Today we drove north to visit the twin cities; not Minneapolis-St.Paul, but Yuba City and Marysville. Yuba City was established in 1849 and it's sister city the following year; both arose as a result of the gold rush. Yuba City flourished for a short time, but Marysville soon surpassed it as Yuba City was on the wrong side of the Feather River to allow it to easily service the gold mines. Marysville therefore served as the supply point for the mines and Yuba City became nothing more than a ghost town.
After the gold rush was over, and the miners settled down to farm the surrounding countryside, Yuba City grew once more and today is the seat of Sutter County government.
We decided to visit as the brochures described the two cities as historic and I thought they'd be interesting places to visit. now I know what historic means and I get that the area is historic, but seriously I am fed up with places that have nothing to really offer tourists pumping themselves up. Both cities have some 'historic' buildings, but they are being used as offices and such and so basically you get to look at them from the outside and that's about it. I could have just read the brochure and gotten as much info as we did walking around the streets. At least I got some pictures to put on here I guess, and I know one of these days we are going to visit a historic town and be pleasantly surprised.

Mike: Becc, you sound bitter!

 Marysville did have a beautiful lake, Lake Ellis, with lots of geese and ducks enjoying the gorgeous weather.

Got on the road earlyish this morning to visit Denios, the Roseville swap meet, 70 acres of anything you could possibly ever want, including a lot of things you’d never want. We didn’t buy too much, just lots of lovely fruits and veggies, and some habanero pistachios that Mike is going to eat all by himself.

Mike:Lots of junk and more junk!!!!!!!!!! Great produce section!

Today, just for a little while we experienced life without Nell and it wasn’t good. Mike updated her yesterday afternoon but when we got in the truck to leave for Sacramento this morning she wasn’t her usual chipper self and wasn’t able to navigate at all; it seems that only the freeways loaded while no other roads were in her memory.  We decided to head to Sacramento anyway and use my phone to navigate, what a mistake that was. We were heading to the Sacramento County Fair and managed to get onto the freeway just fine, but it all went down hill from there. Next came lots of shouting and crying and swearing and more shouting before we finally made it to the fairgrounds. After this mornings palaver I can honestly say that Mike and I would not have made it to our tenth anniversary without Nell, it would have been 8 and done.
After all the drama the fair was nothing too special and definitely not worth the stress involved in getting there. But we spent a couple of hours wandering around the animals and trying to avoid the millions of kids. There really is nothing quite like the Del Mar fair, so if you’ve been there you can just skip every other one.

Mike: "Nell" is "swell"!!!!
                                                        Looks a little bit like Tal-y!

Got up and walked around the lake this morning and although the park is busy we passed only one other person. The lake is about 1 ½ miles around and is quite pretty, although there are very few water birds here, just the odd duck or two and a big blue heron. There are plenty of fish in the lake though, and some of them are a good size.

After getting clean we headed out first to Rocklin and then into Roseville to do some shopping. Since we have no sewer and are going to be staying a bunch of parks without full hooks up in the next few months, we decided to visit camping world and get a poop pot. I’m sure it has an actual name but I can’t think what it as right now, but it’s a tank on wheels that we can dump our sewage into and then take it to the dump station to empty without having to move the trailer. I think it’s going to come in very handy providing Mike doesn’t want me to touch it.
After camping world we headed a little way south to Roseville, which is a fairly big city that has every shop you could possibly ever want, and did some food shopping and got lunch.  Exciting huh!
On the drive to Rocklin and Roseville, and on the way home we passed field after field that was filled with water. Turns out this area of California produces 95% of the states rice crop, and before the fields are planted they are flooded to 5 inches deep to allow the rice to germinate free from weeds. And the planes we have seen flying over us, the bright yellow ones, are not spraying or just joy riding but are actually planting the rice; it is dropped from the underside of the plane as they fly over the prepared field – who knew!

Mike: Becc, your just a wealth of information!

We left the Lighthouse Marina this morning and took our shortest and calmest drive in a long while. We were in the car from start to finish for just over an hour and a half and are now at the Thousand Trail park in Nicolaus, about 20 minutes northwest of Sacramento.  We arrived at the park just before 11 and got our spot all picked; it was a good job we got here early as the place is quite full and there were a lot of arrivals after us. We don’t have full hook ups here. Although  they are available we decided to do just water and electric as the full hook up spaces are super small, only about 14 feet wide and really close to each other. This park is right on Lake Minden, and we have to drive ¾’s of the way around it to get to our space which is along the far side of the park. It’s actually quite nice and really quite as there is only a hay field behind us rather than other trailers, and although we can see a highway in the distance there is no traffic noise, just a few airplanes going overhead.
We managed to get into our space without yelling at each other too much today, although Mike did ‘bump’ a tree with the roof of the trailer and will have to go check it out to make sure there’s no damage – at least Zena got away without a scratch today.

Mike: My spotter had a "brain fart".

We have spent the last few days not going very far. We did head to Stockton for the second or third time to do some shopping but that’s not much to tell about since it’s just another big town. We finally got to see the draw bridge in action on the way to town which was cool as it’s a swing bridge rather than an up and down bridge, and it opened and closed really fast.

We have also spent two days washing the trailer which was harder than it should be as we had to do it with buckets of water as we can’t use a hose pipe here; it does look better though and we got the bird poop off. I’m not sure that by the time we leave it’ll seem like we washed it as it is already covered in a layer of dust from the roads here.
I’m looking forward to leaving on Monday as this hasn’t been my favourite spot to be, it’s been super hot for most of the time, and if we have to be near water I’d rather the ocean or a nice big lake. Bring on Nicolaus.

Mike: Ok, I trained you on washing technique, Next time you can wash the trailer by yourself!

We drove to Fairfield this morning and visited the Jelly Belly factory. Mike had been talking to the neighbours and they mentioned that it was close and ever since he’s just had to go, so off we went. It is a really cool place with jelly beans everywhere and in every colour imaginable; Mike was in heaven.

Before he could stuff his face though we got in line to do the tour of the factory. We didn’t have to wait too long before we were handed a very sexy paper hat and taken to a walkway that over looked the factory floor. We couldn’t take pictures inside but we got to see the process of how a bean is made from being shaped to being packaged for shipping. Depending on the flavour of the bean it can take upwards of ten days to make a jelly bean from start to finish, and they have over 80 flavours. There were people working there, but much of the operation was carried out by funky yellow robot like machines. We learned what goes in to a jelly bean and how they become the end product we know and love, and in spite it being confirmed that the main ingredients are sugar, corn starch, sugar and more sugar, we were still excited about hitting the sample bar after the tour.  I think the coolest part of the whole process was watching how they stamp each individual bean with their trademark.
After the tour we visited the store and tried some of the flavours that they make. Most of them were good but some not so much; Mike tried the moldy cheese and I sampled the booger flavour. I can’t speak for the moldy cheese, but trust me when I tell you if some one offers you a booger flavoured jelly bean, say no. Skunk spray on the other hand was quite enjoyable and tasted a little like coffee!

Before we left we bought some fudge and of course some beans. We bought a few bags of belly flops that are the beans that are too big, too small or just funny shaped. They might not look pretty, but they taste just like a jelly bean.

Mike: Becc, you forgot to tell them about the fudge we brought home! I must be in heaven!

He’s been talking about doing it since we first set out two years ago. He finally got around to it today and I have the picture to prove it.

Mike: Got to to be an easier way?

Today we took a drive into Lodi which is a town about 15 or so miles from us all the way along the bumpy 12 highway. It is a nice wine making town with more than 80 wineries in and around it. We walked around the downtown and checked out some of the little stores along the way as well as a really good Thai restaurant. Lodi is home to some 7,000 sandhill cranes during the winter at the Isenberg Crane Reserve, but we visited a little too early in the year to see them.

Mike: Nice little town if you want to stay "sloshed" all the time!

No problems hooking up this morning as Mike finally figured out how the fifth wheel hitch works and gave it a good greasing the other day. We got on the road and headed north towards Sacramento, although we didn’t quite get to the capitol yet. For the next couple of weeks we are going to be on the Sacramento Delta just outside of Isleton and about 20 miles north of Stockton. The drive to get here was uneventful and mostly along the I5 until we took the bumpiest road ever for a few miles; I have no idea what Californian taxes are being spent on but it isn’t the roads, they are about the worst in the country. After getting of CA12 we wound up on the Delta loop, which is a road along the top of a levy that took us right to the campground, Lighthouse Marina. We got checked in with a kid who had no idea what he was doing, and then went and found our space.

The spaces here with sewer hook ups have no trees around them, but since we are here for two weeks we still opted for a full hook-up. Mike got into the backing up, which wasn’t too bad, as the spaces in front of us are empty. After telling him to keep an eye on the tree so as not to hit Xena I went to watch the back end of the trailer. I guess next time I’ll have to be more explicit and tell him to watch anything attached to the trees as well as he managed to scrape Xena’s butt with a sign. Silly boy, he’s the one driving and I’m the one who gets blamed! Then, I told him we were level, and instead of confirming for himself he believed me and now we are going to spend the next couple of weeks having to walk with one leg longer than the other cos the left side of the trailer is lower than the right.
We finally got sorted and then went for a stroll around the ‘resort’. The campground is nice as it’s very green and there’s no traffic noise even though we are close to the road, but it’s definitely a place for water rats. If you have a boat or like to fish then this is the place to be, as we are right on the waterway.

Mike: Becc, you have to take responsibility for something!

There was a dog show at the San Benito fairgrounds this weekend so we took a short drive there this morning to check it out. There were dogs everywhere, of all shapes and sizes, and every one of them were really cute (except the yappy chihuahuas). We didn’t get there in time to see the terrier groups but there were plenty of them roaming around the field. We saw one Welshie who was probably about half the size of Tal-y, and an Airedale that was only a teeny tiny bit bigger than her. There’s no way Tal-y could ever compete as a show dog as she’s too bloody stubborn to walk when she would have to. She could do the obedience, if she absolutely put her mind to it, after all it only involved walking really slowly and stopping every few feet, and she’s really good at both of those things – getting going again might prove a problem though!

Mike: Becc, wanted to take them all home! (don't tell Tal-y)

It’s exactly two years to the day today since Mike and I finished work and set out on the road to see the US. In those two years we’ve driven about 45,000 miles and visited all but four of the continental states, as well as spending a few months in Ecuador and several more in the UK and parts of Europe. We’ve had a blast so far and intend to continue on the road for a while longer since we are both still enjoying not being in one place for more than a few weeks at a time and there is still so many places to visit and explore.

Mike: Doesn't feel like over (2) years except when I try to remember what we did! 
(thank goodness for the blog!)

This morning we headed south out of the path for the first time since we got here so we could visit Pinnacles National Monument. Rising out of the Gabilan Mountains are the remains of an ancient volcano that sit along the San Andreas Fault that was proclaimed a national monument in 1908.

It a pretty spectacular place, not because of its height but because the surrounding countryside is mostly rolling hills and it’s unexpected to see rock spires and crags; they look completely out of place here. The park is around 26,000 acres and much of it is green hills like the valley that surrounds it, but rising out of the green are magnificent peaks. 

Much of the park is wilderness, but there are also miles of hiking trails to explore. After parking the truck we embarked on the Condor Gulch Trail which was listed as moderate and just over a mile one way. It was a fairly easy trail to find, then it got steep and the weather got warmer the higher we climbed, but we persevered (and perspired) and eventually made it to the look out. I think the mile distance was as the condor flies not as the trail goes, as it was definitely longer, but it was very peaceful and the views were beautiful. It was actually a nice walk, not too strenuous at all providing we stopped now and then, and it was definitely worth the climb to look out over the tree tops. We might have seen a condor or two, but they fly so high that it’s hard to tell if they are really American Condors. The park is one of only a handful of places in the US and Mexico where the condors that are bred in captivity are released from, and they nest here in the peaks. They can weigh up to 20 pounds and have wing spans of over 9 ½ feet, but when they are soaring at upwards of 15,000 feet they look like sparrows and are hard to identify – I’m going to believe that I saw one or two anyway!

After resting at the look out and taking in the views (and relieving himself) we headed back down the trail and decided to walk one of the other trails that looked fairly easy. Silly us, this one was much more difficult, mostly because we had to scrabble up and down over rocks and stones. We made our way to one of the many Talus caves that are in the park; these are deep narrow gorges that boulders have fallen into thereby creating a roof and thus a cave. We couldn’t go in as we didn’t bring a flashlight with us but that was ok with me as several species of bat live in the Pinnacles’ caves. 

We hiked for quite a while over and around some very cool terrain and saw some splendid views. Other than birds and squirrels we didn’t see any other animals but the flowers and trees were just as interesting and worth the climb. I have a feeling that we are both going to sleep pretty good tonight.

Mike: Wus, bats have very sharp teeth so you don't feel a thing when they suck your blood!!!