We left Lassen, intending to take Highway 36 to Red Bluff but it was closed due to a forest fire, so we continued on Highway 44 to Redding. Unfortunately, our Garmin continued to warn us that this highway was not suitable for RVs or trailers. It was a State Highway! Finally, after hundreds of annoying beeps from the unit, we followed it to an alternate road. As soon as we turned onto this suggested road, it immediately warned us that this was not suitable for an RV. It was a single strip of asphalt, that turned into a dirt road, then a jeep road about 4 miles down into a canyon. We unhooked the truck and tried to find a place to turn the MH around, but had to continue another several miles before we were able to do that. A simple 10 point turn! We did hit a dip in the dirt and “grazed” an oak tree, the road was that narrow! I was hanging out of the window watching the front tire to keep it from going into a ditch. We finally got back to our truck and Cathy followed me up to the real road. After cleaning the cameras (dust from the jeep road totally obscured our vision) we turned the Garmin OFF and continued on Hwy 44 into Redding and then on to Stockton. We have a lot of scratches along the sides of the MH from the brush/trees and I am surprised our A/C units weren’t knocked off from low hanging branches, but we survived.
After a harrowing drive from Lassen, we arrived at our next destination: Riverpoint Landing Resort/Marina near the Port of Stockton, on the deep water channel. Jason watched a container ship go by, nearly taking the whole waterway. He has never seen such a large ship. We watched a Coast Guard cutter fueling up, with its two 50 cal guns covered. The County Sheriff has multiple boats at this marina and we have watched them pull over a couple of boaters so far. Pretty exciting for Jason! We saw our neighbor walking his lizard and had to get a photo of the guy. This is an Australian Bearded Dragon. It can stand up and run on its hind legs, but this was a young guy and still walked/ran on all fours. Pretty cool guy, although HE did seem to be unhappy with his pink set up.
We drove through Oakdale and took the route through Jamestown to Columbia State Park. Jason enjoyed the fire house and the restored fire wagons that were inside.
This was the house next door to the fire house, the Wilson – McConnell house. James Wilson, a Norwegian immigrant shoemaker, purchased the property and brick building to the right in 1869. The brick building housed his shop, living quarters were in the rear. Wilson died in 1876, leaving his widow, Rose, and 8 children. This home had been planned and she saw it to its completion in 1878. Dr. and Mrs. James McConnell purchased the properties in 1941, restored the home, moving into it in 1943. Geraldine McConnell, widowed in 1961, continues to reside here. The home was the Governors Mansion for a day in 1945 when Columbia was designated a state historic monument, also, it was featured in the movie “High Noon”.
Across the street, there were some chickens in the yard and Jason tried to pet one, but could not seem to catch up with it. He did find out where the chickens hid their eggs though.
Of course, he had to climb on the wagon. The chicken coop is the building behind the wagon, to the left in this photo.
We took Jason on a stage coach ride. It was a little rougher and dustier than what you see on television.
Midway through the ride, we got “held up”, which temporarily scared the bejeebers out of the young’ns on board. That is, until the robber asked for their candy.
Speaking of candy, Columbia has one of the finest candy shops we have ever seen. Jason had a hard time picking the ones he wanted, but actually stuck with the first thing he saw. And with all of those choices!
Outside, we watched a Cal Fire plane overhead, practicing take-offs and landings at the nearby Columbia airport. Jason had never seen a “fire plane” before! The next day we were able to show Jason the pink sludge dropped from the plane on a recent grass fire in the Altamont Pass region.
We had to stop by the rocks at the entrance to the townsite. I used to climb on these many years ago, and Michael climbed these and now Jason is climbing. That makes three generations of Schinglers who have enjoyed this group of rocks (without a serious injury)!
We side-tracked through Knights Ferry on our way back to Stockton and happened upon this zonkey, a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Jason enjoyed feeding it several of our granola bars and the zonkey was pretty gentle, we did not lose any fingers. Check out those chompers!
We stopped by Delicato Vinyards on our way to lunch in Escalon. Cathy worked at this facility many years ago and she saw one of her co-workers who is still working in the retail showroom. The workforce has expanded from about 150 to about 600 employees worldwide, produces wine under 14 different brands and harvests from vineyards in four distinct areas. We left with a couple of bottles.
My D’bonis pizza. Yes, it is a small one, but it lasted for two meals. D’bonis and Round Table Pizza are “must have” stops for me whenever we are out west! Jason wasn’t impressed though, he had his eye on the games . . .
After lunch, we headed to Sacramento to see our niece Melinda and her family. She convinced us to run with her in the Scoop Scoot, a 3 mile run from William Land Park to Vics Ice Cream and back, and of course we had our choice of ice cream at the turnaround. The run raised funds for the Front Street Animal Shelter, Saint John’s Program for Real Change, Sutter Children’s Center Child Life Program and UC Davis Children’s Center Child Life Program.
We had our picture taken before the race (front row – Jonah, Claire, Benjamin and back row – Melinda, Orville and myself. Below are Cathy and Melinda “sprinting” to the finish!
We returned to camp and made it to the Park Fete run in Escalon the next morning. This was a two mile out and back. Jason ran at a 12:05 min/mile pace and beat me to the finish!
Cathy finishing her 10K. Check out her time!
It was great to see these police officers from Modesto participating and getting the appropriate recognition they deserve.
Watching the finishers and waiting for the raffle (we did not win anything), Jason struck up a conversation with this gentleman from the wheelchair division. We learned a lot about the dynamics of racing wheel chairs while meeting a new friend.
After the race we had breakfast at the local “Waffle House” aka the Waffle Factory, located next to D’bonis. We met several of Cathy’s friends for an enjoyable conversation (left – Mario, Lana and Wendy and right Jason, Cathy and Maria).
After the breakfast, (with plenty of Linguisa) we returned to the MH to rest and relax. In the late afternoon, we headed west again, to Pleasanton to have dinner with Cathy’s best friend since forever, the Thorlaksons, Linda and her daughter Amanda. Amanda lives in Portugal but happened to be in town and it was great to meet her.
Sunday morning we left camp at 5:45 to run an event at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley, about 60 miles west of our location. We entered Jason in the Kids Fun Run and he placed second!
Me, awaiting the start of our rolling terrain trail race (including a 800′ hill climb midway). I surprised myself finishing with my best pace time for a race of this distance in a year!
I picked up some help at the finish line.
After the race, we visited Cathy’s brother Ron and his wife Barbara in Castro Valley. We had a wonderful Mexican lunch (with menudo a very small local restaurant. We returned to Stockton via back roads, through Niles Canyon, Livermore, Tracy and French Camp, trying to keep off the interstates as much as possible. Below is are Ron, Jason and Cathy. Barbara was off to a local senior home with her hula troop, entertaining and keeping the residents company.
Travelling with the Schinglers 