We pulled into Harmony Ridge RV Park near Nevada City in California gold country on Wednesday, May 18. Getting to our assigned site was a little bit scary as the park's roads were narrow, steep, most not paved and rutted to boot. Bruzer (our truck) made it like a champ and we got settled in time for the rain and hail to start. After a quick trip to the local Safeway, we came back home to find a white blanket on the ground around the 5th wheel. What fun....more bad weather!! We shouldn't be so upset as this is a great year for California water but it does make for difficult traveling.
At the campground office we were warned about trash and bears....don't leave it out or the bears will get into it and be nuisances. We never saw the bears but we did see their claw and teeth marks on the trash can lids....exciting! We kept Dude close during our stay at Harmony Ridge 'cuz he would be just a bite for a bear.
We had lots of rain and bad weather while we were in California's gold country but were able to sneak in a walk around old town Nevada City and a rodeo on our one sunny day. Nevada City is a typical early California town with neat brick buildings and being situated in the mountains with steep streets for an invigorating walk. Dude enjoyed meeting up with many other dogs and exchanging sniffs of their posterior regions.
The rodeo was small but exciting for us city-folks! We watched the rodeo queen be crowned, a female drill team on horseback, small kids (5-6 yrs old) trying to hang on to madly running sheep (funny!) and the adult rodeo classics....bucking broncos, calf roping, calf wrestling and bull-riding. What's a rodeo without a cowboy clown? This rodeo had one of those too!
We were glad to catch a mostly sunny day to depart Harmony Ridge and Ed had to work extra hard to maneuver Bruzer and the 5th wheel out of there without getting stuck. What an amazing job he did too!! Yay Ed!!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
We had an uneventful but very scenic drive to Cloverdale on Friday the 13th. Driving north on the 101 from the SF RV Park, we drove slowly through Golden Gate Park and over the Golden Gate Bridge where we caught our last glimpses of the San Francisco Bay. The drive was entirely on the 101 and a lot of it was through the vineyards of wine country. The Russian River flows down along the 101 and we could see it for much of the way. In fact the Thousand Trails (TT) park in Cloverdale is called Russian River as the park sits right on the banks of a stretch of it. We had sun on arrival day and then again on Saturday. We knew the rain was coming so we took advantage of Saturday's still decent weather to take a driving tour and a bit of a taste of wine country. It is literally gorgeous in California's northern wine country, that is if you like precision neat grape vines stretching up rolling green hills dotted with blooming wildflowers. Each vineyard seems to have a wonderfully picturesque residence and most had very welcoming tasting rooms. We stopped at only 3 wineries as neither one of us was willing to be DD (designated driver) and we spaced them out considerably while taking in the amazing countryside. Our first winery was Foppiano Vineyards founded in 1896 and Sonoma County's oldest family owned winery. We discovered that the son of the original Foppiano recently died at the age of 100 and the youngest Foppiano, aged 6, loves to play amongst the vines. Needing a break in between tastings, we headed next to Old Faithful Geyser. No, not the one in Yellowstone but one of 3 faithful (erupting regularly) geysers in the world. The third faithful geyser is in New Zealand according to the young lady in the gift shop. We paid our fee and wandered out the back door down a walkway into the courtyard where the geyser was erupting every 5-10 minutes. Betsy needed a bathroom break and so missed the first eruption but not to worry, it was pretty faithful and erupted again within 5 minutes. During the hour we were there looking around, the geyser must have erupted 7-8 times. It wasn't as awe-inspiring as the Yellowstone Old Faithful that we know and love but it was pretty cool maybe erupting to about 12 ft and lasting several minutes each time. There were several corrals containing goats, llamas and sheep that we stopped to look at as we wandered the grounds. Heading next to Simi Winery, we saw a courtyard full of people and musicians and stopped at Medlock-Ames Winery to see what was going on. It was a special event for winery members but they were welcoming to us so we stayed a bit to taste and listen to good music. Simi Winery is Sonoma County's most historic and scenic winery and we would have to agree that it was a very pretty one. We arrived too late to do much exploring the grounds but the many trees, flowers and fountains made the courtyard and tasting area very inviting. To finish off our day we made the journey to River Rock Casino which sits on a hillside and overlooks the entire valley. What a way to end our day with a great view!!
On Sunday, in pouring rain, we journeyed an hour south on the 101 to Santa Rosa so that we could attend a church service at the Center For Spiritual Living which is the same church we attend in Hemet. The service was inspiring and just what our souls needed for a bit of renewal. We chose the long way back to the rv park and stopped off at a farmer's market in Windsor to purchase smoked salmon, cheese, avocado hummus and pita chips for lunch back at the 5th wheel. Luckily when we arrived back at the rv park there was a brief interlude of sun so we quick took Dude out for a short walk. Good that we did as the rain continued throughout the day and the sun was not to be seen again.
We've had rain every day since Saturday but the quail keep us company during the drizzly days. We watch them out of the windows and it's fun to see the males come out first to check the area before the females venture out to peck in the grass. Tomorrow we move on to Nevada City in California Gold Country.
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