Doreen and Laura's Excellent Adventure: From snow to sun in a few easy steps!

Grants Pass, OR to Klamath Falls, OR (for genealogy research)

Highway 140
Snow is not something you want to see when you are driving a motorhome with a car in tow.
Very wet snow and luckily not a great deal of it.

Our genealogical research in K. Falls was a bust but I have to say Klamath County has the nicest set of Grantor/Grantee books we've ever seen. Every page was enclosed in plastic covers to preserve them. Heavy buggers but the data is stunningly preserved.

Klamath Falls to Tulelake, CA (car trip)

Laura's grandparents lived in Tulelake in the early 1930's. Even today it's probably seen better times but back in the 30's it was a hardscrabble life. This was the home of some of Laura's relatives.

Klamath Falls, OR to Yreka, CA (for genealogy research)

Mt Shasta on a perfect day.

Yreka, CA to Red Bluff, CA (just traveling through)

Red Bluff was finally sunny and warm. Lots of flowers and trees blooming. After all the rain and wind we've been through this winter it felt wonderful to be outside in tee shirts.

Red Bluff, CA to Coloma, CA (just traveling through)

Although it doesn't look especially large, this old oak tree has been
living since before the Declaration of Independence was signed!

Coloma, CA (to see friends and do some sightseeing)

Our campground was less than 1/2 a mile from Sutter's Mill where the California Gold Rush began! Our route there took us south on the aptly named California highway 49, a beautiful and very curvy road. I must have pulled over half a dozen times to let cars go past so we wouldn't hold them up as we trudged along.

View from our campsite along the American River in Coloma.

We saw lots of people running the river in rafts....

...and kayaks.

This area is strikingly beautiful. Rolling hills with hundreds of Live oak trees. They've had lots of rain lately so everything is green and lush. Quintessential California in my opinion. We were especially lucky to have mostly beautiful weather during our visit.

While there we visited the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park where several of the old original buildings from the gold rush days still stand. They have also built a reproduction of Sutters Mill as shown below.

Reproduction of Sutters Mill. The original gold was found in the tailrace
(waterway) that drove the waterwheel (underneath) which drove the saw above.

We also explored the Goldbug mine, an old "played out" goldmine near Placerville. From it you get a good sense of what it was like to do hard rock mining. Imagine a cold workplace, stale air, dark except for candles or carbide lights, reverberating with hammers striking huge metal drills with water constantly dripping everywhere.

These two miners are smiling because they know they won't be in the mine for more than 20 minutes.

We learned mining words like shafts, adits, drifts and stopes.

After the tour of the mine Laura tried her hand at panning for gems using the same technique as panning for gold. She found quite a few gems, albeit tiny it was still very fun!

We had hoped to see 2 friends and 2 cousins while we were over in the gold country but as luck would have it, 2 of the 4 people were missing in action and 1 was sick. We did have breakfast with our friend Kathy Clemans who worked with Laura back in the early 80's at Ma Bell. She and her husband had moved from Fremont to Rocklin, CA after they retired. We last saw them in 2002.

Coloma, CA to San Francisco, CA (to see friends)

San Francisco from Berkeley.

The Bay Bridge

Finding a campground anywhere near big cities can be a challenge and we happened to choose spring break to be in SF. We managed to eek out 2 nights at a "campground" near the area where Candlestick Park used to be and 2 nights in the town of Pacifica, just south of SF on the ocean. Both are basically paved parking lots where you are 'cheek to jowl' with your fellow "campers". You have to pay for convenience.

Excuse me, I think YOUR electrical
cable is plugged into MY outlet!

We had a wonderful time visiting with all our friends. First with Greg and Mike, old pals from our working days with Ma Bell.

We knew we were all getting older when we tried to read the menus in a dark restaurant and Mike had
to turn his menu to the light while Greg resorted to a magnifying app and flashlight on Mike's phone.
(Apologies to you Greg and Mike but this was the only picture of you we took!)

We also enjoyed seeing Laura's good friend Clara and her daughter Dora. Clara and Laura worked together from 1969-1972 at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph in San Francisco. We enjoyed a nice dinner together one night, then Laura and Clara enjoyed a picnic together the next day.