CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

April 17, 2015

On to Sacramento

We had a ‘sort of’ plan to head to Folsom, to the State Recreation area, which looked pretty neat on-line … and after much getting lost (even our GPS was having difficulties) we found it. Unfortunately, it’s on a dammed lake (damn lake!) with not much interest and the campground was $28/night with NO services and quite far from the water. At that point we decided to head to Sacramento and check out the town.

Actually, I’m having a bit of a ‘culture’ shock … I’m used to being out in the desert or other areas with very few people and even fewer cars. Now it’s back to interstates and crazy FAST drivers that seem to all be in a hurry to get somewhere yet can’t decide on how to get there. Lots of lane-changing and weaving in and out of the 4 – 5 lanes of traffic. I’m sure I wore another layer of plastic off the door handle I was so terrified!

Sacramento has a lot of interesting history and some neat museums, the zoo, and ‘Old Town Sacramento’, which has buildings that date from the early days of the gold rush. Now it’s mostly little shops, candy stores and restaurants … but still something interesting to see!

Old Town Sacramento

Old Town Sacramento

Old Town Sacramento

Old Town Sacramento

We’re camped on the river at the Sherwood Marina & RV Park and hope to do some paddling. Sacramento also has an amazing biking system with paths going for miles and miles!

Tomorrow we’ll head into town, do some sightseeing, maybe some paddling from our campsite, then we’ve made reservations for supper at Scott’s Seafood on the River, a waterfront restaurant that we can almost see from our campsite – but it’s a 9 mile drive to get there! It’s all dictated by the few bridges over the river.

All cleaned up and ready to eat out!

Later … a good meal, but not really worth the $$ though.  Still … a pleasant night out!

April 19, 2015

SACRAMENTO

As a rule, I don’t like big cities, but I’ll make an exception for Sacramento. It has many, many parks and lots of trees, even downtown, an interesting history,  and an amazing number of bike paths, both paved and gravel. We drove out to Discovery Park this morning to check out one of the longest, The American River Trail. It actually runs for over 32 miles … clear up to Folsom.

Biking on the American River Trail

We didn’t bike the entire path however (no … really??) but saw a good portion of it. A very good path and lots of people taking advantage of it. A nice morning.

We then tried to check out the old Fort Sutter which is right in downtown Sacramento … and we did find it … but like so many other places in town … there’s no parking. Well, there is some parking … but it’s always full. Unless you go to any of the attractions early you just don’t get a parking spot. (apparently the zoo doesn’t even have a parking lot!) We drove for blocks and blocks with no openings in site and finally abandoned the mission altogether!

It’s a good thing we did actually because when we returned to the RV we were met by the

INVASION OF THE ANT PEOPLE!!!

There were teeny, tiny little ants (Bruce called them ‘sugar ants’) EVERYWHERE inside of the RV!!! They were forming little supply lines along the entire juncture of the walls and ceilings … every junction between the floor and walls … covering our bins that held oil, vinegar etc. I couldn’t believe my eyes!! We’d only been gone a couple of hours!!

Ant Invasion!

We drove quickly to the nearest hardware store and stocked up on ant spray and ant traps, then back to the RV where I unloaded shelves and around the sink and stove. Bruce then got out the vacuum and sucked up as many of the little buggers as he could see, then sprayed the heck out of all those joints they were marching on.

Shock & Awe

We also found where they were getting in … we had to back into this RV site and the ground was uneven at the back, which put our bumper almost touching the ground and the ‘sweep – or stone guard thing’ (the thing that looks like a Hitler’s mustache) that hangs from the bumper actually touching ground. They were marching up in droves – like they had a written invitation!

It’s been a couple of hours now and I think we’ve gotten most of them. They didn’t actually make it into the storage cupboards (we think!) but who knows … they could be in all the walls! We’ll have to be vigilant and wipe out any we find.

So that’s our ‘catastrophe’ for this trip! Let’s hope that’s the last!