reached by boat...It's called Vikingsholm.

This little beauty is called Fanette island-in the middle of Emerald Bay.

The winter Olympics were held here in 1960....

It must have been a magnificent experience-just to be here during that time! It was still very crowded-this time with snowboarders..

We arrived too late for a gondola ride-oh, well we'll save that for Bamff.

We're now on the Eastern side of the lake-lots of smooth boulders and different colors of the lake.

Cave State park-you have to pay to just get a picture! But the Guy (Lee) was kind enough to let us in as long as we didn't leave the car. No problem there!

And so as we head back to Tahoe City we see some incredible sunsets-and we did it all within 6 hours! That's a record for us....As we left (on Mother's Day) it was raining, sleeting and snowing so I'm glad we're gone..Because of the weather (in part) we decided to bypass Carson City and head for Reno, where we'll stay a few days so I can rest up my knee. Ahh, memories for a lifetime!

Travelog #1 Bagby Rec. to Sutter Mill

We're not in any hurry, that's for sure! That is the whole point of the trip as far as we're concerned-and I'm having a ball! We've been out 5 days (yes, Gary, we will make it to 10!) and we've gone approx. 100 miles-don't care! I'll try to comment on the pictures...

This is how 49 looks after Mariposa....It's not as bad as people made it out to be, and I'm glad I pushed for us to try it. Can you see that little ribbon of blue? That's the Merced River and just to the right of it is Bagby Recreation Area-our 2nd stop (Chukchansi was our first on Friday night) in the adventure. This is a real find-so close to home, yet far removed from the city life. The sites have water and elect; you need to go in with empty tanks 'cause there's no sewer. It's a popular spot for fishing and has a dock to launch boats. We ended up staying 3 days! Somewhere between Mariposa and Bagby I was pulled over by CHP, who gave me a fix-it ticket. That was Saturady, and we agreed it would be more efficient if I took care of it while still close to Mariposa, so we waited till Monday. By the time we got all our chores done in town it was too late to take off!

The "children" a bunch of turkeys-woke us each morning, sometime after dawn. They seem to be comfortable around people.....

This is a view of the Merced I'd never seen before.....it's flowing out of Yosemite! Jack is checking the trail for gold..the ranger opened the gate to the primitive camping area for usand this is one of the sites up there....

Gentleman Jack or Farmer Jack-I don't know which- is enjoying his new toy (metal detector) and his first love, fishing.

This is hard to pinpoint the rig-it's that little white spot in the middle of the pix-but I wanted you to get an idea of what the camp looks like.

New day, new adventure! Jack is waiting for the vehicle that will take us down to the Sutter Gold Mine in Jackson. As you can see, we don't travel very far in one day! It's a real mine, and is hoping to be back in production by August. There was a video before we took the tour, and was very informative. Very cold down there!

This is the entrance to one of the mines. The Co. owns about 17 of them, and plans to operate the tours while still mining.

This is a half ton cartused to bring the ore out. The donkeys and other animals lived there entire life down in the mone. While that sounds cruel to us, our guide said they were treated better than people....Hmmmmm

Brett is explaining some of the equipment in thet Safety room....and told us how safe it is.....Hmmmmm.

That's me riding shotgun on the vehicle. We're staying at Jackson Rancheria tonite....will keep you all informed where I am!

Fond Farewell....

It's always fun visiting the girls...Every time I see them they have new "stuff" to share...Miss E is a smidgen away from walking (she's 10 months old!), and Miss C is learning T-ball.

Miss E is watching her big sister set uo for T-ball. It's so funny watching how the girls treat her so differently than Miss C when she was that age. C couldn't get dirty...E eats dirt, weeds and an occasional rock.

C has her own classy mitt, and learning to watch the ball. She can get it in her mitt a few times...

She's also very, very good at picking up her things. This is the side lawn.

And here's the whole family taking a break 'cause Sandi just got home and everybody need to catch up on the news.

E finally broke loose from the walker thingy and went straight for the weeds. She's pretty good at pulling weeds.

Mom Sandi left her iced tea glass and what didn't get spilled went into Miss E's mouth!

I'll miss them a lot but happy to say we have Skype so we can keep in touch.