YIKES

Yup, that's snow and yup again....it's California. Placerville was the place. We have changed our route a bit. Rather than go into Nevada, we have headed back towards the coast. The passes between CA and Nev. were requiring chains on your vehicle, which we don't have. We will now go into Oregon. We are in Nice CA. tonight after a visit to Folsom State Prison........actually the museum there. A very interesting place. We are right on the water here as the picture shows...a little cool and damp, but no snow

1888

The night of Mar 29th was spent in Placerville CA. which is a former mining town, dating from 1888, in Northen CA.. Today ( Tuesday) saw us take a tour of the Gold Bug Mine, which is now operated by the State of CA., as a tourist attraction. It was quite interesting seeing the hardships these folks endured. We will spend tonight here as well and perhaps tomorrow too because either of the roads we want to take from here to Nevada (State Hwy 50 or I80) are requiring chains on tires because of SNOW in the passes. It should be noted that we are at about 1130 ft above sea level here in Placerville, while the area of the Sierra's we will be driving through are between 7 and 8,000 ft. Snow has been falling above the 5,000 ft. line for a while now. The challanges continue !!!!!!!!

Thursday March 27 saw us visit the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose Ca, on our way the home of Peter and Diana McIntyre, Sue's brother and sister -in-law . To say Mrs. Winchester was a little off center would be an understatement. Following the death of an infant child and the later passing of her husband, the son of the founder of the Winchester Arms Company, she started to put additions onto the family home. 160 rooms later, many unfinished, she passed away. There are doors that go nowhere, windows that look on to adjacent walls, staircases that end at the ceiling. A VERY unusual place !!! We then proceeded to Peter and Diana's home in Pleasanton. Their house is in direct contrast to that of the Winchester house and located in a very desire able enclave.
Fri. saw Sue and Diana go shopping while Brandy got a much needed hair cut. In the meantime, Bill went "antiquing" in Nile CA. No purchases though.
Sat. was the Goodguys car show. It was put on by the same folks that did one in Stockdale AZ. This one seemed to have many more vendors of flea market type stuff than AZ. About 3,000 cars on displaywith a large number for sale, including a '29 "A" Coupe for $8,000. Not a bad price for the condition of the car. That noon meal found us at Sue's nephew's condo (Andrew), where we met his "intended", Paige.
Sunday afternoon, Diana took us to Alviso Adobe, which a museum of sorts, showing the type of buildings that were typical of farms in the early 1900's. This area was inhabited by native Americans from 1300 BC, so id rich in their history. That evening, Sue's cousin, origianlly from the Kitchener Ont Area, now living in San Jose, came for supper along with Andrew.
Tonight we are in Placerville, the home of the original gold rush in Calif., beating the famous rush of 40 some odd years later. Check the picture albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A for more Good Guy pics.

Ca. North

Thursday March 25 was the day we stopped is San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystry House. Mrs Winchester that built the house, was the wife and widow of the son of the founder of the Winchwster Arms Company. After her infant child died and her husband a few years later, she, at the urging of a fortune tell, said she should add to the family house and keep building to appease the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles. The neverwas finished and there are rooms that go nowhere and stairs that end at ceilings....very strange. There are 160 rooms in the house, many of which were never finished. After this tour, we arrived at Sue's brother's and sister-in-laws house

$$$$$$$$$$

We'll be leaving Monterea tomorrow ( Thur) for a visit with Sue's brother Peter and his wife Diana, in Pleasanton, which is just outside San Fransisco. Today, we took a drive on the 17 mile road...yup that's what it's called. It took us along the coast for most of the trip and passed through Pebble Beach and Carmel. A real Estate book I picked up, showed no houses along this stretch, to be less than 1 million to over 23 million. We were just a bit short for a down payment. You will note in one of the pictures that there is quite a hazard on one of the fairways of the first golf course we passed. Also, look closely at the last pic. This rock was about 2-300 yds of shore and was home to some seal lions. On the way to Pleasanton ( and another Good Guys Hot Rod Show) we intend to visit Winchester Mystery House.....Google it...sounds interesting. While driving North, we have travelled mainly on Hwy 101 because Hwy 1 is not suited for the truck and trailer length we have ( 49 feet), but tomorrow we my attempt it, as the Winchester House is in San Jose which is on Hwy 1.

http:picasaweb.google.com/192950A

Wine & Fish

After a great drive along Hwy 101 we arrived in Monterey. During the drive, about 80 miles of the 110 miles were spent looking at 1,000's of acres of grape vines....they literally went on for 20 miles or more. Then, veggies as far as the eye could see. When we go to the campround, the managers had a dog ( still do), a Irish Wolf Hound that Brandy was intimidated by ....at first. After gettinng settled in, we took off for the Fisherman's Wharf for supper. As it turned out, Tuesday is the farmer's market, so we wandered around it for a while before heading for supper, on the wharf, at the boat basin. Great setting and a good meal (fish and chowder etc).

Finally

An update. In reverse order.....we are leaving Lake Nacimiento today (Tuesday), which is near a town called Paso Robles. Yesterday ( Monday) was a full day. We drove up Hwy 1 to San Simeon and Hearst Castle. The driveway is 5 miles long, to give an idea the size of the "cottage". Pretty spectacular to say the least. The maintenance cost is 9.5 MILLION per year plus the operating costs, wages etc. on top of that. That helps justify the $24.00 per person entrance fee. We also stopped to view to Pacific. The waves were rolling but not rough...very nice. We also saw the elephant seals at San Simeon beach....they really should lose some weight. Sunday was our arrival day here. Saturday we took in a visit to San Luis Obispo a town that looks like Yorkville used to. A very "in" place. Lunch was at a place called Madonna Inn....NOT the singer. It is all pink and very artsy. There is also an old mission there dating from the 1700's. It is unusual, due to the fact ,it is one of the very few that is "L" shaped. We had taken a VERY hilly and twisty route to get there in the hope we could see the San Andreas Fault on Friday...I don't think we did. It was interesting to see the change from desert to green foliage and grass in the Santa Margarita area. On Thursday,we had wanted to see the Borax mining operation, but there was labour troubl. However,we did go into the 20 mule team museum which showed the changes from mules pulling large convoys of wagons loaded with Borax ore across the mountains some 25 miles, comparedto today's modern methods. The signs at the beginning suggested that no vehicle combination be more than 30' from kingpin to rear axle. We are 49'overall.

For more photos go to our photo albums at

http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

and choose which group of picture you'd like to view.

Calico

It was a short drive today from Calico CA> where we spent the night in a campround on the property of a ghost town called Calico. This morning we had breakfast in town, then did a tour of the place. Quite a nice spot. It had been an operating mine area until the price of silver dropped to a point where it wasn't worth while bringing it out anymore. Two brothers worked at making a series of tunnels of more than 500' through solid rock, for about 15 years and found nothing. A couple of years later, after the brothers had finally given up, a young boy came across a "bubble" of rock....above ground. This eventually turnedinto a "gloy hole" resulting in more than $65,000.00 worth of siver being extracted. Mr. Knott, of Knott Berry Farms bought the property a number of years ago and after the restoration was complete, gave it to the county, who now operate and maintain it. We then drove to Boron CA. which has the largest open pit mine in the USA, mining Borax. We were not able to take the anticipated tour because of labour prolems at the mine. Tomorrow ( Fri) we will cross the San Andreas Fault. It will be a longer drive of about 220 miles.

Ghost town

Well. Arizona is behind us, but before leaving, we visited the London Bridge in Havasu. Quite a neat spot. We crossed part of the Mohave Desert on Route 66 ( about 100 miles on 66). We slowed when I noticed the Black & White at the cafe....however it turned out to be a 57 ( I think Dodge).Please note the fuel prices, much more than we've been paying, normally $2.79-$2.99 per US Gallon for diesel. Also on the Mother Road we passed 2 extinct volcano's. Tonite we are in a canyon which is part of a State Park, which also includes a ghost village called Calico, which was a silver mining area back in the late 1880's. We will do a tour of it tomorrow. Temp at 6:50 pm is 82F and sunny.

75 F What a change

The day started off at 25F and sunny. Then came a hill ( down) 6 miles with a 6% grade. At the top of the grade it was 30 at the bottom 41. We drove about 85 miles on Route 66. We've done part of 66 before but not this far West .....really neat. As you can see by photo 2, I found an "A". On the way here we drove through some ever changing lanscape including Crozier Canyon ( hi Betty). Tonight and tomorrow we are at Lake Havasu City AZ. The temp at 4:30 is 75...tomorrow 80. I understand Ontario is around 60. Time for the sun screen !!!!!!!!

A long way down

The weather today was perfect for the 1 hour drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. While cool, it was wind free and sunny. We gained another 700' in altitude ending up at just over 7,000'. It is unfortunate that this series of photos cannot be shown in 3D. However, I'm sure you can get an idea as to how great the views are. Nothing has changed in the 25 years since we were here last, unless the bottom of the gorge is perhaps a few inches deeper. The canyon is 8 miles across, but it is about 250 to drive around to get to the North Rim. Sue did NOT walk on the Skywalk. It is on Indian land and they charge $40.00 + dollars to enter their land AND $20.00 + dollars to walk on the Skywalk and NO cameras allowed on it. We did however, take in the IMAX show of the Canyon, which was very well done. Tomorrow it's off to Lake Havasu City to see the former London Bridge. We are staying at the campground there.

After a departure temp of about 62F from Phoenix, at an altitude of under 2000', we gradually climbed towards our goal of Williams AZ. We detoured through Sedona and the beautiful rock formations (see Table Rock in #2 pic) At the 5,000' point we once again ran into the beautiful (?) snow. When we checked into the campgroung, ( elevation 6700') the temp had dropped to 44F. This morning (Sun) the ground is frozen....but it is going to warm up for the trip to the Grand Canyon

Bill went to a GoodGuys car show yesterday ( Friday 3/12/10) at Westworld just out side Scottsdale AZ. Good show and super weather. Sue stayed "home" and recharged her batteries. We are now in Williams AZ. enjoying a sunny and SNOWY day. Temp is 40F. It was 62 when we left Phoenix this morning. We have climbed from just under 2000' to over 6700'. Tomorrow is a trip to the Grand Canyon. The little VW van in the pics needs the wheelie bars on the back....it's powered by a Cadillac V8

Back...finally

Yes, we are still alive and kicking . since the last post, we have gone to Mexico ( Nogales) which was a typical border town experience . It took over an hour to return to the USA and no time at all to get into Mexico. We also went to a flea market which wasn't much good at all....likely 'cause we were there early. There was a country and western show at the resort (Desert Trail RV Park) which was quite good. This park is where we stayed 25 years ago when the "kids" and us went to California in a pop-up trailer. New owners now, but the guy that owned it back then now operates the park right next door. We have taken a walk in the desert for over a mile ( Sue's toe is improving) and visited an old mission which is still in operation. On that same trip we visited the only remaining, intact, Titan Missile site. We also visited a tourist trap at Old Tucson, where over 300 movies have been made since the 30's. The old IBM laptop has been replaced with a refurbished Dell. The IBM had just decided to to work anymore. We are now in Mesa AZ having left Tucson this morning. Our route is going to change a bit. We are going to the Grand Canyon. Sue says she will walk on the glass walk that projects over the canyon floor....I will take the pictures of her doing that. I'm going to Westworld at Scottsdale tomorrow to a Goodguys hot rod show. They are expecting about 2500 cars.

Back in business

Walkin'

Monday turned out to a much better day than Sunday. We did a walk into White Water Canyon to a swinging bridge. It was 1.1 miles each way over a rocky pathway. The views were just marvey. Obviously, our knees and toe are improving. I'm not going to post pics every post, as I have to upload them from Picasa and open a new file on every download. In order to make hard copies of pictures, I have to burn a disc from each file....it's getting $$$$$$$, so I'm just going to do it once a week.
Today, the drive took us from Silver City NM to Tucson AZ. On the way we passed by WILLCOX AZ....yea Glenn & Mo. We tried to get into a campground recommended by Don & Anne M. but alas, there was no room at the inn....until tomorrow. We are staying right next door, like one drive way away. Tomorrow we will move to where we wanted to be. We have booked in for a week. As we were setting up, there was a very strange ringing noise....ahhhhh a vision from the past, the Good Humor Man...in this case woman. She does this campground and the one next door, every Tuesday and Thursday....can't wait 'til Thursday.