Memorial Day #2

Friday (May 23)

On the road again for one night of camping before I hook up with the family. Now that I am at my campground, I realize that a smart traveller would have gotten on the road last night rather than tonight. Because tonight is the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, and as the Fox News-watching campground host said, it’s the first nght of “the season”. She also said the reason the campground prices went up AGAIN this year was because California raised the minimum wage. Oh please … I gave her the blank face. :-|   Didn’t quite have the courage to bust out the stink-eye face, but our rapport was never quite the same after that.

Anyway, I have campsite #1, pretty nice except that it’s not close to Salmon Creek, and Salmon Creek is the point of being here. But I’m starting to get the feeling that I am lucky to be anywhere on this warm holiday night. I’m happy to be back on the road again, and happy to have left home early enough to get a spot on this busy night in the campground I wanted.

I explore looking for a trail to Sardine Lake, and now I am pretty sure there is no such thing. I could not find a easy way to cross the creek, a topological requirement for a trail to the lake.  So, I punted and just walked on the roads. 1/4 mile down the hill on the Gold Lake Highway then south on the road to Sardine Lake. The advantage of walking on roads is that the vegetation is cut way back for fire control, so you get wide vistas and generally great views of the surrounding mountains. The disadvantages are obvious, but I am an old hand at it and enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed it so much that both going and returning I detoured an extra 100 yards down the Gold Lake Highway to the other side of a huge pine tree on a bend int the road that afforded an excellent view all the way down the valley of Route 49 towards Sierra City.

Saturday

A pretty long day of driving, but it’s the day I set myself up for when I decided to camp rather than blasting I-80 for four hours, so I am doing it with good cheer (hmmm…).

Coffee and a muffin at the cute little bakery next to the one-lane bridge in Downieville. The idea was that this would hold me until real breakfast in Yuba City. The time factor got me, as it often does. All the “breakfast all day” places close at 3, and it’s a little before 3 now. The only open place I drove by was too sketchy looking to even try. I punt on the nice meal concept, and end up doing my fallback McD’s thing north of Sacto. Fish sando, cheeseburger and hot fudge sundae, and I’m good to go. I make it to San Rafael for family fun.

Sunday – Monday

Today, the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend is the reason for this whole trip! Martha and the family and I were all going to attend the MBVFDMDP (see above). I was pretty sure this would never happen, and it didn’t! She thought it was actually on Muir Beach, and when she found out it was in a cow pasture about a mile inland, she lost interest. They DID however drive me to it. For me it was a nearly perfect day in every respect except that I FAILED on the thing I wanted most, which was to see Vinyl play. I missed the little detail that they were the first band rather than the last band, so when I got there at 2:30, they were done, done, done, and I was sad, sad, sad. But I got to go to the beach, and I got to hike up the canyon and down the Dipsea Stairs and along the winding roads of Mill Valley, and had a really nice day … except for not seeing Vinyl :-|

Monday, the Gannon’s cranked up their long-neglected grill and we had a very nice BBQ with the neighbors.

Tuesday

Today is leaving day. Martha and family left late AM, and I finally got myself together and tore myself away from the DVR mid-afternoon. They said I was welcome to stay, and I kinda wish I did. With Martha gone I would live in kingly style with the whole basement to myself, AND … I would have all those fine bbq ribs and chicken to work my way through for another day or two.

But I didn’t. I despise US 101 through Santa Rosa, and to avoid it I took a long winding two-lane road route to Calistoga and thence to Harbin. But once I got there I was glad I had made it. It was a perfect time, the huge crowds of the holiday weekend were gone and it was unusually un-crowded (said the gatekeeper).  woo!

Hung out at the van, hit the pools, danced to the world music, hit the pools again, enjoyed picking my way along the path in the dark without using my flashlight, ate half my sando at 11PM, and finally went to bed a happy boy. By some magic the lap pool, which often seems very cold to me, was just right and perfect this afternoon and tonight (and tomorrow!).

Wednesday

I feel less and less at ease on every Harbin visit, as they get more crowded and  fancy and control-oriented. The Harbin Ticket I got last time put me more over the paranoid edge, so on this trip I’ve been expecting some kind of little authoritarian disaster to strike me, but no such thing has happened I am happy to report!

The only cloud in my sunny day was that you can no longer refill your coffee cup at breakfast. The unfortunate way they chose to enforce this is to eliminate the option your breakfast coffee in a porcelain mug. You may only order it in a $3 16oz paper cup. A nice breakfast on nice plates with coffee in a paper cup really is a quality of life setback.

Anyway … because I arrived late yesterday, I am good until 5:24 today. I fill that time uneventfully – in a good way! Sleep a little in the common room, lounge a little on a couple of decks, soak a little, swim a little (lap pool = still AWESOME!), sauna a little. Walk back to the van and move it to a shady spot to finish out my stay. No complaints!! (except the coffee…)

I have taken a real liking to the Foster’s in Lower Lake, 1/2 hour north of Harbin. The grilled chicken sando is a hidden delight, there’s a quick-witted little asian chick that works the counter that makes it way more enjoyable that the usual brain-dead fast-food experience.

This mellows me out so that I actually enjoy the sunset drive over the top of Clear Lake and down the narrow valley to Lake Mendocino. It’s always pretty, but I’m usually too beat from hunger and driving to enjoy it.

The campgrounds here are administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, whose procedures seem to have designed in an air-conditioned meeting room in Wash DC by someone who never camped before. The process requires a live person at the gate to the campground, to carefully assign you an unoccupied spot (not hard when 3 of 86 sites are occupied) and take your money. Today, because there is some kind of fish holocaust in the lake, the place is deserted and the instructions are to call ReserveAmerica and buy a site with your credit card. Oh please. Co,me t my site and I will pay you, but that credit card thing ain’t happening.

So it was a perfectly pleasant evening, just little ole me and the big, quiet lake.