Monday September 23 New Melones Lake, CA

Main Street Angel's Camp

It was so hard this morning to say good bye to Pam, we had such a great time with her, doing so much and just enjoying catching up. Do hope that she can make a trip to NZ next summer.

First stop was AAA in Napa to pick up maps for the rest of our trip, such a great reciprocal service for NZ AA members, no charge and great maps. Thought while we were near a Costco we needed to top up our supplies so that was our next stop and it was midday before we finally hit Route 12 East and we left the coast behind us. We were very soon into very arid country and the biggest wind farm we have every seen, would love to know how many generator towers there were but picked in the thousands. Strange today though there was very little movement as hardly a breath of wind. We stopped beside the Sacremento River in Rio Vista for lunch before continuing on 12. This is obviously an irrigated area with lots of fruit trees, cropping and still more grapes, the number of vineyards in this greater San Francisco area make NZ’s wine growing areas look so small.  Also saw a huge walnut farm, the trees were quite close together in neat rows that seemed to go on forever.

After a week on the coast we noticed the temperatures which were getting up to 30 but still quite comfortable. Continued on Route 12 to San Andreas then onto Route 49 south. We were now getting into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas where gold was discovered back in the 1800’s and stopped in the old town of Angel’s Camp. Enjoyed a wander through the street with all it’s old stores, this town celebrates the fact the it inspired Mark Twain’s most famous short story “The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and every year it has a frog jumping competition.  Drove a little loop up to the town of Murphy’s, very upmarket an trendy but quaint. It was getting late in the afternoon and time to find a camp for the night, had heard about New Melones Lake which had camping grounds. What a great find, with only about 4 other campers and also only $11 for the night as we could use our “Senior Access Card”!!!!! This is a reservoir lake and had heard that it was very low as there has been a drought here for the past 2 years….and it really is low but still great. We camped above the marina which is wall to wall with house boats, quite a sight. Enjoyed sitting outside over dinner as the sun went down on a very balmy evening.

No wifi signal here tonight but managed to get a text from Pam, the America’s Cup continues with only one race today…and Oracle won it…grrrrrrr!

Melones Lake...rather dry!